Teaching and Technology Crossroads

Here come the "Micromasters!"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 14:59:00 +0000

What is a "MicroMaster's" qualification? It is a new approach to 'credentialling' for the digital age; a "re-imagination of the admissions process" being introduced by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as that institution launches a new 'blended/online' one-year Masters in Supply Chain Management (SCM).

One of the founding institutions (along with Harvard) involved in the EdX Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform, MIT has taken a bold leap into the for-credit online degree world with this pilot programme. MIT News announced this week that the program will allow learners worldwide to take "a semester’s worth of courses in its top-ranked [SCM] master’s program, completely online, then complete [the] MIT master’s degree by spending a single semester on campus." Worthy of note, there will be no admissions requirements, the online coursework will be available for free, and "will be open to anyone". Students who do exceptionally well in the courses and in a comprehensive examination upon the successful completion of the online courses, and who opt to pay "a modest fee" for verified certificates, will be awarded the new "MicroMaster's" qualification which puts them in line to progress to the full masters.

“Inverted admission has the potential to disrupt traditional modes of access to higher education,” Professor Sanjay Sarma, MIT’s dean of digital learning and Professor in Mechanical Engineering is quoted as saying, adding “We’re democratizing access to a master’s program for learners worldwide.”

Here at Cave Hill, in a presentation to the Faculty of Social Science's Postgraduate Studies Retreat held earlier this year, I quoted the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southern Queensland who suggested that universities in the 21st Century have to be "fast, flexible and fluid" in their efforts to meet the changing needs of learners and be competitive in this digital age. This move by MIT is a small step with big implications. MIT Professor and CEO of EdX, Anant Agarwal described the new MicroMaster’s as "an important modular credential for the digital age, [which] promises to serve as academic currency in a continuous, lifelong-learning world.” He suggested that "It also affords an evolutionary path for universities in the face of mounting costs, and a way to leverage technology to blend online and on-campus learning pathways.”

You can read the full article from MIT News HERE.

From Content Expert to Content Curator

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 18:33:00 +0000


Source: Creating a Learning Culture Blog

The problem of content overload in courses continues to be a issue with which both faculty and students struggle. In this insightful article ( More Content Doesn't Equal More Learning), Nicki Monahan, faculty advisor in staff and organizational development at George Brown College, Toronto, Canada questions whether the perception of faculty as "content experts"is not part of the problem. She makes a case instead for the notion of "content curators" "who judiciously select the best 'artifacts' for learning, much like the museum curator analyzes and documents all of the materials available before selecting the best representations for any given collection." Monahan calls for a greater focus on the development of the skills "necessary to review and evaluate various sources of information to determine "what’s relevant, accurate, and reliable, and why". "If we teach research and critical thinking skills, our learners will develop the capacity to cope with information overload, a problem that is unlikely to disappear in the near future," Monahan posits.

"What would you like to have that student remember from the course? Rather than being able to cite specific facts or information, I think we’d all much rather prefer that our former students remember key concepts, ones that transformed their thinking. Often referred to as “threshold concepts,” these critical ideas can become the cornerstones on which we organize our curriculum. "

As a firm believer in the value of the "backward" approach to curriculum and instructional design with its focus on teaching for understanding and long-term transfer of knowledge, I find Monahan's article a timely reminder for faculty who struggle with the challenge of helping students develop the knowledge AND skills they need for success in the digital/information age. A focus on identifying and helping students to grasp disciplinary threshold concepts as the core of course content can guide faculty towards carefully selecting essential content and create space for teaching and learning strategies that help students to develop the skills of their discipline or their profession, rather than a consuming focus on “covering” content, much of which most students would have forgotten a few weeks after the final exam. Read the full article here. Share your thoughts in the comments.

Could a Machine Teach Like You Do?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 19:27:00 +0000

Dan Butin

Last month I attended the Institutionalising Best Practice in Higher Education Conference at the UWI St. Augustine Campus. I was part of the organizing committee as the CETLs were co-hosts along with the Quality Assurance Units. It was a great conference, with some excellent keynote speakers. One of them was Dan Butin, Associate Professor and Founding Dean of the School of Education at Merrimack College and executive director of the Center for Engaged Democracy, USA. He gave a rousing address on the need to flip the university, and create an impact-centred, engaged institution; an institution that is transformative; that scaffolds deep, authentic learning; that provides students with rich experiences of learning.

Now here I am looking back at a few "draft" post on this blog that never made it to the light of publication, and among them is a link to this tongue-in-cheek article, penned in the early days of the arrival of the MOOCs (massive open online courses), an article in which the same Dan Butin wonders if his student would be better served taught by a machine! Take a read, and ask yourself the same question!!! http://www.nebhe.org/thejournal/i-am-not-a-machine/ .

