Teaching in Higher Ed

Podcast Greats for 2017

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I had the great pleasure of talking with Bryan Alexander today for this week’s Teaching in Higher Ed podcast episode. “Bryan Alexander is an internationally known futurist, researcher, writer, speaker, consultant, and teacher, working in the field of how technology transforms education.”

As happens more than half of the time that I have interviews scheduled, I was incredibly nervous. It turns out that not only does Bryan Alexander know a lot about a lot of things, he’s also incredibly kind and warm.

After we were finished recording, I told him how much I enjoyed his recent post about his favorite podcasts. He said that he often listens to podcasts while chopping wood, caring for the animals that they raise on their property, or during his often-lengthy commutes.

While we have some podcast listening habits in common, I discovered that there are some shows that are among my favorites that he was unfamiliar with…

Since I last wrote about my favorite podcasts in 2014, there are still some of those same shows that top my listening preferences. It’s time for some updating to my list of podcast greats, inspired by Bryan’s recent post.

This time I've categorized them, those this proved to be a harder task than I anticipated. Many of them fit into multiple categories.

Teaching and Other Higher Ed Podcasts

  • Contrafabulists – Audrey Watters and Kin Lane describe their podcast (which has recently been re-named) this way: “Fabulists are fable-spinners and myth-makers. We are storytellers ourselves, but we poke holes in the hype and distortion of new digital technologies and the narratives associated with them. Contrafabulists are, as the name would suggest, against lying.” Each time I listen, I’m challenged to think more critically about the technology tools we use in attempting to facilitate learning, as well as what’s happening in the broader political, educational, and technological realms.
  • HybridPod | The Podcast from Hybrid Pedagogy – Host Chris Friend is a delightful guide for this “collection of casual, thoughtful discussions designed to challenge and make us all think carefully about how we work with students.”
  • Research in Action Podcast – Ecampus Research Unit | Oregon State University – If you teach any kind of research in higher ed, it’s worth checking out the Research in Action podcast, hosted by Katie Linder. It is also helpful, just to increase one’s knowledge of different types of research methods.
  • You've Got This – Katie Linder also hosts the You’ve Got This podcast, which is a short, inspirational look at building our confidence and competence at various aspects of a professor’s life.
  • The Teach Better Podcast – Doug McKee and Edward O’Neil are the fabulous hosts of the Teach Better podcast. They interview expert faculty from institutions such as Yale and Cornel. Each episode is a new perspective on becoming a more effective teacher. I’m still not sure how it happened, but they even had me on an episode once.
  • Leading Lines: A New Podcast on Educational Technology in Higher Education | Center for Teaching | Vanderbilt University – Derek Bruff, says that the Leading Lines podcast aims to “explore creative, intentional, and effective uses of technology to enhance student learning, uses that point the way to the future of educational technology in college and university settings.  Through interviews with educators, researchers, technologists, and others, we hope to amplify ideas and voices that are (or should be!) shaping how we think about digital learning and digital pedagogy.”
  • TOPcast: The Teaching Online Podcast | Center for Distributed Learning – The Teaching Online (TOP) podcast is an informal conversation between Thomas Cavanagh and Kelvin Thompson, with the goal of helping us teach more effectively online. I had the chance to meet them both at an OLC Conference and they’re just as engaging in person as they are on the podcast.

