Evolving as a digital teacher: Tools of the trade - Part 3

Here at DWU, we have talked about online learning for several years now. Several workshops and seminars were conducted all in an effort to upskill academics in the area of online learning. One of the workshops I remember attending was with A/Professor Dr. Susan Crichton from University of British Columbia (UBC) back in 2015. There were quite a number of tools introduced during the week-long session.

Since then we've had lengthy discussions and musings over the pros and cons of online teaching among other things e-learning. Discussions continue to evolve on our university broadcast surrounding this topic as several staff already using various tools share through blog posts (like this post itself) and Youtube videos such as this and others shared by Bernard Yegiora (a DWU staff who also shares some digital teaching tutorials on his blog). We even had a separate Moodle site set up by ICT to experiment with online learning. This site unfortunately has been decommissioned recently this year. Initially not many were keen on taking on the idea of online teaching. In fact only two or three people used the DMS Moodle platform setup specifically for online learning. Reasons as to why academics did not take the challenge to at least offer a unit online are unknown.

DWU however does have a well established e-learning environment using Moodle established several years ago which has gone through various updates with one done recently beginning of this year adding additional features and plugins to allow for more functionality. This university-wide learning platform has been used for both its undergraduate programs and flexible mode programs. Use of Moodle in this case has been mainly for blended learning where lecturers upload resources and post assignments for student to access and for students to post task submissions for feedback. It was not used for full online learning programs. The traditional approach of face-to-face classroom style seminars and lectures is still the norm for most of our programs.

The idea of online teaching using video,web and audio conferencing tools for remote learning was there but somewhat shelved every time it came up in discussions for various reasons. 

Anyhow, it now seems the COVID-19 may well 'force' academics to start using the vast array of tools online that allow for remote learning. At least that is the approach taken now in many universities across the globe given the outbreak of this pandemic as this article suggests among many other similar articles.

• Shift to online learning due to COVID-19 requires rethink of teaching: experts
• The COVID-19 online pivot: Adapting university teaching to social distancing

This post will not talk about how you can move your classroom online, an expert at Harvard Business School has done that already and is sharing his expertise and experience by hosting several webinars like this one which you can sign up to attend or download recordings. Harvard Business Publishing also share some great resources on Moving Your Classroom Online.

In this post, I share with you briefly three online delivery options I have been using and which I am familiar with. I use all three of these tools at various times in the Graduate Certificate in Data Networking program that I teach for 14 weeks fully online (remotely) and 1 week face-to-face on campus.

Evolving as a digital teacher: Tools of the trade - Part 2

I am currently teaching a flexible learning graduate certificate (data networking) program under the Faculty of Business & Informatics. The course is instructor-led, mixture of asynchronous and synchronous mode (better known as blended block mode) with 14 weeks fully online and a 1 week F2F component for hands-on hardware practical and an exam. Course participants are mainly working class adult learners.

As an online course instructor, you have to put in a lot of work up-front in setting up the lessons for the online component and 'front-loading' a lot of the key concepts for learning during this learning phase so your learners are prepared for the 1-week intense practicals. Learners are expected to do their own readings with a bit of guidance and support through pre-recorded video lessons and a single weekly synchronous video webinar through Zoom. A tip I picked up here is to utilize the backward design approach in your lesson planning and especially with identifying what is critical to learn and what is additional information.

One challenge I face is with pre-recording video lectures. So much more when you have 2-3 other courses you are teaching full-time to undergraduates. One approach is the use of the software Camtasia to produce 5-10 minute explainer/demo videos (often demos using a network simulator application) - if videos go beyond (happens quite a lot) you may have to segment them into 'bite-size' chunks of 3-4 minute videos. I am doing all these from my desk in a shared office space or sometimes in the test center with just a laptop and a Logitech camera. Nothing fancy.

In this article, I share a tutorial on how I use Camtasia to record Cisco Packet Tracer demonstrations for my class.

Here is the finished video. Video length: 21 minutes.

Note: Video has audio recording.

Time taken to complete. 

• Preparation about 30 minutes 
• Video recording and post-prod editing: 30 minutes.