"Most of what we do is based on a transmission model of education, and most of what we transmit is low-level content knowledge to help students just get the basics. This is why MOOCs have become such a sensation. If all we have experienced is being lectured at, then, sure, Wikipedia, the Khan Academy and MOOCs should replace us. I hope, instead, that MOOCs will prompt us to refashion what we do in the college classroom and how we do it."

Why do students fail at maths - The Power of Myths? or Reality Check?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 03 May 2014 23:45:00 +0000

The "Math Person" Myth

"I'm just not a maths person." We hear it all the time. And we’ve had enough. Because we believe that the idea of “math people”is the most self-destructive idea in America today. The truth is, you probably are a math person, and by thinking otherwise, you are possibly hamstringing your own career. Worse, you may be helping to perpetuate a pernicious myth that is harming underprivileged children—the myth of inborn genetic math ability.... For high school math, inborn talent is just much less important than hard work, preparation, and self-confidence. How do we know this? First of all, both of us have taught math for many years—as professors, teaching assistants, and private tutors. Again and again, we have seen the following pattern repeat itself:.......

There was a lengthy and interesting discussion at Academic Board last Friday on the problem of poor performance in mathematics across the educational system. Clearly, this problem is not unique to Barbados. The quote above is from an article in which two seasoned academics suggest a major cultural contributor to the problem, and why it is less an issue in Asia schools - the belief in some societies that mathematical ability is genetic as against societies that stress that anything can be learned through effort and hard work. You can read the article HERE.

Reality Check

The article quoted above suggests that what students need is "more maths", more time on task. But then there is another even more interesting perspective, presented in an article by Carol LLoyd (available HERE ) which locates the problem squarely on the way maths is taught in schools, in some cases creating well-drilled "high-flyers" who succeed on rote learning even in prestigious high schools, and then enter universities, even those in the ivy league, where they "hit a wall" when they find that rote learning no longer works. The result she says is large scale disillusionment as dreams of careers in STEM fields are dashed by a sudden downward spiral in performance in mathematics which sees many students transferring into the humanities and social sciences. Sounds familiar?

"Call it the mathematical reality check. Suddenly, Rusczyk recalls, formerly accomplished students were faced with a new idea: that math required more than rote learning — it required creativity, grit, and strenuous mental gymnastics. “They had been taught that math was a set of destinations and they were taught to follow a set of rules to get to those places,” he recalls. “They were never taught how to read a map, or even that there is a map.”

The article goes on to highlight the important role of initiatives such as after-school maths clubs and maths competitions that help students to see the utility and "fun' side of maths, and develop skills of problem solving.

Instead of just learning how to follow rules, he explains, "In math competitions, I learned how to solve problems that I hadn’t seen before.” Instead of math becoming something he accomplished in return for a perfect score, he came to see math as problem solving — an exciting pleasure that was a distant relation to the rote drudgery of memorizing algorithms.

Both articles give good food for thought as we contemplate ways in which the university might partner with external agencies in seeking to solve the problem of poor performance in mathematics, and its critical impact on advancing the Campus' Technology Initiative and achieving the national STEM agenda. Should we consider promoting and supporting the development of math clubs in schools? Or organise a national maths competition???

Flipping a Calculus Course - and self directed learning?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 22:13:00 +0000

I have posted in this blog a couple times on the "flipped classroom" teaching strategy (check the categories on the right). In this entry I want to share a series of posts in which a mathematics lecturer at the Grand Valley State University in Michigan, Robert Talbert, chronicles his experiences with "flipping" a calculus course. In the process he illustrates the potential of the flipped approach for developing self-regulating students, an important goal in the preparation of 21st century graduates.

The following post entitled The inverted calculus course and self-regulated learning is a good place to start - http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2014/03/03/the-inverted-calculus-course-and-self-regulated-learning/ . You can use the “previous” and “next” links at the top of the post to see his earlier and later posts if it gets interesting. He is writing about his experience “flipping” a calculus course, but the concepts introduced and the lessons learned are relevant to most disciplines. I particularly like the post on Creating Learning Objectives, flipped classroom style which really gets you thinking about how you develop and sequence learning outcomes http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2014/03/05/creating-learning-objenctives-flipped-classroom-style/ . The posts are certainly worth a read.

Don't forget to leave me a comment!

Georgia Tech Launches a "Masters Mooc" in Computer Science!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 18:34:00 +0000

MOOC MASTERS!

The higher education world is watching as Georgia Tech launches a "Master MOOC"! ... the Master of Science in Computer Science costing a mere $6600.00, less than one sixth of the cost of their residential programme. READ HERE about the programme and the kinds of people who have signed up. (Check the comments section too.) What do you think of that?

Teen to Government...Change Your Typeface and Save Millions!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 10:06:00 +0000

14-year-old science student hits upon a simple strategy for saving big on printing costs.

What really excites me about this story is what it suggests about the power and potential of authentic learning and assessment. CLICK HERE to check it out and leave a comment.