Shows that Stretch my Mind

  • Radiolab – I’m so grateful for having come across Radio Lab a few years back. It has helped to make me more curious about science and to feel like it is more accessible to me than I ever realized. One of my favorite episodes was about when things don’t go like you had planned: Be Careful What You Plan For – Radiolab. Useful lessons for when things don't go like we planned in our teaching.
  • This American Life – The producers at This American Life are some of the best storytellers I’ve ever witnessed in audio form. I really enjoy their humor on episodes where they share human failures, like what happens when we only have enough knowledge to be dangerous, or about some pretty awful (yet humorous) mistakes
  • Democracy Now! – A friend recommended Democracy Now years ago to help me expand my perspective of politics and foreign affairs. It didn’t disappoint and I now listen to episodes almost right after they’re released.
  • Very Bad Wizards – Speaking of listening right when episodes come out, Very Bad Wizards is a delight to have show up in my podcasting feed. A philosopher and a psychologist talk about life’s important topics, though I should warn you, in an often-irreverent way.
    My all time favorite episode is their 75th, where they had experts share about something they have changed their mind about in the past five years. I need to cling to the idea that we’re all capable of changing our minds on important issues, or I’m not sure I can bear our current political climate. I also enjoy whenever Paul Bloom is on the show, like this episode where they talked about the movie “Momento” – or this one where they talked about Paul’s book about empathy (with some movies about empathy mixed in to the conversation). Another memorable episode that stretched my thinking was this conversation with Robert Frank about luck. One last fun thing about Very Bad Wizards is the musical talents of one of their hosts, David Pizarro (Peez). Take a listen to some of his beats on SoundCloud.
  • Invisibilia : NPR – From their website: “Invisibilia (Latin for invisible things) is about the invisible forces that control human behavior – ideas, beliefs, assumptions and emotions. Co-hosted by Lulu Miller, Hanna Rosin and Alix Spiegel, Invisibilia interweaves narrative storytelling with scientific research that will ultimately make you see your own life differently.” They haven’t had a new episode in a long while, as of this blog post being written and I look forward to when more are to come. The other episodes are evergreen and are worth going back to hear.

Business and Management Podcasts

  • Marketplace – for years now, Marketplace has been helping me connect what’s happening in the world to how it relates to my students’ lives. It's stated purpose is to be focused on economics, but they go much deeper than that, in my experience. Anyone who wants to learn more about business would benefit from listening to this podcast.
  • Coaching for Leaders – Leaders Aren't Born, They're Made – I’ll admit that I’m married to the host, but this still is a fabulous podcast that helps us all become more effective at leading. If you want to receive a prescription of past episodes, based on your needs at a given time, try the section on productivity which includes episodes with David Allen of Getting Things Done, Deep Work with Cal Newport, and a discussion Dave and I have about personal knowledge management (PKM).
  • Under The Influence with Terry O'Reilly | CBC Radio – Isabeau Iqbal shared Under the Influence with me a few months ago and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each episode since then. The host, Terry O’Reilly engages us about how marketing has been influencing us through the ages, often without us realizing it.
  • Planet Money : NPR – Hardly an episode of Planet Money goes by without me bookmarking it to use in some future class. It talks all about the ways that money is impacting the world. One of my favorite episodes to use in class is this one on How Fake Money Saved Brazil. I like to pause part-way through the episode and have the students predict how they think the experts recommended that Brazil’s leaders fix the problem.
  • On the Media Podcast – It isn’t as meta as it sounds – a show about media… But, it is helpful to look at the week’s events through the lens of the media and how it addressed various issues.
  • Political Gabfest – This is one of the podcasts that I save up to listen to with my husband, Dave, on our weekend commutes, together. The hosts talk about three different political issues that came up in the past week and then have an eclectic recommendations segment at the end of each show.
  • Stephen Explains the News – The premise of this show is that Stephen knows stuff about what's happening in the news  – and much of the time, Kayla doesn't. Stephen is a friend and a colleague, but even if he wasn't, I would be listening regularly to Stephen Explains the News. While it is sometimes a review of what's happening that I have some background on, I find Kayla's questions a good reminder of the topics that our students may also be confused about. Besides, they both have a wonderful sense of humor and their banter is entertaining.

