Teaching in Higher Ed

Leveraging the Benefits of a Current Projects List

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current projects list

Our university is embarking on a prioritization initiative, based off of Dickeson’s (2010) Prioritizing Academic Programs and Services: Reallocating Resources to Achieve Strategic Balance. For those who have not participated in an undertaking like this, to say it is time-intensive would be an understatement…

I have been asked to be a part of the team that evaluates the administrative programs and services. While I will confess to being a bit disappointed to see some of the priorities I have been working on be put on the back burner for a season, I am pleased to be collaborating with such a competent and dedicated group of people.

Importance of a Current Projects List

As we begin this process, I am more thankful than usual that I have a continually updated list of projects that I am working on. In Getting Things Done (2015), Allen considers a project anything that takes more than one action to bring about a desired outcome.

Here are just a few of the reasons I have found that a current projects list can be useful:

  • An unexpected commitment (like my recent involvement with the prioritization initiative at my institution) can be viewed in context with other projects
  • When formulating goals, projects can be used as a starting point for reflecting on desired outcomes (Robert Talbert’s post on The Trimesterly Review is worth referencing regarding goal setting, as well)
  • The weekly review can be enhanced by having a current list of projects, or even to nudge us in realizing that our list is out of date (Reference Robert Talbert’s post on planning)
  • Each project can be brought that much closer to reaching the desired outcome by reflecting on what the next action is to get it to that point

It really makes a tremendous different to have a list of projects that is always being worked on to remain current.

Current projects list
The numbers on this current projects list correspond with the numbers in the written text (#)

Structure of the Current Projects List

I use a Mac app called OmniFocus for my project and task management. It is a good tool for those people who really want to dig into the possibilities for what a task manager can do, but not for those who do not enjoy that kind of exploration.

As you will see from my current projects list, I have two types of lists I keep:

Admin lists (1): Those tasks that only have one step to complete and are associated with the various roles I play in my life (mother, professor, Director of Teaching Excellence and Digital Pedagogy, etc.)

An example of a task I would put on my family-admin (2) task list would be to set a doctor’s appointment for our daughter. Please pause for a moment while my husband laughs out loud, since he is unable to remember a time when I have ever done that. Let’s just say he is the one who typically makes appointments like that for our kids, but I was working on an easy example of what goes on admin lists.

Project lists (3): Anything that requires more than one step to complete ideally becomes a project.

My family member with dementia now needs to be transitioned over to a new facility, since she has faced a significant health decline this past month. At first, I needed to make contact with the placement person who helped us the last time around went in my Family-admin (2) list. However, as I realized that we would need to (at a bare minimum):

  • Contact the placement person
  • Receive recommendations of possible facilities
  • Schedule tours of facilities
  • Decide on a place and put down a deposit
  • Give 30 days notice at the current facility
  • Pack her things
  • Arrange for disposal or donation of items not moving to the new place

You get the idea (and now, so do I, since I had not yet started to write some of this stuff down). All of those tasks being listed under the general Family-admin (2) list would have started to get bogged down in there, mixed in with a bunch of other unrelated tasks.

OmniFocus does allow me to assign contexts to each task, so that all the calls that I need to make come up in a single list, even if they are otherwise unrelated. If I went to my @phone context, it shows me every task that can only be completed if I have a phone with me and am in a place where I can use it.

Projects can also be deferred (put off) until a future date in OmniFocus. The list of projects you see in the image are not reflective of all the projects I have identified. In fact, I know that with the addition of the prioritization work to my responsibilities, I need to go in and refine my current list of projects to have them represent ones I can realistically move forward in some way in the next 3-4 months.

Tips for Making a Current Projects List Most Useful

When creating a list of current projects, it can be helpful to structure them in such a way as to be able to quickly discern the kind of list being referenced and the desired outcome.

To that end, the following are tips for making your current projects list most useful:

  • Name [admin lists] (single item tasks) (4) with square brackets, in order to quickly distinguish them from multi-step projects.
  • Start all other project names with the verb that best describe your desired outcome for that item.

I have a project called Rollout: arc media (5). Once arc media is introduced to our faculty, they have had training on it, and we have transitioned over to regular maintenance and help desk support, we will have successfully rolled it out and this project will be marked complete.

Recruit: More faculty to use Canvas (6) – is a project that aims to have 95% of our faculty using Canvas in their classes. Once we achieve that aim, the project will be checked off.

  • Keep projects on the list until every task associated with them has reached completion.

