Teaching in Higher Ed

15 lessons from 2015’s podcasts (part 1)

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In the interest of practicing the curation piece of my PKM system, I'm investing some time in reflecting back on a year of podcasting in 2015.

I'm grateful to each guest who accepted the invitation to be on the show.

As I consider what I want to take with me into 2016, I'm focusing on key lessons for me from 2015's Teaching in Higher Ed podcasts.

This is part one of a three-part series on lessons from the podcast. I'll share five lessons in each post, for a total of 15.

Lesson #1

Things are going to be messy and that's ok.

I shared with Jose Bowen about one of my bigger teaching failures. Instead of shaming me, he celebrated it and told me to keep it up.

I believe in noisy and messy classrooms. – Jose Bowen

josebowen-quote

https://teachinginhighered.com/30

Lesson #2

There's a lot one can do with a timer.

Natalie Houston introduced me to the idea of using timers more in my teaching and productivity. When I'm meeting with students, I'll now set a timer on my Apple Watch. When it goes off, the student doesn't realize it, but I know to start to wrap things up to move on to my next commitment.

I am able to be more present for others in my life using timers. Plus, I can make sure I don't get too caught up in something solitary and miss out on other priorities.

nataliehoustonquote

https://teachinginhighered.com/34

Lesson #3

If you're I'm not having my students solve problems or the problems I'm having them solve lack interest to them, I'm missing the boat in my teaching.

2015 meant that I had the opportunity to speak with someone who I have admired from afar since I started teaching in higher ed more than a decade ago.

Ken Bain's voice has been in my head, ever since, encouraging me to create opportunities for students to solve problems that they find interesting or beautiful.

[Good teaching] is about having students answer questions or solving problems that they find intriguing, interesting, or beautiful. -Ken Bain

kenbainquote

https://teachinginhighered.com/36

Lesson #4

Digital literacy is less about generations and more about context.

Steve Wheeler challenged the notion of digital natives on episode #38 and has had me thinking so much more about context ever since.

It’s not about age; it’s about context. -Steve Wheeler

contextquote

https://teachinginhighered.com/38

Lesson #5

Keep content independent from an LMS and therefore more portable into whatever system comes my way.

Scott Self helped me see a whole new potential for using Evernote (or any cloud-based notebook system) in my teaching. He stressed keeping content out of LMSs, for the most part, since at any point, a university could decide to make a change to the system that they use, leaving all our course shell creations useless.

https://teachinginhighered.com/48

Part 2 – coming soon

Stay tuned for next week's post with part 2 of lessons learned from podcasting in 2015.

[reminder]What is a lesson you're taking from the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast into 2016? [/reminder]

15 lessons from 2015's podcasts (part 1)

By | | | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

In the interest of practicing the curation piece of my PKM system, I'm investing some time in reflecting back on a year of podcasting in 2015.

I'm grateful to each guest who accepted the invitation to be on the show.

As I consider what I want to take with me into 2016, I'm focusing on key lessons for me from 2015's Teaching in Higher Ed podcasts.

This is part one of a three-part series on lessons from the podcast. I'll share five lessons in each post, for a total of 15.

Lesson #1

Things are going to be messy and that's ok.

I shared with Jose Bowen about one of my bigger teaching failures. Instead of shaming me, he celebrated it and told me to keep it up.

I believe in noisy and messy classrooms. – Jose Bowen

josebowen-quote

https://teachinginhighered.com/30

Lesson #2

There's a lot one can do with a timer.

Natalie Houston introduced me to the idea of using timers more in my teaching and productivity. When I'm meeting with students, I'll now set a timer on my Apple Watch. When it goes off, the student doesn't realize it, but I know to start to wrap things up to move on to my next commitment.

I am able to be more present for others in my life using timers. Plus, I can make sure I don't get too caught up in something solitary and miss out on other priorities.

nataliehoustonquote

https://teachinginhighered.com/34

Lesson #3

If you're I'm not having my students solve problems or the problems I'm having them solve lack interest to them, I'm missing the boat in my teaching.

2015 meant that I had the opportunity to speak with someone who I have admired from afar since I started teaching in higher ed more than a decade ago.

Ken Bain's voice has been in my head, ever since, encouraging me to create opportunities for students to solve problems that they find interesting or beautiful.

[Good teaching] is about having students answer questions or solving problems that they find intriguing, interesting, or beautiful. -Ken Bain

kenbainquote

https://teachinginhighered.com/36

Lesson #4

Digital literacy is less about generations and more about context.

Steve Wheeler challenged the notion of digital natives on episode #38 and has had me thinking so much more about context ever since.

It’s not about age; it’s about context. -Steve Wheeler

contextquote

https://teachinginhighered.com/38

Lesson #5

Keep content independent from an LMS and therefore more portable into whatever system comes my way.

Scott Self helped me see a whole new potential for using Evernote (or any cloud-based notebook system) in my teaching. He stressed keeping content out of LMSs, for the most part, since at any point, a university could decide to make a change to the system that they use, leaving all our course shell creations useless.

https://teachinginhighered.com/48

Part 2 – coming soon

Stay tuned for next week's post with part 2 of lessons learned from podcasting in 2015.