Geeky Podcasts

  • Reply All – Gimlet Media – This podcast looks at technology and how it intersects with different parts of our lives. One of my favorite segments is what they call: “Yes, yes, no,” where they challenge each other to interpret something that has happened on the internet that may otherwise go unnoticed by the untrained eye.
  • Note to Self | WNYC – I just started listening to this podcast and have really been enjoying it. From the show’s website, “Is your phone watching you? Can wexting make you smarter? Are your kids real? These and other essential quandaries for anyone trying to preserve their humanity in the digital age. Join host Manoush Zomorodi for your weekly reminder to question everything.” I especially like their focus on privacy and how we can all better protect ourselves on the web.
  • Mac Power Users – Relay FM – If you use a Mac and you want to leverage it to be more productive, this is a great show for you. Back in 2015, I was on an episode, talking about how I use screencasting to provide richer feedback to my students.

In Community with Others

Podcasts that are Just Getting Started

These next couple of podcasts don’t have many episodes, but they represent the best of what podcasting has to offer.

I had no idea that this post was going to turn out so long, or that I listened to so many podcasts. Would you believe that this only represents about 60% of them?

As I started to chip away at this post, I realized I was going to have to be much more discerning in which ones I included, than when I first got started with what was supposed to be a relatively easy post.

What podcasts do you listen to that you recommend? Feel free to reply in the comments to this post, or Tweet with your recommendations under the hashtag #trypod.

Becoming

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5 forms of becoming a teacher – Stephen Brookfield's talk at the 2017 Lilly Conference

My colleague and I presented at the Lilly Conference (Anaheim, California) this past week. Our talk was on Rethinking Assessment for Agency and Relevance.

We also got to attend others' sessions and have the experience of learning from such tremendous educators from across the country. Unfortunately, California did not deliver much, in terms of the weather…

But, the Lilly Conference certainly delivered.

Five Forms of Becoming a Teacher

Stephen Brookfield gave a talk at the end of the second day of the conference, which he entitled Five Forms of Becoming a Teacher. You can download his text-heavy PowerPoint slides from the workshop materials of his website (under PowerPoint Presentations).

I say that they're text-heavy in the sense that you can probably capture at least some portion of his talk by reading the slides. He framed everything around the principle that no matter how long any of us has been doing this teaching thing, we are still in the process of becoming…

It's hard to wrap my mind around the idea that someone who has written as many books as he has about teaching and who is the definition of expert educator, would still consider himself still becoming…

It was edifying to hear him express this in such a deep, profound way. I've been at this for 13 years and still feel like one who is becoming in each of the areas he discussed.

The five domains that Steve identifies as his areas of becoming are: pedagogically, ontologically, politically, emotionally, and racially.

Racially Becoming

The six bullets that Steve included on the slide related to becoming racially are heavy. I've had a chance to speak with him twice for the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, plus some conversations before and after those interviews. In particular, we've talked about how we carry our whiteness into diverse classrooms.

Moving beyond the ‘good white person' who is unproblematically an ‘ally' – Stephen Brookfield

I've felt this temptation many times in my teaching. When a student has said something racist in one of my classes, I've observed myself try to hurry the conversation along and try to protect the students of color from what just happened.

Like they don't experience things like that all the time. Like they couldn't speak their own truth, without me having to protect them from someone else's supremacy.

I'm becoming a teacher who thinks less like a ‘good white person' who protects and more like one who has the courage to trust that heated conversations have the potential to ignite changes in perspectives.

Willingness to sit with anger – Stephen Brookfield

Thankfully, I've become far more comfortable sitting with others' anger. However, that seems to sometimes only extend to solo conversations. It is difficult for me to facilitate a group of others who are not equipped to receive others' anger.

So often, conversations about privilege translate into the privileged thinking that because they didn't set out to take others down, that somehow it means that they never could.

I'm becoming a teacher who facilitates hard conversations and helps students be prepared to sit with each others' anger.

Normalizing racism to move past shame and guilt – Stephen Brookfield

I wondered how others in the room during Steve's presentation (especially those who have experienced racism) might feel about the wording of this bullet (here I go, trying to protect others, again…).

What I understood Steve to be referring to was the need to be able to name racism when it occurs and to be able to then do something more powerful with that named action than just leave it at shame and guilt.