I recently attended the Digital Media and Learning (DML) (7) and OpenEd2017 (8) conferences. While the “attending” part of the project is over (which was my main goal for the project), I am still waiting to be reimbursed for the registration fees and other expenses. Once I receive those checks, each of these projects will be considered done.

  • Include dates for items that have firm completion dates in parenthesis.

I did quite a bit of keynote speaking and workshop facilitation this Fall. Some of the events have already been marked as complete and do not show up on this current list of projects. As I was preparing for the talks and otherwise engaging with collaborators, it started to get really confusing as to when different conferences were taking place.

While the events were entered in my calendar, I then had to switch over to my calendar each time I was looking at dates for each of the tasks associated with these events. It made it much easier once I included all the dates in with the conferences and rearranged them in chronological order.

Get Started

If you do not have a current list of projects, but would like to experience some of the benefits described above, just start. Spend some time getting a list of projects together that you are aware of and reference it regularly over the next week or two, as you discover more multi-step projects that you are responsible for. Reflect on what the end goal is for each of the projects and name them using a verb that represents that desired outcome.

Your Turn

How do you manage your projects and tasks? What tools do you find most useful in these endeavors?

Sharing Their Stories

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Sharing Their Stories

As I mentioned in last week's post about finding good partners, one of my doctoral students posed some intriguing questions to me that I have been carrying with me these past two weeks. In this post, I share more of her specific questions and give my second of several recommendations.

Sharing Online

One of the individuals in the class shared a powerful way in which she was feeling inspired to communicate online. However, she had concerns about some of the dangers of doing this kind of sharing online.

I gave her a few suggestions right away, but suggested that she follow up with me with an email, as there was a lot more I could say on the topics. Her emails have been edited to protect her (and her students’) identity, as well as for context.

The Questions

How do I blog about controversial topics safely online?

For example, I work in an urban school where a lot of teacher abuse from students occur.  How can I create a safe atmosphere for others to discuss these experiences without being judged or shamed by others who don't understand what it is to support students who have been identified as traumatized?

In addition, to the societal view that you must be a “bad” teacher or doing something wrong if you don't have classroom management or positive relationships with others.

I am also interested in developing powerful dialogues and relationships amongst parents and teachers.  A partnership that will create collaboration and supports for students, specifically in the areas of special education, (moderate to serve and emotional/behavioral disorders).  Again, pertaining to parents in urban areas (i.e. uneducated, multiple jobs, single parents, foster parents, grandparents, etc.)”

Sharing Their Stories

One of the most powerful ways you could have an impact is to share the stories of those you are looking to serve. When Clint Smith was on the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast on episode 141, he shared about the dangers of silence and how important our voices are. He spoke so proudly of his students and their capabilities and capacity.

The Ear Hustle podcast is another tremendous example of sharing context for people who want to learn more about life inside of a prison's walls. An episode that made me laugh was episode six, entitled “The Boom Boom Room,” about conjugal visits. Episode nine made me weep, as they shared about death and dying in the prison.

Jesse Stommel is another person who regularly challenges us to respect our students. As Jesse explains why he no longer grades, he stresses the importance of starting by trusting our students. Even though the main topic of episode 57, when Jesse was a guest, was about Twitter, the thread that went throughout the entire episode was regarding the importance of kindness in our teaching.

On episode #148, Bronwyn Harris shared about her book, Literally Unbelievable. Despite describing incredibly challenging situations, Bronwyn displays a profound respect for her students, their families, and the people who seek to improve such devastating circumstances. The Deeper Learning podcast, produced by the Orange County Department of Education, is another example of powerful storytelling about people making a difference in the educational community.

One of the common characteristics about all the examples of exquisite storytelling is that there is no place for venting about frustrations regarding students. Anger over the difficult environment that they have to navigate? Yes. But, venting about any challenges related directly to the people that they serve is off limits.

An empathetic voice is present throughout all of these wide-ranging stories. The more empathy we can create toward those we are trying to serve, the more we can do the difficult work of coming up with sustainable solutions.

Getting Started

One of the biggest pieces of advice I have for you, as you reflect even more on your digital identity, is to determine who your work will be targeted toward.

Are you creating content to help other teachers have greater empathy for their students? Or, do you want to tell stories and provide resources to help families better navigate their children's educational paths? 

Once you have a narrow focus on who you are going to be talking to, finding stories to share becomes a lot easier.

One of the best resources I have found for storytelling, recently, is the Power Your Podcast with Storytelling course by Alex Blumberg for the CreativeLive site. If you are interested in taking the course, use this link to get $15 off (and I will also get $15 for the referral).

