• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Teaching in Higher Ed

  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • SPEAKING
  • Media
  • Recommendations
  • About
  • Contact

teaching

Let’s agree to agree and disagree

By Bonni Stachowiak | June 17, 2016 | Leave a Comment | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

Critical pedagogy and data

One of my least favorite sayings is, “Let’s agree to disagree.” What does that even mean? When I read those words in written form, the voice in my head says them dripping with sarcasm and without kindness.

Yet, a slightly-altered version of it was the first thing that came into my head as a potential title for this post, when I sat down to write today.

Sean Michael Morris’ thoughts on Critical Pedagogy in the Age of Learning Management resonated with me. So much so that we had a whole conversation around it on the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast…

  • How did we ever get to the point where posting a Powerpoint, riddled with bullet points with no nuance or sense of the unexpected, got to count as “teaching”?
  • When did we decide that the students of today are so different from how we were when we were in college and therefore are our adversaries?
  • What part of our hyper-assessment culture recognizes just how often learning (and teaching) can be messy?
  • Why did we decide that learning is something to be “managed,” like a poorly-performing employee or an out of control toddler, or that teaching is merely something that can be programed and mechanical?

Where Sean Michael Morris and I might part ways is in the complete lack of interest in student metrics. He writes:

I can safely say that I have no interest in student metrics. They tell me nothing.

… and I find myself wanting to agree to agree and disagree on this point.

First, a little context. I teach at a small, private, liberal arts university. My course load is 4/4, with an average of 30-35 students in each of my courses. That translates to well over 100 individuals per semester that I feel a big responsibility to serve in the best ways I know how.

There are those students who take me up on my offers to meet for coffee, or to go for walks at the beautiful Newport Beach Back Bay… These relationships represent what I consider to be the most important aspects of my teaching and of my sense of vocation.

jamie

Then, there are those students who do not initiate any form of relationship. Our connection could wind up consisting of the minimum common denominator of me learning their name and knowing one thing about them (where they’re from, what year in school they are, if they have served in the military, whether they work full time, or if they’re involved in some sort of extra curricular activity such as athletics or the choir). I’m ashamed to admit that there ever were those courses in which my association with some of the students never progressed beyond that point, but it has happened.

Sean ends his post by stressing the importance of helping students form relationships with him and with each other and that data does nothing to inform any of that. He then writes:

All the rest is up to them.

Here’s where we differ.

To me, those metrics and data do help me see where I may be able to be some small part in helping a student re-engage at a critical part of the semester. In the classroom, we can observe the behaviors of a person whose only presence is in physical form. Over time, we might learn how to better engage people and challenge ourselves to find ways to bring the learners back into the conversation.

Online, with 120 students, I don’t have the luxury of the in-person cues that I might otherwise rely on to improve my own teaching.

The data helps me see whether perhaps the video I posted just wasn’t that interesting, or whether I could have made the course navigation better to guide people through the introduction of the topic better. Over time, I can get better at finding ways to engage students in the dialog in the online portions of the course in the same, or different, ways I might in the classroom. I can expand my thinking about what it means to engage in an online environment, with the particular challenge of finding ways to help students connect with each other.

The data also helps me see where particular students may be struggling. If I can send a text message to a student who hasn’t logged in for a couple of weeks, it could potentially mean the difference between them passing or failing the course. I can try to catch a student for a few minutes after class, after noticing that she's failed the last few online quizzes, or not turned in the small assignments that were meant as scaffolding for an upcoming major assignment.

This doesn’t mean that our students aren’t ultimately responsible for their own learning in a course, but I’m sensitive to the fact that I teach many first generation students who may not have had the luxury of having mentors to teach them how to manage schedules and multiple priorities.

Transitioning from high school to college can be so difficult. If I allow the data to give me lenses to see what I may otherwise miss, I could be some small part in helping them build new habits and disciplines for their learning.

When I’m in a classroom with 30 students, I can usually assess in-the-moment how people may be experiencing the learning. I also know I have the capacity of being completely wrong in my perceptions…

When I’m going in-and-out of the online portions of my courses, I no longer seem to possess this same capacity. If an aspect of my course is poorly designed, I may not notice until the data brings the weakness to light. If someone is being left out of the learning process in some way, I don’t always notice, unless the data brings some aspect of that to my attention.

As I end this post, I realize that this may very well not be a case of disagreement, but more of a weakness on my part and a strength on Sean Michael Morris' part (see Jesse Stommel's tweet, embedded, below).

I will say unequivocally. @slamteacher is the best online teacher I've ever known. PS. He hates the internet. That's probably why. #digped

— Jesse Stommel (@Jessifer) May 25, 2016

It also may be a cultural difference between where Sean has taught and where I currently teach.

When a student has failed one of my courses, there are questions that occasionally get asked like, “Did you talk to him/her about how they were doing in the class at some point? Did you ever reach out to check in with him/her?” While that never changed the outcome for the student, it did change me. I didn't ever want to have an answer in the future that indicated that I hadn't ever done anything to try to bring them back in to the learning community in some way.

Data has helped me be true to that promise in the past, though I know it isn't without its dangers.

Filed Under: Educational Technology Tagged With: data, edtech, lms, teaching

Let's agree to agree and disagree

By Bonni Stachowiak | June 17, 2016 | Leave a Comment | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

Critical pedagogy and data

One of my least favorite sayings is, “Let’s agree to disagree.” What does that even mean? When I read those words in written form, the voice in my head says them dripping with sarcasm and without kindness.

Yet, a slightly-altered version of it was the first thing that came into my head as a potential title for this post, when I sat down to write today.

Sean Michael Morris’ thoughts on Critical Pedagogy in the Age of Learning Management resonated with me. So much so that we had a whole conversation around it on the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast…

  • How did we ever get to the point where posting a Powerpoint, riddled with bullet points with no nuance or sense of the unexpected, got to count as “teaching”?
  • When did we decide that the students of today are so different from how we were when we were in college and therefore are our adversaries?
  • What part of our hyper-assessment culture recognizes just how often learning (and teaching) can be messy?
  • Why did we decide that learning is something to be “managed,” like a poorly-performing employee or an out of control toddler, or that teaching is merely something that can be programed and mechanical?

Where Sean Michael Morris and I might part ways is in the complete lack of interest in student metrics. He writes:

I can safely say that I have no interest in student metrics. They tell me nothing.

… and I find myself wanting to agree to agree and disagree on this point.

First, a little context. I teach at a small, private, liberal arts university. My course load is 4/4, with an average of 30-35 students in each of my courses. That translates to well over 100 individuals per semester that I feel a big responsibility to serve in the best ways I know how.

There are those students who take me up on my offers to meet for coffee, or to go for walks at the beautiful Newport Beach Back Bay… These relationships represent what I consider to be the most important aspects of my teaching and of my sense of vocation.

jamie

Then, there are those students who do not initiate any form of relationship. Our connection could wind up consisting of the minimum common denominator of me learning their name and knowing one thing about them (where they’re from, what year in school they are, if they have served in the military, whether they work full time, or if they’re involved in some sort of extra curricular activity such as athletics or the choir). I’m ashamed to admit that there ever were those courses in which my association with some of the students never progressed beyond that point, but it has happened.

