Josh LePree has a vision for teaching that transcends the classroom: "[I want] to create a seamless environment聽for class [so that] ... it seems like there's no break between [class and homework]," says LePree. 聽He is a Sociology PhD student at 精品SM在线影片 and has been teaching at the college level for four years now.聽 Students nominated LePree聽for an ASSETT Outstanding Teaching with Technology Award last year, and聽one聽student wrote: "Technology use was a large part of our classroom and homework discussions in [LePree]'s Race and Ethnicity class."
The Sociology Department awarded LePree for his vision聽with聽the Special Topics in Sociology GPTI Fellowship for the Spring 2014 semester. 聽LePree designed and taught the Spring 2014 Sociological Perspectives on Migration: Gender, Race and the State course (SOCY 2091). 聽He created a class Twitter page and instructed students to hashtag it聽in a new聽tweet each week. 聽Students needed to hashtag both the class and the week of class聽(see the screenshot from the class Twitter page, below) to get participation credit for that week. 聽That way, LePree聽could just go to the Twitter page #SOCY2091聽#WK2 to grade聽students' participation on the class Twitter page for the week! 聽If students were聽concerned about keeping personal and class Twitter Handles (aliases) separate, LePree encouraged them to create new handles just for class聽with their names and the course name--just like he did (@LePreeSOCY).
To make the out-of-class Twitter threads聽even more relevant to class discussion, LePree would regularly bring in聽students' tweets of articles and videos that related to class topics. 聽Consequently, one student wrote in her nomination of LePree聽for the ASSETT Teaching with Technology Award that posting original discussion questions on the class Twitter page for homework made her聽feel less anonymous in class:
Twitter was used for [LePree] and his students to share pertinent videos, ideas, and discussion questions to which the entire class had access. 聽I as a student thought that the use of Twitter was an ingenious way to include everyone's thoughts since sometimes larger classes can make students feel 'invisible.' ...聽I thought that [LePree]'s use of Twitter was also really effective because he used it to facilitate in-class discussions with Tweets that students had previously posted.
At the same time that LePree uses聽Twitter to聽bridge homework and class discussion, he also embeds his classes' Twitter feeds onto the聽D2L course pages. 聽That way, students' latest tweets聽greet them when they login to the course home page on D2L, and, "They can see what other students are tweeting about," says LePree.
LePree viewed聽incorporating Twitter into class discussion and homework as聽a trial-and-error process: "I didn't know how it would work out," he admits. 聽LePree asks students for feedback halfway through the semester:聽"'Do you have any ideas beyond what we've tried? 聽What's working and what's not?'" 聽LePree listens to students' feedback and gives credit to them聽for the success:聽鈥淪tudents are the authority with technology," he says.
Voicethread Lends聽Authenticity to聽Student-to-Student Feedback聽
LePree didn't stop with class discussion and homework--he has also innovated students' final presentation formats, assigning聽聽as the medium. 聽Students still聽create聽PowerPoint presentations, but they also聽upload them to Voicethread. 聽Then, Voicethread allows students to record themselves speaking over聽slides to create what LePree calls a,聽"narrated slideshow." 聽This format could be considered much less intimidating with聽more room for smoothing out presentation bumps than would be standing and making a presentation live in front of the class.
Since Voicethread was new to many聽students, LePree invited OIT Academic Technology Consultant Courtney Fell to visit the class and train students in using it. 聽Furthermore, he pairs students with聽'feedback partners.' 聽Students record comments on Voicethread for their feedback partners to help improve one another's presentations along the way. 聽LePree says that recording voiceover commentary is more personal than is sending typed comments back and forth. 聽"I was blown away by their Voicethread discussions," he says. 聽"The gratification that I get as an instructor was a huge payoff. 聽I couldn't stop honoring them聽in class."
As part of his fellowship, LePree recently led a brownbag lunch discussion for other Sociology graduate students about "Designing Your Own Course Curriculum." 聽He looks forward to continuing his career in teaching at the university level. 聽"I appreciate my students," says LePree. 聽"I'll never go backwards."