Alex used to be a producer for the This American Life podcast and is one of the most phenomenal storytellers I know. The episode of his StartUp podcast called Shadowed Qualities was one of the most poignant examples of the “stuff” we bring into our work communities I have ever heard.

I am thrilled that you are asking these questions and look forward to seeing where this all heads, as you create more content in the coming weeks on your blog.

Finding Good Partners

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I received a question from one of my doctoral students that has me embarking on a multi-part post. I will share more about her question in subsequent posts. For now, my first piece of advice to her is  about finding good partners.

All of us educators will find ourselves lacking an understanding of context in many aspects of our work, if we are honest with ourselves. I am grateful to those who have helped me understand more about teaching underserved populations.

I continue to seek out ways to better understand the learners who are in my classrooms, as well as those in the community who won’t ever set foot on a college campus.

Find Good Partners

One way I work to keep developing myself is through finding good partners. I consider every podcast guest a partner in helping us all become more effective at facilitating learning. My higher education friendships are almost all based on some sense of being in solidarity with others who are working to make students’ lives better.

A more formal partnership that I have recently established is with ACUE: The Association of College and University Educators.

You may have heard ACUE mentioned on previous episodes. They have been regularly connecting me with potential podcast guests for about a year now.

ACUE was founded in 2014 by leaders in higher education to promote quality instruction at colleges and universities nationwide.

ACUE’s comprehensive Course in Effective Teaching Practices prepares college educators to implement all of the essential practices shown to improve student outcomes. This facilitated, online Course is offered to cohorts of faculty at participating institutions.

Educators who satisfy Course requirements earn a Certificate in Effective College Instruction endorsed by the American Council on Education (ACE).”

In the coming year, Teaching in Higher Ed and ACUE will collaborate on upcoming podcast episodes, as well as more in-depth content hosted on ACUE’s site with phenomenal educators.

As ACUE shares in their announcement about our partnership:

“As part of ACUE and Teaching in Higher Ed’s new collaboration, we’ll be blogging about popular conversations, hosting follow-on expert Q&As, and adding sights to the sounds with video excerpts from ACUE’s course library. ACUE members and podcast fans alike can look forward to these free resources as part of ACUE’s upcoming Expert Dive series.”

The first of these Deep Dives will profile Paul Blowers, as he shares how he leverages active learning approaches in STEM courses. I’m excited to speak with him in November and for all the other future conversations this partnership will enable.

Next Steps

While you may not establish formal partnerships, as the one I have described here. However, you will no doubt benefit from collaborations with your students’ family members, other teachers, and members of your community.

In future posts, I will share some resources about telling compelling stories, as I continue to answer this students’ questions.

On-ramps: Reflections on the 14th Annual Open Education Conference

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Photo: Seagull On Ramp by Orin Zebest on Flickr

On-ramps: Reflections on the 14th Annual Open Education Conference

At last week's OpenEd17 conference, Jim Luke introduced the idea of having on-ramps for faculty to get on board with open education initiatives at our various institutions.

Ever since then, I have been captivated by the analogy of on-ramps as a means of supporting learners.

  • In what ways did people provide me with ways to take my learning further regarding open education at OpenEd17?
  • What have I discovered as a better means for introducing students to new ideas in my teaching?
  • How do we address learners that are already speeding down a domain of knowledge's highway and have different needs to enhance their own learning than beginners do?

It seems like too daunting a task to attempt to give an overview of everything I discovered at OpenEd17. Instead, I will highlight a few key findings here, and assure you that my list of future potential podcast guests is larger than ever.

Start Somewhere

The first morning of the conference, we got to hear from a panel of students from Santa Ana College. They were articulate and celebrated what having open educational resources (OARs) in their courses has meant for them.

One of the panelists stressed that if faculty expect stellar assignments from their students, we should expect the same quality of work from ourselves. The overall message at this point in panel was that we should “just do it,” and start somewhere with our open education efforts.

Open Textbooks

I have been sharing recently that I'm embarking with my doctoral students on our first-ever open textbook endeavor. We are very early in the process (class just started last Saturday), but are all completely jazzed about what's possible.

Robin DeRosa's blog post on her open textbook efforts has been incredibly helpful to me, in considering how to get started. I decided to use Pressbooks for the composition and eventual distribution of the open textbook we will be writing.

Pressbooks is built on the popular blogging platform, WordPress. I am already familiar with WordPress, since that's what the Teaching in Higher Ed website uses. I was able to attend a session about the roadmap for future iterations of Pressbooks. They appear to be quite an innovative company and I'm excited to see what we are able to produce, using their service.

