I have been treasuring the opportunity to read about other educators’ lives during this time, as they share with such rawness and candor. It helps to feel less alone.

Here are just some of the posts that have touched my heart and ignited my imagination in some way.

Care Is a Practice; Care is Pedagogical, by Jesse Stommel

Jesse shares about his Mom’s health challenges that drew their family to move across the country and their daughter’s early understandings of the permanence of death. He also describes the ways in which the Open Online Office Hours have brought educators from around the world together in solidarity.

During one of the office hours sessions, they learned that Jesse's husband was being laid off, news which is normally delivered in person, but came via a webcam this time. Finally, he recommends we carefully read our institutions reopening plans and attempt to discern the values being expressed and enacted.

Voices First, Faces Second: Beyond the Tweet, by Maha Bali

I used to require my students to have their camera on during classes. This was in the context of teaching doctoral classes and I packed all kinds of privilege in my choice to establish those rules. Now, I can see things in a lot more nuanced of a way, though I always allow students to make that choice for themselves.

Maha reveals her own desire to be able to see the students she is teaching, but she also knows some of the reasons they may prefer leaving their cameras off. She describes other approaches we can use to have those more human connections beyond a stringent requirement. She asserts that we should first center students' voices, then attempt to get to see their faces. “Voices first, faces second.”

Flipping the Screen Time Conversation into a Meaningful Activity Exploration, by Maha Bali

Dave and I used to have very different approaches to our kids’ screen time than we do now. It was a maximum of one hour per day, with some days not having any time in front of screens at all. Now? Let’s just say they are engaging in school remotely right now – and have what we call “choice time” around here in the afternoons, which usually results in playing Minecraft. A lot of Minecraft.

Maha changed the conversation for me around screen time by thinking through it in the context of what is being done with those screens. Our kids have had the opportunity to play Minecraft with Maha’s daughter (“O”) probably ten times by now. We were able to connect them right as “O” was just starting Minecraft. At first, I was concerned about the many cultural differences I knew would pop up in there. But Maha’s humor and direct communication style made me less afraid and more excited about the tremendous opportunities before us all.

I think about context pretty much every day of my life.

We create way too many dichotomous choices in our lives and the lives of others. Context seems to always be the road toward better-discerned decisions and greater opportunities for connections with people who view things differently than we do.

Video: Recommended Zoom Settings, by Teddy Svornos

I almost didn’t watch this video, thinking that I have settings pretty figured out on Zoom and so do my students. However, I was in for a treat. In two minutes, Teddy shares how he recommends his students set up their Zoom settings within the context of using a smallish laptop so that they can actively learn while participating in class.

Here’s a taste of what he recommends, but I totally think it is better to watch it.

• “Keep video on, if your circumstances allow.”
• “Each class revolves around a handout” (and how to not have it take over your entire screen, when he is sharing it)
• Make these non-full screen settings permanently, in settings
• Use gallery view, while he is sharing the handout, and side-by-side mode (change the size of that portion of the window, using the slider bar)
• Merge to meeting window – chat and/or participants (only works if you’re not in full screen, which I didn’t realize)
• Change to speaker view when he has a camera on his whiteboard

I recommend you subscribe to Teddy’s Tech Notes in your RSS reader of choice, as he is excellent at providing guidance on teaching, educational technology, and productivity.

If you aren’t yet using an RSS reader/aggregator, check out Inoreader. Laura Gibbs is the person who first told me about Inoreader. She has this post from 2015, which still reads as very relevant (in terms of Inoreader tips) today, about how she organizes things in Inoreader. I use folders, subscribe to all “email newsletters” now via Inoreader, so they come into my RSS reader vs into my email, and read/unread.

These are just a few articles (and one video) that have stood out to me in recent weeks. I'm grateful for the generous ways educators are acting in solidarity with one another during this awful time. I can see so much life and beauty amidst the pain and devastation. 

I recently picked up Josh Eyler’s How Humans Learn, again, to prepare for a talk I gave this past week at Tarleton State University for their Center for Instructional Innovation. It did not disappoint. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, I highly suggest you pick up a copy. Also, my thanks goes out to all the people I met at Tarleton State University this week. The stories you shared about how Teaching in Higher Ed has impacted your teaching were edifying to me and I'm honored to have had the opportunity to come to visit and share about curiosity with you in person at the conference. 

With curiosity on my mind in recent weeks, I decided to blog about things that have come up that sparked my interest and made me want to learn more. Below, you will hear about a new feature in Canva that I am enjoying experimenting with… You will also discover the ways I am pursuing habits more than goals these days. Finally, I will share about my exploration of Notion – a website that seeks to be an all-in-one workspace for notes, tasks, wikis, calendars, and more.

