[Reblog from Education Week; original story written by Laura Heinauer Mellett on September 18, 2013 9:57 AM]
“Social media is one of the trendiest ways teachers are enhancing lessons and engaging students both in and out of the classroom.
With just a smartphone, iPad, laptop, or a home computer, social media can improve teaching and extend learning time in a way students get excited about. Through social media, students can log on any time or any place to do their work, allowing more interaction beyond the school day. It’s also something, when harnessed creatively and effectively, that students enjoy doing, which increases the chances they will spend more time engaged in their work.”
This new research article explores how Twitter, and other social media technologies, contributes to new and traditional literacy practices. It offers models of using Twitter as a learning tool, explores how Twitter is used by students and peers, and offers new suggestions for continuing research.
There has been a growing interest in how teachers can leverage student’s engagement with games to enhance learning. This article summarizes some applications of games in the sciences. To go directly to the article in The Scientist Magazine, Games for Science, skip to here: http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/33715/title/Games-for-Science/
In addition to surveying, a previous blog post of mine recommends sending out an introductory email a week or more prior to the beginning of class. Read more here: https://teachingandlearningatmsu.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/communicatingwithstudents/ …The importance of establishing a positive and comfortable communication climate cannot be overstated. Thanks for the list of tips!
“The teacher’s guide to project-based learning” Free for download
How to design and run projects for students that begin with an enquiry and end with a tangible, publicly exhibited product. This guide has grown out of the partnership between High Tech High, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Innovation Unit.”
This newly published 100-page guide is available for free download. It is the product of an extensive collaboration primarily between High Tech High (a 10-year-old network of 11 public charter schools in San Diego) and Learning Futures (a UK-based non-profit organization that has worked with over 40 schools on innovative methods of teaching and learning, focusing on student engagement). -JL
The guide “offers step-by-step advice on planning and managing extended, interdisciplinary projects as well as useful protocols for critique sessions, templates for important documents such as project plans, and examples of high-impact projects.”
I gravitate towards all things writing, especially the how and why. A rather excellent blog, Brain Pickings, often has very insightful posts on a broad range of topics, mainly creativity, arts and science, and words of wisdom for the masters who came before us. The truth is, you never know what they will send you, but it is always superbly written and insightful. Plus, they always have the coolest images breaking up their text, and they know how to direct your attention from words to images and back to words in a seamless style. They aren’t afraid to mix up the modalities, and it makes for good reading/viewing/listening.
“When fishing for happiness, catch and release.” – Shimon Edelman. Very simple, right? When we find happiness, we should let everyone else around us experience it as well. I strongly recommend you read this entire post – it’s just a lovely way to start the day.
This brief snippet led to viewing this, a short 2-minute video on using simple words and knowing your audience:
For writing teachers, I think having students view this brief video is a great way to introduce rhetoric, and styles of writing. Often students confuse big words with good writing or sound argument. This video, which integrates contemporary culture to makes its point- “Ambulate this direction!”- is short but meaningful: we don’t always have to “sound smart” in order to leave a huge impression. Sometimes the simplest of phrases can capture national attention.
Should a more indepth and critical knowledge of social media be articulated by granting certificates and degrees in this area of study? This article advocates for such, and for moving beyond personal and more superficial knowledge of these platforms, so that employers and academics can better demonstrate and exercise the power of social media in the work place and the classroom. Discuss.
In the normal classroom discussion the other day I was interested to find that everyone in the class (16 of them) have joined a Facebook group that one of them set up as a Literature study group. They’re all there, I asked and checked, and are discussing and asking questions and supporting each other (I hope) and pushing each other in the right directions (I hope)
I hope because I’m not sure. And I’m not sure because I’m not there. I’m not allowed to ‘friend’ students or be connected to them in social networks according to our school policy; a policy that I had a hand in developing. But, you’ve got to wonder. Here am I out here, trying to utilise our own online tools including a pretty decent wiki and blog setup, to get student collaboration and participation going and, here are they in there, doing it themselves, in…
For those interested in instantly gauging student understanding of concepts, polling for student opinions and perspectives on issues raised through discussion, or just curious on how you might integrate this in your teaching practice, check out these new tools. Read the full entry for more information of how these tools are utilized, and how easy they can be used for instant student feedback on learning.
“Blogging in the social, pure, and applied sciences is a common enough practice that two members of the London School of Economics’ Public Policy Group said today that it is “one of the most important things that an academic should be doing right now” — namely, circulating ideas-in-progress to readers in more immediate and (yes) more interesting forms than traditional academic publishing.
It’s no less important in the humanities, even if it’s less common. But in a research field like the digital humanities, blog posts and tweets are the primary way — for many, the only way — that scholars and students disseminate and learn about new questions and methods.”
This re-blog comes to us from Verona, Italy, written by a British teacher and scholar, and primarily discusses technology used to teach online courses. There are several mentions of new tools that may help the instructor who is currently teaching online, or considering moving courses into a hybrid/online environment.
I am posting this not only for the tips and perspective on what a “flipped” classroom is, but because it is helpful to know what practices are considered successful – and how emerging technology is leveraged – in different countries and how it may be helpful to us here in the U.S. to consider different ideas of instruction, homework, and student motivation.
I’d love some comments on this post, as well as some discussion on what others are doing (post your links!)
Though these tips are directed to a more holistic approach to enriching and becoming satisfied with your life, as I read them I felt they applied as well to who we are as instructors. As you move through these tips, consider how they might influence how you plan and execute your curriculum, and what level of mindfulness you bring to the classroom:
I especially think that numbers 4-7: #4 Set Small, Achievable Goals; #5 Do Something Kind; #6 Write Your Own Affirmations; and #7 Focus on What’s Already Good, can apply to not only how we approach teaching, but how we reflect on our teaching. We don’t always ground our experience and growth in checking in with ourselves, and perhaps these simple steps will help.
Be sure to check back often, as I have a new post coming in the next few days concerning Mindful Learning, from a research-based approach, to contemplative practice.
I’m re-posting this analysis because it relates to our discussion of the flipped classroom (pre-recording lectures for students), and because I think Dr. Runte makes some wonderful points about reducing knowledge to encapsulated bits of information that may not allow for deeper thinking, critical discussion, and a regimen of disciplined learning that serves them well into their academic lives and careers. Could this be enabling a further reduction in student attention spans? Thoughts?
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