Screen shot of an open textbook by Michael A. Caulfield: Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers

Mike Caulfield has published an open textbook using Pressbooks. His Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers is an excellent source for helping to grow information literacy.

You can view Mike's presentation about the Digital Polarization Project online, thanks to Robin's filming efforts at OpenEd17. He also made his slides available online.

That's just the beginning of what's available through open textbooks. The Ohio State University Library has a great list of ways in which to search for books, using different websites.

Using already-available open textbooks is just the beginning of what's possible in open education. Many presenters stressed how faculty enjoy the ability to customize open textbooks to best meet their needs.

We were also encouraged to not replace one passive tool (a traditional textbook) with another passive tool (an open textbook). There are many ways in which we can make open educational resources engaging and active.

Keep Going

One way I am getting started is through OpenTextbooks. But, that is just the beginning, I know.

The OER (open educational resources) World Map is brimming with possibilities of where to possibly head next.

Where to head next with open education?

I hope to find colleagues at my institution who are ready to begin exploring how we might better serve our students through open education, even if it means starting in the smallest of ways.

Ken Bauer describes well the failures we will experience if we try to introduce too many new tools to faculty too quickly. He also shares questions he has, after attending OpenEd17, himself.

If you want to get more of a taste of what happened at OpenEd17, here's an OER video Digest that shares much more than what I have in this post.

Gratitude

I am thankful for all the people who gave so generously at OpenEd17. It was wonderful to get to meet some friends in person for the first time, while reuniting with other friends I haven't seen in a long while.

It all reminded me of some of the writing that Maha Bali did, after she met some friends in person for the first time at OER17.  The experience is difficult to describe. I will treasure the opportunities to be in-person with such magnificent and inspiring educators and appreciate that we have such wonderful ways to stay in touch.

Reflections on the 2017 Digital Media and Learning Conference

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DML conference
Credit: Jason Frohlichstein, Frohlichstein Inc. Design & Direction

It was my first time attending the Digital Media and Learning conference.

Then, I found out that it was actually the last year that the event would be held. Starting next year, DML will partner with the Connected Learning Summit, an entity associated with MIT. The merged conference will rotate each year from the East Coast (at MIT) to the West Coast (at UCI).

Still, I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this year's event.

SketchNotes from the DML Conference

Once again, I attempted to grow my sketchnotes skills. I still draw like a five year-old. But, I know that the only way to get better is to get more practice in, accompanied with additional resources to help structure the ways in which I attempt to build my skills.

Some of the attempts I made at DML are below, along with a few notes about what I took away from the sessions.

I wasn't familiar with Danah Boyd until attending DML. She's certainly someone now who I won't soon forget. Her presentation was called Learning All the Wrong Things. She described her plans for her talk as follows:

“I will interrogate some of the darker sides of networked media engagement: media manipulation, strategic harassment, and youth radicalization. And then we'll think through different kinds of interventions – and the unintended consequences of good intentions in a world where the internet mirrors and magnifies the good, bad, and ugly.” – Danah Boyd

You can view her keynote online (starts just after the 10 minute mark), as well as listen to the big announcement at the beginning of the video about their doing away with the DML conference and what is to come next.

Another person I had never heard of before DML was Esra'a Al-Shafei, “a Bahraini civil rights activist, blogger, and the founder and executive director of Mideast Youth and its related projects, including CrowdVoice.org.

I found her entire talk compelling and especially appreciated her descriptions of the ways in which music is amplifying the voices of those who would otherwise not be heard.

Another inspirational session was put on by two gifted individuals (Gabe Lyon and Edge Quintanilla) from the Chicago Architecture Foundation. They shared about DiscoverDesign.org, an “online platform where students, teachers, and mentors come together to design solutions for the real world.

Other Inspiring Sessions

There's only so much sketchnoting I can do before I wonder if I shouldn't give up hope. In other DML sessions, I took notes furiously and bookmarked items voraciously.

Elizabeth Lawley, a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, gave a fantastic session entitled: Fork Your Syllabus, You Slacker: Using GitHub and Slack to Collaborate with Students (and Colleagues). She created some amazing supporting materials that are worth exploring.

Another well-documented session that is worth visiting is the page built by Remi Kalir, for his session called: Annotating DML. Remi is going to be on the podcast soon and I'm looking forward to learning even more from him.

There's so much more I could share about, but I need to head to bed to get ready for day one of the Open Education 2017 conference tomorrow.

Yes, it is quite the busy couple of weeks with conferences, but I really wanted to take advantage of these being so close to home. In the meantime, consider checking out some of the videos from the DML conference. Especially energizing are the ignite talks, which are just five minute presentations on a wide variety of topics.