Incorporating Background Video in a Slide Deck

The theme of the talk was on curiosity and I found this short video clip of a cat looking around in a slightly inquisitive way to use as one of the slides. Canva must have recently added stock video to their service, which got me to thinking about how to experiment with it for this talk. I like that the cat isn’t doing anything too dramatic, or I think it could be too much of a drag on people’s cognitive load.

Then, I realized that it probably wasn’t going to work for me, since I would likely be working from Glisser and the video looked like it was only playable if I presented the slide deck from within Canva. That’s when things got truly exciting.

I discovered that there’s a way to export the video as a .mp4 (video file), which I will be able to add to YouTube, in order to have it play within Glisser. It says that it is still in beta, but it worked perfectly for me when I tried it.

Habits vs Goals

Many of the productivity experts I follow have been asserting that habits are far greater than goals. Episode 90 of the Focused podcast, for example, was titled Habits > Goals and looked at how establishing habits can help us achieve our goals better than just having identified them and trying to take individual steps toward them.

I continue to love the Full Focus Planner from Michael Hyatt. It has a section dedicated to two types of goals. Achievement goals are the kinds we are used to hearing about. Write a book. Hire a new faculty member. Finish a promotion and tenure portfolio.

Habit goals are less-often discussed. I already had an achievement goal that I keep track of on Goodreads. I was able to read 24 books during 2019, but in the end, it was unclear to me if I was actually going to be able to achieve the goal. I barely made it. However, for 2020, I have emphasized a habit goal related to reading and am going to fly past that 24 books count by the end of March, it’s looking like…

The habit I am emphasizing is taking my Kindle to bed to do my nightly reading, instead of using the iPad. My goal is to do that at least four nights per week. However, it has been so enjoyable that I find I am practicing the new habit a lot more often than that.

The app I’m using to track the habits I have established for 2020 is called Streaks. It automatically tracks my goal of closing my rings on my Apple Watch. It is also able to track a four-day-a-week goal, like my Kindle vs iPad one. And a whole bunch of other types of habit goals.

Two books related to this curiosity of mine that I purchased but haven’t quite started reading are:

• Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, by James Clear

I know that many of you who are reading these words have read them, as they come highly recommended. I am looking forward to discovering even further how habits can help me achieve my goals. I am also prepared to learn a thing or two about the importance of rest and how to get more of it in my life. 

Notion

Finally, I have been playing around with Notion quite a bit. The first time I was able to use Notion was when I copied Mike Caufield’s Check, Please! Starter Course over to my new Notion account. In case you’re interested in his course, too, here’s a description of it:

“In this course, we show you how to fact and source-check in five easy lessons, taking about 30 minutes apiece. The entire online curriculum is two and a half to three hours and is suitable homework for the first week of a college-level module on disinformation or online information literacy, or the first few weeks of a course if assigned with other discipline-focused homework.”

Mike Caulfield made it such that people can copy it over to our own Notion accounts and customize it to meet our individual needs. He just asks that any instances of it link back to his original course, so people are able to find their way back to where it all started.

The more I kept hearing people talk about Notion, the more I thought it might be a good idea to check it out for myself. I started to put some workflows up there to teach people how to edit stuff on my departmental website. It is really easy to learn and can be used in a myriad of ways.

Here’s an example from Thomas Frank on YouTube how he uses Notion to track all of the production steps for his online videos. And below are a few more Notion resources:

• 23 Notion Tips, Hacks & Tricks
• Top 15 Notion Tips for Beginners
• A Beginner’s Guide to Notion

Dave and I are starting to talk about putting the workflows for our respective podcasts on Notion and seeing what else it can do for us.

Your Turn

What has ignited your curiosity in recent weeks?

For the first time in Teaching in Higher Ed history, we are taking the show on the road.

We have been invited to partner with Digital Pedagogy Lab at their new location in Denver, Colorado. Many of this year’s 2020 Lab faculty have also been guests on Teaching in Higher Ed.

That includes people like:

• Robin DeRosa
• Amy Collier
• Bonnie Stewart
• Kevin Gannon
• Kris Shaffer

There are also plenty of individuals who have long been on my list of people I would love to interview for the podcast. What a tremendous opportunity to get to connect with individuals who have shaped my teaching in such powerful ways for all these years.

Sean Michael Morris explains the formation of our partnership as follows:

“Because Digital Pedagogy Lab offers courses and conversations about similar topics and as the Lab has also featured many of the same speakers as Teaching in Higher Ed–we feel this partnership is a perfect fit, and will give Lab participants even more to enjoy.”

We will also be providing a lens into the event for those who are unable to attend in person. I am going to be experimenting a bit with audio storytelling and attempting to capture a less linear version of the DPL conversations than how the podcast interviews are typically structured. I also plan on holding more traditional conversations with some of the teachers and fellows.

