Using Screencasts for Training in the Research Environment

For my final presentation, I chose to focus on the use of screencasts for training researchers. This is a relatively new concept for the research community, at least where I work. I'm hoping that the presentation I have created will help ease my colleagues into the 21st century to begin using screencasting software, esepecially since I have learned that there are FREE options! This has always been a great limitation especially in the past couple years, but now that I have this knowledge I hope to share it with others to enhance the training sessions for the presenter as well as the end user.

ResearchGate as a Web 2.0 Networking Tool

http://www.researchgate.net/

Networking/Social Tool


ResearchGate is a professional social networking site for scientists. The site focuses on connecting with colleagues, discovering new methods and collaborating. Once you register (for free) as a member, the site prompts you to create a profile for networking with colleagues in the science field. You can add information such as your field of work, your interests, and personal information like photos, and work history. You can also join groups that relate to your interests in order to chat with others on topics of interest. I also found the job search function to be of interest. There are hundreds of jobs posted, however, most are related to academia not industry. The site was easy to navigate and if I were looking for methods for specific projects it may be a good place to start looking and asking around for advice.


I think ResearchGate could be a useful tool, but I’m not sure I would use it. I’ve been working in the science industry for nearly 8 years and I’ve never heard of it. I think that could be their downfall because in order for a social network to really work you have to have the people to support it. I also noticed that many of the articles on the site were not up-to-date. With science being a dynamic field, research articles older than 5 years become out-of-date. Knowing how scientists think and work I’m not sure many of my colleagues would be willing to try ResearchGate out. However, I think the scientific community could benefit from a social network in order to collaborate so they don’t have to keep inventing the wheel but scientists aren’t likely to share novel ideas due to the possibility of publication.


Skills
Basic internet navigation skills are needed to use this tool.

Resources
None

How do you use this tool?
1. Go to http://www.researchgate.net/
2. Sign up for a free account
3. Now you are free to browse the content on the site.

Look for other researchers to join your network

Browse literature

Join a group and discuss topics

Look for jobs

Update your profile and add colleagues to your network

Using this tool in a teaching environment
While I’m not completely sold on using ResearchGate, I do see some usefulness in it as a networking tool. This could be especially important for college science students who are looking for direction for a career path or for employment. I’m a fan of social networking sites and feel ResearchGate could be helpful in putting students in touch with content experts from a field of their choice, especially if they were looking at going to graduate school in the future.

If I were teaching college-level science I would encourage my students to join groups and post discussions relevant to activities from class such as laboratory exercises. I didn’t see college groups on the site, but I’m sure if a discussion board was created students could communicate with each other from their own school as well as other schools.

Since ResearchGate appears to be geared toward academic research, it could also serve as a networking place for instructors. I’ve been a college instructor before and know that I didn’t have much support or anywhere to go for advice. This site could serve as a meeting place for instructors to share ideas and to prepare incoming instructors for what to expect. By collaborating instructors could gain knowledge and new methods that could be very helpful to their students. Teaching college science courses often involves a teacher-centered environment and focuses on a pushing on knowledge, but if instructors have a place to share what has and hasn’t worked in their classrooms a shift maybe possible. Students have great demands and expect their classes to be interactive and informative whether taking the course in-person or online. Teaching methods sometimes sound great in theory, but can fall flat when applied. If teachers share these experiences, it could not only help them, but also improve the quality of instruction.

I really feel that ResearchGate is best suited for academic researchers and it appears that is their focus (based on job postings). I’ve worked in research long enough to appreciate the sharing of ideas instead of dozens of researchers working on the same exact projects, but I think this is considered industry standard, especially in the biomedical/pharmaceutical industry that I currently research. Everyone is looking for the cure to something and want to keep it to themselves as long as they can for greater profit in the end. But eventually, everyone has to reach out for help or advice on occasion and I think ResearchGate could fill that gap when the need does arise as long as the information is kept up-to-date and relevant.

Advantages
Lots of references to get started on a research paper/project

Disadvantages
Not the most current information
Comments made by other scientists may not be 100% fact and could be confusing for students
Really more for networking or finding information on advanced experiments

Web 2.0 Tools for Collaboration

This week's assignment was quite different than the previous ones. It involved working in groups to produce a final VoiceThread presentation (http://voicethread.com/). The two questions my group sought to answer were:

1. What special needs does an online learner have?

2. What specific skills does a teacher need in an online environment to meet the special needs of students?

My group consisted of 4 people including myself. When working with a group, challenges always arise, however, I felt my group was able to communicate well and collaborate effectively to produce our final product.

This was my first time using VoiceThread and I thought it was extremely easy to use. I first watched some of the presentations on the website to get a better idea of what to expect and was thoroughly entertained. This gave me the confidence that I too could contribute to a voicethread presentation with ease. I registered on the website which allowed me to upload a picture of myself for others to see who was talking. I'm not overly comfortable with creating videos (actually with seeing me on video) so I chose to comment on the presentation with audio only. You can also comment with text boxes or bubbles that appear when you click on the images of people around the edges of the presentation.