1. Reasons why I do this:

1. The unit IS601 Graduate Certificate in Data Networking that I am teaching under FLC is a 14 week online + 1 week F2F course. My target audience is "adult learners". During this 14 weeks 'participants' are expected to do their own reading and self-learning. I as a 'facilitator' only guide them along and summarize key concepts at the end of each topic and highlight key learning objectives.
2. This video I recorded covered 5 learning objectives for one topic all in one activity.
3. If you are teaching F2F, you may not have enough time in a week (just 4 contact hours is not enough for some) to cover as much as you can. Recording a video for 'course participants' to watch can be helpful.

2. Tools used

Camtasia - a proprietary tool from TechSmith that allows you to record your screen and edit videos with a powerful, yet easy-to-use video editor to create professional-looking videos.

Cisco Packet Tracer - this is a simulation tool purposely for teaching and learning data networking
and it may not so much be of use to other fields of study. We use this tool in our IS/MCS programs specifically for data networking.

Logitech C920 webcam - used here for audio recording only since the audio quality is very good compared to the inbuilt audio mic on the Dell laptop (in my opinion). Using the inbuilt mic is still good.

The tool I want to share with you is the Camtasia tool and how easy it can be to record and share a video without any time-consuming serious video-editing involved. It has a free trial version which you can download from the link given.

Start out by preparing a script before you record, or just plan out (in your head) what you are going to say and do for the duration of the video recording. I usually plan in my head as script doesn't work well for me - not used to it.

3. How I recorded this.

1. I prepared my Cisco Packet Tracer demonstration file. Created a sample starter file first (which I planned to give to participants to watch video and follow through using the same file).
2. Did some mental preparation on how I wanted the video demo to begin and end.
3. Listed down clear objectives to be achieved at the end of the video.
4. I then proceeded to the recording part. 

Note: I chose to record my audio as it is much easier explaining while recording than adding annotations or text later to explain what you are doing in the video demo (like what I have done in this tutorial, it took me a while to add annotations for each process...quite time-consuming).

Note: this video has no audio recording but annotations and text is used to describe what is happening.

Thanks for reading and watching these videos.
Let me know how this has helped you or how you use these tools too.

• Download a free trial of camtasia here. 
• Find techsmiths library of camtasia tutorials here.

NOTE:
Methods and digital tools / software / sites etc..etc.. shared is not a one-size fits all. What works for me may not work for you. We may all use Camtasia and you name it but in different ways and for different purposes and to achieve different results. The important thing is see from the different methods shared and adopt what works for you. Critique technology but don't hate it. Different tools can be used to address different learning aspects. 

 

Evolving as a digital teacher: Tools of the trade - Part 3

DWU Integrity Week 2020 - Integrity starts with you.

Was nervous but excited when invited to give a talk as one of the two presenters during the DWU Integrity Week (Feb 24-28, 2020) in the Madang campus. I was invited to talk about online integrity. 

I honestly did not know what to talk about at first when the invitation came at least 2 weeks in advance. It was only about a couple of days before the presentation day (Wed 26th Feb) that thoughts around the topic started to take shape - of course after doing some research online using the key words online learning and drawing lessons from my own experiences teaching a course online and also taking several courses myself online. I thought maybe this could be an opportunity to share some thoughts on my observation and what online integrity and the theme of the year meant to me.

It was a rewarding experience in itself as the presentation preparation prompted me to read several literature to draw from various expert opinions and perspectives and see where my experiences and thoughts correlated with those ideas. Anyway the presentation went well and here is the powerpoint slides that assisted me in the presentation.

A video of the presentation in SVDMA

Evolving as a digital teacher: Tools of the trade - Part 1

Written in November 2, 2020. Updated: 30th May 2024

What does it mean to be a digital teacher? There is no concrete definition to this term however various articles and websites do try to define this term around the idea of a teacher being able to deliver a course or teach using various digital tools, engaging and interactive content to enhance learning. This definition relates to the terms online learning, blended learning and flipped classroom as opposed to the traditional way of learning.

How efficient and effective one does this depends I believe on the level of expertise and experience. I am no expert at this stage and I don't claim to be. I'm a strong believer that technology itself is not a magic bullet, it is how we use it. Learning at the end of the day must be the focal point and not technology. It is only a tool. A hammer is only useful in the hands of a carpenter or builder, it cannot hit a nail on its own.

