Useful Tools – Áine's E-Learning Blog

Twitter: A Professional Learning Network

Twitter is a news and social networking application, used by people to communicate to their followers through the medium of images, videos, links, or short messages called Tweets.

Anyone aged 13+ can use Twitter to socialise, to follow people or topics of interest, to market a product, or to promote an event. Politicians use Twitter to promote their campaign. Musicians may use it to publicise a tour. Many people use Twitter to increase their knowledge in a particular area or, as an instructional designer I interviewed recently said, as “a professional learning network”.

Twitter allows users to send out short messages called Tweets. Tweets can contain up to 280 characters, which encourages the user to be succinct in their writing. Users can share videos, articles, up to four photos, and even other people’s Tweets (a retweet). Users can follow other people on Twitter and they are able to like or comment on other people’s tweets. Hashtags are often added to Tweets to connect the tweet with a particular topic. It is possible to message people privately on Twitter also. These message are called direct messages or DMs.

Prior to studying my Masters in Technical Communication and E-Learning, I used Twitter infrequently. In terms of personal use, I would search Twitter for things that were trending or to see live news updates, about an election for example. I am also in charge of a Twitter handle for a local theatre company. I use this profile to advertise upcoming productions and share any important theatre-related news.

I now have a third Twitter handle, which I am using as an educational tool. I find it invaluable in helping to keep up to date with trends and practices in the field of instructional design and technical writing. It has enabled me to tap into the experiences of expert instructional designers and to connect with others working in the field, both nationally and internationally. Twitter has encouraged me to seek out informative articles and to find blogs that are beneficial to my assignments.

Potential Benefits of Twitter

The information on Twitter is ‘hot off the press’, so to speak. You can see live updates and opinions from instructional designers and technical writers.
Hashtags allow you to search for topics of interest. For example, if you are looking for advice or inspiration on how best to present your e-portfolio, you can search #eportfolio, and the results will show advice, articles, and samples of e-portfolios.
It enables the user to promote their own work and opinions, and to influence their followers. Users can do this by sharing a blog or article they have written.
The 280 character limit is one of Twitter’s strong points. It encourages users to get their point across without any waffle. There is a skill to writing a clear, concise, engaging tweet.
Users can connect with others working in their field and engage in conversation about topics of interest.

Potential Challenges of Twitter

Although it is easy to search for topics on Twitter, it is not so easy to filter out the noise. Twitter can get overloaded with information and it can be difficult to sieve through it to find relevant material. For example, when searching for #eportfolios, you will get helpful results but they will be mixed in with a lot of tweets that are not relevant to your particular needs.
Although I favour the character restriction, it can, on occasion, make it very difficult to present your message completely. Users overcome this issue by commenting underneath their original tweet with the rest of their message, but this is not ideal either. Users may not see the follow-up messages and misinterpret the original tweet.

This blog, from edublogger, teaches Twitter novices everything they need to know about Twitter. https://www.theedublogger.com/twitter/

Adobe Dreamweaver: A Beginner’s Perspective

I am currently developing a digital resource, which will teach the user the basic regional and physical geography of Ireland. As a primary teacher, I know what it is like to have taught these topics before, and I am familiar with the difficulty children have in retaining this information. I enjoyed the design phase of this process, creating my storyboard on PowerPoint. The development phase has been a whole new experience for me as I was unfamiliar with Adobe Dreamweaver.

Adobe Dreamweaver is a web design tool. Dreamweaver allows the user to visualise their website while they are coding. It is possible to create a site without any coding, however it would be difficult to incorporate precise design details into a site without some knowledge of HTML.

Dreamweaver has ‘Code View’ which allows the user to just view the code, or ‘Split View’ which enables the user to see both the website as it is being designed and the code. There is also a ‘Live View’ which allows the user to see what the site will look like on its own. Dreamweaver opens with a panel on the right of the screen. This panel has a Files tab, in which the user can manage files and graphics. There is a Creative Cloud Libraries tab where the user can access stock graphics or files from other Adobe applications. The Insert tab allows the user to insert features, such as graphics, paragraphs, headings, or hyperlinks. The CSS Designer tab enables the user to change the appearance of the different features.