Sean ends his post by stressing the importance of helping students form relationships with him and with each other and that data does nothing to inform any of that. He then writes:

All the rest is up to them.

Here’s where we differ.

To me, those metrics and data do help me see where I may be able to be some small part in helping a student re-engage at a critical part of the semester. In the classroom, we can observe the behaviors of a person whose only presence is in physical form. Over time, we might learn how to better engage people and challenge ourselves to find ways to bring the learners back into the conversation.

Online, with 120 students, I don’t have the luxury of the in-person cues that I might otherwise rely on to improve my own teaching.

The data helps me see whether perhaps the video I posted just wasn’t that interesting, or whether I could have made the course navigation better to guide people through the introduction of the topic better. Over time, I can get better at finding ways to engage students in the dialog in the online portions of the course in the same, or different, ways I might in the classroom. I can expand my thinking about what it means to engage in an online environment, with the particular challenge of finding ways to help students connect with each other.

The data also helps me see where particular students may be struggling. If I can send a text message to a student who hasn’t logged in for a couple of weeks, it could potentially mean the difference between them passing or failing the course. I can try to catch a student for a few minutes after class, after noticing that she's failed the last few online quizzes, or not turned in the small assignments that were meant as scaffolding for an upcoming major assignment.

This doesn’t mean that our students aren’t ultimately responsible for their own learning in a course, but I’m sensitive to the fact that I teach many first generation students who may not have had the luxury of having mentors to teach them how to manage schedules and multiple priorities.

Transitioning from high school to college can be so difficult. If I allow the data to give me lenses to see what I may otherwise miss, I could be some small part in helping them build new habits and disciplines for their learning.

When I’m in a classroom with 30 students, I can usually assess in-the-moment how people may be experiencing the learning. I also know I have the capacity of being completely wrong in my perceptions…

When I’m going in-and-out of the online portions of my courses, I no longer seem to possess this same capacity. If an aspect of my course is poorly designed, I may not notice until the data brings the weakness to light. If someone is being left out of the learning process in some way, I don’t always notice, unless the data brings some aspect of that to my attention.

As I end this post, I realize that this may very well not be a case of disagreement, but more of a weakness on my part and a strength on Sean Michael Morris' part (see Jesse Stommel's tweet, embedded, below).

I will say unequivocally. @slamteacher is the best online teacher I've ever known. PS. He hates the internet. That's probably why. #digped

— Jesse Stommel (@Jessifer) May 25, 2016

It also may be a cultural difference between where Sean has taught and where I currently teach.

When a student has failed one of my courses, there are questions that occasionally get asked like, “Did you talk to him/her about how they were doing in the class at some point? Did you ever reach out to check in with him/her?” While that never changed the outcome for the student, it did change me. I didn't ever want to have an answer in the future that indicated that I hadn't ever done anything to try to bring them back in to the learning community in some way.

Data has helped me be true to that promise in the past, though I know it isn't without its dangers.

Filed Under: Educational Technology Tagged With: data, edtech, lms, teaching

Behind the curtain

By Bonni Stachowiak | February 2, 2016 | 2 Comments | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

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:

  • How typing is destroying your memory
  • The cognitive benefits of doodling
  • Close your laptop. Handwriting could make you smarter.

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]

Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: notetaking, teaching

The first few weeks

By Bonni Stachowiak | January 26, 2016 | 4 Comments | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

IMG_0877

I continue to be encouraged by people like Doug McKee who “teach out loud.” I thought that I coined that phrase, but it turns out that other people have had the same idea.

When we work out loud, we:

…[start] with making [our] work visible in such a way that it might help others. When [we] do that – when [we] work in a more open, connected way – [we] can build a purposeful network that makes [us] more effective and provides access to more opportunities.” – John Stepper

The definition fits well with teaching out loud, too.

Spring 2016

To that end, here are some thoughts about my semester so far…

Failures

Lest I depress myself too much with this post, let me start with some of my failures and then move on to the positives.

Speeding up versus slowing down

I continue to have a tough time with all the “inputs” at the start of a semester. New names and faces. Students wanting to add my classes. Collecting scantrons for the semesters' exams. Getting students set up on the various systems that I use (Remind, PollEverywhere, etc.).

Ideally, I would be able to slow myself down when I felt overwhelmed by the line of students waiting to talk to me after class. Instead, I find myself speeding up. I talk faster. I neglect to capture all the information I need to take action on the requests being made.

Making assumptions

I've already found myself making assumptions about some of my students, something I really wish I didn't do. I have found myself able to curb this a bit when I think about each of my students being someone's child. Then, I push myself to imagine if that person was my child, how I might wish that their professor in college would treat them.

I find myself already wanting to excuse my assumption-making by telling you that I'm not unkind to my students. However, I know that even my attempts to hide my initial impressions of students will only ever take me so far.

There will always be a potential for me to not assume the best of others and react without having an adequate context of a given situation.

IMG_0885

The first week of my business ethics class, I had a series of signs hung around the classroom that asked various questions. The students paired up and discussed each question with a partner and then recorded their answers on sticky notes.

The one in the bottom right broke my heart.

The most ethical person I know is… My Mother

What makes me consider him/her as having such integrity is… She was always considerate and honest. 

That student's mother passed away last year.

I want to be doing everything I know how to do in my teaching and in my life to avoid making assumptions. I suppose that rather than trying to avoid ever thinking something, I can try to redirect those initial thoughts into ones that assume the best of my students.

Successes

It still feels awfully early in the semester to be running any victory laps.

Learning names

I'm surprised that when I relax a bit about names, without absolving myself of the responsibility to learn them, that I actually do pretty good at it. I'm not there yet, but I'm working toward it.

Getting moving

I've been happy that in almost every class session I've had so far this semester, students have been out of their chairs and moving around the classroom. The Teaching in Higher Ed podcast episode #085 that airs on 1/28/16 has a write-in recommendation from a listener about a book on the same topic. Getting our students moving in our classes has such positive outcomes.

Playing games

I'm back to playing HeadsUp in many of my classes to help them review key terms. Two of my classes are back-to-back and take place in the same classroom. One of my students from the later classroom was standing outside the class, looking in the window yesterday, chuckling at me holding my giant iPad pro above my head. She also had a look on her face like she hoped we were going to do the same thing in her class.

Discovering a new pencast workflow

Since receiving the iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil for Christmas, I've been looking forward to rethinking my pencast workflow. Doceri came off my someday/maybe technology list and wound up being what I chose to now create them.

I first spend the time drawing the pencast drawing, taking all the time I need as long pauses get edited out in the creation process, automatically. Then, I “play back” the drawing, while I add the narration. I can speed up, slow down, or pause the drawing while I'm talking.

