Hybrid Learning and Problem-Based Learning

Interesting article on "hybrid learning" from Education Week. Speaks to some of the issues raised during our discussion of online classes in Week 4.

Hat tip to Cali Anicha, who sent this article to me.

She also tipped me off to the following blog post, which speaks to some of the issues raised during our Week 5 class:

Evidence that Problem-Based Learning Works

Journals on College Teaching

Higher Education
Journal of Higher Education
Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Innovative Higher Education

You can also search for journals in your field by using

[YOUR FIELD] + EDUCATION

as your search terms

Blog Prompt for Week 5: Learning in Groups

In a 400-500 word entry:

• Develop an informal, nongraded group activity that could be used to assess comprehension of material from a lecture in your field.

• Develop a formal, graded group project that could be used to enhance learning in your field.

• Explain how you incorporated this week's readings into the development of your group activities, and how you would evaluate the graded project in a way that encourages collaboration while remaining fair to the individual group members.

Commenters:

Evaluate either the non-graded activity or the graded group project (if another commenter has already assessed one of them, pick the other). Draw from the readings to make suggestions for how it could be improved.

Technological Literacy

Here is the Dan Madigan article (and the corresponding resources) mentioned by Lang in the "Teaching with Technology" chapter:

The Technology Literate Professoriate: Are We There Yet? (Madigan, 2006)

Online Resources for increasing technological literacy.

Creativity in Education

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

Thanks to Patrick Hall, who directed me to this video.

Blog Prompt for Week 4: Technology

If you are blogging this week, your entry should be posted by 12 p.m. on Wednesday, September 15. If you are commenting, your comments should be posted by 12 p.m. on Thursday, September 16.

Directions for bloggers:

In a 400-500 word entry, please respond to the following questions:

• Lang discusses both positive and negative aspects of using technology in the college classroom. Based on what you read, and your own experiences, what are the best arguments in favor of using technology? What is the best argument against it? What should you keep in mind when using technology in your teaching?

• Based on how technology is used in your discipline, what did you find to be the most useful tips offered by Davis? Why?

• After completing this week's reading, what questions did you have about the use of technology in the classroom?

Commenters:

Feel free to use the questions above as a guide in your comments (you could, for example, contrast how technology is used in your discipline, or answer the questions posed by the blogger).

How (Not) to Lecture

Teaching scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off

What's the Problem With Quiet Students? Anyone? Anyone?

By Mary M. Reda
Chronicle of Higher Education

Katherine Streeter for The Chronicle

My colleagues' stories and the theory I was reading helped me understand how instructors see the "problem" of quiet students and fueled my sense that "getting them talking" preoccupied many of my colleagues. Even with my new interdisciplinary understanding of silence, I realized there was a crucial question that we weren't asking: What can quiet students tell us about classroom discussions and silence?

Through a yearlong study of a first-year composition class in which students periodically wrote about their experiences of classroom silence, followed by a series of interviews with five students who self-identified as "quiet," I explored what students themselves believe about speaking and silence. I discovered that students understand classroom discussion and silence quite differently than their instructors generally do. Students have complicated interpretations of the classroom that we rarely confront when we focus on "getting them talking." When I asked my students about their classroom experiences, I didn't hear the kinds of stories I expected to—complaints of boredom, confessions about being unprepared, angry litanies of alienation. Instead, in the hundreds of pages of reflections and 15 interviews, students explored their active choices to speak or to be quiet—choices that involve careful analysis of the professor, their classmates, and themselves.

Read more

Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits

By Benedict Carey
The New York Times

Every September, millions of parents try a kind of psychological witchcraft, to transform their summer-glazed campers into fall students, their video-bugs into bookworms. Advice is cheap and all too familiar: Clear a quiet work space. Stick to a homework schedule. Set goals. Set boundaries. Do not bribe (except in emergencies).

And check out the classroom. Does Junior’s learning style match the new teacher’s approach? Or the school’s philosophy? Maybe the child isn’t “a good fit” for the school.

Such theories have developed in part because of sketchy education research that doesn’t offer clear guidance. Student traits and teaching styles surely interact; so do personalities and at-home rules. The trouble is, no one can predict how.

Yet there are effective approaches to learning, at least for those who are motivated. In recent years, cognitive scientists have shown that a few simple techniques can reliably improve what matters most: how much a student learns from studying.

Read more

Blog Prompt for Week 3: Lectures

Remember: If you are blogging this week, your entry is due by 12 p.m. on Wednesday, September 8. If you are commenting, your comments are due by 12 p.m. on Thursday, September 9.

Directions for bloggers:

In a 400-500 word entry, please respond to the following questions:

• Based on your experiences as a student, what does effective lecturing look like? What does ineffective lecturing look like? Because blogs are public documents, please avoid mentioning specific instructors or classes.

• Based on this week's readings, how might the ineffective lecturing have been improved?

• How will you apply what you learned about lecturing from this week's readings to the lecture component of your teaching demonstration?*

* If you've already completed your teaching demo, feel free to write about how you would apply these readings to future lecturing gigs.

Guidelines for commenters can be found in the Blog Prompt for Week 2.

Fictional student email for Week 2: Discussion

Dr. Platt,

I'm really worried about my participation grade. I know that I don't speak up in class much. But I have a social anxiety that makes it hard for me to talk in front of other people. My heart beats really fast and I sweat and my hands shake. I don't know what to do because I know that we are graded on participation and I really want to get a good grade in your class.

Alex Smith