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Going public with our learning

By Bonni Stachowiak | May 23, 2016 | | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

My mind is still invigorated from my conversation about public sphere pedagogy with Thia Wolf on episode 101 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.

Something special happens when we have our students take their work public in some way.

Whether I reflect on this past semester's experiments with poster sessions in my Consumer Behavior classes, or when my sales students role played a complex sale with someone they hadn't met before, the excitement of what these learning opportunities present energizes me.

My students were so engaged with the idea that their work could take on a more significant role than an exchange solely with me through the grading process.

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The most fertile ground for significant learning experiences takes place within multiple disciplines.

Our educational system seems to be starting to figure this out at the preschool level, but I rarely see examples like this in higher ed. Our son's preschool writes about their curriculum this way:

Learning in preschool is hands-on and integrated. A child’s time outside chasing insects in the garden, for instance incorporates all the ‘dispositions for learning’ as well as cognitive development: science (“What kind of bug is this?” “What do they eat?”); math (“Is it larger or smaller than the other one?” “How many did you find today?”); language (“Monarch Butterflies are orange and black.” “Let’s make up a poem about butterflies!”); social skills (“How can we all see?” “You can have a turn next.”); physical development (running after the butterfly, carefully stepping around plants, manipulating the butterfly net); and creative (painting a picture of the butterfly in its habitat. Dancing and moving like one.)

There is no “math time,” “science time,” or “language time.” Learning is everywhere and happening all the time supported by teachers skilled at looking for and creating moments of discovery and learning based on children’s needs and interests.

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I wish there was more of a push to have this paradigm in higher ed.

When we think of our students as producers of knowledge, the vision of higher education is magnified.

I recently came across the theme of Vanderbilt's Course Design Institute and was trying to figure out if there was a way I could attend, even though the application deadline has passed (oh yeah – and I don't work there).

Their site explain the Students as Producers theme as follows:

“Students as Producers” is shorthand for an approach to teaching that helps students become not just consumers of information, but also producers of knowledge, engaging in meaningful, generative work in the courses they take.

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[reminder] Were you inspired by something that Thia Wolf shared about public sphere pedagogy, or have you tried something similar in your teaching? [/reminder]

Filed Under: Teaching

Video course trailers

By Bonni Stachowiak | May 3, 2016 | | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Our university is moving to Canvas this summer.

One feature I'm looking forward to utilizing is way Canvas approaches syllabi. The dates that many faculty re-create each and every semester at the bottom of their syllabi are auto-populated by whatever assignments and other date-related items you enter within the learning management system (LMS).

Above those dates is an empty space, just waiting for a professor to get creative…

2016-05-03_18-49-54

At the 2016 OLC Innovate conference, I saw a plethora of ways faculty are using either a custom course home page, or the top of the syllabus page to draw students in… This isn't specific to Canvas and would work in any learning management system (LMS).

I'm thinking I would like to use video to develop a sense of curiosity about my classes within an online syllabus.

Video course trailers

Thanks to Derek Bruff, I rediscovered what are called course trailers. These are similar to move trailers, but rather than getting students excited about a forthcoming movie, you get them excited about your class.

Duke has an introduction on how to create video course trailers, while there are plenty of other places to go for inspiration.

Harvard was one of the earliest developers of course trailers. They have a collection of trailers for their general ed courses and also from their school of government courses.

This trailer for a C.S. Lewis course is very inspiring. I suspect it could leave some faculty perceiving that the process of making a course trailer is too daunting, after watching it, however.

https://vimeo.com/album/2977329/video/47097354

Most of the trailers that I watched seemed to be geared toward attempting to persuade a potential student to take a particular course. Our department is such that getting students to enroll in my classes isn't typically the problem. Instead, I would like to have a course trailer to get them excited about what they are going to learn, once they have registered for one of my classes.

https://vimeo.com/album/2977329/video/20933798

Should any of us desire another resource for how to make a course trailer, this post from the University of Mary Washington should meet that need.

[reminder]What will you be working on over the summer to incorporate into your future classes? [/reminder]

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: canvas, lms, syllabus, video

My learning from the OLC Innovate 2016 conference

By Bonni Stachowiak | April 22, 2016 | | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Untitled design

This week, I've been experiencing the OLC Innovate 2016 conference in New Orleans.

Back in January, I was contacted by someone from MERLOT, to let me know that the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast had been included in their collection and had then won a MERLOT Classics award. They invited me to come have the award conferred at the OLC Innovate conference and to give a presentation.

That's how I got here.

Discoveries

Here are just a few things I discovered this week:

GooseChase is a great way to build mobile phone scavenger hunt for your classes. The service is free to educators using it in our classrooms. The presenter of this session built a game, using our input, in less than five minutes.

Dr. Katie Linder gave me a pair of Research in Action earbuds, having no idea that one of my trusty pairs of earbuds had broken right before I took off for the airport.

The new Research in Action podcast is fabulous and is a great complement to Teaching in Higher Ed. It focuses on topics that aren't addressed on Teaching in Higher Ed, while still making their content accessible to diverse listeners.

I had to privilege to talk with Dr. Carl Moore after my session. We covered all the bases: race, religion, politics, teaching, social justice, productivity, iPhone apps, and music. I'm not kidding. As you might imagine, I invited him to come on the podcast and look forward to having him share with us about proactive inclusion.

