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Master's Work

Online Course Activity Break #5: Combining Mindfulness with a Lesson in Video SEO

February 24, 2020 by Erica Hargreave 6 Comments

Here is the fifth instalment of my ongoing series on creating a healthy balance between screentime and time being present in the real world in the online courses I teach. In an attempt at encouraging offline breaks, I am putting reminders into each Unit of my BCIT Course, BCST 1073: Building Your Digital Media Presence, to take a break from the computer and get up to stretch, dance, meditate …etc. I will be sharing these Activity Breaks with all of you here, in case you are thinking of doing something similar. Feel free to copy and modify these for your own online courses, if so desired.

This activity break is designed to also provide students with an example of how they can get their YouTube Channels and YouTube Videos working with their websites to build audience and help with Search Engine Optimization, as we wrap up our Unit on Video SEO.

Activity Break #5: Mindfulness On the Go

As you’ve just submitted your first video as a part of this course, I thought I’d share an example of how Lori has included video she’s made into a blog post, while at the same time giving you a bit of a mindfulness break and a healthy reminder to unplug for a bit, giving yourself a brain break.

These first two mindfulness exercises, Lori created as a part of this blog post on Roamancing, On the Go Mindfulness Activities:

If you look at the descriptions on the videos, you will see that they both link to Lori’s Mindfulness On the Go post on Roamancing – leading new viewers to the site.  On Roamancing, having video in the blog post, makes the post more dynamic and keeps viewers on the site longer as they watch the videos. It also allows viewers to click on the link in the video to our YouTube Channel, if they wish to discover more of our videos.

If you have links to your own or other people’s activity breaks in online courses, I’d love to see and hear about them. Tell us about them in the comments below.

In case you missed it, here are Activity Break #1, #2, #3, and #4:

  • Online Learning Activity Break #1: Git Up Challenge
  • Online Learning Activity Break #2 : Full Body Shadow Puppetry
  • Online Course Activity Break #3 : Office Chair Dancing
  • Online Course Activity Break #4 : Breath and Body Meditation

Filed Under: Activities, Blog, EdTech, Master's Work, Online Activity Break, OTESSA Tagged With: activity break, lesson plan, online teaching, Open Educational Resource, screen time, screentime

Online Course Activity Break #4 : Breath and Body Meditation

November 7, 2019 by Erica Hargreave 3 Comments

Here is the fourth instalment of my ongoing series on creating a healthy balance between screentime and time being present in the real world in the online courses I teach. In an attempt at encouraging offline breaks, I am putting reminders into each Unit of my BCIT Course, BCST 1073: Building Your Digital Media Presence, to take a break from the computer and get up to stretch, dance, meditate …etc. I will be sharing these Activity Breaks with all of you here, in case you are thinking of doing something similar. Feel free to copy and modify these for your own online courses, if so desired.

Activity Break #4: Breath and Body Meditation

Cornelia and I meditating in a tree.

For this Unit’s Activity Break, as you begin to think about a video you’d like to share on YouTube as a part of your Video Creation Assignment, I thought I’d share a video screentime break from one of my past student’s Cornelia Krikke. When Cornelia was taking this course, it was to better build her story in the digital space, as a healing coach who helps people connect with their creativity and improve their well being in nature. One of the digital spaces that really resonates with her in this storytelling is the creation of online video.

Here is a video that she has created on her YouTube Channel to help people to take a break in their day to focus on breath and body:

Breath and Body Meditations like this one really help me with taking computer breaks in my day to keep my headaches and pain in check post my car accidents. They are also useful to calm down and relax the brain, so that when you return to work, you feel like a more relaxed and creative version of yourself.

You can checkout more videos on Cornelia’s Channel here: https://youtube.com/channel/UC7DhiE5zbEv0A2BbGPz2-tA

If you have links to your own or other people’s activity breaks in online courses, I’d love to see and hear about them. Tell us about them in the comments below.