This is my first time using Dreamweaver, or, in fact, any website development tool. I have to admit that it is a steep learning curve. It has required a lot of trial-and-error and triggered a range of emotions! I carried out the beginner lab sheets on how to use Dreamweaver quite easily. However, I found Dreamweaver so different to any tool I had used before, that it was difficult to remember the basic steps to get started each time I opened the software. When I began to recreate my storyboard, I had difficulty with minor things, such as aligning images to my preferred location.

I consider multiple viewing options within Dreamweaver to be potentially beneficial and challenging at the same time. It is useful to be able to choose which view you prefer. For example, an experienced coder may prefer to just work with code and not split their view with the website. I, personally, need to see the website to see what changes are being made when I change the coding. The Design view and Live view present a challenge. Firstly, I have found that when I check in to see the Live view, the formatting can be different to the Design view. Secondly, it is not very obvious which view is in use. I have found this frustrating when I have been working on certain features, as the tools change between design view and live view.

One benefit of Dreamweaver is that when the user selects a feature on their design, the corresponding code is highlighted. This makes it easier to copy certain features and adjust their settings. It also helps coding beginners to understand and use code.

For now, the jury is still out with regard to Dreamweaver. I would still consider myself a Dreamweaver novice and I hope to continue to climb its steep learning curve and gain confidence in using the software.

Weebly: Website Design Made Easy

Weebly is a free website builder. Anyone can use Weebly to create a commercial or personal website, an online store, an e-portfolio, or a blog. It is an accessible tool that requires the user to have only basic computer skills.

Key Features:

The Build tab allows the user to click and drag items such as titles, images, and text boxes to their preferred location on their page.

Elements that can be clicked and dragged onto the user’s web page.

The Pages tab allows the user to add pages to their website. It also enables the user to rearrange the order in which the pages appear and to create subpages.

The Themes tab includes a variety of pre-formatted website styles and layouts. Themes can be used when the user does not want to build the website from scratch.

The Apps tab provides an easy way to connect the user’s website to relevant applications, whether they are social media related or to boost website traffic and sales.

The Setting tab allows the user to change the website name, and add metadata and editors, as well as manage apps and blogs (if the website has a blog).

My Experience with Weebly

I have used this tool before to add to my school’s website, and I am using it again to create an e-portfolio which will showcase my work in the field of e-learning and technical communication. I haven chosen Weebly for this project as it offers visually-appealing themes, and I find I can create exactly what I want in an uncomplicated way. I can reformat the page, add a variety of media, and, most importantly, choose the web page title I want.

Pros

Usability: Without any prior training, anyone can use Weebly to build an impressive looking site.
There are a vast array of themes available for all kinds of websites.
Features, such as text, images, pages, and titles, can by dragged to where ever the user wishes.
Weebly allows the user to create responsive sites.
It is free to use.

Cons

Weebly is free to use as long as the site name ends with .weebly.com. This may not suit all users and some may need to upgrade to a paid plan.
There is no ‘save’ button on Weebly. Instead, the user must click ‘publish’ when they want to save the changes made. This may take from the Weebly’s usability as users are more accustomed to ‘save’ buttons. The absence of ‘save’ may lead them to believe that the site saves automatically. In addition, users may not want their site to be published until they are fully finished building the site.
Weebly has no ‘undo’ button. Again, this may cause difficulty for some users.

How to Use Otter Voice Notes

Otter Voice Notes is a free online tool that can record and transcribe speech. It can be used to record, transcribe, and store interviews or conversations, and share these recordings with others.

Otter has been an extremely useful tool to me recently as I conducted an interview that lasted 1 hour and 9 minutes, and needed to transcribe the recording. In less than 30 minutes, Otter had done the transcription for me with relatively good accuracy.

As well as being able to record on Otter Voice Notes, it is possible to upload a recording to Otter and it will transcribe the recording. I recorded the interview on my mobile phone and then uploaded it to Otter. The instructions will describe how to do this.

Go to https://otter.ai/login.
Click the blue button on the bottom left that says, ‘Get started now, it’s free’.

3. Click ‘Sign up with Google’.

4. Select your Google account.

This is the Welcome page that appears when you have logged in.