Next steps

The semester is just getting started and there's a lot I need to do to create an effective learning environment. However, we are on our way and I'm enjoying getting to know my students and each class' personality.

[reminder]How is your semester going so far? What's working? What's not working?[/reminder]

Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: teaching

15 lessons from 2015’s podcasts (part 3)

By Bonni Stachowiak | January 19, 2016 | Leave a Comment | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

This is a multi-part post in which I practice my curation skills and share what I'll be taking in to 2016 from the past year's podcasting efforts.

You may want to start with part 1 and part 2, if you want to get all 15 lessons.

Lesson #11

Create regular opportunities for retrieval.

Robert Bjork described the strength of attempting to retrieve information out of our brains as we are learning. Even if my students wind up not being able to come up with an answer, their brains will still be making new connections when they are reminded of the missing data.

That's why Bjork says that “forgetting is a friend of learning.”

bjork-tihe-quote1

https://teachinginhighered.com/72

Lesson #12

We like to pick people who are like us and that's not a good thing when choosing groups for projects.

Jim Sibley has been in my head since the episode he was a guest on, as I contemplate whether I should change the way groups are formed for projects in my various classes. This is still something I am reflecting on and I haven't made any firm changes as I write this. However, it still seems like  “lesson” from 2015 since it is still challenging my thinking in this way.

https://teachinginhighered.com/73

Lesson #13

Something amazing happens when we go public in our scholarship.

Kris Shafer inspired me greatly on episode 74, as he spoke about his public scholarship efforts. As he has introduced this idea to his students, he helps them navigate the online world in all of its complexity and discover news ways to influence.

https://teachinginhighered.com/74

Lesson #14

Keep getting better by “teaching out loud.”

Doug McKee has been on the show now a couple of times (and I hope we're just getting started!). He also is a co-host of the Teach Better podcast and regularly blogs about his quest for continually improving his teaching skills. He inspires me to never let up in my pursuit of excellence in facilitating learning.

https://teachinginhighered.com/76

Lesson #15

There are many advantages to teaching what you don't know.

This seems like the secret no one wants to talk about. We sometimes are scheduled to teach classes outside of our content expertise.

Therese Huston helped me see that I'm not alone in this reality – – and that there are a number of strategies I can take in order to provide higher quality learning experiences for my students when I wind up teaching what I don't know…

theresehuston

https://teachinginhighered.com/77

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

Filed Under: Personal knowledge mastery Tagged With: curation, pkm, teaching

15 lessons from 2015's podcasts (part 3)

By Bonni Stachowiak | January 19, 2016 | Leave a Comment | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

This is a multi-part post in which I practice my curation skills and share what I'll be taking in to 2016 from the past year's podcasting efforts.

You may want to start with part 1 and part 2, if you want to get all 15 lessons.

Lesson #11

Create regular opportunities for retrieval.

Robert Bjork described the strength of attempting to retrieve information out of our brains as we are learning. Even if my students wind up not being able to come up with an answer, their brains will still be making new connections when they are reminded of the missing data.

That's why Bjork says that “forgetting is a friend of learning.”

bjork-tihe-quote1

https://teachinginhighered.com/72

Lesson #12

We like to pick people who are like us and that's not a good thing when choosing groups for projects.

Jim Sibley has been in my head since the episode he was a guest on, as I contemplate whether I should change the way groups are formed for projects in my various classes. This is still something I am reflecting on and I haven't made any firm changes as I write this. However, it still seems like  “lesson” from 2015 since it is still challenging my thinking in this way.

https://teachinginhighered.com/73

Lesson #13

Something amazing happens when we go public in our scholarship.

Kris Shafer inspired me greatly on episode 74, as he spoke about his public scholarship efforts. As he has introduced this idea to his students, he helps them navigate the online world in all of its complexity and discover news ways to influence.

https://teachinginhighered.com/74

Lesson #14

Keep getting better by “teaching out loud.”

Doug McKee has been on the show now a couple of times (and I hope we're just getting started!). He also is a co-host of the Teach Better podcast and regularly blogs about his quest for continually improving his teaching skills. He inspires me to never let up in my pursuit of excellence in facilitating learning.

https://teachinginhighered.com/76

Lesson #15

There are many advantages to teaching what you don't know.

This seems like the secret no one wants to talk about. We sometimes are scheduled to teach classes outside of our content expertise.

Therese Huston helped me see that I'm not alone in this reality – – and that there are a number of strategies I can take in order to provide higher quality learning experiences for my students when I wind up teaching what I don't know…

theresehuston

https://teachinginhighered.com/77

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

Filed Under: Personal knowledge mastery Tagged With: curation, pkm, teaching

15 lessons from 2015’s podcasts (part 1)

By Bonni Stachowiak | January 5, 2016 | 2 Comments | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

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]

Filed Under: Personal knowledge mastery Tagged With: curation, pkm, teaching

15 lessons from 2015's podcasts (part 1)

By Bonni Stachowiak | January 5, 2016 | 2 Comments | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

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]

Filed Under: Personal knowledge mastery Tagged With: curation, pkm, teaching

Quick teaching

By Bonni Stachowiak | September 8, 2015 | Leave a Comment | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

quick-teaching

I've often been frustrated at the 50-minute time block for courses.

At our university, morning classes on Monday/Wednesday/Friday are held [typically] in 50 minute blocks, while afternoon classes and those held on Tuesday/Thursday are conducted in an hour and 15 minutes.

Generally speaking, I tend to reserve the first five minutes for an introduction and welcome, while the last five minutes is left open for questions (or more likely because something took longer than I predicted).

That leaves really 40 minutes to facilitate learning.

Let's say I use five minutes to introduce the topic and some key terms and up to ten minutes to show some kind of video.

Now we are down to just 25 minutes to facilitate learning.

I might give instructions on an exercise for five minutes, let them come up with ideas on their own for ten minutes and then work in groups for another ten minutes.

Class is now over.

No feedback has been given on their group work.

There are all sorts of ways to change the time estimates up that I've reflected above.

Students can watch the video before they come to class and answer a few questions on their own. I could combine the giving instructions with the welcome.

However, the fact remains that it is very challenging to invite active learning in a 50 minute class session.

One technique I do is to follow up with some written or spoken feedback after the class session has ended.

My Introduction to Business students did an exercise recently about corporate social responsibility and stakeholders.

Introductory Pre-work

Before coming to class, the students watched a pencast and took a quiz to gain the basic vocabulary.

Activation in Class

In class, we listened to part of an interview with John MacKey (Whole Foods' CEO and founder) about conscious capitalism, in which he discussed some of ways in which he responds to stakeholders' needs. As they listened, I asked them to group the approaches he described under a list of the five, main stakeholders: investors, community members, employees, the environment, and customers.

We then scrolled through Apple's supplier responsibility site and discussed how challenging it can actually be to live out your company's values when you have a complex supply chain.

Application

Finally, I hung up signs around the room with the names of the various stakeholders. I made the signs on Canva, which is a terrific resource for quickly making gorgeously-designed graphics, without being a graphic designer, yourself.