This series started in the wake of the pandemic to offer some guidance to those looking at adopting and integrating technology. If you're only just beginning or are already some years into teaching with technology I recommend you take a look at the FCIT's Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) framework. The TIM provides a framework for describing and targeting the use of technology to enhance learning. It incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, collaborative, constructive, authentic, and goal-directed. These characteristics are associated with five levels of technology integration: entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation.[Update: Developed by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT) in 2005, the TIM is now in its third edition (2019)]

In Part 1 of the series I list some of the tools I have learnt to use over the last six (and now into the seventh year) of teaching at DWU and share briefly what I use them for. In the next series of articles I will then share what I do with each or combination of these tools or how I use them. I wish to say here that I am by no means yet an expert in all these tools (I have mastered some and still learning others) however I would like to share briefly how I use them or what I do with them.

Most of these are software I use in delivering blended mode units/courses over Moodle LMS or Canvas LMS. Some are proprietary while others free to use open source software.

📌 Sparkol VideoScribe - is a whiteboard animation/story-telling software. Its an amazing piece of software. It was one of the first tools I used to create the hand-drawn animations.
📌 Articulate - is a course authoring tool. A proprietary platform for full online course creation. I have only used this tool with a free trial account to create some demo courses.
📌 ActivePresenter - similar to Camtasia, this tool is great to do screencasts, record video demos etc. It is now a course authoring tool also.
📌 iSpringSuite - an authoring tool, great for interactive content.
📌 Adobe Captivate - another amazing authoring tool. Was lucky enough to get the eight version. Creating interactive content or choose from beautiful design options, ready-to-go slides and assets to quickly create courses.
📌 MailChimp - an email marketing tool which I use for academic purposes back in 2017-2018. I would usually send weekly updates for my online Graduate Certificate in Data Networking course using the free monthly plan on this platform. I no longer use it.
📌 Camtasia - Camtasia is a software suite for creating and recording video tutorials and presentations via screencast, or via a direct recording plug-in to Microsoft PowerPoint. Other multimedia recordings may be recorded at the same time or added separately. Its similar to ActivePresenter and can also be used for authoring content.
📌 Open Broadcast Studio (OBS) - I try to use at least two camera views and the desktop, OBS comes in very handy. More recently since I moved across to CLT. I have used OBS in all the livestream and lecture capture events. A free open source lightweight yet powerful software video encoders. A trusted piece of software.
📌 Audacity - free alternative to Adobe Audition for doing podcasts but I use it to record audio for VideoScribe.
📌 Zoom - I use this for meetings, short trainings and webinars. The more recent updates now have clips, notes and whiteboard.
📌 Cisco Packet Tracer - simulation tool purposely for teaching/learning data networking. I use this for most of my teaching demonstrations.
📌 GNS3 - Graphical Network Simulator. More of an emulation tool purposely for teaching/learning data networking. A steep learning curve though and can be very resource intensive.
📌 Facebook Social Learning groups. - so far I find this very helpful as FB has become more like a universal, easily accessible, lite platform not just for socializing but for learning also...social learning!!
📌 Canva - for all my graphics, marketing, banner needs etc etc... Canva is there to save me.

Forgot to add two recent tools I've started using, Shotcut... a tool I use for video timelapse, and VSDC Free Video Editor...for video editing of course.

Stay tuned for more...
Picture credit: spark.adobe.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evolving as a digital teacher: Tools of the trade - Part 2

Internet prices in PNG

"In places like PNG, internet users tend to use mobile phones, rather than laptop or desktop computers. The GSMA’s mobile connectivity index looks at pricing, as well as other factors such as infrastructure, content, ownership rates and user skills. It rates PNG’s mobile internet connectivity as better than neighbouring Solomon Islands, but poorer than other Pacific nations such as Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. The index has data on 165 countries and PNG is ranked 121st, meaning there are 44 countries with weaker mobile internet connectivity and 120 countries performing better."

Read more here in this article of interest from a former DWU staff Dr. Amanda Watson. The article was re-published by Post Courier in today's paper.

Dr. Watson (now a Research Fellow with the Dept. of Pacific Affairs at ANU), myself and another academic from UPNG (School of Business & Public Policy) are now collaborating on a research project in this area given the recent announcements by DataCo for an increase in internet prices and its impact on mobile data rates.

