I can't hear you!

Over the 2018-2019 school year, I was a part of a team of colleagues who designed, implemented and facilitated a year long professional learning unit (PLU) for administrators and educators with administrative certificates. The focus was on the newly released Digital Literacy and Computer Science (DLCS) standards and what they look like when taught in K-12 classrooms. The purpose of the PLU was based around these statements:

Educating the 21st century student requires a change in mindset and practice from all stakeholders. Educators need to be fluent users of digital tools to engage, instruct, and enhance student learning. As leaders of the school, it is important for administrators to stay abreast of current technologies, which may include potential roadblocks that prevent the integration of digital literacy and computer science throughout their school.

We followed the 4 steps for “Selecting Appropriate Technologies for Online Instruction” as discussed by Simonson, Smaldino and Zvacek (2015) when designing the sessions (p.98). We determined the technology available for the instruction.  We used Adobe Connect for video-conferencing for all six sessions. The sessions were designed for a synchronous format; however, there were times that participants were not able to attend and we used the record feature for them to view the session at a later time. We based our learning outcomes on participant feedback as well as the Alabama Standards for Instructional Leaders and the Alabama Standards for Professional Development. From the learning outcomes, we designed the experiences for our participants and chose the appropriate technology to enhance the sessions.  For example, there was a session focused on using technology to help improve the culture and climate of the school. We used Flipgrid as the technology for the participants to take back to their school to collect feedback from the faculty and staff about the school culture. This particular session was organized in a linear programmed instruction format (2015).

Retrieved from https://www.ucb.ac.uk/our-courses/college-courses/how-to-apply/applicant-feedback.aspx

With it being the first time to offer this PLU and building it from scratch, we relied heavily on participant feedback to guide our next steps.  The feedback was extremely positive and the questions posed were helpful in designing the next session. One of the things that went well, based on the feedback we received, was incorporating opportunities for participants to collaborate.  We included breakout sessions with purposeful questions to guide the discussion. One of the breakout sessions was a follow-up discussion about a scenario that they may face as administrators in the area of technology decisions for the school building. The participants were able to problem solve together and build on one another’s ideas.  The learning was student-centered and student-driven. Another reason it was a positive aspect of the PLU is participants were able to hear from colleagues outside of their school building and even outside of their school districts.

Retrieved from http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3pxhkk

One of the things that was an issue at every synchronous session was the audio.  We were continuously working to improve the quality of the sound for participants who chose to come in person and for those online.  We tried multiple solutions at each session including muting all participants from the instructor side of Adobe Connect, asking participants to wear headphones, changing the volume level within the classroom and using the hand raise feature to unmute only one person at a time.  I have had these same concerns with the online courses that I have taken. As the participant on the digital side of the class, I struggled to hear and understand the remarks made in the physical classroom. Increasing the volume did not seem to help because the voices became less crisp and more distorted.  When I would finally get the volume where I could make out most of what was being said, the professor would show a video clip which would cause different sound interferences. I could never get the volume loud enough to hear the class videos even when wearing headphones. I think this stood out to me as something that was a bad experience from our PLU because of my personal experiences and I wanted to do everything I could to eliminate this problem for our participants.  I am still working with the equipment in the classroom we used to determine the best solution to this bad experience. I feel that closed captioning would be a great solution to this problem. That would keep participants from missing out on the discussion.

Retrieved from https://all-free-download.com/free-vector/vector-logo/closed_caption_0_77453.html

A study done by Stritto and Linder (2017) focused on the use of closed captioning with educational videos for both students with disabilities and those without disabilities to see how this resource could improve learning.  The figure below shows the reasons students chose to use closed captioning. There were 65.2% of students who used it to overcome the audio that is hard to hear and/or understand (2017).

(Stritto and Linder, 2017)

Students were asked open ended questions about why they chose closed captioning and 22.4% noted that they used it for poor sound quality with 75.5% using it as a learning aid (2017).  With the question being open-ended a portion of the 75.5% could have used learning aid as a way to describe all of the ways the closed captioning helped with their learning which could also include addressing sound issues. If this percentage of students use the tool for viewing videos, imagine the number of students who could benefit from its use in a digital learning environment where a variety of devices/people are producing the sound.

References:

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S. & Zvacek, S. (2015) Teaching and learning at a distance:

   foundations of distance education (6th ed.). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing,

  

   Inc.

Stritto, M. E. D. & Linder, K. (2017). A rising tide: How closed captions can benefit all

   students. Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/8/a-rising-tide-how-

   closed-captions-can-benefit-all-students