I’m an Experimenter: Gitanjali’s submission

A response to the I’m an Experimenter! Activity
created by Gitanjali Shanbhag (@gshanbhag)

Number of views: 237

Q1. Which three experimenter activities did you choose to complete and why? Include the links to your Activity Bank responses.

I chose:

  • H5P to create a Quiz because my institute allows H5P plugins in our LMS and I had never tried this out. This was my opportunity to try it out and create something in H5P so I can get more comfortable in using the plugin on my LMS and creating assessments for my students. https://bank.ecampusontario.ca/response/activity-in-h5p/
  • Surveying (using Mentimeter) to create some anonymous polls and short answer questions. I deliver workshops to a group of people and we ask participants to share some personal information in these workshops, for example, “how comfortable are you in talking about mental health with your employees?” If people aren’t comfortable then they wouldn’t want to reveal this to other participants. This is why I think using anonymous polls is a good way for me to get honest answers without putting my participants in the spot. https://bank.ecampusontario.ca/response/surveying-menti/
  • GIPHY to edit photos. I usually interact with my students using Announcements in LMS and from time to time I like to post funny videos (e.g., bloopers of me recording the lecture) and photos for them. I have always wondered about creating GIFs using MS Paint but I never did it. I tried this tool to see if it made editing photos easier and it certainly did. https://bank.ecampusontario.ca/response/funny-gif-for-students/

Q2. Identify and explain three overall lessons learned from experimenting with these three activities. How might you use these activities going forward in your teaching practice?

Overall lessons learned (i) While looking at the different tools provided in the module, I realised that a lot of them are available, for free, through my institute. (ii) The importance of using interactive assessments to gain  students’ buy-in (iii) The importance of being able to access assessments using a phone/tablet – not all students were able to get a personal laptop to study/take quizzes and therefore I need to ensure that they are able to do so using a smartphone. Going forward I will design quizzes using h5p. My hope is to create some flashcards using h5p as well so students can study these before the quizzes. I will also use mentimeter to get anonymous feedback from my students regarding the course, assessments, or any other data I need where I want students to be honest without feeling the pressure of their instructor knowing who they are. Lastly, I will continue to use GIPHY as my primary way of creating funny photos/videos for my students.

Q3. You were asked to complete at least one experimenter activity on a tablet or a smartphone.

  • Identify the activity completed and on what type of mobile device?
  • Identify and explain the advantages and challenges of using this technology tool on a mobile device.
  • Comment on how you might plan for an upcoming assignment to be completed on a tablet or a smartphone.
  • Explain the steps you might take in making access to these devices available to all students.

I created the GIF using GIPHY on my iPhone. I found the platform quite easy to use. I would say since its editing photos, it was as easy as using Instagram. The biggest advantage of using GIPHY on my phone was that the GIPHY app is easy and user-friendly. There were a few challenges but they were mostly related to the photo I wanted to use. I was able to find the photo I wanted to use on Unsplash on my computer, I then transferred it to my phone and used GIPHY on my phone. Its really challenging to find openly licensed images using a phone since you sometimes need to use various websites to find the right photo. I am thinking of asking students to create gif’s of how they’re feeling as they enter a new week of classes using GIPHY and by finding openly licensed images via Unsplash or Pixel or Google Images. This will be a fun task for them to complete while also giving me a temperature check of how people are feeling at the beginning of the week. Students can use their mobile phones to share their gif’s using MS Teams and also to create the gif’s using GIPHY.

Q4. Using a mobile device, camera, or screencasting software highlighted in the Online lecture toolkit to create a short 2-3 minute video of yourself illustrating how, when designing learning experiences in the future, you will use the technologies, ideas, formats, and/or approaches that you experimented with in this module.

  • Include an example of how you would incorporate this new knowledge into a lesson plan. Get as creative as you wish!
  • Upload your video to YouTube , Vimeo , or any other video hosting site that can create a public link to your video (or keep it private/unlisted if you like).
  • Include the link for your video in your reflection document.

Here is my video: https://youtu.be/l37u6-q9SDA

Example for "I’m an Experimenter: Gitanjali’s submission":
https://youtu.be/l37u6-q9SDA