Teaching in Higher Ed

2019 Podcast Favorites

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podcast cover art

This isn’t my first time to this rodeo (of trying to narrow down my favorite podcasts). I wrote up lists in 2018, 2017, 2014, and also published an article about podcasting in the University of Austin’s Flow Journal.

Each time I start a new, annual list, I avoid looking at the prior year’s lists. I want to avoid being influenced by prior year’s posts and start with fresh eyes. Here are the shows that came to mind for this year’s list, by category.

I still marvel at how amazing it is that we can have all these learning opportunities for free – on our smart devices – wherever we are. If you haven’t ever listened to a podcast, it is easy to do. Once you start, I suspect you won’t ever turn back…

Teaching and Higher Ed

Gettin’ Air with Terry Greene – Terry prepares for each interview with care and asks authentic questions about open education.

Teach Better – Doug and Edward bring on superb guests who help to challenge us to be better at teaching.

The Black Goat – These psychologists help others in their field to navigate higher education. Even though my discipline isn’t in psychology, I learn a lot from every episode.

Leading Lines – “…a podcast on educational technology in higher education” from the expert podcasters at Vanderbilt.

Tea for Teaching – “a series of informal discussions of innovative and effective practices in teaching and learning. Hosted by John and Rebecca, who run the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at the State University of New York at Oswego.”

EdSurge On Air – “A weekly podcast about the future of education, featuring insightful conversations with educators, tech innovators and scholars, hosted by EdSurge's Jeffrey R. Young and Sydney Johnson.”

News and Politics

Amicus, with Dalia Lithwick – smart conversation about the law.

The Gist, with Mike Pesca – Mike cracks me up on a regular basis and challenges my mind.

Skimm This – Concise, engaging overview of what’s happening in the news. Recommended by my students.

Pod Save America – “A no-bullshit conversation about politics hosted by Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor that breaks down the week’s news and helps people figure out what matters and how to help.”

Political Gabfest – Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the week’s politics in an entertaining and informative way.

The Daily – “Twenty minutes a day, five days a week, hosted by Michael Barbaro and powered by New York Times journalism.”

Pod Save the People – “Organizer and activist DeRay Mckesson explores news, culture, social justice, and politics through deep conversations with influencers and experts, and the weekly news with fellow activists Brittany Packnett and Sam Sinyangwe, and writer Clint Smith.”

On the Media – “WNYC’s weekly investigation into how the media shapes our worldview.”

Technology and Science

Automators – “Automation makes your life easier and everyone can do it. We tell you how.” (Mac-centric, though also covers web services that enable automation).

Mac Power Users – “L earn about getting the most from your Apple technology with focused topics and workflow guests. Creating Mac Power Users, one geek at a time since 2009.”

Reply All – “A podcast about the internet’ that is actually an unfailingly original exploration of modern life and how to survive it.” – The Guardian

Radio Lab – “Radiolab, with Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, is a radio show and podcast weaving stories and science into sound and music-rich documentaries.”

Parsing Science – “The unpublished stories behind the world’s most compelling science, as told by the researchers themselves.”

Mind-expanding Shows

Hidden Brain – “Hidden Brain Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.” (Thanks for recommending it such a long time ago, Isabeau Iqbal.

Armchair Expert – “celebrates the messiness of being human.” Hosted by Dax Shepard. Recommended by John Warner on Teaching in Higher Ed episode 233 (he warned us, though…).

This American Life – “This American Life is a weekly public radio program and podcast. Each week we choose a theme and put together different kinds of stories on that theme.” (One of the all-time greatest!)

On Being – “A Peabody Award-winning public radio show and podcast. What does it mean to be human? How do we want to live? And who will we be to each other? Each week a new discovery about the immensity of our lives. Hosted by Krista Tippett.”

Code Switch – “Code Switch is a race and culture outlet and a weekly podcast from American public radio network NPR.” Recommended by Rob Parke on Teaching in Higher Ed episode 126.

Business, Marketing, and Economics

Planet Money – “The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, “Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy.” Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.”

Marketplace – “…helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. ”

Akimbo – “A Podcast from Seth Godin. Akimbo is an ancient word, from the bend in the river or the bend in an archer's bow. … Akimbo's a podcast about our culture and about how we can change it. About seeing what's happening and choosing to do something.”