[reminder]What is a lesson you're taking from the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast into 2016? [/reminder]

Every book in its place

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Dark wood book shelf with old books
Dark wood book shelf with old books

I am starting my initial preparation for a presentation I'll be giving at the 2016 Lilly Conference in Newport Beach, CA in February.

As I went to search for Dan Roam's Show and Tell book, which has a method for outlining presentations, I discovered a book I have been looking for on my shelves for more than a year now. It is unusual for me to lose books, since I have a pretty good system going for cataloging them.

Most organizing experts all have some way of stating that everything should have a place that it belongs. I find whenever I lose things, or start to get messy, it is because I have acquired items that have yet to find a “home” either in my university or home office.

In my delight over my discovery of the lost book, I decided to describe a few of the approaches I use to ensure that my books have a place.

Group physical books by category and label them

Decades ago, my Mom used to work in a bookstore and is pretty much the family librarian. She has twice now helped me categorize my books through two moves. Thank you Mom.

In order to maintain the categories that she set up, I printed labels using my label maker.

IMG_0563

I used an index card, folded down about an inch from the end of the card, with a label with the relevant category attached.

Devote a space near your primary working desk for books you're using this semester

I tend to read the majority of my books these days via either my iPad or my Kindle. The big exception to that is that I tend to read hardcopy textbooks. I use them more than any other books during a given semester.

IMG_0559

It makes it simple having them all grouped together within arm's reach of where I do the majority of my focused work.

Weed out old books once a year and consider donating them

On a recent episode of Very Bad Wizards, the hosts spoke about their powerful experiences in teaching prison inmates.

One need they mentioned was for textbooks for inmates. This isn't something I have done before, but through a bit of searching found the Prison Book Program and Books Through Bars as a couple of organizations that may help facilitate your giving.

There's also a listing by the Prison Book Program website for other prison book programs, in case none of the options above serve in your area. Again, I can't vouch for these organizations and welcome any feedback you have in the comments section.

Another idea for donating books is to consider giving to Books for Africa.

Consider transitioning to ebooks

As I mentioned previously, most of my new reading takes place via my iPad or my Kindle. It is great to have all my highlights in one place and have the ability to search annotations that I've made previously.

When reading electronic books, there's no longer a physical book that needs to be stored. You can let whatever service you use keep all your books organized and avoid spending more than a year looking for that one missing book, like me.

I also enjoy using Goodreads to catalog books that I've read and even to share with the grandparents the books that our kids own.

[reminder]What methods do you use to keep your books organized?[/reminder]

 

 

My 2015 someday/maybe technology list

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someday/maybe technology list

I've talked on the podcast many times before about my approach to exploring new technology that I hear about during the semester. When I discover an educational technology or productivity tool that seems like it might be a good fit for me, I attempt to resist the temptation to dive in right then.

Instead, I place the item on the technology section of my someday/maybe list.

David Allen prescribes the use of someday/maybe lists in his GTD (Getting Things Done) system, as follows:

Activating and maintaining your Someday/Maybe category unleashes the flow of your creative thinking – you have permission to imagine cool things to do without having to commit to doing anything about them yet. – David Allen in Getting Things Done

Someday/maybe technology list

Here's what's on my someday / maybe list under the technology section, to check out during our 2015 holiday break:

Doceri

  • Evaluate Doceri as a possible pencasting replacement, due to LiveScribe's reliance on a proprietary PDF format or app for playing pencasts

Backdraft

  • Check out Backdraft for pre-populating Tweets for a live presentation

Markdown Field Guide

Ulysses

  • Consider switching to Ulysses for podcast interview notes

Mac “Vacuuming” Mail Optimizer

Stanford's Online and Blended Courses

FileMaker Pro

Evaluate using FileMaker Pro for tracking Teaching in Higher Ed guest recommendations

IFTTT

Learn OmniFocus webinars and videos

Linky 5.0

  • Learn about Linky 5.0 and evaluate it's use for social media sharing (not quite sure what it does over BufferApp)

[reminder]What's on your someday/maybe technology list that you'll be checking out as the year ends? [/reminder]

More on blind grading

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blind grading

On episode #068 Dave and I discussed the biases that can be problematic when working to grade exams fairly.

One technique that we shared to promote greater integrity in our exam grading was blind grading. Not everyone agrees with this method, since there are some downsides.

David Gooblar stresses that despite the challenges that knowing which student is being evaluated presents, we should have knowledge as to which student produced the work we are grading.

Gooblar writes:

If I were to grade blind, I wouldn’t be able to chart a student’s progress throughout the term, from one assignment to another, nor would I be able to tailor my grading to the specific skills each student is working on. – See more at: https://chroniclevitae.com/news/1186-should-we-all-be-grading-blind?

While I tend to grow increasingly depressed each time I allow myself to read the comments section of anything on the internet, I was pleasantly surprised by the nuanced reactions to Gooblar's piece.

One of the commenters describes how s/he attains a balance between the two extremes:

I grade essays blind, but then identify each author when I record grades. So I do know how each student is doing through the course, while still reducing bias in grading.

I realize that, like parents with their children, we should love all of them equally. But, like parents, we are human, and we like some better than others.

I didn't emphasize it in episode #068: my blindness in grading is a temporary thing.

Being able to talk with each of our students, individually, about how we see him/her developing is an important aspect of our roles as teachers. However, doing what we can to ensure that we aren't poorly evaluating their work due to conscious or unconscious biases is also paramount.
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