Our physical selves and our digital selves

How do you feel about making use of the various digital features we have available to us, from sharing our thoughts in writing in graded Discussions, to making audio recordings and/or video recordings in Canvas Studio, and importing them into the Discussions, making use of CC and Comments to add popup texts if we want into the videos on playback, using MindTap features to learn knowledge, extending out to the Web to find examples of speeches, or of speaking, formal and informal, to recording video speeches in Bongo and getting AI-based feedback? How about availing ourselves of the opportunity to join Toastmasters, at the QC Anselmo Library, Mondays at 7 PM, in person or by Zoom. 

  I would like you to share your thoughts here, your subjective feelings, about using these resources to achieve your goals. There are some faculty who feel that this class must be taught in-person. I do not agree. I feel that so much can be done through these various resources and venues. I insisted in using Cengage, and I had to get training on Cengage as well as on Bongo. It's been a steady learning curve for me, but I feel that it is paying off. 

  I noticed that some students have started off with recording and sharing your voices only. Given that public speaking usually involves the physical presence of a speaker with an audience, how do you feel about this? Do you feel that, in a way, isolating the voice alone is helpful? It may be that the physical dynamic image of a video recording actually distracts from the vocal qualities. On the other hand, we are not ventriloquists, and there is an inevitable physicality to public speaking. Yet, from yet another perspective, perhaps we are heading, as a society, toward more digitally based communication anyway, so that we are in the right place. 

  At any rate, please express your thoughts, feelings, impressions, concerns, anticipations, anxieties, etc., here, and it would be nice, I think, if you did it using your voice. After all, this is not a course in writing, although we do get a huge amount of needed information from The Speaker's Handbook. By the way, the video activities in which you watch and analyze a video, then comment on it and receive more extensive automated comment feedback, is a way for you to incorporate theoretical knowledge into your practice. In other words, you can (1) read and respond in a quiz or comment, (2) watch, analyze, comment, and obtain more detailed analysis, and (3) produce your own speeches. It's a continuum, aimed at developing your ability to bring knowledge into your practice. 

  Canvas has a freer setup, and I have initiated a number of topics in the Discussions, and might add a few more. The theme of regional pronunciation and speech varieties has surfaced, and it's a very robust theme for us. There are two video documentary series which I would draw your attention to on this theme, which is really fascinating, and these are so well done. The Story of English is available also on the QC Library website streaming video "Films on Demand" data base, and I would imagine that "Do You Speak American?" may also be, or on Kanopy (also available, free, to you, on the QC Library website). BTW, I just heard that students will soon be able to get free access to the New York Times app, and that should also be very helpful to you, to give you ideas for speeches. The Learning Network section, if you don't know it, is marvelous, and I use it a lot in my writing classes, but it can also stimulate a lot of speeches.  It's already available free to everyone, thanks to the NYTimes:

https://www.nytimes.com/section/learning Links to an external site.

  https://www.pbs.org/speak/ Links to an external site.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_You_Speak_American%3F Links to an external site.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh06URz4IJQ4aI0A-xjXOtx2OnApu2SNn Links to an external site.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_English Links to an external site.