The students met in groups and had to come up with three ways that Toyota might address each of the stakeholder groups.

Here is one of the class section's stickies.

Reinforcement after class

There wasn't time for me to review their responses in class. However, I was able to quickly capture their ideas via Evernote's iPhone app. Then, I wrote an email to them and discussed areas of strength in their responses and what they will want to improve upon by the time their first exam arrives in a couple of weeks.

Interleaving practice in weeks to come

Even though I would much prefer not to teach in 50-minute sessions, it does keep me from neglecting opportunities for interleaving practice.

Here's Robert Bjork describing the benefits of interleaving practice and how it is superior to blocked practice (even though it doesn't initially appear to be so).

Now that students have had an introduction to corporate social responsibility and they have been able to practice applying their new vocabulary in different contexts, they are ready for unexpected and low-stakes practice in the weeks to come.

I am getting a lot of leverage out of Remind this semester, as I send short messages no more than 2-3 times a day, asking students follow up questions about subjects we have explored in class.  They are not required to respond, but if they do, I will reply to them and let them know if they're on the right track.

[reminder]What approaches do you use when dealing with a short time frame in which to teach?[/reminder]

Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: teaching

Calm teaching

By Bonni Stachowiak | September 1, 2015 | Leave a Comment | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

calm-teaching

My former students often tease me, saying that having kids changed me as a teacher.

They reflect on how much calmer I am, in terms of when students aren't necessarily “following the rules” I set in the classroom. [I'll leave the discussion for how creating a culture of compliance may or may not be the best goal for education for another day…]

Both of our children were conceived as a result of many medical adventures. When I was pregnant both times, I worked hard to keep my stress levels low.

It was actually easier than I thought it was going to be…

I vacillated between being somewhat tired to being completely exhausted throughout the experiences. There just wasn't enough energy for getting angry at students.

When something would happen that would normally have frustrated me to the point of stress, I instead just took a deep breath and addressed whatever it was that happened in a patient way.

Despite the fact that we are done having children now and I get 8 hours of sleep most nights, the sense of calm in my teaching has remained.

Behavior does not equal intent

I used to be so incredibly good at ascribing bad intent to a behavior that a student would exhibit in a class.

If they were texting on their cell phone, I made that action somehow about me, specifically. They weren't just being rude, but were specifically choosing to be rude to me.

Now, while I still have times during my classes when the cell phones get put away and we focus on being fully present for one another, my feelings have changed during those times when the cell phones somehow sneak back into the foreground.

I still will ask a student to put their cell phone away, but I'll just mention that we aren't going to be needing them for what we are working on and that I know they don't want to miss what we're experiencing.

I frame my request more like I might an invitation and less like I might an indictment .

Students will often mirror our level of anxiety

Calm teaching certainly creates a better experience for me, but it also creates a calmer learning environment for my students.

Family systems theory is based on the idea that, in psychotherapy, you need to think about the individual you're treating as a part of their overall family system.

Organizational psychology draws from family systems theory and attempts to show the ways that the same dynamics from family systems theory emerge in the workplace.

If you would like to hear a robotic voice explain how this works, check out this video on family systems theory in the classroom.

We can model for students how to keep their anxiety low and reduce it for others by remaining calm when facing a potentially challenging situation with a student.

I have found that taking a deep breath (during which I remind myself that there's a lot that I don't know about this student) and formulating either a question I can ask, or an invitation to that student to engage works well for me.

We've been encouraged by Jose Bowen to Teach Naked… and I'm so looking forward to discovering from James Lang in 2016 more about Small Teaching.

I'm thinking calm teaching is another aim we can cultivate as educators…

 

Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: teaching

My vote for the top 10 tools for learning

By Bonni Stachowiak | July 7, 2015 | 3 Comments | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

Jane Hart has invited our participation in the 2015 Top 100 Tools for Learning. If you want to have your say, you can submit your top list here.

top100

Top 10 Tools for Learning

Here are my thoughts on the ten most important tools in learning (not in any particular order):

Twitter

From time-to-time, I'll have friends threaten to stop using Facebook, as they just no longer see value in it. I don't hear those same threats from those who are using Twitter and have a strong personal learning network (#PLN) established for themselves. Twitter offers a constant stream of news and information that is most relevant to me (primarily on the professional front, with some personal in there, as well).

PollEverywhere

The PollEverywhere service provides an excellent way to both gather real-time input from students, as well as assess their understanding. I like how many ways there are for students to engage (tablet, phone, text/SMS).

Remind

This video has all the reasons why I love using Remind to keep in touch with my students.

GoAnimate

GoAnimate provides an easy way to build animated videos. You choose a background, add characters and other objects, and include text and/or audio. The video on Remind, above, was created using GoAnnimate4Schools.

Attendance2

This app does just what the title implies (takes attendance), but does a whole lot more. My favorite feature is the ability to call randomly on a student who is marked present for a given class session. Attendance2 helps me avoid calling on the same people, without realizing it.

Planbook

I like to ensure that each class session is somehow connected to my course learning outcomes. Planbook helps me organize all my handouts, PowerPoints, and links in one, central place. Plus, you can have it publish that information on a free site for your students to access, so they have information on what they may have missed, or for additional reinforcement of their learning in your classes.

Adobe Captivate

The two best products to use to create interactive, SCORM-compliant eLearning courses are Articulate's eLearning Suite and Adobe Captivate. The reason that Captivate has made my list and not Articulate is purely because Captivate is available on both the Mac and the PC.

SnagIt

Camtasia's SnagIt is also available on the Mac and PC and is the best screen shot tool I've ever used. I also spoke at the beginning of the Mac Power Users episode #240 about how I use SnagIt for screencasting feedback during the grading process.

LiveScribe Smart Pens

I've had a love/hate relationship with LiveScribe smart pens. On one hand, it is incredible that you can record what you're saying/hearing/writing and have it all be in sync with each other when you go to play it back. It's also a great method for creating what I refer to as micro-lectures. The biggest downside, though, has been that they've changed their playback methods so many times over the years. Currently, a user has to play them back by dragging a PDF to a website, to enable playback (or play it via an app, but that doesn't work as well for sharing). If only MP4 was offered as an alternative publishing method; I would be “sold” for good.

Overcast

The tool that contributes more to my learning than any other these days is Overcast, which is one of many podcast “catchers”/players. One thing I like about Overcast is the smart speed function, that skips over pauses in the recordings, but doesn't leave the speakers sounding like Alvin and the Chipmunks.

 

Filed Under: Educational Technology Tagged With: edtech, teaching, tools

Guest on Luminaris Podcast

By Bonni Stachowiak | June 30, 2015 | Leave a Comment | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

Click to access the podcast on the Luminaris site.
Click to access the podcast on the Luminaris site.

I was honored to be asked to be a guest on episode 07 of the Luminaris Podcast, hosted by Mark Hofer.