Coaching for Leaders – “Leaders Aren't Born, They're Made. It's a myth that leadership skills can't be learned. Almost nobody is a born leader. Most leaders I know learned how to lead through the school of hard knocks, good training, years of hard work, effective coaching, and great mentors.” (Hosted by this guy I know – who I happen to be married to – Dave Stachowiak.)

Work and Life

Radical Self Trust Podcast Channel from Katie Linder – “The Radical Self-Trust (RST) podcast channel is a collection of content dedicated to helping you seek self-knowledge, nurture your superpowers, playfully experiment, live your core values with intention, practice loving kindness toward yourself and others, and settle into your life's purpose.”

Women at Work – Produced by Harvard Business Review. It was on hiatus for a while – and is now back. Excellent interviews to helps us all fulfill our potential with excellence and joy!

Worklife, with Adam Grant – “Organizational psychologist Adam Grant takes you inside the minds of some of the world’s most unusual professionals to explore the science of making work not suck. From learning how to love criticism to harnessing the power of frustration, one thing’s for sure: You’ll never see your job the same way again.”

GTD – “Our GTD podcasts are here to support you at every stage of your GTD practice. … The podcasts include personal and professional stories, as well as practical tips about GTD systems for desktop and mobile, using apps and paper. Start listening now and you'll be well on your way to stress-free productivity.”

Focused – Great productivity show, hosted by David Sparks and Mike Schmitz.

The Productivity Show – The team from Asian Efficiency helps us up our game on this practical podcast.

Look and Sound of Leadership with Tom Henshel – Tom is a former actor turned executive coach – and he gives us superb advice on how to be better leaders in this concise and thoughtful podcast.

Your Turn

What are your favorite podcasts lately and what makes them so good?

One in a Million – Thanks

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Dave and I had a great time celebrating passing the million downloads mark for the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast. Episode #250 invited people to call in to share a “one-in-a-million” episode that had a big impact on their teaching.

Show Notes: One-in-a-million episode

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the episode. If you would still like to share, feel free to email me or share your episode on social media.

Updated EdTech Essentials Guide

The EdTech Essentials Guide had a recent update, if you would like to download the most current version.

Recent Talks

Below are links to the resources pages for recent talks I have presented/co-presented.

Other upcoming and past events may be found on my speaking schedule page. My schedule is filling up for Fall of 2019, so get in touch soon if you would like to explore having me speak at your university.

Upcoming Interviews

We have some great guests coming up in the next couple of months, including: Maha Bali, Autumm Caines, Jose Bowen, Jared Horvath, and Natasha Jankowski.

 

How to Go Back to School

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Decorative picture of an ignition starting

This column was originally posted on EdSurge. It is reposted here with permission. The following is the latest installment of the Toward Better Teaching advice column. You can pose a question for a future column here.

Dear Bonni, My question is how to prepare yourself for a doctorate in leadership in higher ed, even when you are over 50! I am a former high-tech executive with an MBA, turned severe special needs elementary educator, mother of 7 (4 in college, 3 in high school) who is looking at that next step in my career. I am entering a doctorate in Leadership in Higher Ed program in the fall and am working hard at preparing myself. I have created what I’m calling my “prep syllabus” and hope to set a solid foundation for myself. I’ve filled my podcast app with 5 plus podcasts to learn about various challenges, trends and best practices. I would love to get your feedback on what should be in my “prep syllabus” and how to make that transition. Thanks so much!

—Maureen McLaughlin, returning student

While this column typically is focused on teaching, it is great to get to have it shift to learning for this question. How wonderful that you are taking these steps to be ready for this big transition. Here is some guidance on how to approach this season of preparation.

Conduct a Tools Audit

When I teach a course to doctoral students, I begin by inviting them to perform an audit on their technical skills. This process helps them discern the most essential features within the various applications that will best help them through their coursework and completing a dissertation.

The document I created for the doctoral students specifically identifies those applications that they will use most in pursuing their doctorates with that institution. Download this sample tools audit and customize it to meet your needs. Below are some links to help strengthen your capabilities in some of the fundamental applications I mention in the tools audit:

If possible, correspond with someone at the institution where you will be attending to see if they have requirements about what word processor or references manager you need to use and be sure you maximize the time you spend learning those.