Overall, I enjoyed this assignment. Allowing each person to go into the presentation in their own time to add their comments was the greatest benefit. It was easy to add comments and you didn't have to wait on anybody before you added your two cents.

Here's our final product. Enjoy!

MAPMYself Critical Thinking Tool

MAPMYself mind mapping software

http://mapul.com/


Summary:

MAPMYself is a web-based mind mapping tool that can be used for thinking, learning, planning, organizing, or sharing ideas. It is visually appealing using bright colors and fun fonts. Once I set up an account, getting started with MAPMYself was a little trying at first. I wasn’t real familiar with mind maps, and thought I could jump right in and start making one; however, that was not the case. I quickly realized that to create a mind map, you had to have an idea of where to start and where you wanted to go with it, so I stepped back and did some planning before I attempted to use MAPMYself again.

On the second attempt, things were a little easier. I started by creating a new map and then choosing a central image from where all the branches would originate. I drew a number of branches then branched those off into even smaller branches to show a hierarchy among items. This part took a little time to master because I had to get used to how to create and how to make the branches longer due to the fact that you click on the same area to do both and it’s very easy to do one instead of the other. Once I figured that out it made a huge difference. Another trick was moving the branches around without distorting the text. Apparently there is a vertical midline and if you cross it while dragging the branch, it will transpose all the text to read backwards. I’m not sure of any use or benefit for this and it was rather a pain to deal with, but I made the map work without moving the text around too much.

Overall, once I got adjusted to some of the quirks from MAPMYself, I had fun creating a mind map. I’ve never used any other programs, so I don’t have much to compare it to as far as use, but I liked the features MAPMYself had to offer. It was fairly easy to use and I would recommend it to peers as well as students to use for organizing ideas and planning projects.

Skills Needed:
Before using MAPMYself, you must first have a working knowledge about mind maps and how they work. While the program itself is pretty easy to use, you’ll first have to have an idea of what you want the mind map to look like and how you want it organized.

Knowledge Needed:
I think you need to have Microsoft Silverlight installed. It did not prompt me, but I installed it for a previous assignment and I know Silverlight is used for creating mind maps. You will also be required to create an account through MAPMYself.

Educational Uses:
Commonly, student are assigned research papers which allow them to research a topic that may be of interest to them in order to gain a deeper understanding of the topic. As an instructor I assigned many of these papers and part of the semester long process was to create an outline within the first few weeks of class that would detail the research paper. This was for the benefit of the student because it made them start to think about what they wanted to write their paper on. It was also beneficial for me because it gave me an opportunity to provide feedback to the students to make sure they’re on the right track. Instead of a text-based outline, I think using a mind map program such as MAPMYself would be beneficial to the students. It would work the same way as an outline, but would give them creative freedom to outline their thoughts. Students could add pictures to better illustrate what they will be researching which is a change from the typical text/content based outlines students are used to preparing. For the teacher it would also be beneficial because it would be a break from the same boring outlines. This way, each outline would be different and more interesting to look over.

Mind maps can also be used as a presentation tool. MAPMYself creates a final product similar to a slide show that zooms in and follows a path as directed by the creator. The zoom will stay on the branch as long as you indicate it to then it will branch off and stay there for the allotted time as well before moving on to the next branch. This could be helpful in telling the story of the mind map. Since the map is all interconnected, it would be easy to come up with a story for the branches, even if it’s just presenting an outline for a research project a story is there to be told. I would be interested to hear student’s stories about what they plan to research. With the help of the visual mind map, the student would have something to refer to when presenting their ideas. This could work as a classroom exercise where everyone gets up and presents their mind map briefly (5 minutes) to the class.

Advantages:
Very colorful, grabs your attention, easy to use once you get used to how things work, helpful in organizing thoughts when working on a project whether in a group or individually, could help students stay on track by following the outline they created with MAPMYself, gives students a chance to think independently, opportunity to express creativity while creating content.

Disadvantages:
Took some time to get adjusted to how things work, could distract from the content if not used properly, you’re only allowed to create 2 maps with the free account, I had trouble saving the map as a jpeg.


Getting Started Tutorial:

Tagxedo: Creative Web 2.0 tool

Tagxedo is a Web 2.0 tool that turns words, speeches, essays, or any other written document into a word cloud. A word cloud is a visual depiction of words, and the more frequently a word is used in the sample document, the larger the word appears in the word cloud. A word cloud could be thought of as a chart that visually plots the frequency of use of a word.

http://www.tagxedo.com/

For this review, I created a podcast detailing the use of tagxedo. Enjoy!

