Bonni: [00:00:00] Today on episode number one ninety nine of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Sierra Smith shares a student’s perspective.

Production Credit: [00:00:10] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Bonni: [00:00:18] Welcome to this episode of Teaching in Higher Ed. I’m Bonni Stachowiak and this is the space where we explore the art and science of being more effective at facilitating learning. We also share ways to improve our productivity approaches so we can have more peace in our lives and be even more present for our students.

Bonni: [00:00:46] Today’s guest is Sierra Smith. She is an undergraduate student at Vanguard University studying communication with an emphasis in Public Relations. Sierra is a senior who will be graduating a semester early in December of 2018.

Bonni: [00:01:01] Sierra is a commuter student who commutes over 30 miles each way to and from school. She attended her four years of high school in a collaborative 21st century learning environment.

Bonni: [00:01:14] She currently works for a startup business as the Marketing and Communications Manager and does a variety of side jobs. Side note, also for us, which you’ll hear about in just a minute. We are one of her many side jobs. She has a passion for learning and enjoys gaining new life experiences. Sierra, welcome to Teaching in Higher Ed.

Sierra: [00:01:35] Hi, I am happy to be here.

Bonni: [00:01:37] I feel like upfront we should disclose a couple of things. Feel free to add in your own. Sierra has been in one class of mine. She is not a major in the program that I teach in. But sometimes communication students come over and take a couple of my classes, so she’s been in one of my classes.

Bonni: [00:01:54] But we were talking… I feel like I know you better than other students I’ve had in just one class. We’ve stayed in touch. And then now, as you’ll hear about on today’s episode she’s been working on some undercover secret projects.

Sierra: [00:02:06] Yes. Ha ha.

Bonni: [00:02:07] And then also maybe one other thing just to mention real quick is that her sister also has been in a class of mine but her sister is no longer at our institution. She has since graduated and gone on to her professional work and also pursuing her graduate degree so we’re going to talk a little bit about her sister later, but she’s not here with us right now.

Sierra: [00:02:25] Yes.

Bonni: [00:02:26] Anything else we should disclose? Any conflicts of interest.

Sierra: [00:02:29] I think that is it for now, yeah.

Bonni: [00:02:30] Yes. So let’s talk a little bit. We have to go back in time now, Sierra. How is college different than what you imagined it might be when you were in high school?

Sierra: [00:02:41] I think that college actually is a lot more traditional than what I expected. So, I came from, as you said earlier, a 21st century collaborative learning environment and everything was very innovative there.

Sierra: [00:02:54] And when I got to college I had a lot of classes that were traditional in the sense of lecture, read the book, take an exam and that was it. And it wasn’t really anything very engaging.

Sierra: [00:03:05] I mean, I’ve had really good experiences also in a few classes but more traditional experiences than anything. So I think that was different than I expected for sure.

Bonni: [00:03:14] Yeah and I also think about when we think about traditional like that this kind of lecture approach has been going on since the medieval times and that wasn’t necessarily what you experienced in high school so just this disparity between, “Gosh I thought maybe some of that would continue on.”

Sierra: [00:03:31] Yeah and a lot less use of technology than I was used to in high school. I mean, we use technology in a lot of our classrooms but there have been a lot of classes where we don’t use technology and I thought that was really interesting.

Bonni: [00:03:44] One of the things I like to do on the podcast is to give people a picture of something and I wonder if you could give us a picture today of a class that really represents for you the best parts of what learning in college has to offer.

Sierra: [00:03:58] Yes I absolutely love a class that allows for natural interactions with other students. So not just… I think a lot of times professors try to get interaction with students by saying “discuss these questions” but it’s not very natural.

Sierra: [00:04:13] So in your class, for example, when we would do the Quizlet games, that is a really natural thing where the students get together. We are playing these games. We’re learning. We’re retaining the information, but we’re also naturally interacting with each other and getting to know each other. And I think that that is a great way to learn.

Sierra: [00:04:31] And I think that your “Choose Your Own Adventure” style is awesome because I think students now, we really enjoy having a say in what we learn and how we learn. And I think it gives people agency and control and what they’re learning. And then when we have that agency in what we’re learning we care more. And I think we retain that information more and then in the end we’re done and we’re proud of what we’ve learned. So I think that that is what represents the best parts of learning.

Bonni: [00:04:58] I’m glad to hear you say that about the Quizlet game [because] I have wondered… and it’s called Quizlet live. So you can make flashcards in Quizlet, anybody can- students can, the professor can.