Flipping the Foreign Language Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 15:09:00 +0000

Image source:http://webhost.bridgew.edu/lwerner/

Foreign language faculty looking for ways to move beyond traditional approaches to teaching will find this article from the November 2013 issue of The Language Educator, a publication from The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) quite thought-provoking.

The article entitled A New Approach to Language Instruction — Flipping the Classroom shares the strategies and experiences of teachers at both university and high school level, who are using technology to improve the teaching of foreign languages, at the same time developing self-regulated learning skills of students. Their model is the Flipped Classroom on which we have blogged before (see Would Flipping the Classroom Work for Your Course? ).

“Keep in mind that flipping the classroom

is not the delivery of a lecture on video.

A video of a boring lecture is a boring
video that doesn’t enhance the learning experience."

The article explains the flipped classroom approach, its growing popularity in high school and university classrooms and pros and cons of adoption in foreign language teaching. Sharing the results of research and anecdotal reports from faculty, it highlights issues and strategies such as "how to flip", "does flipping work", technical and pedagogical considerations, the importance of preparing students, and strategies for getting students involved.

Take a look and let know what you think. Or share your own "flipping" experience!

Optimal Video Length for Student Engagement

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 15:08:00 +0000

For those persons using or considering using online video lectures in their courses, as occurs for example in "flipped classroom" or other models of blended learning, you may be interested in this post (https://www.edx.org/blog/optimal-video-length-student/1239) in which Philip Guo, an assistant professor of Computer Science at the University of Rochester whose main research interests are in human-computer interaction and online education, shares preliminary results about video usage in blended or online courses. The post is based on findings published in a Wall Street Journal article, An Early Report Card on Massive Open Online Courses, obtained from initial analyses of a few math and science courses on the edX system. The findings seem to support what is currently recommended as best practice for use of instructional video.

Guo reports that the data suggest "The optimal video length is 6 minutes or shorter -- students watched most of the way through these short videos. In fact, the average engagement time of any video maxes out at 6 minutes, regardless of its length. And engagement times decrease as videos lengthen: For instance, on average students spent around 3 minutes on videos that are longer than 12 minutes, which means that they engaged with less than a quarter of the content. Finally, certificate-earning students engaged more with videos, presumably because they had greater motivation to learn the material."

Guo ends with a "take-home message for instructors" using or thinking about using videos in their classes, as occurs for example in "flipped classroom" approaches or other models of blended learning. The message is that in order to maximize student engagement, video lectures should be broken up into small, bite-sized pieces.

Are MOOCS a Good Alternative to Text Books? This Prof Thinks So

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 06:19:00 +0000

There has been a lot of hype about massive open online courses (MOOCs) and their future place in higher education. While some trumpet MOOCS as the great transformer of all that is wrong in higher ed, or the great leveler of the playing field, others point to some of the delivery format's current short-comings, such as the low completion rates, as "proof" of long-term failure, and others still choose to ignore these developments completely, perhaps at their peril.

Then there are those who have chosen to embrace MOOCS on their own terms, to explore the possible nexus between the traditional and new. Panagiotis Tsigaris, a professor and chair of the Department of Economics at Thompson Rivers University, Canada is one such person. In this Times Higher Ed article entitled MOOCS are a Good Alternative to Books, http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/opinion/moocs-are-a-good-alternative-to-books/2008345.article, Tsigaris reaches the conclusion that MOOCS can be a positive addition to his courses.

"There is no question in my mind that the printed textbook will die out soon. In Canada, British Columbia is taking the lead as the first province to offer students free access to online textbooks for the 40 most popular post-secondary courses next year. However, I also think it is important to accommodate different student needs – so now I plan to offer “à la carte” course materials. Students will have the choice of buying a textbook – either printed or electronic – or using free online educational resources. My guess is that most students will choose the latter, since, as my experience has shown, they are similar enough to be considered almost perfect substitutes for traditional textbooks."

In response to the article, one reader, commented:

"I think that this is a terrific article that expresses the growing trend of MOOCs and education in general. I am currently a student taking online Master's courses. What has been somewhat unsatisfying to me is the approach taking by many professors. It is the same approach that you would see from classroom lectures. I like the idea of integrating MOOCs and other online resources to change the learning process, similar to what is described in the article. I have found myself searching for my own alternative forms of learning through sites mentioned in the article as well as other ones such as www.CourseWorld.org in order to shift away from strictly reading. I hope that more teachers will take this approach in the future as well."

What do YOU think?

The Teaching Prof Says Give Students a Choice in Assignments and Boost Creativity and Motivation

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 20:23:00 +0000

"Dan Pink, in his 2006 book A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future, indicates that autonomy, mastery, and purpose are qualities that motivate learners and result in achievement. Isn’t this what we desire for our students? When students are asked to interpret, construct, and demonstrate their own concepts or ideas regarding specific course concepts from a selection of product or performance options, content retention, commitment, motivation, and creativity increase. At least that’s what’s happened in my courses, and those outcomes are consistent with the principles of effective course design."