We spoke about the opportunities for “Connecting with others around teaching and learning,” through 50 podcast interviews on Teaching in Higher Ed.

markThe Luminaris Podcast host, Mark Hofer, is an Associate Professor of Education at William and Mary. We both listen to each others' podcasts, so it felt like we already knew each other as we had our dialog. Mark is a great interviewer, though I'm also looking forward to switching roles in the future. He's already agreed to be on an upcoming episode of Teaching in Higher Ed.

If you haven't been listening to the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast for too long, I speak with Mark about some of my favorite episodes on his podcast. He includes links in his post for the episode, in case you want to go back and catch some of the older shows.

Mark is also active on Twitter and worth following.

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: podcast, teaching

Choose your own adventure learning (part 2)

By Bonni Stachowiak | June 16, 2015 | Leave a Comment | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

choose-your-own-adventure-learning

I wrote a post about how I provided some Choose your own adventure-style learning for my students last semester. In the comments, Doug McKee indicated that it sounded like it would wind up being much harder than a “normal class” and asked if that was a fair assumption to make.

The question seemed worthy of a follow up post to my prior blog entry about Choose your own learning.

The inherent challenges of course design

I will say upfront that it is challenging to assess what additional time was required, since it was my first time teaching the course at the undergraduate level. Whenever I do that, I spend an enormous amount of time crafting learning outcomes, developing rubrics for each assignment, and on instructional design.

Someone who had taught a class previously, but just wanted to add the component of choose your own adventure would have a lot less work to do than I did last semester.

Questions to address before adopting this approach

Here are some of the areas I've identified that would require additional planning and thinking for a choose your own adventure type approach:

How will you handle exams, when not all students in the class will take them?

  • I taught the course in a three-hour block, so it was easy to schedule the exams as the last activity for the night. Those not taking the exam just left after the first two hours of instruction.

How strict will you be about the class policies you set up for this approach?

  • I had a form that students completed with their points designation, which states that changes could not be made after the fact. I wound up making changes on a number of fronts and would probably figure out other wording to use in the future to reflect what are likely to be my true actions when changes are warranted.

How can you structure the potential options for earning points to be sure that all learning outcomes are assessed?

  • My course had four modules and one comprehensive exam or assignments. I required that students take at least three of the five exams and earn points for some assignment related to the fourth module they potentially wouldn't be taking an exam on.

How will you structure your grade book to show progress toward total points in the class?

  • I was transparent with the students that the way the grade book was set up, they would have to do figuring on their own of how they were progressing toward a desired grade in the class. I didn't have a way to set up individual reports for students, based on the ways they selected to earn points during the semester.
  • This didn't wind up to be too problematic. Half of the class was comprised of accounting majors, who were all quite comfortable with projecting their own grades, individually. The remainder of the students were highly mature and also either kept a close eye on their points, or weren't as concerned about their grade in the class.

How will you track students' selected assignments?

  • I used a form that the students filled our during the second night of class (after hearing about it and receiving the dome during the first session). Then, I made a photocopy for me and handed the originals back to the students. This became problematic when I scanned the documents and recycled the copies.
  • I didn't notice until too late that the items each student had checked did not show up on the scanned copy, except in a few cases. Even then, the documents were difficult to sort through and manage. Some students also lost their originals throughout the semester and had to rely on memory for what they had chosen.
  • Next time I use some kind of choose your own adventure style, I will use a Google form for collecting the students' point selections. I'll have each student include their email address on the form and will set up a mail merge to send each student their selections.

Yes, using a choose your own adventure state of teaching took some additional time, versus having a standard set of assignments. However, I can refine my processes over time and probably carve that down to something almost negligible in the long run.

 

Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: teaching

Choose your own adventure learning

By Bonni Stachowiak | May 5, 2015 | 4 Comments | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

choose-your-own-adventure-learning

When I was a kid, one of my favorite forms of story telling was the Choose Your Own Adventure series. The books were written in a non-linear way, allowing me to grapple with how I would handle a particular situation.

Cave_of_timeEvery couple of pages brought forth a dilemma with two or three possible routes to take. If I wanted to choose option A, I was directed to turn to a specific page. Option B took me to an entirely different part of the book. You could read the book repeatedly and get a different story each time.

Edward Packer created the series of books out of an exchange he had with his daughters. He used to tell them stories each night about a character named Pete. One day, he ran out of adventures to send Pete on and he asked his children what they thought Pete should encounter that night.

When he saw how engaged his daughters became, he decided to extend the idea into written form. The Choose Your Own Adventure series was quite successful, selling 250 million copies between 1979 and 1999.

Choose Your Own Adventure Learning

The idea for using a choose your own adventure style of instruction for my business ethics course came, initially, from my desire to incorporate some type of undergraduate research into the class. Bethany Usher was on episode 27 of Teaching in Higher Ed and was such an inspiration to me to begin to engage in the messy work of leading undergraduate research.

I wound up failing in my ability to get traction with any kind of formal research projects, but I did start to think more about approaching the class in a more flexible manner than my typical syllabi afford students.

Goals

As I started to put together a framework for the assessment for the learning, I kept a few goals in mind.

1) Offer varied methods for demonstrating learning

I wanted to be sure that students were assessed on each, main, learning outcome for the class. However, I also wanted students to be given choices as to how they might demonstrate their learning.

2) Help students discover their strengths

Instead of having students focus on improving their weak areas, my desire was that this course would help them identify and amplify their strengths.

3) Ask students to take responsibility for their learning

I also hoped that students would be more autonomous in their learning and have some of their childlike curiosity sparked.

Structure

I started by putting together a graphic that showed the students the various ways they had to demonstrate their learning throughout the semester and the associated potential point values.

busn435-pointsdistribution

In order to ensure that students demonstrated learning in each of the four primary learning outcomes, they were required to take at least three exams (out of a possible five).

Each student chose a combination of points that added up to 1000 and only contained one project worth 250 points (the service learning or research project).

Then, I showed them how the various assignments were timed throughout the semester.

module-timing

Some assignments were based on the four modules, each around 3-4 weeks apart. I had students use the scheduling service, Doodle, to sign up to give their in class presentations.

The timing of the exams was not flexible, as they occurred in class and were only offered on a single night of class. The timing of the weekly assignments was also not flexible, as they were designed to be reinforcement for before the class sessions were held.

There were a series of comprehensive assignments, which were assessed in the last few weeks of the semester. Some of our graduating accounting majors put together this video on how to create more ethical business practices through internal controls, as their service learning project.

The intent was that it could help people with limited business experience reduce their risk of fraud. One area that I know I need to improve on the next time I teach this class is to have more measurable outcomes surrounding what “done” looks like for these projects. While I was incredibly impressed with the video, I had hoped that they would have a particular group of individuals who could be helped by it.

I'm disappointed that I didn't outline my expectations more effectively, but am also reminded of what my friend, Doug McKee, says:

If you aren't failing at teaching, you aren't trying hard enough.

Results

On the final week of our class, I asked the students to give input as to what worked and what didn't about the way the class was structured. I had been candid with them in the beginning about my experimentation with this format and we had made some tweaks along the way as we discovered problems with my initial design.