In case you missed it, here are Activity Break #1, #2, and #3:

  • Online Learning Activity Break #1: Git Up Challenge
  • Online Learning Activity Break #2 : Full Body Shadow Puppetry
  • Online Course Activity Break #3 : Office Chair Dancing

Filed Under: Activities, Blog, EdTech, Master's Work, Online Activity Break, OTESSA Tagged With: activity break, lesson plan, online teaching, Open Educational Resource, screen time, screentime

Online Course Activity Break #3 : Office Chair Dancing

October 25, 2019 by Erica Hargreave 4 Comments

Here is the third instalment of my ongoing series on creating a healthy balance between screentime and time being present in the real world in the online courses I teach. In an attempt at encouraging offline breaks, I am putting reminders into each Unit this term of my BCIT Course, BCST 1073: Building Your Digital Media Presence, to take a break from the computer and get up to stretch, dance, meditate …etc. I will be sharing these Activity Breaks with all of you here, in case you are thinking of doing something similar. Feel free to copy and modify these for your own online courses, if so desired.

Activity Break #3: Office Chair Dancing

Uptown Funk Office Chair Dance
From 4 Funky Agents’ Uptown Funk Synchronized Chair Dance.

With this Unit being on search engine optimization, I thought I’d build this Unit’s Activity Break purely based on the top listings under the search term of ‘Office Chair Dance’ on Google and YouTube.

Fittingly with Halloween approaching, here is the top listed link on Google:

And as I entered ‘Office Chair Dance’ into a YouTube search, here are the top 4 listed videos.  Take a look at the titles, meta descriptions, and tags for a hint at what is helping to boost them to the top of the search engine rankings.

It wasn’t long before I started to clue into the fact that I’d stumbled upon the Office Chair Dance Olympics.

So get your bodies moving in those chairs of yours, as your trainers are here …

It would be wrong to have a dance party without some Uptown Funk …

And last but not least, my personal favourite, which reminds me of some parties from the early days of social tech in Vancouver …

Okay, now your turn, anyone who feels so inclined to share a video with us in this Discussion of you doing an Office Chair Dance, would totally make my day!

If you have links to your own or other people’s activity breaks in online courses, I’d love to see and hear about them. Tell us about them in the comments below.

In case you missed it, here are Activity Break #1 and #2:

  • Online Learning Activity Break #1: Git Up Challenge
  • Online Learning Activity Break #2 : Full Body Shadow Puppetry

Filed Under: Activities, Blog, EdTech, Master's Work, Online Activity Break, OTESSA Tagged With: activity break, lesson plan, online teaching, Open Educational Resource, screen time, screentime

Online Course Activity Break #2 : Full Body Shadow Puppetry

October 19, 2019 by Erica Hargreave 3 Comments

Here is the second instalment of my ongoing series on creating a healthy balance between screentime and time being present in the real world in the online courses I teach. In an attempt at encouraging offline breaks, I am putting reminders into each Unit this term of my BCIT Course, BCST 1073: Building Your Digital Media Presence, to take a break from the computer and get up to stretch, dance, meditate …etc. I will be sharing these Activity Breaks with all of you here, in case you are thinking of doing something similar. Feel free to copy and modify these for your own online courses, if so desired.

Activity Break #2: Full Body Shadow Puppetry

A fun and playful reminder from my creative partner, Lori Yearwood, to take a break from your screentime, get up and stretch. What better way to do that this Halloween season, then by creating Shadow Monsters with some full body Shadow Puppetry!

If you feel so inspired to photograph or film a shadow monster or shadow puppetry of your own, then be sure to share it within this discussion, so the rest of us can enjoy it too!

If you have links to your own or other people’s activity breaks in online courses, I’d love to see and hear about them. Tell us about them in the comments below.

In case you missed it, here is my Online Learning Activity Break #1: Git Up Challenge.

Filed Under: Activities, Blog, EdTech, Master's Work, Online Activity Break, OTESSA Tagged With: activity break, lesson plan, online teaching, Open Educational Resource, screen time, screentime

Online Course Activity Break #1 : Git Up Challenge

September 24, 2019 by Erica Hargreave 4 Comments

I love teaching my online courses, and I love the freedom that taking online courses affords me as a student. It means that I don’t have to give up other work or life matters to teach and to study, and I can accept opportunities in other parts of the world while teaching and studying.

Thanks to studying online, I was able to partake in the OER19 conference in Galway, Ireland this past Spring.