Bonni: [00:05:10] But then if you have a group of at least six people then you can play a Quizlet live so you’d pull it up on your screen. The set of flashcards and you say, “I want to play Quizlet live with this,” and as long as a minimum number of people signed into that game then you can play it.

Bonni: [00:05:28] And one of the things I guess I’ve worried about sometimes is that I don’t always hear the conversations and I wonder like are people getting left out because everybody has a set of answers on their mobile phones.

Bonni: [00:05:43] But only one person in this group of two or three or four people only one of those people actually has the right answer. So it’s funny because you watch a class of people playing it. People do sit closer together, everyone’s leaning in. But then I wonder [are] there opportunities where people might be left out by groups. So I am glad to hear you say that.

Sierra: [00:06:00] Yeah, no I think that was something that really stuck out to me from that class and just getting to know the other students in my class better. And after doing that we would be like “hey do you want to study after this class?” Or “Oh, you really knew this concept really well. Let’s talk about it more I didn’t really understand it.” So I thought it was a great way to naturally get students interact with each other and interact with the content the class.

Bonni: [00:06:21] I was trying to remember how I incorporated choose your own adventure because I’ve tried- I’ve experimented with it for years now and I’m sure I still make mistakes now and try new things.

Bonni: [00:06:29] I think this was more where there was a series of development opportunities and you got to choose of a series of maybe I had three to five choices per…

Sierra: [00:06:39] That is correct. I think there were four or five assignments and then each one had three to five options that you could choose on how you wanted to complete that assignment.

Bonni: [00:06:47] In other classes. I know I fail in terms of what would be known as student-to-student interaction. And especially, I teach in a doctoral program and that’s an area of weakness where they end up relying on me so much to provide them with information. And I do try to help instill more of a sense of self-directed… I’m thinking maybe I need to start playing Quizlet live with them just to build you know some more of those relationships and a sense of community.

Sierra: [00:07:13] Yeah.

Bonni: [00:07:15] Well so we’ve heard a little bit about what a class looks like when it represents the best parts. Now on this one, I want to hear about a class that you took that really represents the worst of what learning, or not learning in this case, has to offer. And of course we’re not going to be mentioning anything too specific about it just to protect people’s confidentiality.

Sierra: [00:07:35] Yeah. I think a class where a professor comes in and they read off paragraphs from a powerpoint for 50 minutes and then that is it. I think those are the worst kinds of classes. Maybe it’s my learning style.

Sierra: [00:07:49] I think that most students do not really retain information very well and it’s frustrating because sometimes I feel like it’s very non-productive when a professor comes in and they lecture for 50 minutes from paragraphs off a PowerPoint because I could have done that at home

Sierra: [00:08:04] They could have sent me the PowerPoint and I could have read it or I could have just read the material in the book. And I think it’s not the best use of class time. I think that during class time we should be reiterating information that we already know so that we retain the information. So, I think that’s kind of the worst example.

Sierra: [00:08:20] And I really do not like when professors don’t use the learning management system. I think learning management systems are a great tool and it helps both the professor and the students be organized and kind of give clear guidelines as to what’s expected for the semester, along with the syllabus of course. Yeah… It’s frustrating when professors don’t use learning management systems.

Bonni: [00:08:42] What are sort of the core things that when they’re not there you see is like this is the biggest value that the LMS has? So when it’s not there I really miss this?

Sierra: [00:08:52] I think scheduling and just I understand… I’ve had professors that use the learning management system and they prefer that we turn in papers as hard copies rather than online and I understand that I just like having all of my classes in one place where I can visually see like what I have going on that week, what’s on my calendar. All of those sorts of things.

Sierra: [00:09:13] So if a professor doesn’t use a learning management system I have to take the extra time to create a calendar for myself, basically, where I have everything in one place.

Bonni: [00:09:23] Yeah it’s one of those things where even if it’s 75 percent there…

Sierra: [00:09:27] It’s better than nothing…

Bonni: [00:09:28] Then there are still 25 percent that’s missing. But you do have to fill in the gap and LMS’s will affect… Everyone I know of, you can create your own calendar item so you could replace then that fourth class if you will in the LMS but then you leave opportunities for mistakes or even the professor changes a date and you don’t catch it because it’s the calendar item that you made yourself and you have to remember to go change it.

Bonni: [00:09:53] So yeah, it’s definitely… The benefit of a learning management system is really lost when 100 percent of the people aren’t at least putting dates in there like when tests are and papers are due and all that.

Sierra: [00:10:03] Yeah. And I know a lot of professors are sometimes scared of using the learning management system because they’ve never done it before but I just recommend just getting your feet wet starting somewhere. You know… Getting it in there because it’s really helpful for students and I think that in the end it’s really helpful for professors also.

