Tricia and Meg
Christi Boggs, Tricia Giovacco-Johnson, and Meg Van Baalen-Wood talked about adding audio features to a course.
This session will explore how and why you would want to use audio for teaching, with many real-life examples, as well as provide a quick lesson on how to create content using these tools and how to get this content to your students.
Christi started work at UW with instruction on audio. Audio has been widely used throughout history in education. Audio is the gateway drug to higher technology in education. Christi recommends picking up audio and video as a place to start for enhancing classes.
Tricia found a desire to hear a voice in her classes because students were just getting information as text. She listened to talk radio to learn how to perform. Students were using the podcasts to listen to the content she produced. She was able to podcast from anywhere she was. She now does more videocasts.
Meg’s course is also very text heavy. Students have to read and write a lot. She wanted to become more human to her students. An audio file softens the tone of the class. She uses to provide feedback and talk through the different units of the class. She commented that she is not necessarily comfortable with her voice.
Christi pointed out that teaching is about making connections with the students. Audio helps to make a connection when distance course. Podcasting can still be a one-way direction in making a connection. Christi mentioned Tricia’s Saturday morning coffee talks through audio. Christi talked about her challenges with providing written feedback. She uses audio to provide feedback on writing assignments. She lets the audio speak her tone and attitude while doing an assessment. She finds providing audio feedback is easier for instructor and students. Audio has helped Christi become a better speaker.
Tricia ensures to use student names in an audio and the students notice and appreciated. She finds it is important to provide audio guidance to written instructions. She also talks more with her students as a result of audio comments.
Meg finds a challenge to reuse audio files compared to written comments. Meg has fewer calls from students because she clearly provided instruction.
They all use audios and videos so that students know who is teaching a class.