If we can name the racist behavior, then we can move toward changing the actions in the future. I'm still wresting with this idea and am not sure where I land. I both want to normalize it and not normalize it, all in the same moment.

I watched as our country normalized the telling of a story about sexual assault from a person who would eventually become the president of the United States. I see too many ‘all lives matter' memes, without any sort of cultural sanctions taking place.

I'm becoming a teacher who discerns how to name racism, without leaving others solely with shame and guilt. I'm becoming a teacher who normalizes the naming of, at the very least, racial microaggressions, to help change minds and actions in the future.

Becoming

I plan on doing some more writing about Steve's other areas of becoming that he spoke about at The Lilly Conference this past weekend. In the meantime, if any of what I've written resonates and you want to explore the topic of racially becoming a bit more, here are some resources.

Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast Episodes

It's hard to write about becoming…. to admit that I'm nowhere done developing into the kind of teacher I yearn to be… Won't you join me in this hard conversation? In what ways are you becoming?

Creating Authentic and Explanatory Videos

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authentic and explanatory videos

In this past week's episode with Steven Michels, we both spoke about the importance of allowing for more authenticity in videos we create for class. I shared about the time I sneezed during one of my pencasts and how funny the students found it.

It turns out, I was just opening doors for others to follow suit. On this week's NPR game show, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, the host Peter Segal sneezed not-once-but-twice during the broadcast, and they left it in the edited show. It was made more funny by the call-in guest predicting his forthcoming, second sneeze.

I share a bit more about ways to keep your class videos engaging in this earlier post. Here are a few more resources to help you, as you look to create videos for your classes.

Resources for Creating Videos

  • Record Your Screen – If what you want to do is record your screen, here's some guidance for tools to use to perform that function. This is the way you can record your voice over a slide deck, for example. It's also the way to show someone how to do something within a piece of software.
  • How to Record Your Screen (PC-centric) – When I want a fast screen-recording experience, I go with SnagIt, which is mentioned in this article. It's available for both the Mac and the PC.
  • How to Record a Pencast – One of my favorite books on visual thinking is The Back of the Napkin, by Dan Roam. In it, he advises us to get rid of our slide decks and go back to communicating via the back of a napkin. Making a pencast is somewhat like that, except that it doesn't involve any napkins being harmed in the process.
  • Video Creation – Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers site has a wealth of resources for educators who want to use technology in our teaching. In this case, he has a page devoted to all sorts of different types of videos you may want to create: from one-take videos, to more sophisticated animation ones.
  • 13 Tips for Recording Your iPhone – While this article is specific to Camtasia, you can still record your iPhone via many software products (some of which you may already have).

Inspiration

  • The 10 Best Explainer Videos of All Time and The Best Explainer Videos of 2016 – When I'm about to embark into something creative, I often start by looking for inspiration. If you want to explain a key concept in your video, these two links (from two very different websites) will provide you with some creative starting points.
  • The Learning Scientists – This site provides a good example of using videos to explain key concepts, while still having handouts and other means for reinforcing the learning. Additionally, this site is great for helping students learn more about learning.
  • Common Craft videos – The creators at Common Craft  were doing explainer videos, long before it became all the rage. Each time I watch one of their videos, I am reminded about something fundamental to helping others understand complex concepts.
  • Alan Smith: Why You Should Love Statistics – Yes, I have decided to include a TED talk in a post about creating videos. In particular, I think looking at his slide design is helpful in deciding how we can teach harder subjects with fewer words on our slides.
  • How to Be an Educated Consumer of Infographics – Before we start creating a bunch of videos, we should ask ourselves if a video is necessary to convey what we hope to get across. Perhaps a well thought-out graphic will teach better than a 20-minute video? Here's a fun look at teaching us about when to check our email (mid-way down the page and also included, below).
A handy flowchart to help you decide if you should check your email. (Wendy MacNaughton, independent illustrator, for Dell / Forbes)

What approaches and tools do you use in creating authentic and explanatory videos?