Looking for workable ideas for increasing student engagement and meaning-making? In this article, the "Teaching Professor" shows what can happen when students get to choose. If you have any experiences of your own to share, add a comment!

Inquiry Provides a Framework for Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 15:32:00 +0000

"To become independent learners, students must gain not only the skills but also the disposition to use those skills, along with an understanding of their own responsibilities and self-assessment strategies. Combined, these four elements build a learner who can thrive in a complex information environment."

"Learning has a social context: Learning is enhanced by opportunities to share and learn with others. Students need to develop skills in sharing knowledge and learning with others, both in face-to-face situations and through technology."
American Association of School Librarians

Elearning tools than support the development of these 21st century skills include: journal, discussion forum, wiki, quiz, feedback.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 20:10:00 +0000

We in the EMS unit of the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning produced this short video as a tribute to the founding fathers of the UWI Cave Hill Campus, on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Campus (1963-2013). ENJOY!

>

How Does Online Learn By Doing ACTUALLY Work?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 18:36:00 +0000

Learning by doing or active learning has become a buzzword at levels of education in recent decades, driven by the findings of cognitive science and the spread of constructivist learning theories which posit that people generally learn better when they are actively involved in the process, and when learning is made relevant and authentic through activities that allow students to apply learning to real life problems and situations.

Also a major feature of education today is online and blended delivery aimed at improving learning outcomes, reducing costs and catering to increasing demand for flexibility of access, particular in higher education. For many institutions, marrying these two imperatives, active learning and online learning, has proven challenging. In this short video, Carnegie Mellon West Coast Campus demonstrates how it is done. The featured programme is supported by experienced faculty who serve as mentors. They have abandoned the traditional approach to delivery, they say, in favour of the online learning-by-doing approach in order to help their students become independent thinkers.

After you have watched the video, drop me a comment to share your thoughts.
here is the link to the video http://www.rogerschank.com/ .

Video Creation as a Form of Active Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:41:00 +0000

Video Creation as a Form of Active Learning

In one of the topics in our CUTL Technology course we look at the use of video and audio in instruction. Having students create their own videos as a form of assessment or "meaning making" is highlighted as the Number 1 pedagogical use of video. Several of the course participants comment favourably on the idea, though some ponder over logistical issues that might get in the way. A few graduates of the course have successfully implemented the use of student videos, like Dr. Adrian Cashman of CERMES and Dr. Grace Fayombo of the School of Education who both made presentations on student-created videos as a learning tool at our inaugural Teaching With Technology Symposium last year

A lecturer in the Faculty of Science and Technology at St. Augustine has taken the idea and is "running with it" in a big way. Jason Matthew teaches biochemistry and he is challenging his students in BIOL 2365 to "imagine, create and innovate" with video. The project, Biochemians Got Talent, required students to create 15-minute videos (a bit long, perhaps?) on any topic in the BIOL 2365 course syllabus. The project produced 30 videos which Mr. Matthew has made available on YouTube. He is interested in having biology and biochemistry students at UWI view and comment on the videos (and perhaps add to them as well!). So those of you who teach biology/biochemistry, please share with your students. It's an excellent way for students to "learn form each other". Here is the link to the channel where you can view the videos LINK. Take a look and drop me a comment with your thoughts on the idea.

(Just in case the link doesn't work, you can also go on the YouTube website (www.youtube.com) and type in BiochemJM in the search bar.

The MOOCS Are Coming, Are We Ready?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:54:00 +0000

W hen over 160,000 people signed up for a course in artificial intelligence offered by two academics at Stanford, in the Fall of 2011, this sealed the eruption of MOOCS as “the hottest topic of discussion in higher education in the U.S”. Things in the MOOC realm have been moving “fast and furious” ever since.

I have the wonderful pleasure of being the facilitator for the course Advancing Teaching and Learning with Technology in the Certificate in University Teaching and Learning (CUTL) programme at the UWI Cave Hill Campus. This course provides for stimulating interactions with faculty as we engage in online discussions of various issues impacting on teaching and learning in higher education today.

One of the issues discussed with the current cohort is the rapidly developing phenomenon of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) that is sweeping across the Higher Ed landscape, primarily in North America. Interestingly, no one on the course had heard the term before, but all were immediately intrigued by it.

A MOOC is a type of online course aimed at large-scale participation and open access via the Internet. The term is only about five years old, and really only came to prominence within the last year, as the involvement of some of the USA’s leading universities, including Harvard, MIT, Stanford and Berkeley, triggered a media frenzy about the potential of MOOCs to revolutionize higher education on a global scale.

