Teaching in Higher Ed

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.

 

A Listener Question: Catching Up

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I received the following question from a podcast listener this week:

Hi Bonni, Thank you so much for the podcast. I have found it so helpful!

I am a Logistics professional in the UK but I was asked to give some courses last week and this week in English in my subject at one of the French Grand Ecoles. I was able to put some dynamic lecturing, retrieval practice, bloom's taxonomy, small teaching, etc into practice it was great fun! – yes I have listened to lots of the podcasts! I have been teaching a small group of 15 and 2 lecture classes of 100 per class.

One thing if you have any advice… Next Monday is my last session teaching in the repeated lectures ( 2 hours each ) in the afternoon. I have realised I have a large amount material to cover in this last 2 hour session – ( I went a bit slow on the first two lectures and now have a lot to get in as well as to get the students ready for a test).

Any advice on what to do when time is short in the classroom and you have a lot to get through? I can't change the deadline!

Cheers again, Michael

I have found myself in this sort of situation more times than I care to remember. I get excited about a topic (often times because the students really got into it) and I lose track of time.

As you have already indicated, ideally we plan more margin into our class planning to allow for these sorts of fun detours. However, the reality is that sometimes, we just need to catch up.

Here are a few thoughts I have on how to approach your Monday session:

  • Utilize online resources. Provide students with resources to review outside of class. I suspect you are already doing that, but if Monday can be more about highlighting essential parts of the content that students are often confused by, that's a lot easier than trying to review it all.
  • Start with retrieval practice. Better yet, do some retrieval practice during the first part of Monday's session. That way, you are not required to guess where points of potential confusion might be… You will know where additional review is needed.
  • Emphasize the exam review. If one task takes priority on Monday, make it the preparation for the exam. Understandably, students are less patient learning about the nice-to-know stuff, the closer that it gets to an exam. They will value the time the most, if it is designed to help them perform better on the test and doesn't contain information that might be viewed as superfluous. This topic deserves longer than what I am giving it here, but I am stressing this point specifically because you are behind in your schedule and there's an upcoming larger-stakes assignment coming next. This would not be my general advice for how to teach a class all of the time.
  • Mix up the topics. Interleaving is shown to improve retention. Therefore, mix up the review to address content you have previously covered, as well as what you have not yet emphasized in person. I am assuming they have assigned reading, or other means for addressing the content outside of class time. This can provide them with a way to test themselves on how much they have understood and retained from their reading (or whatever else was assigned outside of class time).
  • Share the why. When we get rushed, we can forget to explain to students why we are approaching their learning in a particular way. Remember to explain about interleaving, for example, as a strategy that helps them retain the information better for the exam. Remind them about the importance of creating those neural connections in their brains, which is why we invest class time in retrieval practice.
  • Explain the test structure. You did not indicate whether or not this is their first exam. If it is, spend some time explaining the types of questions they can expect to see and why the exam is structured the way that it is… This is when I typically reemphasize the difference between memorization and being able apply the learning in a specific context.

I hope this is helpful to you, as you consider how to plan the time together on Monday.

I also suggest taking Teddy Svoronos' advice about journaling, as he shared about in Episode 168. Give some advice to your future self who might one day teach this course again about how to structure the time better in the various class sessions. This makes a big difference in not finding ourselves in the same situation next time.

Thank you for the kind words about the podcast, Michael, and for the encouragement.

-B

 

My vote for Jane Hart’s 2017 top 100 tools for learning list

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My vote on the top 100 tools for learning

Jane Hart is conducting her annual survey of Top 100 Tools for Learning. The following are my top ten tools for learning, categorizes under Jane Hart's structure of: education, personal and professional learning, and workplace learning. You can also check out my 2016 votes, many of which carried across into this year.

Another related post worth checking out is Harold Jarche's Top Tools 2017. I'm glad (sort of ) that I made my list first. Otherwise, I definitely would have been influenced by his mentions of: Slack, 1Password (absolutely essential), and WordPress.

Education

Zoom – There's something that happens in communication when you can see another person and hear the sound of their voice. Zoom makes one-on-one conversations rich, not to mention entire classes. People can get set up simply and start connecting right away. I especially enjoy their breakout rooms feature, which is easy to use and gives the ability to have people discuss topics in smaller groups.

PollEverywhere – I'm a big believer in using retrieval tactics to strengthen student learning. PollEverywhere allows me to pose various types of questions to learners and have complete control over whether their results are displayed and when. Learners can give their answers to the questions that are posed via their smart phones, tablets, computers, or even via Twitter. Quizlet is another good tool for retrieval practice, especially Quizlet Live.

Glisser – I only just recently started using Glisser, but am really appreciating its ease of use and way to engage learners. It allows us to present slides, use polls, show videos, have students ask questions, allow people to tweet out slides from our slide deck, and more.

Canvas – Our university switched to the Canvas LMS just over a year ago and I'm still a big fan. I do believe in still thinking outside the LMS, though I appreciate the opportunity for grades and feedback to have a confidential, two-way place to occur.