5. Click ‘Go to the App’.

This page shows the conversations that you have recorded, or uploaded, and the conversations that have been shared with you.

6. Click ‘Import audio/video’.

7. Click ‘Choose files’.

8. Browse to and select the file you wish to upload.

9. Click ‘Done’.

The file will upload to Otter Voice Notes.

Otter starts to transcribe the conversation immediately. This process may take a while. It took my interview, which was over an hour long, 20 to 30 minutes to process. Ensure that the computer does not go to sleep during this time.

The conversation will then appear as shown.

10. Click the options icon (three dots) at the top right of the page.

11. Select ‘Export text’.

12. Select your preferred file format.

This will save the transcription on to your device.

Pros and Cons of Otter Voice Notes

Otter is a fantastic, free resource to have if transcribing large volumes of recorded information. It is efficient and easy to use, and it allows the user to listen to the recording while they edit any errors. It is also an advantage to be able to download the transcription on to your laptop. Additionally, it includes time intervals in the transcription. This enables the user to find certain sections of the recording with ease.

One aspect of the App that irritated me was that when it was processing the conversation, it did not indicate how far along it was in the process. As a new user, I wasn’t even sure was it working until the transcription eventually popped up on the screen. A progress bar would really help the user in this scenario.

PowerPoint: An Underrated Tool

When I started my Masters in Technical Communication and E-Learning, I expected to learn a lot about various software and digital tools, and I anticipated that my basic skills in Microsoft Office would be irrelevant. I was right about the first but, fortunately, wrong about the second.

This blog post will explore Microsoft PowerPoint, its features, my personal experience with the software and its potential benefits and challenges.

PowerPoint is a presentation software programme that can be used in business or education. It can present information through text, graphics, images, videos, and animations.

PowerPoint enables the user to create slideshows of information. It has many of the same features as Microsoft word. However, PowerPoint sets up your presentation in slides instead of pages.

The user can select a blank slide or use one of PowerPoint’s designs or templates.

It is easy to add, delete, copy, or move slides. Just like in Word, the user can add text, upload images, create graphics using the shapes tool, and present data in the form of flow charts or graphs. It is also possible to add videos from your own files or from the internet.

Animations and transitions are features that Word does not have and, if used properly, can add greatly to a presentation.

I used PowerPoint a lot in my teaching. It is an invaluable resource for teaching vocabulary or new poems in Irish. Teachers are expected to teach Irish without using any English. I endeavoured to abide by this rule as I could see the value in immersing the children in the language. In order to minimise my use of English, I would make the lesson as visual as possible using PowerPoint. I would have images representing the new vocabulary on a number of slides and I would create games in the presentation to help the children to remember the new words.

PowerPoint enhanced the way I taught songs and poetry. I would find images to represent each line in a poem, and present them in the correct order on a PowerPoint presentation with the text underneath the image. I would read the poem to the children and for the most part the visuals would help them to understand the meaning. As the presentation progressed the children would be reading the poem. Further along in the presentation, I would delete words here and there and the children would be able to fill in the blanks as they read the poem. Eventually the text would no longer appear and the children would be able to recite a full poem just by looking at the pictures. PowerPoint would make this achievable in one lesson. See the example below.

I am still using PowerPoint in my MA for storyboarding. As part of a module, we must design a digital resource. I am in the planning phase of this assignment and PowerPoint is allowing me to create a clear overview of my digital resource. I find that I can easily create the same look and feel in all my slides.

In my opinion, the benefits of PowerPoint are the ability to move around slides and to copy and reuse slides. In addition, if the user does not want to move through their presentation in a linear way, they can create hyperlinks from one slide to another one. For example, if there is something mentioned on slide 2 that is further explained on slide 6, a hyperlink can be set up on slide 2 that will send the user to slide 6. Another hyperlink can be added to slide 6 that brings the user back to slide 2. This allows for the design of a more complex presentation.

People often misuse PowerPoint. Instead of using it to present visuals and sum up the main points to support their narrative, users often overload slides with all of the information they are presenting.

I think PowerPoint is an underrated resource and that its full potential is not exploited enough by users.

A Working Relationship Built on Emojis

Over the past few days, I have been looking at the communication challenges identified by Flammia et al. (2016), and cannot help but reflect on the communication styles on display in our own virtual collaboration project.

