Each month, I hold one VoiceThread-sponsored webinar and one online office hour in support of effective teaching and learning with VoiceThread throughout the higher education community.  This blog post shares details of my next webinar, as well as an exciting change I’m making to my online office hours.  Starting this month, I’ll be using Google+ Hangouts!

Higher Ed Webinar

• Watch Learning Bloom: Understanding, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating with VoiceThread

• Register here (free!):  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/662817034

This webinar will feature the teaching innovations of Vicki Phillips, General Education Coordinator and English faculty at Rasmussen College.  Vicki will share her own holistic VoiceThread teaching integration plan that scaffolds the use of VoiceThread to support all levels of Bloom’s taxonomy of the cognitive learning domain.   Specifically, Vicki will demonstrate how she uses VoiceThread in her literature and developmental English classes to:

• Transform students from information consumers into content creators. Vicki’s students create a research-based VoiceThread with a written script in lieu of writing a paper. 
• Develop concise, just-in-time grammar modules to support her own developmental English learners. Links to these resources are shared to support all students across the region. 
• Foster online discussions that lead to strengthened relationships between students in F2F classes and provide opportunities for enhanced reflection.

Hangout with Me in Google+ and Learn to Teach with VoiceThread

• August “Teaching with VoiceThread Hangout” will be held on Tuesday, August 14th at 3pm PDT/ 6pm EDT.

This month, in the spirit of innovation and experimentation, I am shifting my online office hour concept to Google+ Hangouts.  If you are unfamiliar with Hangouts, you can learn more about what they are here and it is my hope that you will consider this an opportunity to try something new and learn about about VoiceThread — two great objectives!  

Essentially, each month I will schedule a one-hour “Teaching with VoiceThread” Hangout.  The day/time of the Hangout will be announced here on my blog, on Google+, and on Twitter (follow me @brocansky) and on the VoiceThread webinars page.  

To receive an invitation to this Hangout when it begins, all you need to do is go to my Google+ profile page and add me to your Circles. You can do this right now by clicking this link and then clicking on the “Add to Circles” button at the top of the page.  This process does require you to have a Google account (which you already have if you have a gmail and/or YouTube account).

When I initiate the Hangout at the scheduled time, you will receive an invitation in your Google+ feed.  Just click on the “Join Hangout” link and you should get in just fine. If you are using a browser other than Chrome, you will likely need to install a plug-in your first time.  Users without a webcam are able to participate with text chat while still being able to view the video presentations/demos on their screen.

I will be using the “Hangouts on Air” feature which means the Hangout itself will be limited to ten actively participating contributors (first come first serve so get there early!).  After the first ten seats are filled, you will take an “audience” seat which means you will be able to view the live stream.

If this all seems complicated, give it a try.  I promise, it’s really not so bad.  And, trust me, I’m learning too! You just might like it and see lots of dazzling opportunities for teaching and learning!

Have a question?  Leave a comment here and I’d be happy to answer it.