Bonni: [00:10:21] So we talked a little bit earlier that you’ve been working on some secret projects for us and I shared about the project. But just not your involvement in it and that is very shortly, very very shortly as people are listening to this, the first 200 episodes of Teaching in Higher Ed we’ll have transcripts that are available for all of them.

Bonni: [00:10:42] And this is something you’ve been working on… 10 months?

Sierra: [00:10:47] Yeah, a little under a year now.

Bonni: [00:10:49] It started out where you had some units that you needed that were just General Ed units and had asked if I could be your T.A. was a little bit weird because normally someone in a different discipline couldn’t even be a T.A. if you wanted to, but since it was General Ed – just any kind of elective you could have taken underwater basket weaving and that kind of stuff – we kind of made up our own class but it fell under that. I knew you were interested in marketing, in social media. And then as we’ll share about in a little while, you really have a heart for this kind of work, too – the transcripts

Bonni: [00:11:22] So, it was just fun to have you along for the adventure and you were so good at it that we not only had you for those units but ended up paying you over-and-above that to work and do those transcripts and so I’m so excited.

Bonni: [00:11:32] I did want to just mention that the first 200 episodes of transcripts are made possible by a generous contribution from the Teaching and Learning in Higher Education books series from West Virginia University Press.

Bonni: [00:11:47] And this is a series of books that’s edited by James M. Lang and it offers compact books from great writers who provide you with practical guidance that you need to help students learn and succeed. And so, in every couple, two three months we’ll be having one of the authors of a book from that series come and talk. And I’m just super excited about their support and really thank them.

Bonni: [00:12:09] And so here’s my question for you… We’re back to that portion of the show. You have listened to or you’ve read transcripts for more episodes than most of the Teaching in Higher Ed listeners ever have- unless some people do go all the way back to the beginning. But you’ve definitely had your share of it.

Bonni: [00:12:29] And you went all the way back to June of 2014 from the very beginning. If you had to narrow down what you wish professors would learn from listening to these podcasts to a single lesson- which I know is an impossible to ask. What would you want that lesson to be?

Sierra: [00:12:45] I think that the biggest lesson to be learned is that what you put into an experience is what you get out of it. And so, as professors, I think the more time and attention you put into teaching your classes and just working on becoming a better professor… I think that it’ll work out better for you as a professor and your students will really notice the care that you’re taking for the classes.

Bonni: [00:13:11] And one of the ways people can do that is also listening to all those podcasts that you listened to.

Sierra: [00:13:14] Yes. There are so many interesting things that I have learned through this podcast that I did not know. So, I think definitely go back and listen if you have the time.

Bonni: [00:13:25] Talk to us a little bit about your sister, Cassie.

Sierra: [00:13:27] My sister, Cassie. She is 23 years old. She graduated last year with her bachelor’s in accounting and she will be graduating this August with her master’s. We’re very excited for her.

Sierra: [00:13:37] She is also profoundly deaf, which literally means she can hear nothing and she received a Cochlear implant at the age of 3 on one ear. Now with technology, they’re able to do two ears on way younger children. But she has it on one ear.

Bonni: [00:13:53] And I know that we could spend an entire episode, if not multiple episodes on the topic but I know you had a chance to have some conversations with her since she’s not with us today

Bonni: [00:14:05] But like, what are some of the few low hanging fruits for how we as professors can do better than we’re doing now when we have someone in our class who is deaf or has some kind of hearing loss?

Sierra: [00:14:17] Yeah, well I talked to her about this actually this morning and she gave me a few really good pointers. So one is that when you’re speaking and lecturing, make sure to always face the students so that they can see your face.

Sierra: [00:14:29] She said that not all deaf students can read lips very well but body language is very important. So they can kind of puzzle together what’s going on in the class.

Sierra: [00:14:37] Most deaf students are also very visual, so if you have PowerPoints or if you’re writing on the board those things can go a long way for them because it’s again connecting the pieces of what you’re saying and what’s going on in the classroom.

Sierra: [00:14:50] And she said that it’s very difficult when a professor just lectures with nothing, which I think that’s difficult for everyone, especially a deaf student. So, if you have she said if you have PowerPoint slides or just your own personal lecture notes, if you could share those with the student that’s always a plus.

Sierra: [00:15:08] And then she also said that when a student asks a question, it’s really helpful if the professor repeats the question to the class before responding to the question- just so that it reiterates what is being asked and then they can clearly understand what the answer is and what exactly you are answering.