Follow me on this blog as I will update on progress in this research. 

The article was re-published by Post Courier in today's (03/02/20) paper.

Brief History of United Church Madang Congregation

Brief History of United Church Madang Congregation.
(Excerpts taken from a documented brief account compiled by 2016-2018 Congregation Chairman Mr. Albert Ralai)

The Madang Methodist/LMS Church (now United Church Madang) was first established in 1966 and was fully completed in 1969. The formation of the church in Madang took place even before the United Church was formally established with the coming together of the Methodist Church and the London Missionary Society (LMS) known as Papua Ekalesia on 19th January 1968.

It took a while however, before land was secured to build a proper place of worship. It was the children of the first converts of Rev. William E Bromilow mainly the Dobuan speaking people who were recruited by the then Burns Philip (NG) Ltd from Samarai in 1952 and brought to Madang to work who made a formal request to their retiring missionary Minister Rev. Robinson who visited them in 1966 on his way back to Australia. Rev. Robinson approached the then District Administrator of Madang (they were known that time as M.H.A Member of House of Assembly, Jason GARRETT an Australian) who took him and the Dobuans to the current location of Madang United Church now United Church Madang and allocated the portion of land now Section 42, Allotment 10 & 11 to build their Church.

World War II left a lot of war wrecks and bomb craters in the area however the men put their minds and hearts to work and cut down, dug up all the coconut trees, burned and buried them together with the wrecks in the craters created by the dropped bombs of WWII.

The Dobuans, although had their hearts in the right place were not carpenters by trade. They made a lot of errors and on more than one occasion they had to remove complete walls to adjust the wall linings to square up. In the midst of their frustrations they asked the LMS brothers from Kerema Compound who were carpenters by trade to help them erect their Church building. The group also brought in a Suau man from the Kwato Mission, nicknamed “Saina” who was a qualified carpenter with the Madang Contractors to work. Saina was able to put his expertise to good use and together with the Kerema’s, they helped their Dobuan brothers to erect the Church building which was completed and dedicated in 1969.

There were also a few brethrens from Rabaul and Kavieng who joined them shortly after. The pulpit was designed and built by a man from Abau District. Those who were married had their wives cook for the men as they stood together to see the completion of the Church building. There were also expatriates at that time who lived and worked in Madang who have immensely contributed towards the completion of the Church building.

Pic: Dobuans who started the initial church building in 1966, and the completed church in 1970.
PC: Tweedy Malagian.

Dobuans who started the initial church building in 1966, standing with the bike is Late Petuel Malagian.

MUC-1970. Late Papa Joseph Zale standing facing camera

https://photos.app.goo.gl/69tegvAxBoYa1mp37

Provisioning of Educational Content to Rural Schools in PNG using RACHEL

Provisioning of Educational Content to Rural Schools in PNG using RACHEL

By Picky Airi

A key statement under access to education in the Papua New Guinea Vision 2050 is that more improvement is required in terms of quality, efficiency and equity (Government of Papua New Guinea, 2009). The government made a commitment towards achieving the Global 2030 goals of education whereby it should provide relevant and quality education to every child (National Department of Education, 2016). This was in accordance with the Medium-Term Development Plan III 2018-2022, which identifies education as a priority for development and further to that, ICT was identified as an enabler to underpin many improvements in education.

This paper discusses the use of offline open educational resources as an alternative for provisioning of educational content in particular to rural schools in PNG. The Remote Area Hotspot for Education and Learning service is presented as a case study for such provisioning. The paper describes the opportunities and challenges of adopting RACHEL using a recent project as an example. The paper then proposes a follow-up survey on this project to establish empirical data to support the adoption of this technology for PNG schools. 

Read the paper here...

 

Honoring the Biblical Call of Motherhood

Sunday 12^th April, 2019

United Church Madang Sunday Service

Mother’s Day Service

Theme: Honoring the Biblical Call of Motherhood

A message adapted from John Piper’s “A Tribute to Ruth Piper”.  

Bible Reading: Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:10–17

I want to begin off by sharing with you 7 examples of women in the Bible who exceeded expectations.

Immediately we can think of women like Mary, Eve, Sarah, Miriam, Esther, Ruth, Naomi, Deborah, and Mary Magdalene. But there are others that have only a small appearance in the Bible, some as few as one verse. 