MOOCs sprung out of the open educational resources (OER) movement with its lofty goals of alleviating the digital divide “between the global North and the global South”, and contributing to the development of less advanced economies. Much of the attention behind MOOCs currently focuses on making e-learning more scalable and sustainable. While there is no commonly accepted definition of a MOOC, two key features are:

Open access. MOOC participants do not need to be a registered student in a school to "take" a MOOC, and are not required to pay a fee.
Scalability. Many traditional courses depend upon a small ratio of students to teacher, but the "massive" in MOOC suggests that the course is designed to support an indefinite number of participants. (Wikipedia)

When over 160,000 people signed up for a course in artificial intelligence offered by two academics at Stanford, in the Fall of 2011, this sealed the eruption of MOOCS as “the hottest topic of discussion in higher education in the U.S”. Things in the MOOC realm have been moving “fast and furious” ever since - Colleges are entering into deals to offer credits for MOOCs http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/13/moocs-college-credit/1699671/. The American Council on Education, ‘a non-profit organization that represents most of the nation’s college and university presidents', is working on a process by which MOOCs can be assessed for academic rigour leading to approval for academic credit, although the decision as to whether to accept approved courses for credit transfer will remain up to the individual institutions. MOOCs are rapidly gaining popularity in rural communities and developing countries where access to traditional schools is limited.

So the big questions emerging are these, "Will MOOCs destroy academia?" http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2012/11/156587-will-moocs-destroy-academia/fulltext; or will history prove them to be the cataclysmic “game-changer” in higher education in the 21^st century; the "big experiment” that if successful, “will give people all around the world access to high-quality, online classes without having to pay a dime”, allowing people to educate themselves based on what they want to learn…. allowing stay-at-home parents to take real classes in their spare time to stay current, business people to improve their resumes, and high school students to "get a head start on college when they’re bored?" http://distancelearn.about.com/od/isitforyou/a/How-Moocs-Are-Changing-The-Way-People-Learn.htm.

More importantly, what threats and opportunties might this avalanche bring for institutions like UWI?

I welcome your thoughts…

Cool Tools to Keep You Organized

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 21:13:00 +0000

In our CUTL 5106 course Advancing Teaching and Learning with Technology we benefited from a presentation by Information Literacy Librarian Ingrid Iton on Using ICT Tools for Professional Development and Research (and Teaching). It was a great introduction to the wide range of resources that are available via the Campus Library's network, including introducing the new UWI-wide information portal UWIlinC. This new portal, provides one point of access to information resources from across the English-speaking Caribbean in all formats including UWI's intellectual output, subscribed resources (electronic journals, databases, electronic books) and the catalogues for all four UWI campuses. To check out the portal, CLICK HERE.

On the subject of tools that support professional development and research by helping you to keep you organized, I thought I would share two of my favourites, DROPBOX and EVERNOTE.

DROPBOX:
With dropbox, you never again have to worry about forgetting your USB drive/flash drive at work with that document you wanted to work on (or forgetting to email a file to yourself)! With Dropbox, you save your documents in a cloud application which allows you to access them from anywhere that you have access to the Internet. You can download dropbox to all your computers and mobile devices (for you IPad, Iphone and BB users), and any files saved to the dropbox on one device will be automatically synchronised to all your devices. For a more comprehensive overview of the tool, CLICK HERE for a review by TechGeek. To set up a Dropbox account and download the app, CLICK HERE.

EVERNOTE
Evernote is promoted as a program designed to make your life easier. It is one of a number of web-based tools (another popular one being OneNote) that allows you to keep and organise notes in one program that syncs to just about any device, making it easy to access your notes from anywhere. For a student, these might be lecture and study notes; for faculty, they might be notes on research projects, course notes or even "Notes to self". Notes can be in text format, audio or video. You can even add your own handwritten notes if you use a tablet; add images that you take with your mobile phone or other digital device; add links directly from relevant web sites or send email messages directly to your Evernote folders which are called notebooks etc. The idea is that you create notebooks for all the categories of notes you are going to keep, and then you can easily "throw" notes into those notebooks ( or access them) from your home computer, your work computer, or your mobile devices once you have Internet access. For a full overview of the tool here's link to the source, the Evernote site where you can setup and account!

Would "Flipping the Classroom" Work for Your Course?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 19:20:00 +0000

"Andrew P. Martin loves it when his lectures break out in chaos." The "chaos" usually results from his implementation of the teaching strategy know as "flipping", being implemented in a number of college classrooms, particularly in North America. As the term implies, "flipping" involves the inversion of what one would expect to happen in the traditional college lecture. Activities that would normally be done as "homework" are done in class, and much of what would traditionally be covered in the lecture is done by students outside of the classroom, often supported by technology. "Flipping ... takes many forms, including interactive engagement, just-in-time teaching (in which students respond to Web-based questions before class, and the professor uses this feedback to inform his or her teaching), and peer instruction." Some (both instructors and students) love it, some hate it, but apparently, a growing body of research, is showing that the method results in "more learning."

Read the full article which appeared recently in the Chronicle of Higher Education following a Teaching and Learning Conference at Harvard University where "flipping" was a regular buzzword." http://chronicle.com/article/How-Flipping-the-Classroom/130857/. After you read the article, share your thought. Would/could "flipping" result in "more learning" in your course? Would it be feasible? Why ever not????