Bonni: [00:15:28] As you’re sharing these things, Sierra. I’m like grading myself of like “Yup. Yup… Oh, no.” You lost me on the repeating the question. Oh, I wish I would have known that before I had her in the class.

Bonni: [00:15:42] I had some students who I know, it was a student in a class at another university who was deaf. It was different though because she had translators with her.

Bonni: [00:15:55] And so I wouldn’t have to remember or even know about the repeating the question because the translators were doing that.

Sierra: [00:16:00] You knew they were going to get it.

Bonni: [00:16:00] Yeah, so I kind of got.. I didn’t, I wasn’t able to get as good of a grasp until meeting Cassie. And one of the things that is just wonderful is I know I made all kinds of mistakes with her. She taught me so much.

Bonni: [00:16:14] But that I was open to feedback and open to the spirit of how can I make her learning experience as good as it can be and really support her and her learning?

Bonni: [00:16:24] So even though I’m listening going “Oh, no. I probably didn’t do that very well for her.” In fact, we have another story, too, that… I suspect you’re probably too polite to share but in her class I distinctly remember that I would have them listened to Episode 1 of the Startup Podcast.

Bonni: [00:16:39] And so since I knew that she would need because she couldn’t read my lips. It’s a podcast, so we pulled it up on YouTube a lot of times they’ll have podcasts that are on YouTube and then use the captions that are in youtube and you and I both know they’re horrible.

Sierra: [00:16:58] They could be a lot better.

Bonni: [00:17:00] I guess they’ve made some improvements in their technology including crowdsourcing some of the captions but- or the making of the captions. But it still was pretty bad and it became just comical actually that class would get distracted a little bit because they were so bad you’d want to like watch for the next one

Sierra: [00:17:16] So you can catch the bad mistake.

Bonni: [00:17:18] Yeah I wish I could remember some of those. Speaking of bad though, on the transcripts for the episodes of Teaching in Higher Ed you found some doozies too that we won’t be sharing on the podcast.

Sierra: [00:17:30] I wanted to share too. My sister told me that her last piece of advice was just to be sensitive to your students hearing situation and not to point it out to the class unless you have spoken to the student before and asked them for their permission to share that.

Sierra: [00:17:47] My sister’s pretty confident about her hearing situation. She knows that that’s who she is and you know it’s just another thing but we know a lot of other people who aren’t as confident in that and they get embarrassed or upset by people acknowledging it.

Sierra: [00:18:01] So, I know sometimes it can be distracting when there is an interpreter or a captioner in the class but before saying “hey you might have noticed there is this random person in the class that is interpreting. We have a deaf student!”. Just making sure that you let that student know that you’re going to be sharing that with the class before you do so.

Bonni: [00:18:18] Yeah and talking about what the right, what their comfort level is with that

Sierra: [00:18:21] Yeah.

Bonni: [00:18:21] And how they would like to be- in fact, you mentioned something that Cassie often did in her classes in terms of even how she would present herself to the professor.

Sierra: [00:18:30] Yeah, so my sister we were talking this morning and she was telling me that she will make it a point to go up to her professor the first class meeting and just say “Hi, I’m Cassandra”. Just have a normal conversation with them.

Sierra: [00:18:42] And then the second class meeting is when she goes up to them and she lets them know “hey, I have a hearing loss. I just want to let you know I’m going to have a captioner” or or just whatever they need to know for the class. “Is there anything you need from me?”.

Sierra: [00:18:54] And she does that just to make sure that the first meeting, they understand that she can talk and she’s not this… She doesn’t have this issue I guess you could say. She can talk, she can understand what you’re saying. You don’t need to change anything you’re doing. But just to give them a heads up the second time around that she has a hearing loss

Bonni: [00:19:13] And sadly I know you said some people will slow their speed way down and over exaggerate and that really translates as condescending.

Sierra: [00:19:22] Yes it does. And I was talking to our other friend who’s also deaf and she was saying that sometimes she feels when she shares with a professor that she’s deaf that they think that she is not able to learn as quickly as other people and that’s not it at all. It’s just sometimes they’re missing little pieces of what is actually being said.

Sierra: [00:19:40] But they work just as hard, if not harder than other students in the class and it’s just making sure that they are not missing anything verbally that’s going on in the class.

Bonni: [00:19:50] One of the things I think is so important as just checking in with people regularly. I mean because we are going to make mistakes. I think for me, if I just try to be perfect then I won’t take the kinds of risks that I might want to take as a teacher.

Bonni: [00:20:03] So then just trying to build up the trust and the open lines of communication and going out of my way to do that and that’s what I did enjoy about having Cassie in the class because it was like, “Hey. I’m here. When I do make a mistake, I want to hear from you and I want you know I want to be involved in supporting you and your learning however I can.”