The students were excited to share their feedback with me on how much they liked the class structure.

Here are some of the notes I took that relate directly to the Choose Your Own Adventure learning approach:

We got to play to our strengths.

I could schedule the assignments around my other classes' exam and assignment dates.

It shifted the responsibility for learning from you, as the professor, to us, as the students.

I liked being able to decide whether or not attendance was going to be a factor in my grade for this class.

The flexibility of this structure was great.

Planning out which assignments I would do when also helped me do a little thinking about my learning, in advance of right around when the assignment was due, like I do in so many of my other classes.

It was rewarding to discover that the goals I had set out for this experiment were achieved. I also found other aspects to the approach that I hadn't even anticipated as a potential benefit.

Other ideas

I wasn't surprised when I discovered that I'm not the only person to have had the idea to make a class in to a Choose Your Own Adventure format. Here are 20 ideas for ways you might use a similar format in your classes.

[reminder]Let us know what ways you have given your students more control over their own learning. [/reminder]

 

 

Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: instructional_design, teaching

The treasures of a teacher

By Bonni Stachowiak | April 28, 2015 | Leave a Comment | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

The treasures of a teacher

I took our kids to the beach the other evening. Our 3 year-old, Luke, found a penny while we were walking toward the pier. He was thrilled with his find and wanted to put it in one of the parking meters we kept passing.

It was difficult to try to explain to him the errors in his logic.

First off, paying for parking at the beach is only required until 5 pm and we were there after that time. Second, I tried to explain to him that there really wasn't much that a penny would do for him these days. A penny wouldn't even be accepted in the meter, let alone result in any minutes of parking time.

After I told him these things, this was his response to me:

Mommy, this penny is my treasure.

It was one of those “in the eyes of the beholder” moments. I loved that he took such delight in something so seemingly insignificant.

It got me to thinking about the things I treasure the most in my teaching.

For me, its the letters and emails I receive from former students. They remind me of the ways in which I've been some small part in helping another person grow. They remind me that even though students will likely be challenged beyond what they would choose for themselves in the short term, that they have the potential to reap rewards that extend well beyond that final week of classes.

During the stressful final days of the semester, I like to read former students' words of encouragement that remind me of the longer arc of learning we are striving for…

My most treasured letter came from a student who failed her first class with me. She was devastated. At the time, she suspected that she was going to be unable to return to the university the following year.

I listened to her and had her talk through the possibility of not coming back. She was prepared to accept that outcome, though of course she was saddened that it would set her back so much in her life.

The following year, she was able to return. She took the class, again, and this time earned a C. Each class she took with me, she told me she worked harder than she ever had in college.

I would sometimes stay late in the evenings to study with her and others in the classes. It was rewarding to watch her put forth such effort, despite the fact that she wasn't able to accomplish the specific grades I know she wanted.

As is so often the case, her graduation seemed to come so quickly. She dropped a letter off for me in my office as the last week of classes was ending.

In it, she wrote about how much I had meant to her as a professor. She said she appreciated that not only did I challenge her to do more than she ever thought she was capable of, but that I believed in her more than anyone else ever had.

Most of the letters that students write wind up getting scanned and put in to a folder on my computer for my post-tenure review or future promotion portfolio. While I have scanned hers, just in case something were to happen to it, the physical copy of it has remained in my desk hutch all this time.

I can see the lines of the back of the piece of paper paper all the time when I'm sitting at my computer, knowing the precious treasure of words that sits inside those folds.

Yes, Luke, I understand what unexpected treasures we might find on our journeys. Thank you for reminding me of that with your penny the other night.

Speaking of which, I don't think I took the penny out of my pocket. By now, it has probably gone through the wash. Sigh. 

[reminder]What is a treasure in your teaching that you've collected?[/reminder]

Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: evaluation, teaching

Course evaluation reflections

By Bonni Stachowiak | March 3, 2015 | 2 Comments | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

I've been inspired by Doug McKee (past guest on the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast and co-host of the Teach Better podcast) on a number of occasions.

In this case, I've been inspired by his courage to share his course evals online and reflect on what worked, what didn't, and what changes he will make in each course he teaches.

His recent post describes how he extracts value from course evaluations. I will follow a similar process below.

Fall 2014 course evaluations

At our university, we don't typically get our course evaluations back until well into the next semester. I received mine on February 20, 2015, which is sooner than they've been in past years, but still not soon enough for me to have made any significant adjustments to this semester's courses.

Those of us with tenure only have half of our courses evaluated each semester, creating a bit of a gap in the feedback process. Still, there are lessons to be gleaned each time I review the evaluations.

Quantitative results

In both classes that were evaluated (Introduction to Business and Sales and Sales Management), the evaluations were rated higher than the national average. This feedback is typically not very valuable to me, since having my institution's data to compare myself to might be a better data set to use.

However, there are some detailed questions toward the end of the quantitative section that tend to help me put things in perspective. The items that typically help me remember who is was who was providing me feedback include:

  • What grade are you anticipating in the course?
  • How much effort did you put into the course?
  • The workload for this course was _____ (heavier, about the same, lighter than) other courses you took this semester.

Sometimes, there will be one or two students who anticipate earning a D or an F in the course. In those instances, there are also anomalies on the quantitative results such as one person that marks that I didn't have a command of the English language, or that I treated people unfairly, based on their gender. I haven't ever been marked down for not speaking English well, or treating people unfairly, except in those cases where one or two students anticipate not earning a passing grade.

I realize it is correlation, not causation, that I'm describing here. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that perhaps in those cases, it has less to do with me needing to work on my ability to speak English and more to do with me needing to keep a pretty thick skin during the course evaluation process for those students with more of an external locus of control who aren't likely to pass the class.

Introduction to Business quantitative results

outcomes

communication

interaction

outcomes

effort

Sales and Sales Management quantitative results

m-organizationm-communicationm-interactionm-courseoutcomeseffort

 

Qualitative results

I find the qualitative data on course evaluations to be far more beneficial for me. I often wonder if a simple net promoter score might be able to take the place of all the other quantitative data.

Of course, I recognize that I don't have access to any institutional data. I just see my raw scores and the national mean. It seems like a whole lot of time and expense that goes into data that isn't very actionable in my case. However, perhaps it is more beneficial for my institution than I realize.

Our quantitative data essentially gets to the question of what worked and what didn't, though it isn't phrased in those exact works. Here are the results from my fall classes.

Introduction to Business (n=29)

What worked:
  • Pencasts (n=6)
  • Everything (n=5)
  • EdTech tools (n=4)
  • Interactive teaching style (n=4)
  • Business plan project (n=3)

I am not including those comments that only came up once or twice.

One of the most humorous comments to me was when one student said what helped her learn was “Dr. B's calmness.” Wow. That's not something I get every day. Enthusiasm? Yes. But, calmness? That's a first.

What didn't work:
  • Everything worked (n=9)
  • Case studies (n=4)

I am skipping the two other comments that only came up once, though if you're interested, one student didn't like that I had them use Zotero and another didn't like that I had reading assignments in the course. Can you imagine that? A professor who assigns reading?