Finally, I am very excited to announce that will be broadcasting Teaching in Higher Ed live from Digital Pedagogy Lab on July 28, 2020 at 4:30pm Mountain / 6:30pm Eastern. More information on the broadcast, once we have figured out what we are doing.

View Time/Date on World Time Buddy – and add to your calendar

Note: Anyone who is reading this with advice on what tools to use for live podcast recordings is encouraged to share your recommendations with us. We would appreciate your guidance, especially on the recording a podcast live part of this adventure.

As Sean Michael Morris shared on the DPL website:

“We believe this is an exciting partnership for everyone who attends or has wanted to attend Digital Pedagogy Lab. Stay tuned for more information about Teaching in Higher Ed at DPL 2020.”

We hope to see some of you in person at Digital Pedagogy Lab 2020.

And by we, I do mean we. Dave and the kids will be there with me. Since this is the first time I'm attempting to do something like this, it will be nice to have some backup. The kids' podcasting skills aren't quite matched with Dave's, but no doubt they will keep us entertained.

Photo cred:  Cassie Gallegos on Unsplash

It’s been quite a year for Teaching in Higher Ed. We celebrated one million downloads of the podcast with episode 250 and a profile in The Chronicle of Higher Education. In May, EdTech named the podcast (and me) in their list of 30 Higher Education IT Influencers. I was able to share about podcasting in higher education in an interview with PUPN Magazine’s Rachel James Clevenger.

2019 brought another set of expert guests to the podcast. I have learned so much from each person who has joined me on the show and have enjoyed such rich interactions with many members of the listening community throughout the year.

Top downloaded 19 episodes in 2019

19 | Episode 250 | One in a Million | Bonni and Dave Stachowiak

18 | Episode 244 | Create Online Mashups that Ignite Curiosity | Michael Britt

17 | Episode 248 | Surveying Social and Open Learning | Debbie Baff

16 | Episode 245 | The Fullness of Our Humanity as Teaching and Student | Terri Jett

15 | Episode 259 | Intentional and Transparent Assessment | Natasha Jankowski

14 | Episode 272 | Inclusified Teaching Evaluation | Viji Sathy and Kelly Hogan

13 | Episode 247 | Reclaiming the Narrative on the Value of Higher Education | Eddie Watson

12 | Episode 255 | AHSIE Conference Reflections | Bonni Stachowiak

11 | Episode 269 | Removing Learning Barriers with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) | Jennifer Pusateri

10 | Episode 249 | Mindset, Metacognition, and Math | Silvia Heubach

09 | Episode 271 | The Missing Course | David Gooblar

08 | Episode 273 | Engaging Learners in Large Classes | Bonni Stachowiak

07 | Episode 251 | Annotating the Marginal Syllabus | Remi Kalir

06 | Episode 252 | Ownership, Equity, and Agency in Faculty Development | Maha Bali and Autumm Caines

05 | Episode 253 | Spaces and Places (and Nudges) | José Bowen

04 | Episode 256 | Creating Wicked Students | Paul Hanstedt

03 | Episode 263 | Recipes for Effective Teaching | Elizabeth Barkley

02 | Episode 254 | Stop Talking, Start Influencing | Jared Horvath

01 | Episode 258 | Paying the Price | Sara Goldrick-Rab

2020 Focus

As I think about what to focus on for Teaching in Higher Ed in 2020, here are three top-of-mind ideas:

Experiment with ways to extend the reach of the podcast

I can’t write too much about this yet, as we are in the early stages of planning. Let’s just say that 2020 will mean that Teaching in Higher Ed goes on the road at least once – to join an event I have always wanted to attend.

I received an invitation I just couldn’t pass up, so we are starting to make plans for how to record remotely and capture some powerful stories and pedagogies. I will share more as we finalize our plans.

Continue to connect with a diverse group of expert guests

In 2019, we had two significant partnerships that helped us do this even more than in past years:

1. The California State University partnered with us on a series of episodes on faculty innovation and leadership.
2. ACUE continued providing us with recommended guests on a monthly basis, as they had done in prior years.
3. Members of the Teaching in Higher Ed community used the online form to recommend guests, and also provided suggestions via the Teaching in Higher Ed Slack Group. We also have a Trello board which I open up to completionists – who have listened to every episode of the podcast – for them to make more targeted suggestions. 

As I look through the back catalog of episodes, it is exciting to see that we addressed a rich array of topics throughout the year and contributed to the broader conversation about pedagogy in a higher education context. 

Continue to find ways to defer the cost of producing the podcast

Producing Teaching in Higher Ed has proven to be a costly endeavor. We now own professional podcasting equipment both for our home studio, as well as the one I've set up at my work – so I have more flexibility in when I can conduct interviews. There are web hosting fees, podcast editing, podcast production, and transcript costs. We work on finding creative ways to defer some of these costs, to make the podcast more sustainable over the long haul. 