We are not Alone on the Workload Train

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:09:00 +0000

This post has nothing to doing with teaching and technology, but it does have very much to do with an issue currently occupying the minds of members of faculty here at Cave Hill, the issue of workload adjustments in harsh economic times. I thought I would share an insightful article appearing in today's issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, entitled Back in the Classroom: Colleges are calling off the deal that allows many professors time out from teaching. Some institutions link the move to an "increased eye on efficiency" or "more equitable workloads", others bluntly tell faculty "The world has changed, in case you haven't noticed." Whatever the reason, it seems that across the USA state universities, in particular, are ushering in a wave which is seeing large numbers of "top tier" full-time faculty back in the classroom and teaching inroductory level courses. Even more interesting than the article itself, are the comments and exchanges that it stimulated.

" I'm having some trouble mustering sympathy for the professors mentioned in this article. I haven't taught my contractual load of 3 courses per semester plus a short term (3 - 3 - 1) since the day I walked on this campus 16 years ago. My real load? Somewhere around 4.5 - 1 - 4.5 (Neither have I ever been paid for an overload.)

And we wonder why those outside the academy are setting up the guillotine."

If you would like to read the full article (and the comments which follow it), CLICK HERE

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:55:00 +0000

Princeton Joins the Open Access Movement

I read in yesterday's issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education that Princeton University has joined the ranks of institutions adopting a policy of free and open access to the scholarly output of its academics. You can read the article HERE. In the article, faculty at Princeton were said to have "unanimously" endorsed the policy on the basis that “the principle of open access is consistent with the fundamental purposes of scholarship.”

In adopting the policy Princeton has joined a growing number of highly respected US institutions such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that encourage or require researchers to make copies of their articles publicly available, usually via institutional repositories.

In welcoming the news open access advocate and Librarian at the University of Kansas, Lorraine Haricombe, was quoted as saying: “This shows strong support for what universities do, and that is share their scholarship for the support of the cause and as a public good.”

With the current debate surrounding issues of copyright for scholarly works, including requirements for the payment of licenses by universities such as UWI for use of scholarly articles, one wonders about the implications of the open access movement for the futures of such arrangements.

Math ( and other) Curriculum Makeover

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 21:54:00 +0000

I watched a really interesting video recently entitled Maths Curriculum Makeover. It was a 12 minute presentation by Dan Meyer, A US high school maths teacher. In the video Meyer promotes the need for what he calls "patient problem solving" in developing reasoning skills in students. He demonstrates how thoughtful instructional design supporting inquiry-based learning, and the use of multimedia can produce more engaged students who are better prepared for solving real-world problems. He lamented the usual tendency for teachers to "give problems to students", rather than involve students in the formulation of problems. He also issued a sobering reminder that "we are going to retire into a world that our students will run," but that's another issue!

The video is entertaining as well as instructive and thought-provoking. Take a look and leave a comment on whether it stimulates any thoughts around teaching in your discipline.

What Do Students Learn Through Discussion?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 21:05:00 +0000

You think the reason for having discussions is obvious to students? I’d encourage you to test that assumption. Next time you’ve had a discussion, ask students why you had them discuss the topic rather than simply lecturing on it or have them read about it in the text. If I had to guess, I’d say that question will first be met with silence, followed by some glib answers, “You didn’t have time to prepare a lecture,” followed by other answers, none still very insightful, “It’s a way to keep us awake.” Maryellen Weimer, The Teaching professor Blog

One of the hands-on sessions that we have included in the CUTL technology course is a workshop on the use of the excellent communication and collaboration tools available in the Moodle/elearning system, in particular, the discussion forum tool. I love the Moodle forum tool for the choices it offers with respect to the way in which the forum will operate - Will the forum allow students to start their own topics or will all topics be started by the instructor? Will students have to post their responses to a question before they can view the responses of their peers? Will it be strictly a Q & A rather than a full, open discussion etc. All these decisions are made by the instructor when setting up the forum.

Why I really love the forum tool, moreover, is the value it can add to a course by extending opportunities for discussion beyond the limited time available during face-to-face contact hours, and for encouraging students to engage with a topic even prior to coming to class. Yet, as Maryellen Weimer reminds us, students do not always appreciate the value of discussion, and this can impact negatively on the importance they ascribe and the effort they commit to participating in discussion, whether face-to-face or online. In her recent blog post Weimer suggests a few simple ways in which instructors can help student to appreciate the value of discussion to learning. Click here to read the full post.

Seeing Ourselves Through Students' Eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:45:00 +0000

We have just come to the end of the Advancing Teaching and Learning with Technology course in the teaching certificate programme (CUTL) and assignments are due. Some participants have kept up with the pace of the course and have completed assignments on time, others have requested extensions to the submission date for a variety of reasons.

