“High Tech – High Touch: Using technology to create a supportive community that encourages students to love, serve, and teach one another” By Trina Boice (Pathway instructor for GS120, GS120L, Math 100L)

I love Elder Bednar’s talk about “high tech and high touch” as he described the importance of showing love to our students and creating a sense of community. As an online instructor in the Pathway program, it’s especially challenging to develop an engaged relationship with my students when I never get to meet them in person.

Elder Ballard spoke to the students at BYU-Hawaii a few years ago and said “This is your world, the world of the future, with inventions undreamed of that will come in your lifetime, as they have in mine. How will you use these marvelous inventions? More to the point, how will you use them to further the work of the Lord?” Great question! Whether you teach online or on campus, there are some terrific high-tech tools that can help us achieve high touch with our students.

A BYU-Idaho teacher’s activities and efforts can be organized into 4 categories: 1. Teacher centered 2. Material centered 3. Student centered 4. Christ centered

Below are a few ideas you might like to incorporate into your teaching techniques. The most important thing is to include a lot of variety so that students can better learn in their own learning style: visual, auditory, kinesthetic. During your lesson planning, rather than think about what you can say, think about what the students can. They will then be more engaged, interested, and want to return to see what cool things they’re going to do next time!

1. Teacher Centered  Demonstration – Check out YouTube for some awesome clips your students will love!  Jokes, puns  Lecture  Storytelling – The Storytelling Center of New York City offers some tips for you at: http://www.storytelling-nyc.org/tips.html  Guest speakers & Testimonials – Invite professionals in the workplace to share their thoughts on how the subject matter you are teaching is used in their careers. You can showcase speakers on TedTalks via YouTube or Roku.  Assignment feedback – Students love getting feedback that is personal and specific. Online instructors love using Jing because it allows the student to see their paper being graded and hear their teacher’s actual voice. For instructions on how to use Jing, go to www.techsmith.com/jing.html . Check out some of these other video-making tools: https://video.byui.edu and http://vocaroo.com and http://voicethread.com or http://prezi.com/support/  Office Hour – A bowl of treats (healthy or not) in your office lets students know they are welcome and will always leave your office with a sweet taste in their mouth. Online instructors can create lots of different layouts in their virtual office through Adobe Connect. For ideas, go to: http://onlineinstruction.ning.com/page/adobe-connect  Signature love statements – Add a personal touch to your emails or online posts by including a scripture, inspiring quote, or a signature statement such as “Your biggest fan”, “Praying for your success”, “Experiencing BYU-I together”, “Together at BYU-I”, “Cheering you on”  Catch phrases & tag lines – Help students know when something is really important (a.k.a. on the next test) by saying something like “Listen and Learn”, “Test-worthy information coming out of my mouth” or “Behold!”  Ask questions  Personal emails – Try to write at least one personal email to each student every semester. The Savior showed us how to minister to one.  Announcements  RateMyProfessors.com - Check to see how you’re REALLY doing. Students leave honest feedback about their experience with you for the whole world to see.  Podcasts – You can create podcast episodes by using Audacity (free) and uploading files to iTunes.  Music – My son who is currently a Freshman at BYU-I texted me on his first day of school this semester with a photo of his teacher singing and playing the guitar for the class! Music teaches the soul when words alone aren’t enough.

Student Centered:

 Brainstorm – Encourage students to think outside the Rexburg box.  Surveys – Find out what your students really think about your class by creating surveys they can answer quickly online. Free and simple tools are Survey Monkey.com and BYUiqualtrics  Case Study  Debate  Field Trip  Games  Discussions & Boards – In addition to maintaining a supportive presence in the required discussion boards online, provide your students with fun boards that are non-graded and designed to provide a casual environment where everyone can get to know each other. You can call it a “Chit Chat Lounge”, “Happy Thought Spot”, or even a “Virtual Class Party”.  Oral Report - Get students talking!  Role Play  Worksheets  Memorizing  Panels – Feature students’ expertise to grow their confidence.  Problem Solving – Students want to be the solution. Give them specific actions they can take when they walk out of your classroom.  Questions – Encourage shy students to ask questions by providing a basket where they can drop questions written on paper anonymously.  Class Journal – Students take turns answering a few standard questions on a template in a binder. Questions could include “What was the most surprising fact you learned today?” or “What question did you wish someone had asked in class today?” or “What inspiring thought did you hear from a classmate today?”  Open-ended Story  Speaking Partners – Encourage students to sign up to be Speaking Partners in the Pathway program. Rexburg students will meet wonderful students from around the world who are studying with BYU-I online. International students need to practice their English and absolutely LOVE meeting “real” BYU-I students. What a terrific way to foster a true BYU-I community feeling! You can learn more at www.byui.edu/online/speaking-partners  Advisors – Encourage Pathway students to check in with their advisors at [email protected] . Let them know they have a team of people at BYU- I who want them to be successful!

