These really are easy habits, and I have employed most of them in my classes over the years. Of course, some are easier to pull off than others! Habit number 3 reminded me of something from my grad school days to the point that I felt compelled to post the very first comment.
Xtranormal is an online service which creates animated videos based on your script. In this Chronicle article, the author describes using this approach to help students learn to write arguments by assigning the sides to animated characters.
This chart provides an interesting way of thinking about the tools included in Moodle - for each tool it briefly describes what it is, how hard it is to set up, and whether you can transfer information, assess performance, communicate, or co-create in it. We will be upgrading to Moodle 2 this summer.
Check out this sample flipped lesson that I created in just a few minutes on the TED-Ed (or is it EdTED) site. Currently TED-Ed has only a limited number of videos, but perhaps all TED lectures will be available for flipped lessons in the future.
Interested in seeing what you can do yourself? Then go to http://ed.ted.com/ and click on the tour (or Learn More) links. Next, create your own account and get started.
This speaker brings together the fields of mathematics, marine biology, feminine handicrafts, and environmental activism. Seriously!
Afraid of making the leap into the new high-tech teaching arena? You are not alone. In fact, one of the champions of "active teaching with technology" has tempered his zeal after conversations with colleagues for whom the technology has not worked as well.
This article offers a glimpse into the teaching philosophies of two professors at Kansas State University, both nationally recognized as outstanding teachers. But, if Michael Wesch seems to have reached one extreme (the high-tech one) and veered back, then Christopher Sorensen appears to have reached the other extreme (low- or even no-tech) and remains firmly entrenched.
This title is not intended to provide anyone with an excuse not to try something innovative. Rather, I think there is a happy medium between the two extremes hinted at in the article (see my Weiman article post).
By building an open, multi-disciplinary collection of SMART recipes (Simple, Modular, Assessable, Reproducible,and Tested) that could be integrated into any curriculum, we intend to bring information literacy to the forefront of liberal arts education.
Gadget use is an etiquette issue to be addressed formally in the syllabus. This article (and the links in it) have some interesting suggestions. Perhaps the most intriguing idea to me is the "laptop-free zone" of seating - I've noticed that I can be as distracted by the person a row or two ahead of me checking email (or worse) as by the urge to check my own.
The American Anthropological Association has a "Teaching Materials Exchange" which faculty can use to submit syllabi, lesson plans, activities, and assignments. Some materials are relevant to other disciplines (or interdisciplinary/cross-disciplinary approaches). If your professional association has such a resource, please let the CIP know.
Analysis of discussions on a site called Piazza suggest that requiring students to post an introduction can improve the amount of discussion on the boards, while heavily-graded discussions can lead students to "grind for grades" instead of authentically participate.
A Faculty Learning Community is a cros-disciplinary group of faculty who meet to investigate a common topic of interest in teaching and learning (or the conduct of scholarship more broadly). This article discusses the involvement of a librarian as facilitator to an FLC on scholarly writing.
Show me the data! Frankly, I think any survey that includes 722 physics faculty members has to be worthwhile -- that is quite the sample size! Moreover, this is likely to be pretty representative.
While it is impressive that a very large majority (88%) were aware of certain "research-based instructional strategies," what is even more impressive is that 82% of the respondents had tried some of these strategies. True, 1/3 of these have given up and gone back to traditional lectures, but I agree with Eric Mazur's comment that this means that 2/3 are still plugging away.
The follow-up studies should be interesting, especially if they shed light on what drove the 1/3 who gave up to do so.
A fascinating walk through interesting syllabi (and isn't that still the preferred plural?) From conventional documents with interesting tweaks, to Prezi presentations, to a "fold-your-own quarto", lots of experimenting going on.
"So the solution may be in having a well defined rubric but being able to apply it with discretion and sensitivity to individual learner differences." Rubrics seem to have garnered quite a bit of attention as a teaching and grading tool, and reflecting on their design and appropriate use seems important.
This is a video posted by the Harvard Business Review. The speaker provides examples of how disrupting one's routine -- and of those around you -- can lead to new ways of doing things. I think the analogy of Miles Davis with a professor is pretty clear.
A new iOS app designed by faculty at Bryn Mawr and Notre Dame integrates the text of The Tempest with critical commentary, different actors' interpretations of critical scenes, and class discussions. The "book app" seems to be diverging in important ways from the "e-book."
A proposal that college curricula should more fully and more intentionally take advantage of the college's physical locations and the moment in time. What surprises me is how relatively easy to incorporate some of the ideas seem.