Looking back on this the second cohort of the course, I have been reflecting on the differences in the ways in which different participants have experienced and responded to the course. The course is delivered in a blended format, with all core instruction, readings etc delivered online while face-to-face sessions are dedicated to hands-on workshops to introduce a range of instructional technologies. Online discussions and other interactive web-based activities are a major component of the course. Some persons have relished the online forums; the exchange of ideas and experiences and collaborative engagement with the assigned readings have been extensive, rich and thought-provoking. However, there are those who have struggled to keep up with the pace of the forums, citing, in many cases, a dislike for spending extended periods at the computer, as well as the demands of professional and personal responsibilities which left little time to devote to what some found to be a demanding, even if engaging and meaningful course.

This reflection brought to mind a point made by award-winning author Stephen Brookfield, in his classic book The Skillful Teacher, to the effect that the most important knowledge teachers need to do good work is a constant awareness of how students are experiencing their learning and perceiving their actions. This was one of three core assumptions of skillful teaching which Brookfield outlined, the others being that:

Skillful teaching is whatever helps students learn; and
Skillful teachers adopt a critically reflective stance towards their practice.

Of course, these three assumptions are intertwined since, teachers often come to a knowledge of what will help their students learn through a combination of factors, including ongoing reflection on the outcomes of past actions, and ongoing solicitation of feedback from the learners themselves. This latter action, solicitation of feedback, is not always easy and,perhaps for that reason, is often overlooked. However, if Brookfield is correct, and this is in fact "the most important knowledge teachers need to do good work.., " then finding ways to make this feedback easy and effective is paramount. This is where technology can help.

The ready availability of course and learning management systems such as Moodle, offer feedback tools which make it extremely easy for instructors to collect anonymous feedback from students on an ongoing basis throughout a course . Brookfield suggests that ensuring the anonymity of students' responses to questions we ask regarding their classroom experiences is a "cardinal principle of seeing ourselves through students' eyes", as this is more likely to lead to willing and honest responses. What will also encourage willing responses, he further suggests, is having students witness this regular invitation of anonymous commentary, followed by public discussion with them of the results...adding, "they start to believe that you mean what you say about the value of critical reflection."

Another interesting point Brookfield made in discussing the core assumptions of skillful teaching, is the invaluable lesson instructors can learn from their own return to "student status". He wrote:

"If... we find ourselves regularly in the situation of trying to learn something new and difficult, we can use this experience to gain an appreciation of what some of our own students are going through. We are provided with an experiential analog of the terrors and anxieties that new learning produces. As people used to orchestrating others' learning, we probably won't enjoy feeling frightened, embarrassed, and intimidated when we find ourselves in the role of learner. But if we care about helping out own students learn, the experience of struggling as learners ourselves is a kind of privilege. It gives us a gift of empathy that helps us adjust what we're doing to take account of students' blockages and anxieties."

So CUTL5106 participants, take note; when you feel like complaining about the demands of the course, see it as the privilege and the gift I try to make it! And if you use none of the other technological tools that we have been exploring in the course, use the Feedback tool in Moodle/Elearning!

Does Wikipedia have a place in education?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:55:00 +0000

The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, set out to give "every single person on the planet ... free access to the sum of all human knowledge." We may still be some way from that ambitious goal, but in the process he has launched what has become probably the most visited site on the World-Wide Web.

I was discussing Wikipedia in a workshop with faculty recently as we considered the potential role of wikis in teaching and learning. Some persons had not heard of "wikis" but all were familiar with Wikipedia, and most had forbidden its use as a legitimate source for student academic writing. This is common among educators, especially in higher education, who at best might permit students to use Wikipedia as a starting point for information, but certainly not as a "real" source.

Subsequently, I have been reading a book by Will Richardson, well-known for his enthusiastic support for the use of interactive Web technologies/Web 2 tools in education. The book is called Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts - and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms and in it Richardson shares some interesting thoughts on wikis in general, but more particularly, on Wikipedia and its potential place "in the classroom".

To understand Richardson's points of view, one first has to have a sense of how wikis work and what goes into the creation of entries on a wiki such as Wikipedia. Briefly speaking, a wiki is a collaboratively produced body of information. Each page in the wiki has a link which when clicked on, permits anyone to edit that page. Each page also has a page history which permits anyone to see when changes to that page were made, by whom, and what the changes were. This history can be used to restore a previous version if someone messes up an entry. This is how most "vandalism" on wikis is corrected. New pages may be added easily at any point.

Another feature of wikis, certainly Wikipedia, that needs to be understood is the "discussion" tab, which allows editors or contributors to carry out the often intense negotiation over what should finally appear in an entry being created. To get a feel for this, Richardson points readers to the conversation going on behind the entry on global warming at Wikipedia (http://tinyurl.com/33885n). "Not only will you learn a lot about the efforts of the contributors to "get it right", you'll also get a sense of the types of give-and-take skills that will serve our students well in the future. It's real collaboration made transparent."

