PPT for the win!

I love when you think you know everything there is to know about something and you walk away with several things that you learned. 

This happened to me while I was watching a video for class on elements of graphic design. The three items that were new to me are: 

• Use the eyedropper option under the home menu, theme colours. You can use this option to match colours that you find on the web. This is an ideal for covering items that you do not want such as logos on an image.  This option will allow you to match to the background as well.
• Layers - arrange layers instead of bring to the front, etc. as this option is more precise
• Use https://accessibleweb.com/color-contrast-checker/ to check colour contrast

Lessons in Leadership

I feel so fortunate to work for an institution that believes in life-long learning and supports my growth as both an employee and as an instructor.  As I reflect on the past week in the leadership institute and the points that continue to resonate I am struck by the overall concept of what it means to be a leader and how leaders inspire 'the best' from others (those in their employment, or those with similar values and ideas in the case of a movement).

Ultimately leaders create a vision for the future and inspire others to join them on that path.  When I participated in the Library Leadership and Development Program and the University of Saskatchewan, one of the principles that was shared with us was 'lead from where you stand'.  In other words, anyone, at any position in the organization can be a leader and demonstrate the characteristics that we commonly associate with leadership.  You can have a positive impact on your colleagues, act with integrity, lead by example and build trust.  An example that comes to mind for leading by example occurred when my colleague and I were creating the D2L module for ATL on research skills.  We modeled the way by strictly following copyright, referencing and citation practices.  We were keen to provide a good example of how to use external resources 'properly' in an online course, providing a learning opportunity for those who viewed the class materials.  It was a small thing, but might help to inspire others to follow suit.

The qualities that I admire most in a leader are accountability, and integrity.  I also am in awe of those who stand up for what they believe in and use their voice to advocate for social justice issues.  One of the greatest leaders in the world right now is Greta Thunberg, a Swedish student who is an outspoken climate activist inspiring millions of people to participate in weekly 'School Strikes for Climate'.  In her own words, she has said that "no one is too small to make a difference" (Hewitt, 2019, para. 3).  This principle complements 'lead from where you stand' as it recognizes that anyone can be a leader and can have a positive impact on the world around them.

References
Hewitt, R. (2019, May 29).  No one is too small to make a difference review Greta Thunberg's vision.  The Guardian.  Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/29/greta-thunberg-review-speeches-that-appeal-to-both-heart-and-mind.

Reflective Practice

When reflecting on the educational technology that was explored this semester in SFCP 604, the information that I gleaned falls into three main categories: the stuff that can be used in-class in synchronous learning environments, the technology that is utilized in an online environment (purely asynchronous), and the great stuff in-between that is used to augment face-to-face (F2F) environments.  The latter is described as blended learning and can refer to offering online components within the F2F class, such as; flipping teaching, so that students watch the lecture as homework in advance, and then come to class prepared to work on an assignment; or whole group rotation.  I see a lot of benefit to using blended learning in teaching as it allows students to work at their own pace, and the instructor is available every step of the way to assist with the learning, ensure understanding, and build foundational skills.

Other key takeaways this semester include tools that can be used to strengthen the material that you share with students.  Here are a few of my favourite tips:

• use the snipping tool to cleanly crop and copy images into your PowerPoint presentation
• use a dark background on your slides, so that you as the presenter have more contrast than your presentation
• use images and a minimum of text to support your presentation (i.e.: your audience did not come to read your slides)
• use Kahoot! or Poll Everywhere for instantaneous formative feedback

As a librarian, I use technology everyday.   When I prepare an instructional session, I rely on online databases to showcase academic research.  When I answer reference questions, the majority of the time the student is asking about citing and referencing and in turn, I am checking online sources to ensure that I am providing the student with the correct information.  When I participate in meetings, my colleagues and I use Skype for Business, to share our screens, collaborate on projects and to discuss ideas.  I order books by searching online sources and then emailing our acquisitions clerk.  And finally, I organize my life and all of my tasks using Outlook. 

As I look to the future, I am hopeful that technology will continue to enhance my teaching.  That I will always be curious, and that I will always be learning.  With that in mind, I created a PowToons video for this final assignment.  I have used PowToons before to create a short video, and decided to use it again for the animation options and the professional look and feel of their video production suite.  I had not realized until it was too late that there was a five minute limit on the free version of their software.  I was too invested to start over from scratch, so I used it as an opportunity to learn, to grow, to take a risk and to be creative.  So without further ado, here is a link to my final project: https://youtu.be/3kWxIM-XPjE

List of images used in my presentation that were found outside of PowToons:

• Laptop on desk, flags in the background: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/764704
• Rear view of a man working in an office: https://www.pexels.com/photo/rear-view-of-man-working-in-office-256401/
• Working from a home office: https://danielhedrick.com/blog/2014/5/working-from-a-home-office

Pro Tip #2

The Snipping Tool is possibly the greatest tool on your computer that you didn't know had.  I am taking a Learning Technologies course this semester and in it the instructor has included information about cool tools that enhance your use of technology within the classroom.