Personal and professional learning

iTunes (podcasts)  – Learning never has to end with podcasts. They are like shows on the radio, but without having to be listening at the exact time the show airs. I listen to podcasts daily, using an app called Overcast, which accesses the iTunes podcast feed for the various shows I like to listen to… I can pretty much never keep up with all the wonderful resources that are out there in the form of podcasts, but it is fun to continually try.

Twitter – My personal learning network (PLN) completely changed when I started using Twitter regularly. Twitter is a social network that's value comes forth when you connect with “people who are like you – and also people who are not like you” (Peter Newbury on Teaching in Higher Ed).

Feedly – I still have fond memories of walking to a nearby bagel shop and reading the newspaper in my 20s. Now that I'm in my 40s, we have far superior newspapers. We can read them on our various devices and customize them to our exact preferences. Using Feedly, I can subscribe to the blogs and news sources that I want and have Feedly keep track of which stories I've read, already, and which ones are still unread. When I stop finding value in a particular source, I just unsubscribe on Feedly and can further increase the value of my virtual newspaper.

Pinboard – I can send articles that I want to bookmark (save for reference) from my preferred newsreader over to Pinboard.in, without having to leave the app. I have bookmarks saved on edtech,  open textbooks, productivity, blended learning, humor, parenting, and hundreds of other topics.

Workplace learning

Clarify – Another thing I did in my 20s (but this activity was a lot less fun than walks to the bagel shop) was make documentation. If you ever find yourself needing to build a how-to manual, Clarify will make this process incredibly easy for you. You just walk through the steps it takes to perform a function and have Clarify take screenshots along the way. You can add instructions and arrows/steps/annotations on your screenshots. When you're done, there are a myriad of export options, which can be customized so you get your documentation just the way you want it.

SnagIt – I've never been as concise as I would like to be, but SnagIt helps me move closer to that goal. When someone asks me a question, I can just take a screenshot (a picture of what's on my screen) and draw arrows and add text to give the answer in the proper context. I can also “video” what's on my screen (screencast), whether for the purpose of answering a question, or giving feedback on an assignment.

What tools have you found to be especially helpful in facilitating learning, or in contributing to your own personal and professional development? Comment below, or consider submitting your own vote for the 2017 top 100 tools list. 

Teaching Inspiration From the Reggio Emilia Approach

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It's been back-to-school night season in our home in recent weeks. Our son is in kindergarten, while our daughter just started her first year of preschool. There were two separate events for their respective educational levels, each of which was inspiring to me, both as a parent, and as a teacher.

The whole experience makes me ponder what it would be like, if faculty were expected to offer a similar experience to our students' families.

  • What would we tell family members about our pedagogy?
  • How would we demonstrate the students' learning and talk about the possibilities that are emerging for the year ahead?

Our children's school has taken inspiration from an approach called Reggio Emilia, after a community in Italy by the same name. In Reggio Emilia, learners are valued as:

…strong, capable, and resilient, rich with wonder and knowledge. Every [learner] brings with them deep curiosity and potential and this innate curiosity drives their interest to understand their world and their place within it.” – An Everyday Story

Those who have adopted a Reggio Emilia approach are quick to point out that it isn't a method. The approach is adopted to address the needs of a given learning community. The children's interests are also strongly integrated into the curriculum, thus making every classroom look different.

In higher education, we often ask questions related to why our students aren't more interested in the subject we are teaching. Instead, if we were to adopt a Reggio Emilia approach, we would regularly challenge ourselves to learn more about our students' interests and how to incorporate them into our pedagogy.

In higher education, we often bristle at the idea of needing to document students' learning through formal assessment. In contrast, Reggio Emilia-inspired settings would have us continuously:

…displaying and documenting [learners'] thoughts and progression of thinking: making their thoughts visible in many different ways… all designed to show the [student's] learning process.” – An Everyday Story

One of the most well-known resources within the Reggio Emilia community is the poem: The Hundred Languages of Children, by founder Loris Malaguzzi (translated by Lella Gandini). I hope you will take a moment to listen to these children share it for us in the most beautiful and articulate of ways.

Here's to hoping we can find inspiration in the Reggio Emilia approach, in a higher education context…

May we continually challenge ourselves to better serve our students' needs and help provide environments where they can thrive.

In case you missed it, there have been quite a few conversations and resources shared in the comments section of two recent blog posts on Teaching in Higher Ed:

Take another look and you may be surprised what you discover.

Digital Reading

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digital reading

I've written previously about the great laptop ban debate. Now seems as good a time as any to embark on yet another controversial topic:

Digital reading

Naomi Baron in The New Republic argues that digital reading is no substitute for the printed word. A couple paragraphs in, she does indicate that there's no simple answer to whether or not we learn better when reading in a digital format versus tangible books, however.