What I think is interesting about the case studies is that there were a number of comments on those items about them not being graded. Therefore, the students indicated that they didn't take them as seriously and didn't learn as much from them. I feel a bit stuck in my thinking between Ken Bain's advice to have there be opportunities for feedback before any grade gets assigned to something… and the accountability that comes from a stricter grading process.

I do look over all the students' cases in the class and there are points associated with them. However, the vast majority of the time, the students walk out with the full points and they don't feel the pressure to perform well.

Sales and Sales Management (n=16)

What worked?
  • Role plays (n=3)
  • Real-world scenarios/experiences (n=9)
  • Sales challenge #3 (where they visit a company and do a final role play with a business professional they've never met) (n=7)
  • Increased confidence (n=3)
  • Relationship with the professor (n=3)

I skipped those comments that only came up once or twice.

What didn't work?

There weren't any items that came up more than once. However, I do plan on making changes as to the accountability on the blogging assignments when I teach this course in the future. I've started using a Google doc form to track submissions and my first trial run was a success.

Next steps

I've taught both of these courses many times (Intro to Business 30+ classes and Sales and Sales Management 10+ classes). I write new exams each semester, in an attempt to lower the opportunities to cheat. I also bring in fresh examples of what's happening in the business world each class session.

There are many affirmations in the assessments above that encourage me in my teaching. I commit to making the following changes next time I teach these courses:

  • Use a Google doc form to track blog submissions, as described above, and do not waiver in the slightest on the due dates/times.
  • Consider being more stringent in my grading of the cases and perhaps having the students be required to complete them as a group before they come to class on the day they are being discusses.
  • This one isn't related to the evaluations, but I also want to start showing students a TurnItIn.com originality report before they submit their first assignment. It can be just one more way I can minimize the potential for academic dishonesty.

[reminder]Have you received your course evaluations back from last semester yet? What changes are you implementing for the next time you teach those classes?[/reminder]

 

Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: evaluations, teaching

Seeing the gorillas through the trees

By Bonni Stachowiak | December 30, 2014 | 1 Comment | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

Our friends, Sandie and Jean came over for dinner last night. Jean was doing some recording with Dave for the Carnegie Coach podcast, while Sandie and I hung out with the kids.

attention-blindness

Our son, Luke, was pretty antsy from an exciting day with his Grandparents, who are visiting. A book seemed in order, to calm him down and possibly also to entertain Sandie.

I had recently bought him the book Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa, by Jeanette Winter. Here’s the book’s plot, from the publisher’s description:

This true story of Wangari Maathai, environmentalist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is a shining example of how one woman's passion, vision, and determination inspired great change.

The author makes the story accessible to kids as she describes Wangari's opposition to the trees that were cut down in Kenya, to make room for buildings.

An entirely different meaning

Since this was not the first time Luke was hearing the story, I asked him questions, as we went along, about what was about to happen next. I inquired as to what had happened to all the beautiful green trees in Kenya, as we flipped to a page with lots of tree trunks, but no lush green branches.

Someone trimmed them,” Luke replied.

He was using the most commonly-used vocabulary around here for what happens to trees. It’s actually quite an exhilarating event, for an almost three year-old.

Landscapers from our community come around every few months and trim the trees.

I found out that we have nearly double the amount of trees where we live than they do in Central Park. The tree trimmers climb up on tall ladders and make quite a ruckus.

It’s got everything that Luke loves in life: noise, green, climbing, and people.

Of course, in Kenya, they weren’t doing trimming. Their work was not designed to make the trees more beautiful and healthy, but to destroy them. They had cut down all the trees, to make room for new construction.

I didn’t correct Luke’s use of the word trimming, but replaced it with the accurate word as I repeated back to him mostly what I had heard him say.

I responded to Luke that, “Yes, they had cut down the trees and now the green was gone, and so were the birds who had made their homes in the trees.”

After a few times of me using the word “cutting,” he seemed to be able to distinguish between trimming and chopping down trees. I never would have realized that there was any confusion, if I hadn’t been asking questions along the way.

This happens to us all the time in the classroom, though the potential for us to completely miss it is significant.

Attention blindness

Dr. Cathy Davidson, my guest on episode 28, shared with us about the experiments done on attention blindness. As Dr. Davidson describes on Inside Higher Ed:

…this famous experiment is a video of six people passing a basketball, half in white and half in black shirts.

Subjects are asked to count how many times the ball is passed only to and from those wearing black, not white, and then are quizzed on the number of passes they counted. What over half of subjects in a normal testing situation miss is a woman in a gorilla suit who walks in among the tossers for a full nine seconds, stares into the camera, and walks away.

The experiment is designed to show us what we normally cannot see about ourselves: how paying attention in a focused way requires us to shut out everything else — even a gorilla.

If you would like more information about attention blindness, including a video of Harvard’s invisible gorilla experiment, Brain Pickings did a nice job overviewing Dr. Davidson’s book and research.

When we learn about the gorilla experiment, or watch the video, having already received the spoiler, it’s easy to think that we are somehow different. That we wouldn’t have been among those who would have missed the gorilla, if we had been one of the subjects in the study.

But that kind of thinking can limit our potential and hinder our growth. Dr. Davidson has inspired me to dig in even more than usual on what I might be missing in my teaching throughout 2015.

Now what?

We read to children far better than some of us teach. Our challenge is to constantly be assessing where there may be gaps in our students’ understanding and help challenge them to apply what they are learning.

If we don’t turn the page and stop to ask them what happens next, we can all to easily be left thinking they have mastered the material in the same way that we perceive we have. I'm thankful for the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast guests who are open to exposing us to new ideas that challenge the way we have been doing things and help us reach new heights.

[reminder]What will you to doing in 2015 to look for the gorillas in your teaching?[/reminder]

Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: attention_blindness, teaching

Cultivate curiosity in higher ed students

By Bonni Stachowiak | November 4, 2014 | 2 Comments | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

CURIOSITY

Our son has a new habit. He points at something he hasn't seen before and says, “Whaaaaaaaassssshhaaaatttt?”

For many parents, I know this stage is frustrating. I also recognize that there may well come a time when I'm not amused by it, either.

However, I'm delighted by it now. It's interesting to see what captures his attention and what things are new to him. The whole experience also makes me wish I could bottle his curiosity and administer it, when needed, in the higher ed classroom.

Dr. Mark Carnes joined me for the most recent episode of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast (episode 21). He described how the role playing immersion game, Reacting to the Past, is transforming the way students engage in the college classroom. In Minds on Fire, his book on the same subject, he talks about his early experiences having students play one of the games.

He describes:

Never had students been so engaged and in such a weird way.

Someone piped up, ‘does anyone realize that class was supposed to end seven minutes ago?'

…We had lost track of ourselves.

Carnes seems to be describing students who are in what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls being in a state of flow. Their curiosity is heightened and they're thinking critically about the class content.