Bonni: [00:20:21] Well let’s talk a little bit more about the transcription project because of course, not only did you have an interest in working on this kind of work so that you could have something for your LinkedIn profile and for your resume because it’s a professional project and you can point to it. You know, you have evidence of a great deal of work but it also is near and dear to your heart. Oh so fun. And even I think you surprised me too because you had said…

Bonni: [00:20:47] I thought “OK, good. She she has a heart for this. This will make the podcast more accessible so it can get out there to more people. Yes she can get some marketing communication experience and professional experience.”

Bonni: [00:21:00] But then there was even more to it than that that I think you took away that totally surprised me. You want to talk a little bit about what that was like? You know, what were you- as you started going through them. You really would communicate back to me like you’re getting all kinds of things out of it.

Sierra: [00:21:13] Yeah. First of all it was a really special experience just because as I shared about my sister, she’s deaf in a lot of times things don’t have transcriptions and they don’t have subtitles or closed captioning and it’s really difficult for her so I’m just very excited to see how many different people are going to be able to benefit from these transcriptions.

Sierra: [00:21:32] But also just through… I have a passion for learning, as I said before, and I’ve always thought about maybe teaching and I’m still not really sure right now what I’m going to do.

Sierra: [00:21:42] But there have just been so many different things through out the podcasts that I’ve heard that just make me very passionate and I get excited because I hear these things and I’m like, “Yes, I would love to do that in a class one day!” So it’s been special for me.

Bonni: [00:21:57] You had been sharing with me at one point about being disappointed in a class. I’m pretty sure it was last semester but it doesn’t really matter when it was and it was in a particular discipline and I’m not going to say what discipline it is because I don’t want to be specific

Bonni: [00:22:10] But I laughed so hard because you were about to tackle an episode that was a really recent one and I was like, “You know, you better hold off on that particular episode,” because just seeing what’s possible out there…

Sierra: [00:22:24] Yes. And after listening to that episode I was even more frustrated than I was before because I was like, “Wow people can really do a lot with this subject, this field,” and that was not my experience, unfortunately. But you live and you learn.

Bonni: [00:22:40] Earlier today I was interviewing someone for the podcast and my lack of knowledge about this entire discipline just shone so brightly on the podcast and I was having flashbacks to professors and teachers in the area that I could have learned so much more and I don’t want to take you know zero responsibility for it.

Bonni: [00:22:58] But, when you see professors and teachers that can ignite our curiosity…

Sierra: [00:23:05] It can be so interesting.

Bonni: [00:23:07] Yes it is.

Sierra: [00:23:08] And it could be so exciting especially for people that aren’t in the discipline because they’re you know they don’t know these things. So yeah

Bonni: [00:23:16] From a technical standpoint, how did we create these transcripts? Did you just put on little headphones and write up every word.

Sierra: [00:23:22] [laughing] You know, just typing away typing away life away… No, we actually use a transcription service online. Am I allowed to [say the name]?

Bonni: [00:23:30] Mhm.

Sierra: [00:23:30] OK. So we use a transcription service called Trint and basically you upload the audio files and it transcribes it for you but there are, as we found, technology is not perfect. Even though we sometimes wish it was.

Sierra: [00:23:46] And so when you guys see the transcriptions it will read like a script. And so I would go in and script it out of who was talking so that you can visually see who’s talking.

Sierra: [00:23:56] And then, after that I would go through the actual podcast conversations and make any edits to the transcription itself and then we do a lot of editing after that to make sure they are hopefully as clear and accurate to what is actually being said in the podcast.

Bonni: [00:24:16] The other thing that you do is you highlight things that you’re not familiar with that you can’t just Google… It wasn’t like clear and I laughed so hard because depending on the guest, some people like Gardner Campbell is one of the episodes I can remember off the top of my head. That man is brilliant, he is absolutely brilliant. But I’ll be darned… In fact, I couldn’t even, I couldn’t Google some of the things he referenced, so I did it over twitter.

Sierra: [00:24:41] Yeah. And you have such a variety of guests. There’s a lot of different accents that are also hard to transcribe so it takes time. And I would always pull up Google and try to figure out what people were referencing or titles of things.

Bonni: [00:24:58] Oh yeah. And you’re very good at it; you’re very good at it. And usually if it gets to where you have to highlight it, I probably would go back to the person like “Who is this again? I’m not familiar with this name and we can’t find it,” or whatever.