Develop Your Knowledge of Structures, Research and Writing Styles

In a doctoral program, the structures of your written work will be similar. You will develop many literature reviews and will regularly need to create similar structures for research papers. I have found the following people and organizations essential to growing my research writing skills over the years.

Purdue Online Writing Lab: this website is one I keep open on a regular basis when writing in a formal, academic style. It features guidance on various citation styles (APA, MLA, Chicago, and more) and on how to list references properly. There are also exercises to practice the art of the academic citation. This video (by Nicholas Cifuentes-Goodbody) on developing outlines for larger writing projects is another great way to prepare for the kind of writing you will be doing.

Raul Pacheco-Vega’s website: This assistant professor in the Public Administration Division of the Center for Economic Teaching and Research in Mexico has written extensively on his website about academic writing. I suggest exploring the entire resources section here, including the advice on writing literature reviews, guidance for graduate students, and approaches for writing a research paper, book chapter or dissertation.

Oregon State University Research in Action podcast: one to consider adding to your queue, if it is not already there. Katie Linder, the host, has gathered together scholars who share about all different types of research methods, as well as how to deal with common challenges that occur (such as writer’s block, choosing a dissertation topic, setting research goals, and keeping yourself organized).

Acquire a ‘Good Enough’ Mindset

I used to travel to instruct in the doctoral program I teach in a couple of times a year. Once, I did not set boundaries well enough and found myself in a conversation with a doctoral student about her final paper, at the same time as I was supposed to be returning to the airport to fly back home that evening. I had told the class that I would not be able to stay after class, but that I would be available to answer any questions they had, once I returned home. But I did not stick to my word, and 45 minutes later, was frustrated at what had happened.

The student was unhappy with her grade and kept flipping through all the pages she had printed out with her highlights marking the discrepancies between my perceptions and her own. Flying home, without having had enough time to grab lunch on my way to the airport, I was angry with myself for not having left after the class was over.

Once I was back in our house and able to access wifi, I took a look at her situation. It turned out that the small number of points she was missing from the assignment had absolutely zero impact on her overall grade. She was still at well over the range of what was required to earn an A in the course. This was already evident to her through the grade book. The entire time we had been talking, I was assuming her goal was to earn a higher grade in the class. Instead, it was regarding a single paper and her wanting to have earned 100 percent in the class. To be clear, this fact would never have shown up on her transcripts or anywhere outside the LMS.

That example is a bit more extreme than what I typically witness. However, we can all struggle with knowing what is “good enough” on something and knowing when we should move on to other priorities. As harsh as it may sound, there are times when we need to do that with our families and friends. Being fully present for our loved ones is essential, but during this season of your life, it may be more helpful to think in terms of quality over quantity.

I came into my doctoral program thinking I was going to read every word that was assigned (I didn’t). While I did maintain my desired GPA, I had to think more transactionally than I would have liked to about finishing papers and working collaboratively with other students.

One of my doctoral professors used to tell us that he wanted us to be “famous by Friday,” in reference to writing our dissertations. His use of the word ‘famous’ was delivered dripping with sarcasm. Most people’s dissertations won’t wind up being highly cited. Once we finish them, however, we are freed up to have the time to do the work that may be more meaningful to us and potentially be more visible. The goal is not to try to change the world with our research. The aim is to be done.

As you prepare to begin this journey, equip yourself with the tools you’ll need to support you in the process, re-orient yourself with the kinds of writing you will be doing and be ready for good enough to be good enough.

How to Inspire Other Educators

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Cassette Tape Photo by Simone Acquaroli on Unsplash

This article was originally posted on EdSurge and is reposted with permission. The following is the latest installment of the Toward Better Teaching advice column. You can pose a question for a future column here.

Dear Bonni, How do you help inspire other educators? Sometimes the problem isn't my students—it's my colleagues. If they seem bored or tired, the students pick up on that and then think that all classes are tedious.

