Teaching in Higher Ed

Help me help you

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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… 

For when you need a break from your Spring break

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FOR WHEN YOU NEED A

It is Spring break at my university, so it is the absolute perfect time to be sick (meant to be read in a voice dripping with sarcasm).

Instead of focusing my writing this week on approaches to help us become more effective teachers or tools to enhance our productivity, I've got some recommendations for those of you who might be looking for a break from all that.

Books

Savvy, by Ingrid Law – Sean Michael Morris recommended this book back on episode #087. It is a delightful book for middle-age kids (and adults who love a captivating story). I'm so glad to know there's more to the story than just this first book.

Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream, by Joshua Davis – My colleague recommended this book and I knew I would enjoy it just from the title. It reminded me a lot of the hope offered in the book The Boy who Harnessed the Wind. Such a great adventure in learning and justice.

Videos

We, the Economy – 20 short films you can't afford to miss – I found these videos while on a bit of a Twitter exploration. Morgan Spurlock is just one of the many talented directors who contributed to these films.

Television

The Mindy Project – I've also been enjoying binge-watching The Mindy Project on Hulu. Her narcissism is fun to watch and we can tell that deep down beneath, she really does care.

TV: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver – While I have yet to find any students who watch The Mindy Project, many of them are regular viewers of John Oliver's show on HBO. Technically, most of them don't watch it on HBO and they don't watch the entire show. YouTube has the clips of his 19-minute monologues, including his recent dive into the encryption debate going on  between Apple and the FBI.

That's it for now.

My next work-related book is going to be James Lang's latest book – Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. He's on the Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast this Thursday, so keep your ears on your podcast player. It's a good one!

 

Practicing curation

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CURATION

I shared with my doctoral students this past weekend about the power of personal knowledge management (PKM). Specifically, I attempted to address the benefits of having a trusted curation process that is built for the present and the future.

The value of having information available to you when you need it is difficult to articulate until people get to experience it for themselves. Part of being overwhelmed by things flying at us seems to be the shutting down anything that isn't immediately demonstrating a pressing need.

I came across two articles this week that were of immediate value to me:

1) An Apple Pencil-drawn review of the Apple Pencil

I've had an Apple Pencil for a little over a month now and really enjoyed seeing the device through Serenity Caldwell‘s eyes.

2) What's really to blame for the failures of our learning management systems?

Our institution is currently evaluating a potential change in our learning management system, or at least a substantial upgrade to our existing one. The article cracked me up, since some of the events described in the piece are happening to us as I write this.

At least you've got to be able to laugh at yourself in this life…

The couple other articles I discovered this week aren't ones I am instantly going to do something with, but will no doubt be of value down the road:

1) Small changes in teaching: The last five minutes of class

James Lang is such a wonderful author and gives fabulous advice in this piece. However, this week is primarily made up of exams in my classes and next week is our Spring break. I have captured his ideas in my bookmarking system (Pinboard.in) and will follow up at such a time as when I have an opportunity to try some new approaches in my teaching.

I will get more out of his article if I review it, again, when I am able to start experimenting with his suggestions. In the meantime, it has been saved under my teaching bookmarks.

2) This website simulates what dyslexia is really like

I saw this tool on Twitter and was instantly captivated by the idea that we might be able to have more empathy for those with dyslexia by seeing through their eyes…

The article has been saved under my disability bookmarks and no doubt will prove to be useful when I am working with faculty to have a better sense of why certain accommodations are made for our students.

[reminder] What have you come across this week that either had immediate or future benefit to you? [/reminder]

 

Leverage the Due App in your teaching and productivity

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LEVERAGE THE DUE APP

I mentioned in a recent episode how much I'm getting out of using the Due App.

When I had Natalie Houston on the show, she inspired me to make more use of timers in my teaching and productivity. Here are some of the places she has written about her use of timers:

As I started to find multiple uses for timers in my life, I ran into a challenge. As soon as the timer went off and I turned off the alarm, the item quickly went out of my head.

Enter the Due App.

I don't have that problem with the Due App. I set a “timer” and it keeps bugging me however often I tell it to… If I get distracted in the moments following a reminder to take care of something, I quickly get my attention pulled back by the next alert.

Here are a few ways I'm using the Due App reminders in my teaching and productivity:

Meeting with students. What I enjoy the most about teaching are the one-on-one conversations I get to have with students. That means that I frequently lose track of time and run the risk of missing something urgent. Now I set up an alert in the Due App for five minutes before our conversation is supposed to end and set it up to buzz me every five minutes after that. You have complete control over how often it will bug you.

Committee meetings. I'm charing a few committees this semester and often have to squeeze the meetings in between my teaching schedule. I set a Due alarm for ten minutes before the meeting is supposed to end and then for each five minutes after that.

Reminders to take / pick up students' exams that are being proctored by the disabilities office. I like to do blind grading for exams. That doesn't work very well if I don't have the students' exams with me who have had their exams administered by another person. I set a Due reminder to nudge me to pick up their exams from the office prior to me leaving the office and heading home. Then, I can be sure to grade their exams along with everyone else's.

As I was researching stuff for this post, I discovered that there are also reusable timers as a feature of the app. They give the example of a Pomodoro timer that you might launch when doing a burst of productivity. Maybe you have a set period of time for each time you brew tea, or start a load of laundry in the washer? You can reuse the timers anytime you want to perform that activity that could use a set duration of time.

There are so many possibilities that I know things are  just getting started.

I just bought the Due App for the Mac and look forward to syncing all my reminders between my Apple Watch, iPhone and Mac.

[reminder]Are there apps you're using in place of a “traditional” timer to keep tasks top of mind for yourself? [/reminder]

Behind the curtain

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Behind the curtain

The Chronicle recently re-posted a 2015 article by Carol Holstead about her experiences requiring her students to take notes by hand. One important distinction she made was that laptops aren't very good for note-taking, leaving a lot of room to conjure up ideas as to how she might use technology in other ways in the classroom.

There have been many articles out in the past few years about hand written note taking:

Just to cite a few…

I have been primarily laptop free in my classes for years now. The exception to the ban is when the learning activity involves something that would be enhanced by having access to research tools, or if I want to transform the students' cell phones into “clickers” using PollEverywhere.

One thing has changed, though…

I'm much more cheerful when I ask my students to put away their laptops/cellphones, even if I need to remind them of the request multiple times during the semester.

Here are my reasons:

Kindness. I continue to be inspired by Jesse Stommel on episode #057, as he shared how integral kindness is to his pedagogy. Whenever there are opportunities to show kindness to my students, I take them. Or at least I aspire to…

Rationale. It gives me an opportunity to reinforce my rationale behind the request to put away their laptops. I can remind them about the research that shows that, yes, taking notes by hand will slow them down, but that it will also often lead to greater retention.

Purpose. Jose Bowen shared this on episode #030: “Nobody uses a laptop while doing yoga or playing tennis.” By demonstrating to the students the function of a classroom community, the benefits of presence, I can better help them see that I care deeply about their learning and that is the purpose behind the restrictions.

When we let our students see “behind the curtain” a bit, we help them better understand our pedagogy, as well as our care for them as learners.

[reminder] How do you let your students see “behind the curtain” into your pedagogy? [/reminder]