Spring 2010 semester starts off with me saying, "Okay everyone, take out your cell phones and turn them on. I want you to take a survey using polleverywhere. There were some shocked faces as students hesitantly took out their cell phones, turned them on, then proceeded to text in their answer to the question, "Why are you taking this course?"
Instantly students were able to see how the class was voting. I then explained how polleverywhere could be used for analyzing your target audience, getting feedback on a presentation, or even for assessment purposes. All students were asked to then create an polleverywhere account. I talked a little bit about the importance of acquiring digital literacies using Web 1 and Web 2 technologies and how these new digital tools are important in today's visual world.
The photo above is from our bingo icebreaker activity where students had to roam around the room finding someone who.....and writing in their name. Ryan quickly had his boxes done to make bingo. Brittany soon followed. Here they are introducing the people who did various things, like ones who could touch their nose with their tongue, hated fish, loved pizza, had green eyes, had been outside the country, etc. It was a nice way to get people out of their seats. How would I change this activity? I would have a time limit and whoever filled in the most boxes would be the winner. The activity was too short when it was done as bingo.
Here are our lucky winners:
Then, I went into a discussion on the learning outcomes, my expectations, and some highlights of the syllabus (attendance policy, kinds of papers they would be writing, grading philosophy, etc.). I was hoping for about 15 more minutes to do the syllabus quiz in Angel and a journal entry in preparation for their module on education. Alas, there is never enough time in a class period to do it all.
We ended the class with questions from the students. The biggest shocker to many of them that there would be five assignments due for the next online class. The question was, "Will there always be five assignments for each class?"
I really enjoyed this class!
ReplyDeleteThe poll was a very good idea how to find our why each person took this class. I really like how our class is a hybrid.
SHOCKED!!! You were defiantly the first professor to ask me to take out my cell phone and use it to text. I was really interested in the polling you could do on your cell phone. This made my interest in the class grow immensely. The icebreaker was different and helped calm my nerves of meeting my peers.
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