Flammia et al. (2016) describe four categories of communication styles and their challenges:

Direct/ Indirect Communication Styles: Speakers with an indirect communication style do not express themselves explicitly and avoid bluntness. They focus on not upsetting the group. I think this reflects the mentality of a lot of Irish people. In my experience, we are concerned that stating things too bluntly or directly may be perceived as rudeness. To use a common Irish saying, we do not want “to put anyone out”; Translation: we do not want to upset or put any undue pressure on anyone. This results in a communication style fraught with ambiguity, which may be understandable to Irish people, but confusing to other nationalities, even native English speakers. However, from my point of view, the Irish faction of our team have been living up to the name of technical communicators by being as direct (yet polite) as possible. The chat groups have been clear, with the occasional clarification needed now and then.
Elaborate/ Exact/ Succinct Communication Styles: Flammia et al. (2016) define this style as a continuum, with ‘elaborate’ and ‘succinct’ on opposite ends, and ‘exact’ situated in between the two. The terms are self-explanatory: an elaborate communication style is long-winded in nature with the use of ornate language, and a succinct communication style uses the minimum words necessary. As I reflect on our Slack chat groups, I would identify the team’s communication style as being mostly ‘exact’. The Irish group sometimes appears to sway to the more elaborate side of exact but this may be due to the fact that we outnumber the other groups, or have not progressed on to the translation phase of the process. Our position on the continuum may alter as the project progresses on to other stages, where some participants will become more involved, and possibly more vocal, than others.
Instrumental/Affective Communication Styles: As the project manager for this assignment, I have strived to use an instrumental communication style at all times. An instrumental style is specific and conveys a message as clearly as possible. During meetings, I have attempted to have a well-defined agenda and ensure that I make my point understandable to the whole team. This communication style is very effective in this forum as it has led to our success in delegating tasks, organising a schedule, and providing constructive feedback.
Personal/Contextual Communication Styles: In a personal communication style, the speaker places emphasis on himself/herself. In a contextual communication style, the emphasis is on the group. In the latter, the speaker uses ‘we’ instead of ‘I’. I would not have thought about these communication styles before this week and I cannot say, as of yet, which bracket the members of our team fall into. However, so far the team has been working harmoniously, looking out for one another, and giving words of encouragement where necessary. This may indicate that we are employing a contextual communication style. In other words, the team is thinking of the group as a whole and not emphasising themselves over anyone else.

Non-Verbal Communication

Flammia et al. (2016) emphasise the importance of non-verbal communication. They point out that the inability to communicate non-verbally with a virtual team may interfere with overall communication. My virtual team are communicating through chat groups on slack. It is difficult to convey the correct tone or emotion in a written message, particularly when most of the group have never even met face-to-face. We are not familiar with our colleagues’ personalities, and yet we are striving to build up a positive, friendly working relationship. To help convey the tone and emotion behind our messages, quite a few of us have started using emojis. We don’t overuse them but they have proven to be useful in lightening the tone or conveying when we are joking about something. It may not seem like a very professional approach, and it probably would not go down well in the working world. However, it has definitely helped build a good balance of work and play. In fact, I was looking at this blog post by Someone Somewhere:

https://zedie.wordpress.com/2018/07/17/what-your-emojis-say-about-you/

This blog discusses how psychologists are investigating the effects of emoji use in communication. They have found that emojis enable non-verbal communication and add to the clarity of a message. Our virtual team group chats are the living proof of these findings.

References:

Flammia, M., Cleary, Y. and Slattery, D. (2016) Virtual teams in higher education, Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

My First Experience with a Team Collaboration Tool

Slack

My virtual collaboration team has decided to use Slack as our main tool for communication and planning.

Purpose of Slack

On a basic level, Slack is a messaging app or website for teams. It is used in workplaces and colleges to enable teams to communicate with one another, and share documents, while they work on a task or project. This communication can take the form of a forum-like discussion with the whole group or a one-on-one chat between individuals.

Key Features

Everything you need in Slack is accessible in the purple menu bar located on the left-hand side of the screen.