—Working at a small community college

Our emotional well-being matters as teachers. Not only because (if we are going to do it well) facilitating the learning of others requires a lot of energy. But also because if we are experiencing feelings that are not conducive to the work of learning, we can inadvertently transfer those emotions to our students—just as they might catch a cold from us if we’re sick.

Daniel Goleman’s research illustrates the way our emotions are contagious. In his book, Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships (2006), he describes how we humans are hard-wired to connect with one another. Those connections can be a pathway for our emotions to strongly influence another’s, in positive or negative ways.

Create Agreement That Emotions Matter

There are certainly still faculty arguing that we need to stay far away from any desire to be an edu-tainer. They argue that it’s not up to professors to worry about whether a teaching approach is working for students, that somehow the burden is on the students to adapt to whatever style of instruction is used. Thankfully, there is a renewed emphasis on how emotions can spark learning.

Sarah Cavanaugh, author of The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion (2016), describes how we can energize our students’ learning by heightening curiosity, encouraging mindfulness and capturing learners’ attention. She stresses that “emotions certainly determine many of our motivations, decisions, and behaviors, and the circuits governing both learning and emotion overlap.”

Think back to a teacher who had a tremendous impact on you—and there was likely a way that person captivated your imagination or tapped into emotion in some way. Dave Stachowiak (my husband and host of the Coaching for Leaders podcast) shares this story of a class that has stuck with him since high school.

On the first day of the chemistry course, the teacher provided a routine overview of the syllabus. Then, he casually lit a candle at the front of the room and explained that the most important thing for students to learn in the class, was that things were not always what they seemed. And with that, he picked up the burning candle and popped it in his mouth, and chewed. Then he said “see you tomorrow,” and left the room.

As Dave mentions, his chemistry teacher was not dynamic one hundred percent of the time. “He didn’t need to be,” Dave emphasizes, “because we were always on the edge of our seat.”

When students first join the online portion of my Introduction to Business class, they are presented with an introductory video for the course that is meant to mimic the feel of watching an Indiana Jones movie.

Like Dave’s teacher, I try to give them the sense that this class is going to be different. My hope is that they see it as an adventure that will help them learn, but also will be a series of experiences we will have together in the process. I work hard on those first impressions to engage students’ sense of encountering the unexpected.

My advice is to try to generate some kind of agreement among your fellow faculty members that it is worth it to be purposeful about how to ignite the imagination of your students.

Raise the Collective Self-Awareness

I have been teaching in higher education for 15 years now. Not once have I ever had a professor confess that they perceive themselves as boring. Yet, I remain convinced that there are those who do not possess the capacity for drawing learners in and gaining their attention.

In Ken Bain’s longitudinal study of how superb post-secondary educators approach their teaching, he asserts the importance of attaining and maintaining students’ attention. Bain writes in What the Best College Teachers Do (2004):

“They consciously try to get students’ attention with some provocative act, question, or statement.”

One of the best ways I have ever observed of raising one’s self-awareness is by using video or audio recording as feedback. My first professional job out of college was teaching computer classes. The person I reported to handed me a cassette tape as I was headed out of work one day. It was a recording of me teaching that day. As I listened, I immediately identified phrases I was saying repetitively that were distracting. It was painful to listen to—but it provided me with incredibly powerful feedback that has stayed with me for decades to come.

A tool like Swivl can help with video and audio recording feedback. Even if you do not ultimately decide to invest in a product made specifically for that purpose, knowing more about how video can transform our teaching is helpful. This video series with Jim Knight (a senior research associate at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning) conveys how videos can “eliminate perceptual errors and allow for teachers and coaches to refer to real evidence of practice.”

Acknowledge and Redirect

The work of teaching is one of the hardest things I have ever done. When my colleagues want to vent about the challenges they are encountering, I hope to be a good listener for them. However, if too much of the conversation seems to be about student shaming, I do try to redirect to something more positive.

It is a delicate balance to know when we just need a person who can relate to our frustrations and when we really need to focus our attention back on more productive and life-giving thoughts.

Christopher Emdin, author of For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood (2017), epitomizes this sentiment when he writes:

“The kind of teacher you will become is directly related to the kind of teachers you associate with. Teaching is a profession where misery does more than just love company—it recruits, seduces, and romances it. Avoid people who are unhappy and disgruntled about the possibilities for transforming education. They are the enemy of the spirit of the teacher.”