Why I Primarily Read Digitally

While I am among those who love the smell and feel of books, I still wind up doing most of my reading in digital form. Here are some reasons why:

Portability

Almost all my reading is done on my 10.5″ iPad Pro. It goes with me everywhere. To work, when I arrive a few minutes early to pick our kids up from school, to a doctor's appointment, and even to bed.

Night mode

I read at least an hour per night. Most apps have a setting that makes the background black and the text white. The Kindle app lets me adjust the brightness of the white text such that it emits as little light as possible.

Saving highlights and notes

It is as easy to highlight something in my Kindle app, as dragging my finger across the words I want to highlight. All highlights and notes are all then kept in a single place, making them that much easier to reference in the future. Highlights in physical books aren't at all easy to leverage, after I finishing reading something and put the book away on a shelf.

The Amazon Kindle site for storing all our highlights and notes recently went through a welcomed overhaul. The old system regularly confounded me. This one makes it easy to view my various Kindle books on the left, see my highlights and notes on the right, and search for books I've previously read.

Motivation

I use a service called Goodreads to track the books I've read and see what others I'm connected with in the community are reading. Goodreads invites me to set a reading challenge each year. Tracking my progress has definitely urged me to read more books than I otherwise might have in prior years.

To date, I have read 16 of my planned 20 books for 2017. I should easily be able to achieve my goal by the end of the year. I may even set my sights on reading 24 books in 2018.

Flexibility

Some publications, such as The Atlantic, are now even making their articles available as spoken word audio files. I was able to listen to this powerful pieceby Ta-Nehisi Coates the other night, while getting ready for bed. I did miss hearing Ta-Nehisi's own inflection in his words, but the audio feature still afforded me more flexibility in how to consume his writing.

Dave does the majority of his reading in the form of listening to audio books. I might do the same, if I didn't have so many podcasts to try (and fail) to keep up with… Dave especially likes when he owns the audio and the digital copy of a book, as it syncs his reading progress within the two formats.

Cautionary Notes

It isn't all unicorns and rainbows with digital reading, however. There are some potential downsides, if we aren't careful.

Distractions

The number one downside to digital reading for me is the potential for distractions. As I have been writing this blog post, I've encountered:

I wish more of my reading time was devoted to books and long form pieces (though not everyone appreciates that vernacular). It's easy to get lost in mindless skimming of my RSS feeds in Unread, versus having the discipline to stay focused on a book for an hour.

To be fair to myself, I'm under the weather. I'm grateful to have accomplished anything this morning. A few breaks from writing next week's blog post isn't the end of the world. I love being able to consume and compose content, while lying on my side, next to a giant box of Kleenex and cough drops.

I am at my most productive at reading when I use my Kindle e-reader, instead of the Kindle app on my iPad. My book completion rates go through the roof when I don't have digital distractions only a couple of taps away.

Inability to Give Books Away

While it is possible for me to loan my Kindle books to a friend for 14 days, it isn't something I do very often. With physical books, I can gift them to a friend or our local library, after I'm done reading them.

Digital Reading Workflow

Most of my daily reading involves consuming content from RSS feeds and Twitter. After that, there's usually at least another 15-30 minutes I'll still be awake enough to make progress on whatever book I'm reading.

RSS Feed Manager

Feedly is the service I use to manage all the content (RSS feeds) that I want to subscribe to… Each time a new article gets posted on a site I subscribe to, it gets “fed” into Feedly as an unread post. I can easily add new content sources (“feeds”) into Feedly and have a one-stop place to go for the most relevant content to me.

When I have read an article, it won't show up in my unread items any longer. That is the case whether I read it on my phone, my iPad, or on my computer. The information about what I have already read goes with me, wherever I happen to be consuming content.

Dave is a fan of Feedbin. He recently mentioned in the Teaching in Higher Ed Slack group that one of the features he likes is the way they let you subscribe to email newsletters inside of Feedbin.

Unread

While Feedly and Feedbin take care of tracking/subscribing to all my feeds, Unread is the app I use to actually read them. It is a paid app, but worth every penny.

It did take awhile to get used to how to navigate Unread. It was an excellent use of time, however. Since I do so much reading while lying on my side (I had no idea this post was going to get so personal), I love that I can swipe from anywhere on the screen to navigate the various parts of the interface.

Skimming headlines in Unread, to see if I want to tap any of them to read more
Swiping to mark all as read, once I have gotten to the end of the list of headlines

I can save articles I read in Unread to Pinboard (my preferred bookmarking service). At the same time, I can include tags, to make it that much easier to find what I'm looking for down the road.

Kindle App

Even though I know I would read more if I stuck to only using my Kindle e-reader, I still do most of my reading on the free Kindle app.

I can use dark mode when I'm reading at night, highlight passages, and look up a word in the dictionary (right inside the app). I can Tweet a quote from the book, while in the middle of reading, as well as see approximately how many more minutes it will take until I will finish the chapter I am reading.

Your Turn

What's your take on digital reading? Are there any tools I left out that you would recommend? How do you address the potential for distraction when you're reading?