Pages tagged pedagogy:

The Last Professor - Stanley Fish Blog - NYTimes.com
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/the-last-professor/

discussion on the changing attitiudes of higher learning
In previous columns and in a recent book I have argued that higher education, properly understood, is distinguished by the absence of a direct and designed relationship between its activities and measurable effects [sic] in the world.
The sad truth is acadaemia is now a pragmatic, utilitarian enterprise, populated by those who measure and observe and produce - but there once was a place where learning meant inquiry, explanation and understanding.
21st Century Pedagogy | 21st Century Connections
http://www.21centuryconnections.com/node/653
Even if you have a 21st Century classroom (flexible and adaptable); even if you are a 21st century teacher ; (an adaptor, a communicator, a leader and a learner, a visionary and a model, a collaborator and risk taker) even if your curriculum reflects the new paradigm and you have the facilities and resources that could enable 21st century learning - you will only be a 21st century teacher if how you teach changes as well. Your pedagogy must also change.
Learning management
"... communication skills. Marshalling and understanding the available evidence isn't useful unless you can effectively communicate your conclusions." "... team players. Virtually every project at Google is run by a small team. People need to work well together and perform up to the team's expectations. "
...you will only be a 21st century teacher if how you teach changes as well. Your pedagogy must also change.
Participative Pedagogy for a Literacy of Literacies - Freesouls
http://freesouls.cc/essays/03-howard-rheingold-participative-pedagogy-for-a-literacy-of-literacies.html
modern society and technology
Harold Rheingold writes about participatory pedagogy.
Career Advice: Boring Within or Simply Boring? - Inside Higher Ed
http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/instant_mentor/weir5
In the age of computer-based learning, lecturing gets treated like Model-T Ford. Don’t be deceived; lecturing remains a staple of the academy and it’s likely to remain so for quite some time. University class sizes have swelled in the wake of budget cuts that have delayed (or canceled) faculty searches. A recent study of eleven Ohio four-year colleges reveals that 25 percent of introductory classes have more than 120 students and only a shortage of teaching assistants has kept the percentage that low. At the University of Massachusetts, 12 percent of all classes have enrollments of over 50 and lectures of over 200 are quite common. As long as universities operate on the assembly-line model, lecturing will remain integral to the educational process.
"The most common reason for bad lecturing isn’t phobia; it’s that professors don’t value the craft enough to hone their skills. Use such individuals as negative role models. Think of the most boring lecturer you’ve ever encountered. Do the opposite! Bad lecturers violate nearly every rule of good communication. They never vary voice timbre or pitch. They either stare at their notes or ignore them altogether and ramble onto whatever topic comes to mind. They never make eye contact with their audience or use visual aids and handouts. Everything comes out at the same speed, and they never, ever show the slightest bit of life when discussing the very subject that supposedly excites them. Check for a pulse; if you can stay awake! Step one to improving your lecture skills is to purge yourself of bad communication habits, but the rest of lecturing is a formula. Mix with enthusiasm and repeat the following ..."
Advice on lecturing
Online Education - Introducing the Microlecture Format — Open Education
http://www.openeducation.net/2009/03/08/online-education-introducing-the-microlecture-format/
Most college students would likely concur - fifty minute lectures can be a bit much. With current research indicating that attention spans (measured in minutes) roughly mirror a students age (measured in years), it begs the question as to the rationale behind lectures of such length.
For those interested, here are Penrose’s steps to creating a one minute lecture: 1. List the key concepts you are trying to convey in the 60-minute lecture. That series of phrases will form the core of your microlecture. 2. Write a 15 to 30-second introduction and conclusion. They will provide context for your key concepts. 3. Record these three elements using a microphone and Web camera. (The college information-technology department can provide advice and facilities.) If you want to produce an audio-only lecture, no Webcam is necessary. The finished product should be 60 seconds to three minutes long. 4. Design an assignment to follow the lecture that will direct students to readings or activities that allow them to explore the key concepts. Combined with a written assignment, that should allow students to learn the material. 5. Upload the video and assignment to your course-management software.