Search bar: To find a certain channel, application, or team member.
Channels: Set up to discuss different topics. Channels appear as a chat thread. When setting up a channel, the user can invite the whole team to the channel or just those who need to be involved in that topic.
Direct Messaging: To contact team members individually or to discuss tasks that do not involve the rest of the team.
Slackbot: If a user has a query about Slack, they can ask the slackbot and it responds instantly with a solution.
Applications: Applications such as Skype, Google Drive, or Trello can be added to the team’s Slack account to enrich communication and co-operation (See image below)

Slack enables a team to work across a number of apps.

My Personal Experience

I am a part of a team of nine people, living across three time zones, who, for the most part, have never met each other before. Yet, with the help of Slack, we have been able to volunteer for roles, agree on frequency of communication, decide on the technologies to be used in the project, and hold meetings. All of this was achieved without meeting face-to-face, without spending a penny, and without arousing too much confusion or frustration.

The team have set up a number of channels to discuss different items. For example, one channel is called meeting times. This channel is only used to discuss times that suit to meet and to post the times of future meetings. This is useful because team members can access the meeting times easily and important details do not get lost in long streams of conversation.

Two team members are taking on the role of researchers. They have set up a channel to discuss and share their findings. They will be the main users of this channel. However, the rest of the team can access it to keep up to date with their progress and to stay informed.

We have also availed of the option to add the Google Drive App to our team account. This allows us to upload documents as they are updated, thus keeping everyone abreast of the team’s progress.

Potential Benefits

I think the strength of Slack is being able to set up different channels for different topics of conversation. Most of us can relate to being part of a large chat group, on Whatsapp or Facebook, where the important points of information, e.g. times and dates, get lost among the chatter of participants. The channels feature enables participants to stay on the topic of a particular channel, while still having fun and casual conversation in another channel. It means that it is not all work and no play.

Additionally, I have found Slack to be very intuitive. I had not used it before this experience and I did not follow instructions or watch a YouTube tutorial in order to familiarise myself with the app. I simply joined the group and learned as I went. The interface is self-explanatory with a simple, user-friendly layout.

Potential Challenges

As with all text-based communications, messages or comments can be misinterpreted or misunderstood. As participants cannot hear the tone of voice being used in the comments, it is a challenge to ascertain how people are feeling, or know when people are being serious or light-hearted. So far we have not experienced this challenge but the team are striving to be as clear as possible in our writing. It has been a positive challenge that will, I’m sure, allow our writing skills to flourish.

Slack does not allow teams to screen share, which would be a very useful feature when working on a joint document.

Overall, I will use Slack again for collaboration projects and I would definitely recommend it to others.

Welcome

As this is my first post, I will introduce myself and what this blog will be about.

All About Me

I trained as a primary school teacher and worked in primary schools in Limerick, Ireland for the last six years. Last year, I decided to pursue my love for planning, resource making, and communication of complex topics, by applying for a Masters in Technical Communication and E-Learning in the University of Limerick. So here I am, one third of the way through the masters and starting a blog on my experience of e-learning and technical communication.

This semester promises a range of exciting challenges in the field of e-learning and technical communication:

– a virtual collaboration project (lots more on this to come)

– the creation of a digital resource

– the compilation of my e-portfolio

– an interview with a Tech-comm or e-learning professional

– a CCM project

– workshops on Dreamweaver, HTML, and Articulate.

Virtual Collaboration Project

I engaged in group work a lot in my undergraduate degree. I had a mix of negative experiences (groups too big, poor co-operation, unclear roles) and positive experiences (established a good working relationship, all team members giving an equal input). However, a virtual collaboration project is a whole new area for me. This project involves students from three different universities in three different countries (Ireland, France and the U.S.) collaborating on a project. My only previous experience of group work has been with people I was familiar with and we collaborated in person for the most part. I am looking forward to this assignment as I feel it is relevant to the work that I would expect to be involved in when I am qualified. It also gives me the opportunity to interact with students of the same subject from other countries.

There has been a lot of discussion about the best medium to communicate and collaborate with our team mates. I anticipate learning a lot through this process as I have already heard fellow students mention a number of tools with which I am unfamiliar, e.g., Slack, Trello, Base Camp.

If you have any other suggestions, or experience with these websites (either positive or negative), please comment below.