Teaching in Higher Ed

Steve Wheeler talks Learning with ‘e’s

with Steve Wheeler

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Steve Wheeler joins me to share about Learning with ‘e’s…

steve-wheeler

PODCAST NOTES

Steve Wheeler

Bio

Learning with ‘e's

Origins of Learning with ‘e's

  • 2007 started blogging
  • Learning using digital technologies…
  • Incorporates comments from people into the book

 eLearning 3.0

If Web 1.0 was the ‘Write Web' and Web 2.0 is the ‘Read/Write Web', then Web 3.0 will be the ‘Read/Write/Collaborate Web'.

  • Coined by Tim Reilly of O'Reilly media – progression or evolution of the web
  • Web 1.0 – the sticky web
  • Web 2.0 – the participatory web
  • Web 3.0 – the read/write/collaborative web

Digital natives/immigrants vs residents/visitors

Mark Frensky – coined the phrases digital natives and digital immigrants in 2000 / 2001 – The Horizon

  • Digital natives
  • Digital immigrants
  • Net Generation

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

Residents and visitors – coined by David S. White and Alison Le Cornu

Challenging to find a universal digital literacy tool

Every individual’s context is unique. -Steve Wheeler

I know what I need to do with the tools that are available to me and so do my students. -Steve Wheeler

We learn best when we are curious. We become curious when we don't know the answer to something. And we don't know the answer to something when we get challenged. Problem based learning is probably the most powerful method you could possibly use. -Steve Wheeler

Twitter

Initially got interested in the backchannel chatter happening at a conference.

@stevewheeler account – started with that, though his more popular account to follow is…

@timbuckteeth – avatar – Dave, the astronaut on the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey

Twitter for me is probably for me the most powerful tool for communicating I've ever used. -Steve Wheeler

Lack persistence – You need to give it time.

[Twitter] is not about the content; it’s about the conversation. -Steve Wheeler

The practice of blogging

If [professors don't blog], how else are they going to express themselves? -Steve Wheeler

Professors normally express themselves through closed, academic journals. The academic capital that most universities currently subscribe to… That's going to change.

Why Steve knows that blogging is much more effective:

Wrote an article in 2005: wasn’t published for nearly three years; revised. 36 academic citations.

At the same time, wrote another article, sent it in to an open-access journal; five people instead of two… Not only did they publish it within six weeks. The way forward for disseminating… 550k views; Almost 1,000 citations.

Blogging. People are actually reading it. Could be much harsher in their criticism. Reflect on practice more deeply. 3,000 views in a day. Don’t know how he could possibly get that kind of exposure through traditional academic journals.

US

UK

Privacy

Audrey Watters on Teaching in Higher Ed podcast

Death of privacy – all surveilled; all followed; difficult to be a private citizen

The death of privacy has happened. It's very difficult to be a private citizen these days. -Steve Wheeler

  • The law is running to catch up
  • Difficult question to answer
  • School systems differ; social contexts differ; social norms differ

Steve's addition

How the maker movement is moving into classrooms

Taupaki School in Aukland – principal of the school, Stephen Lethbridge (on Twitter)- primary plus school. 5-13… through making things. Papert's Constructionist theories. Learning the curriculum subjects in a fun, challenging, exciting way.

Recommendations

Bonni recommends:

Doug McKee's kids' books recommendations

Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
A story about a catepillar

…partly about life, partly about revolution and lots about hope – for adults and others including caterpillars who can read.

Steve recommends:

Don't Change the Light Bulbs: A compendium of expertise from the UK's most switched-on educators

 

Developing critical thinking skills

with Tine Reimers

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Tine Reimers helps us define the term critical thinking and truly start developing our students' skills.

critical-thinking

PODCAST NOTES

[GUEST ]

Tine Reimers

Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Specialist
Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning
Vancouver Island University

Critical Thinking

Defining critical thinking (and the inherent challenges when we want to improve critical thinking in our students, without actually agreeing, collectively, on what we mean)

Different disciplines define critical thinking differently than each other

Difficulty in the concrete way in how to get students to think critically in the discipline-specific way that I'm trying to develop…

HANDOUT: Taxonomy of [some] critical thinking theories

* Developmental
– what gets emphasized?
– a few of the thinkers/researchers who posit this theory

* Learning styles / bio-neurological models of thought
Article from Wired: All you need to know about learning styles…
– what gets emphasized?
– a few of the thinkers/researchers who posit this theory

* Categories of cognitive skills
– what gets emphasized?
– a few of the thinkers/researchers who posit this theory

* Processes of self (in culture and society)
– what gets emphasized?
– a few of the thinkers/researchers who posit this theory

Episode with stephenbrookfield/15

Suggestions to grow critical thinking

  • Invert the classroom intellectually
  • Give the students practice in situations of ambiguity and complexity

[Correction: I said I was listening to the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, but I meant that I was listening to the Inside Higher Ed podcast on competency-based programs]

  • Each team gets a significant problem to work on
  • Give the same problem to all the groups in the class
  • Limited set of choices as right answers
  • Which is the best answer to this problem
  • Simultaneous report in the classroom
  • Clickers or cards in class
  • Why did you say D?

Next steps

Flip the classroom – all of class period is around problem solving and sticking to your guns

Rabbit holes are a way of thinking… and we don't give our students enough chances to do that type of thinking in foundational classes.