Edge: THE IMPENDING DEMISE OF THE UNIVERSITY By Don Tapscott
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/tapscott09/tapscott09_index.html
author of Growing Up Digital
Digital Ethnography » Blog Archive » How to get students to find and read 94 articles before the next class
http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=202
From Michael Wesch's Digital Ethnography blog My student-researchers and I tried something a little different to kick off our semester. Instead of the standard syllabus that requires everybody to read a few articles to discuss, we decided instead to organize ourselves into a Smart Mob that would try to read a good hunk of the literature on a single topic in one go. Each student was required to find 5 articles, read them, and summarize them; uploading their summaries (or the author’s own abstract) into a ZohoCreator form. ZohoCreator is a free service that allows you to create database input forms.
ZohoCreator
Dr. Michael Wesch at Kansas State University talks about how his undergraduate students created a database of articles around a single topic
Research Online
http://ro.uow.edu.au/newtech/
recommended
mobile learning in higher ed; U of Wollongong, Australia; ebook
This online book describes a study, funded by Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC), that involved teachers in the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong implementing innovative teaching approaches to support mobile learning. Palm Smartphone and Apple iPod technologies were used by undergraduate and postgraduate students to assist their learning across a range of curriculum areas. The book outlines authentic activities, assessment strategies, and professional learning approaches that teachers across the higher education sector can easily adapt and implement within their own discipline areas. It is fully downloadable from this site either as individual chapters or as the whole book in pdf form.
KSIĄżka i mlearningu
mobile learning
New technologies, new pedagogies: Mobile learning in higher education
'Teach Naked' Effort Strips Computers From Classrooms - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/article/Teach-Naked-Effort-Strips/47398/
Good arguments against PPT
jose bowen suggests teachers teach naked, without computers, so that students are engaged in the discussion and not passively taking in powerpoint slides.
59 percent of students in a new survey reported that at least half of their lectures were boring, and that PowerPoint was one of the dullest methods they saw.
a dean at Southern Methodist University is proudly removing computers from lecture halls. José A. Bowen, dean of the Meadows School of the Arts, has challenged his colleagues to "teach naked"—by which he means, sans machines.
TeachPaperless: Top Eleven Things All Teachers Must Know About Technology (or: I promised Dean Groom I wouldn’t write a top ten list; so this one goes up to eleven.)
http://teachpaperless.blogspot.com/2009/07/top-eleven-things-all-teachers-must.html
Technology is not a monolith. Technology doesn’t tell you what to do and it doesn’t force you to behave in ways you’d rather not. Technology -- particularly social technology -- is whatever you make it. Use what you want, leave the rest. Mash it up, alter it to fit your needs, customize it, and own it. If you can’t do that with your technology, then you are using the wrong technology.
Top Eleven Things All Teachers Must Know About Technology (or: I promised Dean Groom I wouldn’t write a top ten list; so this one goes up to eleven.)
Blooms Taxonomy Tutorial FLASH - CCCS Faculty Wiki
http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Blooms_Taxonomy_Tutorial_FLASH
Tutorial FLASH - CCCS Faculty Wiki
A site explaining Bloom's taxonomy with tutorials.
Prof. Hacker | Tips & Tutorials for higher ed: productivity & pedagogy in a digital age.
http://www.profhacker.com/
" ProfHacker delivers tips, tutorials, and commentary on pedagogy, productivity, and technology in higher education, Monday through Friday.