Bonni: [00:25:11] So when the transcripts are live, people are going to go to teachinginhighered.com to whatever episode it is. They’ll see the transcripts that Sierra was just describing.

Bonni: [00:25:24] And then there also will be a PDF because when we started talking with or I should say even emailing out asking what people really wanted, that was really the two essential things they want something onscreen- and the onscreen not only helps make it accessible but it also makes the search engine optimization such that more people may be able to discover the show because they’re searching and now those web crawlers have crawled through all those transcripts…

Bonni: [00:25:47] And hopefully we can get more listeners for the show and then other people might want to download the PDF if they want to use it in a class. If they are using it for accessibility reasons, although screen readers could read the transcript on the page. I mean it depends on what somebody wants to do with it but there will be those two options for it.

Sierra: [00:26:06] Yeah. And it’s also helpful if you’re… I know a lot of people listen to podcasts on their commute- but if you have it in front of you kind of as notes, I think it’ll be helpful for that too.

Bonni: [00:26:16] As I’ve been going back, because you do the first run. Well, you do the run after Trint does it and then I come back. And I’m just like it’s a different way of taking in the information. And it’s it’s really fun

Bonni: [00:26:30] Some day and this is just for people listening. Someday I’d really love to also do – what [Katie] Linder does with her podcasts or at least the Research in Action podcast – is have a discussion guide available to you and that’s probably something I would need a team of volunteers to help me with.

Bonni: [00:26:48] That would be another huge project but that would be really fun to be able to have people- if it’s a faculty development effort they can listen to the podcast together and then and then have these discussion questions or discussion guides and that would be the sort of a fun next project… In five or ten years? [laughs]

Bonni: [00:27:04] All right. So as I mentioned people won’t have listened to as many episodes as you have in all likelihood, Sierra. What are a couple of episodes or guests that stood out to you as imperative that professors listen to and learn from and help make us more effective at facilitating learning?

Sierra: [00:27:21] I absolutely loved episode 110 with Robert Talbert and it was about self-regulated learning and the flipped classroom. I just felt that he really articulated himself well and articulated what self-regulated learning and the flipped classroom do so I would suggest that one.

Sierra: [00:27:40] I also enjoyed the episode… I think it was just you Bonni when you talked about your syllabus. I’m not sure if you had guests on that one or not but I enjoyed that one because I, being the maybe future professor one day, I save syllabi that I enjoy from classes that I’ve had in the past.

Sierra: [00:28:01] And so I just I really enjoyed that episode because you talked about how you build out your syllabus and…

Bonni: [00:28:06] I’m cracking up because I did not know I ever had an episode on my syllabus.

Sierra: [00:28:11] I very much remember that episode. I don’t remember which episode or what title it was.

Bonni: [00:28:18] I’ve got a blog post on 5 keys to an effective syllabus from 2010.

Sierra: [00:28:22] Oh wow.

Bonni: [00:28:23] But if you had ever asked me if I wrote a blog post about it…

Sierra: [00:28:26] You would say no.

Bonni: [00:28:27] I would say no and I’m sure if I looked at it it probably wouldn’t be that good. Well I’m definitely going to have to go search…

Sierra: [00:28:32] Get that in the show notes.

Bonni: [00:28:33] Fascinating. That’s what a good search, a good search is available but I’m not sure I named the episode well enough. Anyway we will figure it out. Not with everyone listening to us. We’ll figure it out.

Sierra: [00:28:44] Another one was on the undercover professor which I loved because I just think it’s awesome that professors can be vulnerable and kind of put themselves in a student’s perspective just to kind of see… You know, students have a lot going on also and just being cautious of that.

Bonni: [00:29:05] So this episode, for anyone who didn’t get a chance to listen to it is 106 and like Sierra said I would totally suggest that.

Sierra: [00:29:14] That one is awesome.

Bonni: [00:29:14] So his name is Mike Ross and he’s a professor at Northern Essex Community College and I sound like I know what I’m talking about and it’s just because I searched for it because I didn’t know – I didn’t want to know what episodes Sierra was going to mention so I wanted to be surprised.

Sierra: [00:29:26] This is all a surprise to her.

Bonni: [00:29:28] In my mind, it was like, “I think his name is Mike Ross but I’m not going to say it out loud if I’m remembering wrong,” but no it is Mike Ross.

Bonni: [00:29:34] I love the episode, too, cause he went undercover. He went back to school essentially and has just a whole different take as far as empathy and what it takes and it was awesome.

Sierra: [00:29:44] I think it gives great perspective. And even if you don’t do that, just learning from his experiences I think great.