Wikipedia operates on a number of core principles. The main principles guiding the contribution/editing of material are:

Neutral point of View: Articles should be balanced to convey a fair and proportional impression of the various points of view on a subject.
Verifiability: Articles should contain only material that has been published by reliable sources. Citation is therefore required, especially for material likely to be challenged. Material for which sources are not provided is subject to removal.
No original research: Articles may not contain previously unpublished arguments, concepts, data, or theories, nor any new analysis or synthesis of published arguments, concepts, data, or theories that serves to advance a position.

Wikipedia, therefore, represents a vast collection of what are essentially "collaboratively written research reports", complete with citations. No wonder students are tempted to "cut and paste". What does this suggests about the nature of assignments that are set for students, and how they might use a resource like Wikipedia? Richardson asks: "... is it more important for a student to be able to find that information and know how to evaluate it, or to know how to repeat work that's already been done?", admitting that, "it's a tough call." An alternative question might be whether students should be spending less time "collecting" information and more time using it meaningfully and creatively.

Richardson suggests that in considering the potential of a resource like Wikipedia requires us to see students not only as consumers of information, but producers. This requires a change in the way teachers think about the content students create. For example, Richardson queries whether students should not be encouraged to contribute what they learn and know to Wikipedia entries on topics they study. "If your student produces a great research paper on global warming, why shouldn't she add what she found to the global warming entry at Wikipedia? And why shouldn't we watch together to see what happens to that information that she adds? If it gets modified, we can think critically about those modifications.... Either way, it can be a great learning experience... If we begin to look at Wikipedia as another opportunity for our students to contribute what they learn and know to a larger audience, I think we can begin to appreciate it for the really incredible site that it is," he added.

Richardson also suggests that Wikipedia is often the most comprehensive and up-to-date source of information on current world events. Using the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami as an example, he relates how he turned to Wikipedia "to watch the event unfold".

"The earthquake occurred just after midnight (GMT) on December 26, and the first 76-word post was created at Wikipedia about nine hours later. Twenty-four hours after the first mention, the entry had been edited more than 400 times and had grown to about 3,000 words, complete with some of the first photographs of the devastation, a chart documenting the dead and injured, and other graphics describing how the tsunami was spawned .... Six months after the event, more than 7,000 changes had been recorded, and the post had settled at around 7,200 words. All of it had been created and re-created by people just like you and me who were interested in contributing what they were finding to the entry..... And that process is being repeated over and over as news happens around us. It's how each of Wikipedia's millions of entries in over 200 languages have evolved - from the hands of people just like us with the concept that everyone together is smarter than anyone alone. In the process, we check facts, provide "soft" security by acting like a community watchdog, and weed out bias and emotion from the posts in an attempt to arrive at a neutral point of view for each article. Each entry if the group's best effort, not any one person's".

He calls Wikipedia the poster child for the collaborative construction of knowledge and truth that the new, interactive Web technologies make possible. "Every day, thousands of people who have no connection to one another engage in the purposeful work of negotiating and creating truth." He suggests, that instructors should teach students about Wikipedia since:
1. Like it or not, they are using it in their research
2. It is gaining respect as a trusted and cited source among major news organisations and scholars, and
3. There is much to learn in the process of using Wikipedia that can help students become better learners - namely collaboration and negotiation skills.

In relation to point 2 above, Richardson notes that when in 2007, the Denver Post "graded" Wikipedia by asking a number of experts to review entries in their field, "four out of five agreed that their entries were accurate, informative, comprehensive and a great resource for students." He suggests that teachers should spend some time checking Wikipedia's accuracy for themselves, and they might agree with the CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, that "Wikipedia is one of the most accurate encyclopedias in the world".

While all of this might not get instructors to change their views on Wikipedia as a credible academic source, it might trigger innovative ideas on how this fast, flexible and fluid "thing" might be harnessed as a tool in the creation of active learning environments.

Talking Teaching and Learning at Cave Hill

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:40:00 +0000

I currently have the privilege of facilitating the course Advancing Teaching and Learning with Technology which is one of four courses in the Certificate in University teaching and Learning (CUTL) programme at Cave Hill. We deliver this course in a blended mode, with a lot of the theoretical background material covered online, and face-to-face sessions dedicated to providing a hands-on exposure to some of the primary multimedia development and delivery tools covered in the course. In this way, faculty get a first-hand experience of online learning from the student perspective, which we hope will positively impact on their use of this technology as instructors.

We use the Moodle course and learning management platform, and a great deal of interaction in the course is facilitated by the online discussion forums. Indeed the rich and varied discussion of issues surrounding teaching and learning in higher education that takes place on these forums, has convinced us of the need for avenues to extend these conversations beyond the confines of the course. This blog is one such avenue. On as regular a basis as time allows, I will be raising issues relevant to teaching and learning in higher education, particularly issues related to the use of technology, based on my readings, on new research findings, best practices, and experiences shared by others. I hope that readers will find the blog interesting and useful, and, moreso, that you will share your comments on the issues as well.