When we focus on increasing our collective capacity to serve our students well, we leverage the best of what a community of teachers has to offer.

Photo credit: Simone Acquaroli on Unsplash

Pack it Up

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backpack by josiah weiss

A few weeks ago, I headed to Nebraska to visit Hastings College. I did a keynote and a workshop and had a wonderful time. They are doing some transformative work at Hastings that it was fun to catch a small glimpse of during my time with them.

Whenever I travel, I think back to the post I wrote with guidance on how to ease the process of moving throughout the world. Much of the post still holds up and is worth a look. However, the best part came in the comments.

Robert Talbert recommended getting TSA pre-check – and that advice has paid off in spades for me and for our entire family.

If you follow Robert on social media, you might have seen that he is currently recovering from heart surgery. You can learn more about it on his blog. He has also invited some of us to help him queue up some posts during his recovery. Watch for one from me toward the end of February.  

As I think back to my Nebraska trip, I have a few other travel-related resources to share, plus a request from a listener to participate in his research.

PackPoint

I had grown tired of fumbling around with my packing list in Evernote. Each time I traveled, I copied the text over to a new note and sometimes even had to uncheck the checkboxes, if I had messed up my system the last time I used it. Yes, Evernote has templates now, but they still don’t go anywhere as far as my new packing list find.

packpoint app

PackPoint is a great app, which has features I didn’t even realize I needed. As soon as I purchased it, I could easily integrate it with my TripIt account. PackPoint then knew that I was headed to Nebraska – and that it was cold there. It added a heavy jacket to my packing list without me even needing to lift a finger.

It bases packing lists around activities. There are many built-in activities, such as essentials, swimming, business casual, hiking, and so on. It was easy to set up my own built-in activities, such as the one I created for the various electronics that I bring and their associated chargers.

Tom Bihn Backpack

I received a new Tom Bihn backpack for Christmas and this was my first long-distance trip with it. I like the way it can expand to fit a large number of items, yet isn’t awkward when there isn’t much stuff in it.

The Synapse has a place for a water bottle in the middle of the bag, which I discovered I like a lot more. It centers the weight and also I don’t have to worry about the bottle falling off the side when I’m moving about.

Noise Canceling Headphones

I wrote my first travel tips post in 2017, before I discovered the joys of having noise canceling headphones. I purchased a pair of Beats, but candidly didn’t do a bunch of comparisons before diving in. They have a long battery life and are easy to connect to my iPhone or iPad during a flight via bluetooth.

TextExpander

The other tool I am always happy to have on the road with me is TextExpander. In full transparency, they are a regular sponsor of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, but I was recommending them long before they started supporting the show.

There were quite a few weather delays during my trip to Nebraska, which made me grateful that I had all the tools I needed to get some serious work done during that time. With TextExpander, I can have access to all my snippets across my computer, smartphone, and tablet – with everything syncing across all of those platforms.

I use TextExpander to save time with my email signatures, letters of recommendation for students, data I forget all the time (like my work phone number), and for longer pieces like creating the show notes for each episode.

Here’s a post I wrote in 2018 with more about TextExpander, including a demo of how I use it.

Participate in Educational Podcasts Research

Even though it has nothing to do with travel (except for the way in which podcasts help us go different places in our minds), I did want to extend an invitation to you on behalf of a listener. The last thing worth checking out is participating in Scott McNamara’s research on educational research.

He writes:

“Hello, I am Scott McNamara, Ph.D. at the University of Northern Iowa. I am conducting a study to examine the motivational factors for listening to educational podcasts. This study consists of completing a short 20-minute survey. To participate in the study, you must be in the field of education (e.g., pre-service teacher, higher education professor, education administrator, practicing teacher, related service provider) and have listened to an educational podcast.

If you are interested in participating in this study, please visit this information on the Survey to find out more. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please email Dr. Scott McNamara at the University of Northern Iowa at scott.mcnamara@Uni.edu.”

Please consider supporting Scott’s research, as we will all be able to benefit when he publishes his results.

Your Turn

What have you been packing up for your trips, lately, that have helped reduce the stress of travel and enjoy yourself a bit more?