ARTICLE: First day questions for learner-centered classrooms, by Gary Smith, University of New Mexico

Michelson and Fink’s team based learning approach

RECOMMENDATIONS

From Tine:

 

What the best college teachers do

with Ken Bain

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Ken Bain describes What the Best College Teachers Do…

PODCAST NOTES

Guest: Ken Bain

President, Best Teachers Institute, Ken Bain (Twitter: @kenbain1)

“Internationally recognized for his insights into teaching and learning and for a fifteen-year study of what the best educators do”

“His now classic book What the Best College Teachers Do. (Harvard University Press, 2004) won the 2004 Virginia and Warren Stone Prize for an outstanding book on education and society, and has been one of the top selling books on higher education. It has been translated into twelve languages and was the subject of an award-winning television documentary series in 2007.”

He was the founding director of four major teaching and learning centers.

WHAT THE BEST COLLEGE TEACHERS DO

Many will be familiar with What the Best College Teachers Do… If not, press stop, and get your hands on it.

What’s still the same, in the >10 years since the book was published?

“Ask engaging questions that spark people’s curiosity and fascination that people find intriguing…”

What’s changed, if anything?

  • More definition around the natural critical learning environment
  • Started with 4-5 basic elements
  • Since then, they have identified 15 different elements…
  • Deep approach to learning; deep achievement in learning

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

Learner isn’t in charge of the questions. Teacher can raise questions that the learner will never invent on their own.

Need to give learners the same kind of learning condition and environment that we expect as advanced learners.

[As an advanced learner, asking for input from colleagues]… I would expect an environment in which I would try, fail, receive feedback… and do that in advance of and separate from anybody's judgment or anyone's grading of my work. (Ken Bain)

Bonni's introduction to business students are listening to the StartUp Podcast and making recommendations to the founders in the form of a business plan

The tone that you set in the classroom matters

We often teach as if we are God. (Craig Nelson)

Need to recognize the contingency in our own knowledge.

As advanced learners in our respective fields, we are interested in certain questions, because we were once interested in another question. (Ken Bain)

Another important study by Richard Light at Harvard asked: What are the qualities of those courses at Harvard that students find most intellectually rewarding?

When he published his initial results:

  1. High, but meaningful standards… important to the students beyond the scope of the class.
  2. Plenty of opportunity to try, fail, receive feedback… try again… all in advance of an separate from any grading of their work

As a historian, could begin with: “What do you think it means to think like a good historian.” Think, pair, square, share… Would then have an article on hand that someone else had written on the topic. Ask them to look at that article to compare their own thinking with that.

Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence, and the Authority of Knowledge, by Kenneth Bruffee

What people are doing when they learn something is joining a community of knowledgeable peers. (Kenneth Bruffee)

Essential to this whole process is engagement

Harvard Professor: Eric Mazure, winner of the $500k Minerva Prize

Peer instruction

RECOMMENDATIONS

Think, pair, share (Bonni)

The girl who saved the king of Sweeden, by Jonas Jonason (Ken)

@kenbain1

bestteachersinstitute.org

kenbain [at] usa [dot] com

 

Eliciting and using feedback from students

with Doug McKee

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Doug McKee talks about eliciting and using feedback from students.

PODCAST NOTES

Guest: Dr. Doug McKee

[ CV ]

[ BLOG ]

WORKING OUT LOUD

John Stepper's book about Working Out Loud

Studied his own teaching and determined that those who came to class and those who watched via video did equally well in the class

I feel like I’m just breaking through now. I remember what it was like at the beginning.

ELICITING FEEDBACK

Waiting until the end of the semester to get input from our students is too late

Evaluations are valuable; but it only helps you the next time you teach the class

The Hawthorne Effect

Formal, anonymous surveys

* Customized end of semester surveys
* mid-semester surveys
* discussion boards
https://piazza.com

* in person:
* talking to students after class
* office hours
* regular lunches with students
* Reporting back about what you learned what your changing to respond
http://ictevangelist.com

* Department-wide early warning systems—We’re trying this this year to give students in all our classes a chance to air concerns to the department early enough so we can do something about them.

RECOMMENDATIONS

SpeedDial2; ultimate tab page for Google Chrome (Bonni)

Piazza (Doug)

Forgetmenot (Doug)

Finn Family Moomintroll, by Tove Jansson (Doug)

Doug's blog:
teachbetter.co

Practical productivity in academia

with Natalie Houston

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Natalie Houston discusses practical productivity in academia.

nataliehouston

Podcast Notes

Guest: Dr. Natalie Houston

Opposition to the term productivity

Productivity defined

Productivity, to me, is not about doing more things faster. It is about doing the things that are most important to me and creating the kind of life I want to have…

To do something with ease is to bring a kind of comfort and grace to the task. It can also be more room [in your life]… Living a life with more ease…

Challenges and approaches for faculty

  • Blurring between work and non-work time
  • Protect quality time for your most important work/projects
  • Creating appropriate boundaries
  • Schedule blocks of time to let
  • Commit to avoiding digital devices before bed
  • Establish a bedtime for ourselves
  • Articulate an ideal weekend/Saturday
  • Enlist partner's support in fulfilling that ideal day

The idea of a sabbath day in many spiritual traditions is to set aside a day for rest.

  • Create transition rituals to help acknowledge the move between work and personal time
  • Don't force yourself to use digital tools, if analog work better; perhaps a hybrid system might work well, in some cases
  • Todoist

Email

Multiple touch points

Challenge with accessing email on our phones

Taking breaks

Set an alarm

A timer is my most important productivity tool. You can use a timer in so many parts of your day.

Timing a break enhances the relaxation of that break.

Recommendations

How to manage references with Zotero, by Catherine Pope (Bonni)

IDoneThis.com (Natalie)

The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance, by Stephen Kotler