Bonni: [00:29:51] The other thing that was so fun about his episode and it was less the core of it but it was like the dessert – was he runs a Friday night game club at his college and he had so many fun sounding games for us to try -it’s a board game group and they’re called the Bacon Board gamers

Bonni: [00:30:11] So we should all start a chapter in our own universities of the Bacon Board Gamers. Love it. Were there any more?

Sierra: [00:30:17] Those were the main ones I think that I really stuck out to me that I remembered.

Bonni: [00:30:23] Awesome. And of course, we’re not done yet. Although you’re close but we actually this semester have had help too so there’s an additional person that’s been on the team so you will not have listened to or read 100 percent. Although maybe who knows maybe you’ll do- actually might, huh?.

Sierra: [00:30:38] Maybe when I look over them… Yeah.

Bonni: [00:30:41] I take that back.

Sierra: [00:30:42] We’ve got to double and triple check just to make sure we give the best.

Bonni: [00:30:46] Yeah. Yeah I was going to mention about Trint, by the way. One thing that’s a speed-up I think it must have just changed because I don’t remember this early on.

Bonni: [00:30:55] If it doesn’t put a period where a sentence should have been and you’re going in and correcting it, you go put your cursor there you press period and automatically capitalizes the next sentence.

Sierra: [00:31:05] I changed that setting. I found it like halfway through. Yeah.

Bonni: [00:31:10] You are amazing. You’re amazing.

Bonni: [00:31:12] The other thing you did was put folders so there’s a whole workflow that we have where you look at it first and then you put it in my folder and then I look it over I put in the complete folder so I didn’t even know it had folders.

Sierra: [00:31:22] I love processes so…

Bonni: [00:31:24] Yes it’s awesome. You’ve done…

Bonni: [00:31:26] Streamlining things is nice.

Bonni: [00:31:27] You’ve also done some projects for my husband, Dave with his podcast Coaching for Leaders. You’ve done some of what would be called…

Sierra: [00:31:36] Survey analysis.

Bonni: [00:31:37] Yes, qualitative analysis or survey analysis and that’s been so much fun to use your strengths in those areas too so it’s been just so much fun working with you on all this.

Sierra: [00:31:45] After I had class with you I was like “we work really well together. Maybe we can do something else.”

Bonni: [00:31:50] Yes. I love that. Actually Andrew, who is our podcast editor, is a former student of more than ten years ago. He just reminded me the other day so it is so fun to meet such bright, curious, intelligent people and get to somehow keep working with them in some way.

Bonni: [00:32:05] My husband, Dave just met Sierra today when she came in, she is actually sitting here, we’re in the same room together which is not normal for the podcast.

Bonni: [00:32:12] He was so excited to meet you in person because it’s all just been. I don’t know if you [have met in person]…

Sierra: [00:32:15] Over the phone and email, yeah.

Bonni: [00:32:17] Yeah it’s fun to have him meet you.

Sierra: [00:32:19] And I’ve heard his podcast too so when I met him in person – it’s weird when you hear someone’s voice and you know their voice but then you see them in the flesh.

Bonni: [00:32:28] Yeah I’ve had people at conferences that hear my voice from like just the table over- which is kind of embarrassing. Apparently I was talking too loud – but they’ll be like, “I know your voice from somewhere. I can’t figure out where I can’t place it.”

Bonni: [00:32:39] In my head I’m thinking, “That’s probably what it was…” But I don’t want to..

Sierra: [00:32:43] You don’t want to be like, “Oh, do you listen to my podcast?”

Bonni: [00:32:48] Exactly. It is one of those funny things where…

Sierra: [00:32:49] “It’s me, THE Bonni Stachowiak.”

Bonni: [00:32:52] It’s me. It’s me. Don’t you know?  Actually they usually figure it out after I keep talking.

Bonni: [00:32:56] Well this is the point in the show where we each get to make recommendations and for the first time I am recommending a piece of software that actually is a sponsor for today’s episode and one of the things – this is new for us, it started as I mentioned with the transcripts project, the generous contribution from the Teaching and Learning in Higher Education books series

Bonni: [00:33:19] And when I was contacted by Screencast-O-Matic I decided you know what that is a product that I would recommend anyway. It is a product I had not used in years and went back to and thought, “Oh my gosh. You have done some amazing changes with this technology.” So it’s something I would have done anyway. It is nice to have support for the show so that we’re able to pay for Andrew’s, you know, coffee habit. I’m kidding. I actually don’t even know if he drinks coffee, but pay for some of the podcasts editing, the hosting, and other costs so we’re very excited about that.

