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Deepening Engagement in Digital Distance Education

Deepening Engagement in Digital Distance Education. The Gifted Online Experience Mary St George The Gifted Education Centre New Zealand mail4mary@xtra.co.nz. GO History. Creative Commons Image, Jake von Slatt, 2007, Flickr via Wikimedia. GO History. Running for 9 years.

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Deepening Engagement in Digital Distance Education

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  1. Deepening Engagement in Digital Distance Education The Gifted Online Experience Mary St George The Gifted Education Centre New Zealand mail4mary@xtra.co.nz

  2. GO History Creative Commons Image, Jake von Slatt, 2007, Flickr via Wikimedia

  3. GO History • Running for 9 years. • For rural or isolated gifted children, most of whom we have not met. • Middle and senior primary school age group. • Started with non-interactive content pages, e-mail work submission, and text chat. • Initially most students were on dial-up.

  4. GO History Two previous teachers. Ms Anna • made GO happen. Ms Debbie • a significant romance with an IT guy. • improved software platform. • Ultranet – discussion boards, student pages and internal messages. • Parachat – text and emoticons

  5. Enter Me! • Two years ago. • Prior experience with teaching gifted children face-to-face. • Web-savvy. • GO-naïve!

  6. The Chatroom Teacher : Deep and meaningful question …? Student 1: Hmmm Student 2: Hmmm Student 3: H Student 3: m Student 3: m Student 4: What ???

  7. Analysis is Only Screen-Deep • Lessons too long. • Shorten, use audio. • Site too complex. • Screenshots, video-capture, links, “pruning”. • Work too scant. • Chide, praise and worry (all as digitally as possible).

  8. Close Encounter • Unplanned meeting. • The least engaged child. • Marked improvement in attitude, behaviour and work output. • Need to make relationship with teacher more real to child became very apparent!

  9. If Students are Strangers,Where to From Here?

  10. Analysis Beyond the Screen

  11. Key Relationships • How were relationships working to support engaged children? • Who should we have a relationship with besides the child? • Which students did not feel like strangers, and why? • What feels real to a child far, far away?

  12. Parents • Our most engaged students had great parental input. • Parent chat gave other parents permission to be very involved, and to learn more about us. • Employers or people from work placements may have similar influence at tertiary level.

  13. Portfolios • Sharing work once optional, now compulsory. • Children more present to each other online. • Interests and personalities beginning to show. • Comments feature - mostly positive.

  14. Preferences and Passions • We all know who “the Blender Boys” are. • Increasing encouragement to develop expertise in certain media or subject areas. • Children’s expertise acknowledged. • Peer support facilitated.

  15. Skype • Voice chat is after school, optional and supervised by parents. • Higher order thinking “just happens” – voice is invitational! • Positive flow-on in text chat and submitted work. • Informal social contact between students is easier.

  16. Other Meeting Software • DimDim has free and paid versions. View documents simultaneously. Use free version alongside Skype if everyone needs sound. • FuzeMeeting works with Skype. • WiZiQ, Adobe Connect, Webex, GoToMeeting. • Sound quality always an issue, worse with screen sharing.

  17. Giving Practical ICT Instructions • Screen shots help, but are not engaging for all. • Jing screen capture more popular – not easily editable in free version. • Put screen shots into slideshows, Movie Maker, animated GIFs. • Screen shots in PDFs to share via DimDim, and discuss in real time.

  18. Sound Bytes • Audacity. • Two options – Listen and More Info. • Reduces overwhelming blocks of text, more engaging for some. • Models a way work can be presented for the reluctant writer. • Time consuming.

  19. My Wonderful Students • I still wouldn’t recognise most of them in the street. • I do feel I know them better. • They are still strangers to the extent that I marvel that they work for me at all. • Their patience and flexibility in trying out new things is a credit to them and an encouragement to me.

  20. Contact http://ultranet.giftededucation.org.nz Mary St George. Ph: 07 849 4842. mary-on-skype. mail4mary@xtra.co.nz or The Gifted Education Centre Head Office 09 845 4176

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