Vanilla Forums as a Web 2.0 Communication Tool

Vanilla Forums
http://www.vanillaforums.com/

Communication tool

Here’s the site I created: http://lmnorberg.vanillaforums.com/












Description:
Vanilla Forums is a web 2.0 tool that allows you to set up and manage forums for discussing any number of topics. This is an open-source software that allows you to create your own discussion forum for any reason you choose. This software can be used for businesses (large or small), personal websites, or educational purposes. The main purpose of using a discussion forum such as Vanilla Forums is to allow a number of people to communicate with each other about specific topics. If used for business, it allows customers to post and respond to issues they may be having and potential solutions based on experience. The possibilities for educational uses are endless. This would be ideal for group discussions when working on projects or even for student teacher interaction about assignments and parent teacher interactions about school activities or student projects.
The home page for this site is very user friendly and easy to navigate. I set up a forum in less than 5 minutes with relative ease. Upon creation of the forum, I received an email with the link to the forum. I tested the link from a couple different computers to make sure it worked, and it did without consequence. I posted a couple different topics and commented on them. One thing I did notice was when I was logged out and tried to comment as a guest, I was prompted to register for a vanilla forum account. This would have to be something to mention to potential participants. Also, it looks like if you want people to discuss topics, they would have to come to your forum site to do so, it’s not able to be embedded into your personal site. I know as a student, I would be less likely to want to visit another site in addition to the course website (on webct, blackboard, moodle). You could always include a link to the Vanilla Forum site on your course site, but having to visit another site could hinder participation.

Likes: Easy to use, set up, navigate, manage, free.

Dislikes: Additional website, few options for customization.

Skills Needed:
Basic internet navigation skills are needed to use this tool. I was really easy to use and didn’t require advanced knowledge or skills.

Resources Needed:
None

Using Vanilla Forums:
Setting up:
1. Go to www.vanillaforums.com
2. Click on plans and pricing
3. Sign up for account (I chose the free account)
4. Enter your information and choose your site’s name, now your site has been created
5. The dashboard is where you can adjust your plan, view your site, create, edit categories, and customize your site.
6. I first customized my site under appearances on the left-hand side of the site in the dashboard. You can choose from 4 different themes or create your own with html coding (optional).
7. You can also assign roles to different people (such as moderator, administrator, member, guest, banned).
8. To prevent spam on your forum, you can adjust how frequently a member or guest can post or the maximum length of the posts.





Using:
1. Sign in or apply for membership
2. Available discussions are on the homepage
3. By clicking on the discussion title, you can read the post and comment on it.



Educational Uses:
This tool would work well for initiating discussion among students in a class. This would be a great place to post a number of topics for students to respond to or for them to create topics that they want answers to such as homework assignments, projects, or questions about topics discussed in class.
I would use this tool in a teaching environment as a way of communicating thoughts about topics discussed in class. I’m not currently a classroom teacher, but I have taught before and know that during class topics come up that don’t get to be discussed in full detail. Due to the amount of content that has to be covered, when students bring up ideas or have questions that could spur another lecture all together, these topics don’t get to be addressed properly. Many of these ideas are thought provoking and are related to real-life situations that could help students apply the knowledge to their lives. In the past, I’ve tried to keep track of these questions and then address then when time permitted, usually during another class period, after the moment had passed for the student.
Had the topics been recorded and posted online within hours of class, I could provide answers, feedback, or suggest resources or websites to visit. Students could also follow up with their own thoughts which could provide direction for the next lecture or further class discussion. I think by allowing students to voice their thoughts or opinions on topics helps them learn and makes the topics more “real” to them. Also knowing what interests student can give the teacher an idea of what to include in a lecture. If you find out that in your biology class that a number of students are interested in marine biology, you can bring up examples that tie into the topic being studied with marine biology.
The forum could also be helpful for students who don’t like to speak up in class. This way their voices can still be heard but at their comfort, without risk of being embarrassed in class. Questions could be asked in class, then posted on the forum for student discussion. Also before beginning a new unit in class, I could ask questions to get an idea of the level of preexisting knowledge. If students indicate they know about certain concepts, then it would be redundant to cover them again. Introducing students to the next unit could also spark an interest in the topic and get them excited about what is coming up along with giving them an opportunity to think of questions they have about the topic. All of these discussions could be posted on the forum and discussed by other students and me as the teacher.
I feel by having a forum for students to discuss in their own time, they could gain a deeper knowledge of topics that may not be able to be discussed in class due to time restraints or other issues. A forum would also allow teachers to learn more about their students and their interests.

Advantages:
The advantages of using Vanilla Forums in a teaching environment would be the ability to support classroom topics with further discussion online that could improve comprehension and spark an interest in the topic for students. Teachers could also assess what students know and where to go with their lectures.

Disadvantages:
The greatest disadvantage of using any forum is students must have access to the internet outside of school, as most of the discussion would be conducted after classroom time. Another disadvantage is the forum only works if students are willing to participate. If students don’t participate, then the forum is dead.