Carnes has found a way to bottle the adventurous nature of a toddler and sparked the curiosity of his college students.

Not all of us will be able to use a Reacting to the Past curriculum for a particular class. However, there are steps we can take to cultivate curiosity in our classes.

Direct students solve a problem

Probably the most influential person on my teaching throughout my career has been Dr. M. David Merrill, Professor Emeritus from Utah State University.

I used to work for a computer training company. We hired Dr. Merrill to do some consulting for us. I remember how vividly he altered my view of teaching.

At the time, I thought I was teaching computer application skills. What I realized was that I was getting people to follow a series of steps that I prescribed and only assessing them on their ability to do what I instructed.

Throughout Dr. Merrill's career, he has emphasized the importance of having learners engaged in solving problems. I'm only skimming the surface of Merrill's principles of instruction here.

Our classes in higher education will promote greater learning opportunities if we direct students to solve a problem and not simply get them to regurgitate facts.

Instruct students to give advice to people (or characters) involved in the situation

I've previously recommended using the podcast Planet Money in teaching about business. One of the most interactive sessions I typically see in my introduction to business students is when I ask them to recommend a solution to the currency problem experienced in Brazil's history.

I play the episode up until the point when they have described the challenges with an unstable currency and how difficult that point in Brazil's history was for them. Then, I press the pause button and ask them how they would recommend that they solve the currency problem.

Resist the temptation to be a know it all

If students perceive that we already know everything there is to know on a topic, we can inadvertently diminish their curiosity about a topic.

The other day, I brought in an example from the NBA for my introduction to business class. There's a running joke about my lack of sports knowledge in just about all of my classes. One student had lamented that I use Apple in my examples too often and he was hoping for more sports.

After receiving his feedback, I changed an entire section of my module introducing various promotion strategies that companies use to be centered around the NBA's promotional efforts.

I shared about a website that the NBA had set up in 2010 to use direct marketing to appeal to Hispanics. Candidly, I admitted that I wasn't sure what had become of the website, or what more current efforts they were putting in to attracting Hispanic fans. It was the best example I had found when I was putting it together late the prior evening.

My lack of knowledge opened the door for sports fans in the class to share their knowledge. One student talked about how players will wear special jerseys to culminate their Latin nights celebrations. Other students piped in with their examples and a few asked questions to extend the scenario a bit further.

If I hadn't resisted the temptation try to know it all, the students have missed the opportunity to apply their newfound knowledge to a topic they are passionate about.

[reminder] How do you cultivate curiosity with your students?[/reminder]

Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: curiosity, teaching

How to develop library research skills in college students

By Bonni Stachowiak | October 21, 2014 | Leave a Comment | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

This is a follow up to my post on how to teach seemingly boring topics. In this post, I provide some suggestions on how to develop library research skills in college students.

library research skills

After I posted on teaching boring topics, I received an email from a librarian who is challenged with only seeing students for 50 minutes a semester and trying to make the subject of library research come to life for them. Below are some ideas for how to approach this particular challenge.

While I use the library research skills topic as my example. the ideas could apply to other skill development work you are doing with your students. [Read more…] about How to develop library research skills in college students

Filed Under: Educational Technology Tagged With: games, library, research, teaching

How to make a seemingly boring topic come alive

By Bonni Stachowiak | October 7, 2014 | 8 Comments | TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

It's a boring topic, so of course the evaluations are going to be lower.

Make boring topic come to life

In evaluating the success of various courses, low course evaluations are often explained away by asserting that the faculty member was teaching a boring subject. I have heard this logic at more than a handful of institutions in my ten years in academia and am disappointed that some of us are satisfied with that answer.

I certainly had my idea about what subjects were boring when I was an undergrad. Now, as a lifelong learner, I can't find a topic that can't be made interesting by a teacher who has a passion for the subject and brings it to life.

Here are five ways to make a seemingly boring topic interesting.

Introduce an experience

Speaking of topics I found boring as an undergrad, science can definitely be among those topics that professors find challenging to generate interest in for many students.

Dr.Chrissy Spencer at Georgia Tech uses engaging and creative techniques to help her students actually experience the learning in her courses. This Active Learning in Biology video shows her “teaching evolution by turning her students into chili peppers.”

Despite the over 200 students in that large lecture hall, they are each getting to share in an experience that will help them remember the lessons learned for a long time to come. It is no surprise that she wound up winning a prestigious teaching award from Georgia Tech, based on her innovation in the classroom.

Bring in humor

My sales students were learning about how you don't want to present a solution to a client as soon as you think they know what they need, but to hold off until you explore the challenges further and understand their impact. The textbook author describes the studies done on children where they were given a marshmallow and told that if they waited for five minutes that they could have two more marshmallows.

I showed this video of kids who participated in the marshmallow study. It brought the reading alive in a new and humorous way. I also showed Stephen Colbert interviewing Walter Mischel, the author of a recent book about the marshmallow studies.

These humorous segments brought energy into the class and invigorated the discussion.

Invite some friendly competition

As long as it is done in a way that won't embarrass those who aren't understanding the material as well as others, competition can be a way of bringing interest and energy into the classroom.

Do a quiz using PollEverywhere, or play the HeadsUp game.

Have students create something new from what they have been learning and then have the students vote for their top three new creations. There are all sorts of way to invite a little friendly competition into your classroom.

Reinvigorate your own passion

Perhaps if the topic seems boring to you, it's time to invest in reigniting your interest in the subject. I've found that having a well-established personal knowledge mastery system set up helps to keep breathing new life into what I teach.

If your organization offers professional development funds, perhaps it's time to attend a conference or to start exploring some interdisciplinary teaching and learning opportunities.

Approach the topic from a child-like perspective

To keep my students from memorizing words that don't actually mean anything to them, I often have them explain something as if they were talking to an eight year old.

I also use ridiculous analogies for difficult to comprehend subjects, such as when I use a trip to CostCo to buy toilet paper in an example on the accrual method of accounting.

Astrophysicist Roberto Trotta was quoted on NPR [arguing] that we don't need jargon. In his new book, The Edge of the Sky, Trotta tells the story of how the universe was created without using complicated descriptions. In fact, he conveys his message while restricting himself to the 1,000 most commonly used words in English.

[reminder]What approaches do you use for making seemingly boring topics more interesting?[/reminder]

 

Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: humor, teaching

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to Next Page »

TOOLS

  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Community
  • #Slack
  • Weekly Update

RESOURCES

  • Recommendations
  • EdTech Essentials Guide
  • The Productive Online Professor
  • Bonni’s Favorite Podcasts
  • How to Listen to Podcasts

Subscribe to Podcast

Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsAndroidby EmailRSSMore Subscribe Options

ABOUT

  • Bonni Stachowiak
  • Speaking + Workshops
  • Podcast FAQs
  • Media Kit
  • ACUE Partnership
  • CSU Collaboration

CONTACT

  • Get in Touch
  • Support the Podcast
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy Policy

CONNECT

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • RSS

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Teaching in Higher Ed | Designed by Anchored Design