7 Resources for Addressing Low Motivation Mid-way Through a Class

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If you teach in higher ed, you have probably experienced it.

Despite your best efforts, your entire class seems to start experiencing a huge decline in motivation. What started out well, as you watched your students' curiosities be heightened, now feels like an attempt to lift something well beyond your capacity.

You're experiencing “the dip,” and it is a common occurrence.

You may very well not have done anything wrong, to cause this to happen. However, there are plenty of strategies you can use to bring the motivation back in a course.

  1. Kevin Gannon provides resources about student motivation and learning
  2. Doug McKee describes ways to engage a larger class
  3. The Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation provides this handout with some active learning strategies to try
  4. Maha Bali reminds us that we can embrace a pedagogy of imperfection in our teaching
  5. Heather Yamada-Hosley prescribes some self-care through a yoga routine for people who work on their feet (the more centered we are, the more we have to offer our students)
  6. Sarah Rose Cavanagh asserts that “We don't need to coddle. But we do need to care.“
  7. James Lang gives us small changes we can make in our teaching during the last five minutes of class, or the first five minutes of class

I recommend putting together a playlist of energizing music to start each class with, not taking yourself (or your class) too seriously, and just being thankful that things are probably going better for you than they are for this guy.

How do you try to address issues of low motivation, midway through your semester/term? 

How to Increase Our Digital Literacy Literacy

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As I begin to compose this blog post, my browser has more tabs open than I think I've ever had open at one time before. I've bookmarked 30+ articles about digital literacy the past couple of years, with each post linking to a plethora of additional resources on the subject. My goal in this post is to increase our literacy about the topic of digital literacy.

My Quest

I want to write a post about digital literacy, as a means of recapping my conversation with Mike Caulfield that was published last week.

The Trouble

It is so challenging to even just begin by defining digital literacy, let alone to begin to discuss some of the criticisms of the more popular publications on the topic.

My Compromise

Instead of trying to give readers a thorough exploration of the topic (Mike Caulfield admitted on Twitter that his Digital Literacies: Which One? post was initially intended to be just a few hundred words, but before he knew it, quickly grew into thousands), I'm going to introduce a few places to get started with the subject.

Digital Literacy: A Definition

JISC defines digital literacy as:

Digital literacies are those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society.”

They go on to explain:

Digital literacy looks beyond functional IT skills to describe a richer set of digital behaviours, practices and identities. What it means to be digitally literate changes over time and across contexts, so digital literacies are essentially a set of academic and professional situated practices supported by diverse and changing technologies. This definition quoted above can be used as a starting point to explore what key digital literacies are in a particular context eg university, college, service, department, subject area or professional environment.”

Lest I leave you assuming that this is the agreed-upon definition for digital literacy, there are as many definitions as there seem to be publications on the subject. Belshaw cautions us about the ambiguity that emerges, when we refer to digital literacy.

Belshaw's TEDx talk on the essential elements of digital literacy provides a wonderful overview:

Essential Frameworks

There are a few frameworks that are critical to understanding the ways in which we might think about digital literacy. Some of these frameworks focus on domains, while others are more tool/skill-oriented.

While not specific to solely digital literacy, I do think Mozilla's web literacy map is worth exploring, as well.

Domain-Specific Sites

As Mike Caulfield asserted, a big part of increasing our digital literacy is improving our knowledge within the specific domain being evaluated. Here are just a few resources to help with that endeavor:

Next Steps

There are two specific ways I plan on taking action on what I have been learning about digital literacy. I plan on sharing the ALL ABOARD digital skills framework with the faculty development committee I chair, as a means of brainstorming on possible breakouts for our annual Fall faculty gathering. I also hope to introduce students to some relevant domain-specific sites that could support them in increasing their own digital literacy. Like Mike Caulfield, I also hope that these types of sites continue to grow.

What steps are you taking in developing your own or someone else's digital literacy?