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Sunday, August 29, 2021
The EASY Way to "Share Your Screen" Smoothly in Zoom
Monday, July 12, 2021
How Does Watching/Listening Faster Affect My Learning?
Good Question. The answer is - It all Depends! Some research supports accelerated watching/listening. Some research found that students do poorly on tests after watching/listening to videos 2x times the regular speed. The problem with these studies is that they approach it as an either/or situation. They have students listen to content at 2x and then test them.
Success with this process is a personal outcome. It depends upon:
- Content of the video/audio.
- Your ability to understand the audio language.
- How much attention you are paying to the audio track.
People typically speak English at about 150 words per minute (wpm). (I would assume that this applies to other languages as well, but I didn't find any research on that.) Our maximum rate for comprehension is about 450 wpm. This means that we might be able to triple (3x) the speed of discourse and still understand it.
What Will Work for You?
I must admit that I usually keep my listening at a 1.5x or 1.75x rate. I have tried 2x but don't find that comfortable. Your choice must be based upon what works for you . . . but what is that magic speed?
The Oxford Online English center suggests a short test to identify which speed works best for you.
Oxford Online English - How to Understand Fast Speech.
Begin by finding an audio track (maybe on a video) containing the type of information you typically need to learn. Wouldn't make sense to listen to a highly-technical medical video if you will be listening to lectures for typical education videos. It will work best if you have a transcript of the piece, but not necessary.
- Warm up by listening to a few sentences in the video. Try to remember what they said.
- Listen to another sentence.
- Try to type/write out the sentence exactly.
- Repeat this for 2 more sentences.
- Compare what you typed/wrote to the transcript (or listen to it again.)
- How many mistakes did you make? Every missing, wrong, or forgotten word is a mistake.
- You are only allowed 1 mistake. Any more, then you need to slow down your speed and try again.
- If you got them all right, try it again at a faster speed. Continue until you find the speed you want to use.
Pay Attention!
Watching/Listening Faster
Watching faster can mean a big difference in how much you can learn in a short period. This can be a great boon to your students' learning as well. Chances are that many of them are doing this already, but they may think it is cheating. Let them in on this secret. Try doing it in class so they can see how it works.
Introduce your students (and yourself) to another way in which you can understand the world.
Have you been speeding up your watching/listening? Leave a comment about what you have accomplished.
Z
BTW, Speeding up podcasts to make listening more efficient is called PodFasting. It's a great way to catch up on the podcasts that you missed. Check it out.
Inouye, M. (2016) Can We Speed Listen and Still Understand?
Friday, July 09, 2021
Learn Faster by Watching Faster
Friday, June 25, 2021
Why Students Turn Off their Cameras in Online Classes
I HATE it when my students turn off their cameras in class!
I didn't select teaching as my role in life to talk to a bunch of boxes on the screen. I want to talk to my students and see their responses as we venture into new ideas and experiences.
Unfortunately, when we had to move our classes online, educators met with a number of students who didn't turn on their cameras. I have spent the past year presenting OK Zoomer webinars for Higher-Ed and K-12 teachers. The #1 question they have is "How can I get my students to turn on their cameras?"
Good question. There are a plethora of solutions. Some answer that question by mandating students to keep their cameras active. This may be unfair because it is an invasion of their privacy. Other educators build empathy with their students by sharing important it is for them to have the opportunity to have eye contact with their students. Some instructors give extra credit points to students who show themselves.
I have been interested in learning about why students turn off their cameras. This Spring semester, I taught 100 students in three sections through Zoom. At the end of the semester, I asked them to share their reasons for turning off their cameras. I presented them with a list of 14 options and then provided a place where they could provide other reasons. They could select as many reasons as they wanted.
Reasons Why Students Turn Off Their Cameras*
Survey Results: Why Students Turn Off their Cameras
I have broken these results into 6 groups: Self-Conscious, Technical, Considering Others, Status Quo, Other Activity, and Privacy:
How Can We Use These Results?
This is Only the Beginning
I NEED Your Help Higher Education Educators!!
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Connecting with Students through Opening Questions
- If you were to write a book, What would be the topic?
- If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
- What class do you wish we offered at UNI? Why?
- How do you help others?
- Where would you like to travel?
- What is one thing you could do all day long without stopping?
- What do you think is your hidden talent?
- What is your favorite type of music?
- What is the hardest part about being a kid?
- Who inspires you?
- What are 3 things you cannot live without?
- What Bugs You?
- When are you MOST creative?
- What would YOU ask a teacher?
- What do you like to do outside?
- If you could travel back in time 3 years and visit your younger self, What advice would you give yourself?
- Which country would you like your class to collaborate with? What would you like them to do? (preceded a discussion on Global Collaboration)
- Have you ever used QR codes? How could you use QR codes with your students? (set the stage for our QR Codes lesson.)
- If you could select a nickname, what would it be?
- What is your favorite card, board, or computer game?
Do Opening Questions Make a Difference?
Sunday, April 11, 2021
Take Attendance through your Zoom Chat Room
Taking attendance can be difficult through Zoom. Your students are on multiple gallery screens and you don't have the time to flip back and forth between screens while you check them off in your grade book.
Taking attendance doesn't need to be difficult. It can even be fun!
Use your Zoom Chat Room
Use your Chat Room to take attendance. Have your students type "I'm Here" into the chat room and, Viola!, your attendance has been stored in the archives.
Save your Zoom Chat Room
An important part of this process is to save the Chat Room to a file so you can see it later.
Click the ... box at the bottom right corner of your Chat column (see illustration). Select Save Chat and it will save your chat comments to the Zoom folder that Zoom created on your computer when you started Zooming a year ago.
Other Ways to Take Attendance
If you are interested in other options, you will find some other postings in Dr. Z Reflects with suggestions:
Thursday, March 04, 2021
How to Update Your Zoom Client Version
I have had many educators and students ask how to update their Zoom client version so that they can use some of the more recent functions like moving between Breakout Rooms.
This video is for you: