Welcome! Getting Started

Thank you for joining our Digital Pedagogy FLC! We have so much expertise in our community of faculty; I am excited to work together on the problems of teaching and learning.

Before we get started, take a deep breath. We are teaching in *gestures wildly* unprecedented times. As someone who has taught online for at least 15 years, I will be the first to say that what we’re doing now is not exactly that. Typically, my students would choose to be online if they took an online class with me. No one chose this. I do, however, see this as an opportunity to think deeply about digital pedagogy, about learning, about access and equity.

This FLC is intentionally designed as an invitation for all of us to sit in the identity of a learner, which I would imagine is not too far of a stretch for us. At times, this may feel uncomfortable as we try out ideas, structures, and practices that are new. We won’t always know what we’re doing. We may need trust and love as we move through new ideas. I’m hoping we can try our best not to stress when we can’t get something to work or if an idea challenges long held beliefs about learning. We will all endeavor to help. Hoping we carve out some joy, and ultimately, design educational spaces we want to live in.

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Getting Started. Before we meet on Feb 10, I invite you to get situated in a few digital spaces and watch a short (5 minute) talk. It looks like a lot, but I think it will take less than 30 minutes.

Platforms: 

• Writing together: Join our Currents Community. We’ll use Currents as a space to share ideas about teaching and learning. Instructions below.
  • We’ll also write an introduction to our community and reflect on teaching in the now times before we meet Feb 10.

• Reading together: Join Perusall. We’ll use Perusall as a space to comment on readings together. Instructions below.

One thing to watch (5 minutes):

• Watch: I also invite you to watch this 5-minute Ignite talk before we meet on Feb 10:
  
  Consider: what are the indicators in your system that tell you how your class is going? How are the structures of your class enabling participation in your discipline: what opportunities do students have to try on what it means to be someone in your field (an historian, a chemist, a geographer, a journalist, a film scholar)?

I think this will take 20 minutes if you include writing an introduction. If you get stuck joining something just send me an email: kjaxon@csuchico.edu. Happy to help, of course!

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Instructions for Joining Platforms

How to join our Currents Community:

IMPORTANT: Currents is part of our Google Suite of applications available to us at Chico State. You’ll need to be logged into your Chico State google drive to join Currents: Currents is only open to people in the Chico State domain. If you use Currents with students, they will not need a separate login; they can use their Chico State credentials. If you are logged in with another gmail, then you may need to use another browser or log off that gmail in order to log in to Chico State’s google apps. Quick walkthrough:

• Log in to your Chico State google here: http://www.csuchico.edu/google
• Click on “Google Drive Login”

• Log in with your Chico State credentials
• Once logged in, click on our Currents Community Link here <—
• You should see a page that looks something like this:

• Look for Accept/Join button on the left and join.

Trouble shooting: If for some reason you do not see the community, and instead, the link goes to a start page/Business account sign-up for Currents, it might be that your browser is still recognizing another/different gmail account (even though you think you’ve logged in with Chico State). Some easy fixes for this:

• Try a different browser (like Firefox instead of Chrome, or Safari, etc).
• Or, restart your computer so it clears another gmail login and try again.
• Or, open a new browser window in incognito mode and log in with Chico State credentials.

Let me know if that doesn’t work: kjaxon@csuchico.edu. Don’t stress. I’ll help. 😉 And thank you!

*NOTE: You can set your preferences for receiving updates from Currents by clicking on the three small dots in the upper left corner. You can tell Currents not to send you an email every time someone posts. Here is a 20 sec video to show you how to set notifications.

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Once you’ve joined, we’ll write introductions and a semester update:

Once you’ve joined our Currents Community, create a new post by clicking on the colorful “+” button in the lower right corner. (You will only see this “+” if you are a member of our Currents Community and you are logged in.) It would be great if we could all write an introduction to our group before we meet on Feb 10:

• Tell us about yourself, how long you’ve taught, what you love about your discipline or why you hope students join your discipline. Who are students invited to become in your classes?
• Then, give us a reflection on the semester so far (or the fall semester): what seems to be working well and what is more challenging in your teaching? What is most challenging about moving from face to face to a fully digital space? Is anything working much better digitally than it did face to face?

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How to join Perusall:

• • • Go to perusall.com, click Login, and then either log in using your Facebook, Twitter, or Google account, or create an account using your email address and password.
    • Select I am a student and enter our course code JAXON-ZET2C.
    • That’s it for now: we’ll use Perusall to comment on readings together.

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In a nutshell:

• Join Currents Community
  • Once joined, write introduction and tell us how the semester is going.
• Join Perusall (we’ll use for shared reading)
• Watch Ignite talk above.
• Bookmark this website as a bonus. 😉

Please reach out for any support with joining our digital spaces. Truly happy to help. kjaxon@csuchico.edu