Carl shared with me about a professor who has taught him so much by always having two rules for his classes: That you be yourself and that you are present. 

Universities are experimenting with hyflex models of course delivery. Dr. Brian Beatty put together a great panel of  presenters, discussing the various ways they are giving their students flexibility, while ensuring that they still maintain the following four hyflex principles: Alternatives, equivalence, reuse, and accessibility.

Travis Thurston shared about the creative ways they are developing learning paths within the Canvas LMS. He's doing what seems to be a combination of choose your own adventure learning, as well as choose your own adventure assessment.

The presenters from UCSF shared about how to create screen lessons for our students and provided a link to their online resources. They gave four ideas for creating more engaging videos:

  1. Provide a virtual demo in a screencast format
  2. Ask questions (can even do video-based questions in a quiz)
  3. Annotate with ink using a stylus
  4. Use props to illustrate your point

They also suggested keeping videos less than 10 minutes, in most cases even as short as 3-5 minutes. They make use of Screenflow and Camtasia in creating their videos.

Finally, I started coveting the Swivl robot, once again.

You hold a small remote in your hand while you're presenting and the robot “follows” you to keep your image on camera. Also, you indicate using the remote whether you want to be recording your image, or whatever you're projecting on to the screen.

Given that our university is switching over to Canvas this summer, something tells me it isn't the right time to make a purchase of an entirely new type of device… But, that's probably just because I'm tired and I'll be back to wanting one, again, tomorrow.

I didn't do any sketchnotes, like I usually do at conferences. The tip of my Apple Pencil had fallen off and I didn't notice until I took it out to start my first note. Fortunately, I located it in the bottom of the tote bag they gave us and order was restored in my iUniverse.

You can view the slides and resources from my session online.

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: conference, OLC

Emerging tools

By Bonni Stachowiak | April 5, 2016 | | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

As I have shared previously, I don't jump on every new tool when it first gets introduced.

Part of the reason is just a question of workload. There simply isn't time. I also don't want to confuse students by overdoing it with technology.

Finally, I want to be sure I allow enough time to properly reflect and strategize on how to best utilize a given tool. That's one of the reasons I find my someday/maybe list for technology tools so beneficial.

Still, I keep my PKM system flowing with emerging tools to consider integrating into my teaching when/if the timing is right.

The possibilities are endless, when you find the right tool for the right situation.

Consider that without collaborative technology, projects like this musical piece put on by musicians from all over the world wouldn't be imaginable, let alone feasible.

Snapchat

If you haven't heard of Snapchat before, here's a good introduction to start with… NPR describes how teachers are using Snapchat, while Jilll Walker Rettberg gives this fabulous look at how scholars can use Snapchat.

I'm tempted to dip my toe in the Snapchat world, a bit less from an educational perspective and more because so many marketers are using it to connect with consumers. These ten Snapchat brands are leveraging the platform in creative ways and I want to understand the ways to engage made possible through Snapchat.

Not as much has been written about Snapchat in higher ed, though articles like this complete guide to Snapchat for parents and teachers are applicable enough to our context to be of benefit.

The Wall Street Journal published the best article I've seen on using Snapchat in a personal/individual context.

Slack

I've written previously about using Slack in my teaching and have shared about it on the podcast. Zach Whalen also provided his notes on teaching with Slack.

A friend recently suggested that I should have a Slack channel for Teaching in Higher Ed and give people a way to engage more as a community together.

This would only make sense to me if there were enough members of the Teaching in Higher Ed community who were already up on Slack and looking for a way to chat more about teaching effectiveness and productivity.

slack

I wouldn't want to try to convince someone to get up and running on Slack just for this one purpose, but rather if a bunch of you were already using Slack for other things and would enjoy this additional means for communication on that platform.

If you would be interested in joining a Teaching in Higher Ed Slack channel, let me know either in the comments, below, or by getting in touch through a private message.

[reminder]What emerging tools are you experimenting with, or considering giving a try in the next few months?[reminder]

Filed Under: Educational Technology Tagged With: edtech, slack, snapchat, socialmedia

Help me help you

By Bonni Stachowiak | March 22, 2016 | | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

My apologies to those of you who prefer a bit more sophisticated reference to the movie Jerry Maguire… I'm coming off of more than a week with a nasty virus and may not be able to manage much more than this.

At 1:15 in the clip, Jerry says, “Help me, help you.”

That's what I'm asking you for today…

I've been airing Teaching in Higher Ed podcasts weekly since June 2014.

As I start thinking about summer of 2016, I wonder if I should keep going with the same pattern that I have been on, or perhaps modify my approach a bit during those months.

Help me, help you

Please consider getting in touch through the comments section, below, or if you receive this via email, you can just reply with answers to any of the following questions:

  1. How could Teaching in Higher Ed best support your professional development over the summer?
  2. How regularly will you be listening to podcasts over the summer?
  3. What have been 1-2 of the episodes that we have aired so far that have changed your teaching in some way and how did they impact that change?
  4. What's one area in your teaching or personal productivity that you are struggling with right now?

[reminder]Thank you for considering providing input as I consider how to approach summertime with Teaching in Higher Ed. [/reminder]

I know that many of you teach year round and appreciate hearing from you, as well, about your listening habits and episodes that have transformed  your teaching… 

Filed Under: Resources

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