However, like with most things in life there are ups and downs to teaching and learning online. One area that I have been questioning for sometime now, is finding a healthy balance between screentime and time being present in the real world. Exploring that balance was the focus of my research in Master of Educational Technology Course ETEC 500. As a result, I have decided to start to put reminders into each of my Units this term in my BCIT Course, BCST 1073: Building Your Digital Media Presence, to take a break from the computer and get up to stretch, dance, meditate …etc. I plan to share many of these Activity Breaks with all of you here, in case you are thinking of doing something similar. Feel free to copy and modify these for your own online courses, if so desired.

Learning to disconnect and be present in the natural world from Cornelia Krikke.

Here is the first activity break that I’ve shared with my students:

Activity Break #1: Git Up Challenge

Time to get up, swing your arms and dance! (Photo by Paulette Wooten, via UnSplash.)

After dealing with a concussion in my own online studies, and spending some time researching healthy screen-time / real world balance in one of my Master’s courses, I’ve decided to add some reminders for activity breaks into our course.

I thought, I’d start with a little dance break and the Git Up Challenge, as it is also a fun example of an interactive media craze in action.

From a couple of Canadians that have taken up the challenge …

In case you need to learn the steps …

An example of the Git Up Challenge being used to educate, and for social good …

And a bit of social media thinking with examples of the craze spreading across Tik Tok …

I made this a discussion, just in case anyone feels so inspired to partake in the challenge, and wishes to share their video with us!

Oh, and if you have a suggestion for future Activity Breaks in the course, feel free to share your ideas in the discussion.

If you have links to your own or other people’s activity breaks in online courses, I’d love to see and hear about them. Tell us about them in the comments below.

Filed Under: Activities, Blog, EdTech, Master's Work, Online Activity Break, Opinions, OTESSA Tagged With: activity break, lesson plan, online teaching, Open Educational Resource, screen time, screentime

Storytelling with Qualitative Research

August 26, 2019 by Erica Hargreave 2 Comments

Recently, I have been diving into the worlds of qualitative and mixed methods research in my ETEC 500 Course for my Master of Educational Technology. I’ve really enjoyed this Unit of the course, as it involves one of my greatest passions – storytelling. In the mix, I have discovered a new-to-me researcher, speaker, and storyteller, whose words and advice make me smile – Dr. John W Creswell.

Dr. Creswell talks about the importance of story in sharing qualitative research, as well as combining numbers and qualitative research to tell a story – the latter of which is called mixed methods research. I have to say I love the stories that he tells, and while the importance of collecting and sharing people’s stories for our collective knowledge, and combining those with numbers is nothing new to documentarians, anthropologists, and ethnographers to name a few – Dr. Creswell has helped to champion their importance in certain research fields, like educational research. He’s written a few books topic, of which I suspect I will be diving into soon. In case you are interested, here is the book on Mixed Methods Research mentioned in the talk I linked to above, and below are a few more recent publications of his:

  • 30 Essential Skills for the Qualitative Researcher
  • Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research
  • Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research
  • Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design
  • Research Design

In this Unit’s course work, the question of “What do qualitative researchers do that quantitative researchers do not? What research skills do qualitative researchers have to have that quantitative researchers do not?” were posed. This made me smile, as I believe that many of the skills that allow qualitative researchers to conduct their research well are similar to those skills that allow documentarians, anthropologists, and ethnographers to do their jobs well; and they are many of the skills that I love and highly value. These are skills that Dr. John W Creswell explores in his book, 30 Essential Skills for the Qualitative Researcher.

Loving my time with Hwiemtun, as we connect over an interview, during the filming of Season 1 of Naturally Ours : Naturally Salt Spring.

