Ruminations of an Online Instructor / MD

Using Virtual Guest Speakers - New Meaning to Talking Heads

I get updates from the FCS FLASH, an electronic newsletter for California Community College Family and Consumer Sciences faculty.

A week after creating and posting the Voki this blurb came through the newsletter, about using Virtual Guest Speakers. My first reaction, of course was thinking about the Voki talking heads, but Orange Coast College Fashion instructor, Mika Yamamura, is finding another way of using Virtual Guest Speakers

Using Virtual Guest Speakers
Orange Coast College instructor, Mika Yamamura has found a way of using YouTube to help students reach out and connect with the fashion industry entrepreneurs virtually.

Mika has figured out a way to bringing an array of guests by inviting them to do quick YouTube interviews. He invites people from the fashion world to answer questions about their work via a YouTube video.

The Virtual Guest Speaker Process
The guests tape and post their responses on YouTube. When the Fashion class meets, they begin the class by watching and discussing the guest interview of the week.

Continue reading Using Virtual Guest Speakers - New Meaning to Talking Heads…

Introducing ProfessorDoc - My Voki

I was inspired by the Edublogger post about “Adding A Voki Speaking Avatar To A Post or Page of Your Blog” and thought it would be something interesting to add to the site. I am do not particularly like being video taped, but don’t mind recording messages.

I am pleased to introduce My Voki,* or a talking voice character, a computer-generated version of myself, Dr. Kirsti A. Dyer a.k.a ProfessorDoc. She will give you a brief introduction to the Ruminations of an Online Instructor - MD Blog. To hear the message, simply click on the arrow in the frame below.

What is a Voki?

* Voki comes from Vox + Loki = Voki. “Vox” is Latin for voice and “Loki” is a prankster character in Norse Mythology.

Continue reading Introducing ProfessorDoc - My Voki…

Journal of Educators Online

What is Journal of Educators Online?

The Journal of Educators Online is an online, double-blind reviewed journal for instructors, administrators, policy-makers, staff, students, and those interested in the development, delivery, and management of online courses in the Arts, Business, Education, Engineering, Medicine and Sciences.

Also included in the scope of the journal are the areas of pedagogy, content, technical and organizational issues.

I am pleased to be a member of the JEO Editorial Board, where I cover topics of medicine in addition to online learning.

Online Educators are encouraged to visit the site for Submission Procedures.

Necessity the Mother of Discovery - Sharing Online Resources

Journey of Hearts - A Self Funded Venture

For more than 10 years now, the Journey of Heart website has been a self-funded venture. Grief is not a popular topic and is also not one that is readily recognized, funded nor has it been one that reimbursed for physicians.

To date, the entire operating costs of the website as well the estimated thousands of hours to write, design, host and maintain this web resource, have been donated by myself and my husband as our gift to the grieving Internet community.

Since we’ve been self-funded with the Journey of Hearts site, out of necessity to minimize costs I’ve scoured the Internet looking for freely-available or low-cost options to some of the proprietary programs and web tools.

Necessity the Mother of Discovery

Plato is credited as saying that

Necessity is the mother of invention.

I think for many of us who spend a lot of time online, without a lot of resource backing–early website owners, small business owners and the typical adjunct professor–that

Necessity is the Mother of Discovery.

or perhaps a corollary

Lack of funding is the Mother of Discovery.

Online Ed Resources I compiled some of my favorite online education resources in a permanent blog page on the Ruminations Blob the Online Ed Resources page.

This is an evolving list of resources from applications to list serves that I have found online to use when teaching online classes or taking online classes.

The page includes the list of resources that I’ve also recommended to colleagues.