These methods currently include:

1. Doing paid speaking events to the tune of around 4-5 times per year – find out more on my speaking page. You can also check out the resource pages for all my prior speaking events via the all-speaking page. 
2. Taking on paid sponsorships that align with products and services I would otherwise recommend word-of-mouth – find out more on the sponsorships page. I am projecting that we will have 2-3 sponsorships per month in 2020, though I would love to increase this even more to have a sponsor for each episode that airs.
3. Using affiliate links for the books and other products that get recommended on the various episodes. If you’re interested in seeing some of these items, they are consolidated on the recommendations page.
4. ACUE has started sponsoring the transcripts for each episode, which has helped us be able to continue to provide these resources without having to take the costs on, ourselves.

I have been considering starting a Patreon page for a couple of years now, but haven’t ever taken the plunge. I have enjoyed supporting two people who use Patreon to support their work: Alan Levine and Audrey Watters. Even though my donations are quite minimal, it feels good to know I’m contributing to the larger picture of them being able to continue doing what they do. I may launch a Patreon page in 2020, but am going to hold off for a bit to focus more on the bigger priorities for the start of the year.

Thanks for reading down to the end of this post. If you have a favorite episode from 2019 (or any year, really), I would love to hear about it.

Photo cred: Jamie Street on Unsplash

It is hard to believe that we are back around, again, to another year’s vote for Jane Hart’s Top Tools for Learning. I voted back in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. I also created an infographic of my Modern Professional Learner’s Toolkit. Consider voting in the 2019 survey, which closes Friday, September 13, 2019.

2019 Votes

Each year that I vote, I don’t allow myself to look at past year’s blog posts. That way, I can be sure to avoid any unintended influence on the current year’s selections. First, I narrow down my top ten. Then, I determine which of the three categories they fit within: Personal and professional learning, supporting workplace learning, or within an educational context.

In no particular order, here are my 2019 Top 10 Tools:

Twitter (Personal/professional)

My personal learning network (PLN) on Twitter is vibrant and full of generous, knowledgable people who contribute to my growth daily.

Inoreader (Personal/professional)

This RSS (real simple syndication) keeps track of all of my sources of information. They come through what is called a “feed” into one place. I can browse headlines and read more, or mark items as read. I still haven’t capitalized on all the cool stuff I can do with Inoreader, but is has been great so far.

Unread (Personal/professional)

Once Inoreader contains the feeds I want to read, Unread is my favorite way to actually consume content. I find it works great on the iPad to be able to navigate through headings, quickly mark things as read that aren’t of interest, and bookmark those articles I want to see later on (using Pinboard, which is mentioned next). Unread also has a great dark mode, which saves my eyes while reading at night before bed.

Pinboard (Personal/professional)

When I find something I want to save for future reference, Pinboard is my tool of choice. I save bookmarks to videos, blogs, articles, and more to Pinboard. Each bookmark on Pinboard includes tags, so I can easily go back to topics of interest or resources that might be helpful to my students.

PollEverywhere (Education)

This polling system is a wonderful way to engage an audience, using their smartphones or other devices. PollEverywhere has lots of question types and ways I can present those questions to students.

Glisser (Workplace learning)

My keynote talks are supported with Glisser. I can share slides without having to worry about what device will actually display them (as in if I’ll be able to use my laptop, or will need to use one being provided by the event venue). Glisser also has great tools for engagement, such as polling and social media sharing.

Quizlet (Education)

This flashcard app is highly flexible and offers all sorts of ways to do retrieval practice. Quizlet works great for individuals who want to review materials, but also in a classroom context. My favorite is their game called Quizlet Live that is the most fun I ever see my students having when reviewing for an exam.

Canvas (Education)

I have used many learning management systems (LMSs) in my day. Canvas is by far the best I have ever used. As the name suggests, it can be a blank canvas for an educator to create a dynamic environment for students to engage in. But it also has enough built-in structure to be easy to use and maintain consistency between classes. It also has an app center that lets you bring in other applications to use within Canvas (like Quizlet, mentioned above).

Acuity Scheduling (Workplace learning)

All of my office hours and podcast interview scheduling is done through Acuity Scheduing. We also take registrations for all of our faculty development workshops using this tool. Acuity Scheduling is incredibly flexible and has all kinds of options for making the work of gathering together for all kinds of purposes seamless.

Zoom (Education)

While Zoom is being listed last, it may just mean I saved the best for last! Zoom makes it incredibly easy to connect via web conference with people from all over the world. It does all the heavy lifting with working out the bandwidth issues, to give us the smoothest and clearest connection possible. Zoom also has all kinds of additional features to help participants stay engaged, like breakout rooms, chat (that carries over from session to session), and polls.

Your Turn

Now it is your turn. Consider voting in the 2019 survey, either by submitting your votes via their form, or by writing a blog post like this one.