Room rates for various accomodations for those travelling to Madang

Here is a list of accommodation rates for those traveling to Madang (town vicinity) for leisure, attending a school event like graduation or any other business. This list is not exhaustive and is a work in progress meaning updated information will be put up as soon as they become available. This information is correct as of 28/08/2018.



You may also click here to view the entire file in Google sheet. 

Either click on the link above or copy and paste the text below into a browser.
(https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YWT2maxBKYl2qI-miNHJVFDUbGPCNsT8H0YLLmtMovs/edit?usp=sharing)

Disclaimer: I put this info here with no obligation whatsoever to the respective business. Infor is put here for public benefit, however prices are subject to change.

Drop me a comment if you have noticed a change in prices for any of this accommodation.

RACHEL-Pi custom build project

In draft | Still working on it.

Central Students Community Awareness to Kupiano Secondary School:  RACHEL trial

From the 14 to 15 November, the Central Students Association of DWU conducted a community awareness project at Kupiano Secondary School. Approximately 180km away from Port Moresby taking around 4-5 hours’ drive, the school is just within the vicinity of the Kupiano station in the Rigo-Abau district of Central Province.

The objective was to disseminate information about DWU and other tertiary institutions in Madang Province. Give talks on social issues our communities face and how these issues could be addressed. Furthermore, they planned as part of this community awareness to give something to the school. The idea was to begin with Kupiano this year 2018, and then do the same for other secondary schools around Central province.

The main problem however was funding to carry out this project. Despite a proposal and letter seeking funding from the Central provincial government, no funding was forthcoming. The students organized themselves and started to raise funds with the support from staff, students and families within DWU and the Madang community. This presented an opportunity for RACHEL to be trialed. In fact, RACHEL came about as an option because there wasn’t enough donated books received. The students than planned to introduce RACHEL and then give the few donated reading books to add to their existing library.

The next challenge was choosing the RACHEL server. For this project, we decided to trial the RACHEL-Pi. Funding was our biggest drawback so we had to choose between two options; purchasing the pre-built device from the WorldPossible online store or purchase the raspberry pi device online with accessories and do a custom-build. We chose the latter as it was an inexpensive option. This was going to be a pilot project.

 

What equipment/software is contained in this custom-built Rachel Pi server?

We decided to custom build the RACHEL-Pi (as it was an inexpensive option) using the following components.

Item	Qty	Cost
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ Rev 1.1 5v power adapter included.	1	K120.00 (A$48.99) Bought here on Ebay
Wi-Pi USB Wireless adapter	1	K40.00 (A$19.95)
64GB Micro-SD Card	1	K155.00 Bought at the local shop (Papindo)
Raspberry Pi clear case	1	K20.00 ($7.99)
58GB of educational resources[1]	N/A	Free

---

[1] Downloaded from here (http://rachelfriends.org/downloads/public_ftp/rachelpi_64EN/) with the help of DWU ICT. (Staff and students have download limits thus we asked ICT to help us).

Figure 4. The custom-built RACHEL-Pi components: Raspberry Pi 3 B+ with the Wi-Pi, 5v power adapter and 64GB microSD card.

Raspberry Pi hardware specifications: Raspberry Pi 3 B+: 1.4GHz 64-bit quad-core processor, dual-band w/LAN, Bluetooth 4.2/BLE, FastEthernet, PoE support (with separate PoE HAT)

The cost of purchasing the pre-built RACHEL-Pi is $169.00 (USD) which when converted to PGK amounts to K550.77 plus shipping totaled to around K800.

With our custom build RACHEL-Pi, it only cost less than K500 for this device with the accessories. The opportunity cost to this option is that given the limited processing power of the raspberry pi (to act as a server) used it has the capacity to allow at least between ten (10) to fifteen users to connect to it at any single time with either their own smartphone, tablet or laptop so. More users than this would result in slower response time from the device. Steps showing how to write the RACHEL-Pi image to the microSD card are in Appendix 1.

This is an inexpensive option if compared to the cost of purchasing at least ten secondhand desktop computers with monitor, mouse and keyboard. It is energy efficient and cost effective. An alternative and future plan is to purchase the RACHEL-Plus for the next school project.