Bonni: [00:33:50] But again it is something I would have recommended anyway. So Screencast-O-Matic is a screen-casting tool and you want to record video of something on your monitor on your screen. You pull it up and it’s just super easy to get started and press record.

Bonni: [00:34:06] You can toggle back and forth between your webcam so they can see your face or they can see whatever you’re recording whether it’s software your demoing or a PowerPoint slide you’re showing, keynote slide. And then it also has editing capabilities, too, that really put that production value in and allow you to cut the video down, add effects, add titles, I mean it is just really a very full featured application.

Bonni: [00:34:31] But at the same time, it doesn’t take that long to get started and get learned and it really- I wrote a post about what I look for in a good screen-casting application and I’ll put a link to that in the show notes so you can learn a little bit more about what criteria I use and why I think it’s a great option for people.

Bonni: [00:34:48] So that Screencast-O-Matic is my recommendation today. I’ve been using it a ton.

Sierra: [00:34:53] Yes. And I asked you recently for a screen recording service and you sent that to me and it worked great.

Bonni: [00:35:00] It really does and the free plan, the free plan lets you record…

Sierra: [00:35:02] That’s funny that you’re recommending it on the episode that I’m on.

Bonni: [00:35:05] Surprise! 15 minutes you can record for free on their free version. It doesn’t have the editing capabilities but it will get you started.

Sierra: [00:35:12] It’s helpful.

Bonni: [00:35:14] It’ll get you a little test and then if you want a little bit more of the capabilities then you can do that. Very reasonable pricing, too, so you can sign up for that.

Sierra: [00:35:20] I actually used Screencast-O-Matic to show a professor how to use the learning management system this semester, so that’s really funny.

Bonni: [00:35:31] That’s awesome. That’s really cool. I had forgotten that you’d asked me. Yeah that’s right because it was weird. It happened all of a sudden, I just got boom boom – a whole bunch of people started asking me and I was like, “I have the perfect solution.”

Sierra: [00:35:42] I was like you know… Bonni, she would know.

Bonni: [00:35:47] What do you have to recommend for us today?

Sierra: [00:35:48] So I. My recommendation is a video. As I mentioned before, I went to a 21st century collaborative learning environment. And so this video is on the school’s website and the school is Crossroads Christian Schools and basically the goal of the 21st century learning environment is to develop a poised articulate confident individual who is committed to giving back to the communities they belong to.

Sierra: [00:36:15] There is a whole video, it’s about three minutes and 30 seconds and it just gives the explanation of kind of the environment that I was in and I think that there is a lot to learn from- even though it’s a high school, for higher education.

Bonni: [00:36:30] There’s so much.

Sierra: [00:36:31] Yeah

Bonni: [00:36:31] There’s so much crossover and there should be so much so there could be even so much more we could be molding and shaping between. I mean I always laugh like it’s two months between when you finish your senior school of high school and go into college- for some people, not everybody but I mean just what we can learn from each other.

Bonni: [00:36:48] I’m excited to see it.

Sierra: [00:36:50] Yeah it’s a great video and I think it explains very well the 21st century learning environment and what aspects can be pulled from it.

Bonni: [00:36:59] Sierra, I want to thank you so much for your time today and I mean your time these last 10 months and it’s just been an absolute joy getting to have you come on the show.

Bonni: [00:37:07] We were joking about, it’s embarrassing, but you’re the first student who’s been on the podcast. So I hope the first of many because I do think you have such a good perspective and we need to have more voices from students. Thank you for being the first.

Sierra: [00:37:21] Yes, thank you for having me.

Bonni: [00:37:22] It shouldn’t have been since episode 199 but you know who’s counting besides you and me trying to finish all this. Well thank you all for listening again thanks to Sierra Smith for joining me on today’s episode.

Bonni: [00:37:37] If you have yet to subscribe to the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast and you’re listening to this off your computer, your life can be so much better than that. Go to your phone or tablet. Find the podcast app that’s probably already there and you don’t even realize it and hit the subscribe button

Bonni: [00:37:53] And some of your friends aren’t listening because they think listening to podcasts is hard. Pick up your friend’s phone, with their permission of course, and hit that subscribe button to show them how easy it is to get these weekly episodes coming into their queue and getting to learn from people like Sierra, from other people in other disciplines that might inspire you and also people that have a lot in common with you so take a listen and get your friends listening too. Thanks again for listening. We’ll see you next time.

Sierra: [00:38:18] Bye

Teaching in Higher Ed transcripts are created using a combination of an automated transcription service and human beings. This text likely will not represent the precise, word-for-word conversation that was had. The accuracy of the transcripts will vary. The authoritative record of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcasts is contained in the audio file.