The Snipping Tool allows you to capture the portion of the screen that you need and copy it to a clipboard or save the item as a picture in four different file formats.

Here is a picture of my dog that I snipped from a larger image.  An interesting caveat for use of this tool is to make sure that you are legally allowed to use the image or item that you have snipped.  And you will need to credit the source that you took the item from.  I am allowed to share this picture, because I took it!

Why would you use this feature?  Well, you could use print screen, but then you would need to crop your image and right click copy image is not always an option, especially if it is only a portion of an item that you need.  From there it is super easy to save, paste and share your snip!

Third time is the charm

I was recently asked to create an online plagiarism module that would be embedded into course across the institution in D2L.  I first experimented with a PowToon video having had great fun with the software previously.  I was disappointed to discover that there was a recent change to the program when trying to download the completed video - PowToon's required that you allow them access to your YouTube account.  I did not feel comfortable doing that, so I started again.

Take two - I tried the video creation in Camtasia.  I love this program as it is easy to use and creates high quality videos.  The problem that I encountered was in the audio recording.  I only have a very old microphone that creates an odd swirling sound in the playback.

Take three - I rerecorded the video for a final time.  I used Camtasia for the screen capture, but this time I used my iPhone and voice memo app to record my voice.  I started both recordings at the same time, and advanced the slides as I spoke, so that the audio and the video would be easy to sync afterwards.  We had to do some fancy conversions, but managed to create a .wav file from the initial recording and add it as an audio 2 track. Worked like a charm!  Sounds great and it was not all that hard to achieve.  Although, I did need to rely on my husband's expertise to convert the file.  I am not sure I would have been able to figure that one out on my own.

Readability and writing

I learned a really interesting tip last week; you can determine the readability of your writing very simply in MS Word.  Here are the steps to take:

1. Click on File and then Options
2. Click on Proofing and then ensure that "readability statistics" is checked off.
3. The next time that you complete spellcheck on your document, there will be a pop-up window that provides you with these details.

This process can be very complicated if you are writing a literature review as to go through the spellcheck with all of those authors names can be time consuming.

I tried this for one of my daughter's research projects.  The paper landed at 6.2 which is appropriate because she is in grade 6.  One of my papers came in at 14.3 which is a bit lower than I had anticipated but appropriate for what I was working on.

Courage

The greatest thing that I have learned from being an instructor, is to be brave.  It can be incredibly daunting to stand in front of a class and try to convey your message in a way that is interesting and engaging.  Especially when the class may not be interested in what you have to say or it might not be at a time in the semester when they recognize the value of the information.

The strength and courage that I have gleaned from the process of teaching has helped me in every other aspect of my life.  It helps me to be brave when faced with a difficult situation.  It also forces me to never give up.  To ameliorate, to strive for 'bigger and better', to truly seek life-long learning.  It compels me to step out on that stage time and time again, even though I am nervous, even though it would be easier not to.

When does 7 seconds seem like an infinity?

Again, speaking with the organizational development specialist (ODS), I recounted a tale from my earlier instructional session where I became very aware of something I had learned in the Library Leadership Development Program.  According to the team player assessment tool, I am a communicator.  Those that know me, would surely agree!  One of the traits of being a communicator is that silences make me incredibly uncomfortable, and I will typically jump in with a response if the silence becomes too long in my mind.  In my instruction session I noted that several times I was to quick to jump in with an answer and rescue my students from the silence.  The ODS suggested that I count to 7 in my head to see if the question is answered by a participant. 

I plan to try that on Monday in my next session.... but I am sure it will seem like an infinite amount of time for me, the communicator!

A Monday in July

Today I learned the seven and a half steps involved in successfully becoming a life long learner. For more information, check out this web site, http://www.plcmc.org/public/learning/player.html.

I also toured LibraryThing.com, created an account and catalogued 7 of my most recent favourite books. Library Thing is a site that will allow you to catalogue your personal library, as well as, join groups and meet others with similar reading tastes.

Once you sign up for an account, you can search for books in your collection by title, author, ISBN or LC Card Number.

I had heard of this site from my previous cataloguing class (winter 2010), but had not looked at it yet. This site provides an excellent introduction to cataloguing and classification for someone unfamiliar with the process.