In my own experience as a documentary storyteller, many of the skills that are important to both qualitative research and documentary storytelling have to do with setting people at ease, making people feel safe, and creating a sense of trust. While some of these skills may be beneficial to a quantitive researcher, the quantitative researcher tends to keep more of a distance and a disconnect between themselves and their study subjects in their research, so as not to allow their personal bias to impact the data that they collect. Whereas, in qualitative research, creating connection between yourself – the researcher and the interview subject is of vital importance in creating a safe and trusted atmosphere for the interview subject to share. These are all things that Dr. Leslie Curry explores in her series of videos on the Fundamentals of Qualitative Research for the Yale University Global Health Leadership Institute, like in this video where Dr. Curry talks about interview skills in qualitative research:

Key to qualitative research is researching and creating a list of interview questions in advance of an interview that are targeted to answer your research question and delve deeper into the area of research you are exploring. It is important with these questions not to allow your own bias to slip in, leading your interview subjects in their response. While qualitative researchers will create a list of standard questions for their interview subjects, it can also be helpful to research your individual interview subject in advance and to have some questions that would lend to the area of qualitative inquiry that are specific to the interview subject. This contrasts quantitative research, where it is important that researchers ensure that the questions and conditions for each research subject in a particular study group are similar.

Researching the interview subject also helps the interviewer in qualitative research to better think on their feet, and respond to unexpected opportunities within the interview, based on ideas being shared by the interview subject. It is for this reason, that it is important for the interviewer to be an active listener in the interview and be present in the moment. This is also where experience is a huge asset. If your interviewer is familiar with the subject matter and can come up with questions in the moment, it is possible to extract a much fuller and richer interview from the interview subject. It is for this reason why in the world of documentary filmmaking, we should not be selecting hosts based on their youth or subjective beauty, but rather on their experience and ability to interview documentary subjects in a richer, more informed manner.

Being taken on a journey in the magic canoe, by Briony Penn as she speaks about her mentor, Cecil Paul, in an interview.

While it helps to be able to think on your feet and ask questions in the moment in an interview, that can be a double edged sword, as you do need to stay on track when interviewing a subject in conducting qualitative research, both out of respect for the interview subject’s time and to ensure you get the information that you need for your study. For me, this is my biggest challenge as an interviewer, and why when we are shooting our documentaries, it is great to work with a Director like Kelly Conlin, that can keep me from straying too far from the subject, and can catch any holes we miss in the interview. It is possible to work in a team in qualitative research when conducting interviews too, but this is also where having your pre-established questions with you, will help. It is also important to remember that in some circumstances, you need to allow the interview subject to speak in whichever direction they wish. This is often the case when the interview subject is First Nations, as it would be considered rude to interrupt to steer them back to the pre-scripted question. In such cases, you just need to schedule for extra time, and let the interview unfold as it will. Often in such cases, you end up with much richer stories than you ever envisioned.

Enjoying being in the moment in this interview with Cornelia J Krikke, as she talks about healing and sparking creativity through connecting with nature.

In processing your interviews, you as the qualitative researcher become a storyteller. Like the documentary filmmaker, you need to figure out how best to layout the research from all of the stories people have shared with you (and the numbers, in the case of mixed methods research) in a way that captures your reader’s attention and takes them on a journey. This is one of the many things that I love about this form of research. For me, it is fun, and amazing in what you discover when you take an interest and give people the space to share their stories.

I recently have had the opportunity to conduct some qualitative research with Mary McDonald into Sustainable Funding Models Around Storytelling Projects with Educational Application. We are sharing these to StoryToGo, in the form of Case Studies. You can begin to explore with the case studies that Mary McDonald developed around the interviews that she conducted, and stay tuned for more case studies from the interviews Lori Yearwood and I conducted in September.

If you’ve been doing some qualitative research, I’d love to learn more about it, and any tips that you might have in conducting qualitative research. Tell me about it / them in the comments below.


Works Cited

Creswell, J. W. (2015). 30 essential skills for the qualitative researcher. Sage Publications.

Creswell, J. W. (2013, March 1). Telling a Complete Story with Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5e7kVzMIfs

Curry, L. (2015, June 23). Fundamentals of Qualitative Research Methods: Interviews (Module 3). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PhcglOGFg8

Hargreave, E., & Yearwood, L. (2018). Naturally Ours, the Web Series. [online] Roamancing. Available at: https://stareable.com/series/view/naturally-ours-rediscovering-canadas-parks

Filed Under: Blog, ETEC 500, Master's Work, Research, Stories Tagged With: documentary storytelling, educational research, ETEC 500, mixed methods research

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