Material Centered:  Bulletin Board  Power Point presentations – No need to reinvent the wheel…Slideshare.com already has digital presentations you can borrow!  Charts  Maps  Videos  Flash Cards – Students can create their own flash cards at www.kitzkikz.com/flashcards  Object Lessons  Plagiarism checker – BYU-I has an account you can use to check your students’ papers. Follow these simple instructions: 1. Point your browser to http://turnitin.com/ 2. Click on Create Account at the top of the screen. 3. Under Create a New Account, click on Instructor 4. Complete the account registration form: Account ID: 85124 Join Password: turnitinbyu1 5. Click Submit.  MOOC - (Massive Open Online Course) Students and teachers can benefit from eavesdropping on other university courses all over the world. Check out some of them at: www.mooc.ca/courses.htm  Social Media – So much to do online, so little time! Create a Pinterest board for your class material, connect with students on Facebook, share book ideas on Goodreads, Tweet inspiring thoughts to your students, suggest videos and links on Google Hangout, post photos about your subject matter on Instagram. Social media is where your students are. Have fun exploring the student community spots online at http://byui.edu/online/community  Treasure Hunt  Mobile apps – Your students live on their cell phones. Encourage them to connect with BYU-I with fun mobile apps made by other BYU-I students like “Lunchbox” and “iFlirt”! BYU-I Food Services offers daily deals when you text BYUI to 82257.  Displays  Whiteboard/Chalkboard – Check out Educreations for fun ideas!  Graphs  Transparencies  “Draw” lesson – Invite a student or two to draw the lesson on a whiteboard as you teach the class. It’s entertaining and very insightful!  Inventories  eBooks – Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad offer free ones every day.  Handouts  I-Learn - Should you need to contact technical support, email [email protected] .  Tutor – Let students know they can sign up for online tutoring through Tutortrac. Keep track of all your links in one place: Symbaloo. Yep, there’s an app for that!  Translation – Remind international students they can use translation apps like VDication, Dragon Dictation, iAWriter or Splashtop.  Web cams – Online students especially love to see what’s happening on campus. Click here for a listing of all the places you can watch and see what the on- campus students are up to: http://www2.byui.edu/WebCameras/

Christ Centered  Testimony – Make it a point to share your testimony of the Savior with your students at least once each semester, whether it be in person, in a Jing video, via email or when grading papers.  Prayer – Let your students know you pray for them and their success.  Scriptures – Include at least one scripture in your daily lessons.  Service Projects – Invite students to join you in campus or community service projects and then share your feelings and experiences afterwards. The mission of BYU-I is to create disciple leaders. Service makes us more Christ-like than anything else.  Building Faith – Ask students how their faith has been strengthened. Share how yours has been too!  Listen for the Spirit – Don’t be afraid to stop talking when you feel the Spirit in your classroom. Help students learn to recognize it.  Temple attendance – Invite students to attend the temple with you in person or virtually.  Spirit of Ricks – Point out students and staff who demonstrate integrity and live the gospel in simple ways.  Devotionals - I absolutely love it when the students raise their scriptures in the air to demonstrate that they’re ready to learn! Online students are fascinated to learn that the entire campus in Rexburg shuts down to gather together at the feet of visiting speakers. They can participate in that wonderful tradition of active learning by watching the weekly Devotionals live or catching the recordings later. Talk about what was learned in your classes. To help students prepare spiritually for Devotionals, they can print out notes ahead of time at: http://www2.byui.edu/Devotionals/notepage.pdf Did you know you can see short highlights of weekly Devotionals when you subscribe to the Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/playlist? list=PL0GbxhNFD7Q_Gpc3NYUif1O1H9Zgfzfiy  Honor Code – Talk about it. Live it.  Mormon Messages

Attending BYU-Idaho is a privilege and blessing. Our international students in the Pathway program express their gratitude almost every day for the opportunity to be associated with the wonderful community of BYU-I. Because the university is under the Church umbrella, we have the luxury of teaching our classes bathed in gospel light. To many of our Pathway students, BYU-I represents the safety and inspiration of the Church. They feel the Savior in their virtual classrooms. What an honor it is to be a part of this divine university that is literally filling the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ!

As we create a feeling of community in our classrooms, we are building the kingdom of God. Even more important than ensuring our students feel our love, is helping them feel the Savior’s love. When we do that, they will have a greater desire to join with Him and reach out to others. Whether we teach on campus or use high-tech tools to teach online, we can enhance our high touch to bring souls unto Christ.