Erica McWilliam's afternoon keynote neatly brought these themes together. Taking us on a short journey through the history of pedagogy, she argued that the era of the teacher as the 'sage on the stage', the great man (usually) at the front of the classroom imparting his knowledge, has passed into the 'guide on the side', a more nurturing role where the teacher is facilitator. But she argued compellingly that too much rigour has been sacrificed in the name of protecting students' self-esteem, and made the case for the teacher as 'meddler in the middle': a provocateur who knows their stuff and challenges students to rise up to meet them.
Dylan Wiliam opened his talk by sharing evidence that intelligence is partly inherited and partly environmental: education can make people smarter. When students are allowed to duck answering questions or get away with sloppy thinking and incomplete work, we are limiting their life chances - and limiting our capacity to cope with the challenges of the 21st century. As Erica put it, we've left the children of today hard problems to solve. They need to be capable of higher order thinking, so we must help them to experience to the pleasure of the rigour of learning
What does a high quality online course look like?
This site is designed to answer the question being asked: What does a high quality online course look like? It is ourhope that instructors and instructional designers will use this site to learn more about the Rubric for Online Instruction, and be able to view examples of exemplary courses that instructors have done in implementing the different components of the rubric.
"Description
The Learning to Teach Online project has been developed by COFA Online, an
academic unit at the College of Fine Arts, the University of New South Wales,
Sydney, Australia. It is designed to be practical and easy to access for
time-poor teachers. The video and PDF based episodes each examine specific
successful online teaching strategies from many different disciplines, offering
tips, guidance and pointing out the potential pitfalls to both novice and
experienced online teachers. Support for the COFA Online Learning to
Teach Online program has been provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching
Council Ltd, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education,
Employment and Workplace Relations. The views expressed in this
activity do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Learning and
Teaching Council. For more information and access to a global online
supportive community, please visit the Learning to Teach Online website
www.online.cofa.unsw.edu.au"
Teaching Strategies: Online TeachingOnline teaching is increasingly common at many types of higher education institutions, ranging from hybrid courses that offer a combination of in-person and online instruction, to fully online experiences and distance learning. The following resources provide guidelines for creating an online course, best practices for teaching online, and strategies for assessing the quality of online education.
"How Might Our Students Benefit from a Flipped Classroom?
Harvard Physics Professor, Eric Mazur, uses peer instruction and just-in-time teaching to promote better learning. In the details of his strategy, students use class time to grapple with, discuss and find solutions to problems that have traditionally been given as homework assignments. Mazur believes this collaborative deconstruction and application leads to deeper discussions and better learning."
"Parents of older children face similar challenges - for instance, whether it's acceptable for their teen to text at the dinner table, or whether it's tolerable for a teen to peer at his laptop when someone is trying to address him. Essentially, we wonder, just how much technology should be allowed in our lives and those of our kids?"