What Should Colleges Teach? - Stanley Fish Blog - NYTimes.com
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/what-should-colleges-teach/
A few years ago, when I was grading papers for a graduate literature course, I became alarmed at the inability of my students to write a clean English sentence. They could manage for about six words and then, almost invariably, the syntax (and everything else) fell apart. I became even more alarmed when I remembered that these same students were instructors in the college’s composition program. What, I wondered, could possibly be going on in their courses?
similar to a related article suggested by Carter Wiseman
stanley fish
Lane
http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2530/2303
Course managment systems each contain their own inherent pedagogy, and for most systems these pedagogies are traditional in nature. As with all technologies, the design of the product is a result of its perceived use. Today’s enterprise–scale systems were created to manage traditional teaching tasks as if they were business processes. They were originally designed to focus on instructor efficiency for administrative functions such as grade posting, test creation, and enrollment management. Pedagogical considerations were thus either not considered, or were considered to be embodied in such managerial tasks.
Interesting article re. PLE/VLE debate
Course management systems, like any other technology, have an inherent purpose implied in their design, and therefore a built–in pedagogy. Although these pedagogies are based on instructivist principles, today’s large CMSs have many features suitable for applying more constructivist pedagogies. Yet few faculty use these features, or even adapt their CMS very much, despite the several customization options. This is because most college instructors do not work or play much on the Web, and thus utilize Web–based systems primarily at their basic level. The defaults of the CMS therefore tend to determine the way Web–novice faculty teach online, encouraging methods based on posting of material and engendering usage that focuses on administrative tasks. A solution to this underutilization of the CMS is to focus on pedagogy for Web–novice faculty and allow a choice of CMS.
Impact of VLEs etc on pedagogy
How default settings in Blackboard can influence how newbies teach online
She argues that Content management Systems (CMSs) "are not pedagogically neutral shells for course content." Indeed, "a CMS may not only influence, but control, instructional approaches." And "Few instructors are consciously aware that CMS design is influencing their pedagogy." This is a good paper, well-argued, and I agree with the conclusion.
LMS and learning
From Andragogy to Heutagogy
http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au/Articles/dec00/hase2.htm
This paper suggests there is benefit in moving from andragogy towards truly self-determined learning. The concept of truly self-determined learning, called heutagogy, builds on humanistic theory and approaches to learning described in the 1950s. It is suggested that heutagogy is appropriate to the needs of learners in the twenty-first century, particularly in the development of individual capability.
In something of a landmark for education Knowles (1970) suggested an important change in the way in which educational experiences for adults should be designed. The approach, known as andragogy, contrasts quite sharply with pedagogy which is the teaching of children. This paper suggests there is benefit in moving from andragogy towards truly self-determined learning. The concept of truly self-determined learning, called heutagogy, builds on humanistic theory and approaches to learning described in the 1950s. It is suggested that heutagogy is appropriate to the needs of learners in the twenty-first century, particularly in the development of individual capability. A number of implications of heutagogy for higher education and vocational education are discussed
Kesmit-ing: The Twitter Experiment - Bringing Twitter to the Classroom at UT Dallas
http://kesmit3.blogspot.com/2009/04/twitter-experiment-bringing-twitter-to.html
Twitter in the classroom.
Usin Twitter in History class
Reflection on the use of twitter in college lecture course at UT Dallas
Twitter in the clssroom
Donald Clark Plan B: 10 facts about learning that are scientifically proven and interesting for teachers
http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2008/05/10-facts-about-learning-that-are.html
100 Excellent Open Access Journals for Educators | Online College Tips - Online Colleges
http://www.onlinecollege.org/2009/11/11/100-excellent-open-access-journals-for-educators/
Education journals
Can this Video get Teachers Started? | Future of Education
http://futureofeducation.edublogs.org/2009/07/25/can-this-video-get-teachers-started/
Interesting comment discussion about my Brave New World Wide Web Video
A Brave New World World Wide Web; Education Blog; Can this video get teachers started?
Wiki:Participatory Media Teaching and Learning Resources | Social Media CoLab
http://socialmediaclassroom.com/community/wiki/participatory-media-teaching-and-learning-resources
Recursos Wiki
Howard Rheingold
A repository of resources is growing on the Social Media Classroom wiki.
all kinds of links to resources
Participatory media include (but aren't limited to) blogs, wikis, RSS, tagging and social bookmarking, music-photo-video sharing, mashups, podcasts, video commentsand videoblogs.
Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students : October 2008 : THE Journal
http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23434
Blogging with students
Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students - Good article on blogging in the classroom.
Includes 5 common mistakes instructors can avoid to make bloggin an effective tool.
Annals of Education: Most Likely to Succeed: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/15/081215fa_fact_gladwell?printable=true
Hanushek recently did a back-of-the-envelope calculation about what even a rudimentary focus on teacher quality could mean for the United States. If you rank the countries of the world in terms of the academic performance of their schoolchildren, the U.S. is just below average, half a standard deviation below a clump of relatively high-performing countries like Canada and Belgium. According to Hanushek, the U.S. could close that gap simply by replacing the bottom six per cent to ten per cent of public-school teachers with teachers of average quality.
What Makes a Great Teacher? - The Atlantic (January/February 2010)
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201001/good-teaching
The Power of Project Learning | Scholastic.com
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3751748
Here’s a riddle: Imagine there is a learning technique proven effective through 100 years of use that is now enhanced by the power of today’s technology. Imagine it can excite learners to continue their work well past the parameters of the school day. What is it, and would every school in the country do it? It is project-based learning, and the answer is yes, and no. Project-based learning can be traced back to John Dewey and it has come and gone since the early 20th century.
Gary Stager, the executive director at the Constructivist Consortium and an adjunct professor of education at Pepperdine, says the elements of a good project should include relevance for students, ample time to plan, change, and complete the project, and enough complexity to inspire intense work. There should also be a way to connect the project with people across the hall, on the other side of town, or across the world, an opportunity for students to collaborate with peers, international experts, and anybody in between, and a way for students to share their completed work.
Why new schools are choosing an old model to bring students into the 21st century.
Forget iTunes U: Students Now Getting College Credit via YouTube - ReadWriteWeb
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/forget_itunes_u_students_now_getting_college_credit_via_youtube.php
Story in RWW about RB on UNSW YouTube channel
A computer science professor at an Australian University is doing something revolutionary with YouTube - he's offering students who can't attend his classes college credit for watching his videos. The fact that Buckland is not charging the high school students who are remotely attending his courses but is still giving them college credit is what makes what he's doing so different...and perhaps groundbreaking.
A 2009 ReadWriteWeb.com article about institutions putting their lectures on YouTube to share lectures. Tells about an instructor offering credit for students watching his lectures on YouTube.
Although several universities use YouTube as repository for lectures, generally offered as supplementary material for enrolled students. Public nature of videos allows people from around world to view educational material that once took thousands of dollars to access. Duke, Stanford, MIT, Univ. of California etcalready post videos online to YouTube/iTunes U (audio/video podcasts). However, UNSW is unique, providing college credit to those watching the YouTube recordings. Really little difference between physically showing up in classroom to sit and listen to a lecture and viewing video of same lecture, few universities allow this type of unstructured remote learning to count as college credit for those who are not already enrolled in university. Instead, colleges that support distance learning initiatives usually require students to apply for admission and pay tuition, just as any other student attending classes on campus would have to.
A computer science professor at an Australian University is doing something revolutionary with YouTube - he's offering students who can't attend his classes college credit for watching his videos.
The seven secrets behind great teaching - Features - TES
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6013022
interesting summary of effective teaching
Analysis of the personalities, motivations and behavior of 15 award-winning teachers uncovers the seven habits that make them successful in the classroom.
"The TES magazine teamed up with business psychologists Crelos to analyse the personalities, motivations and behaviour of 15 award-winning teachers to uncover the seven habits that make them successful in the classroom."
Teach Philosophy 101 > Home
http://www.teachphilosophy101.org/
"This site presents strategies and resources for faculty members and graduate assistants who are teaching Introduction to Philosophy courses; it also includes material of interest to college faculty generally. The mission of TΦ101 is to provide free, user-friendly resources to the academic community."
My Website
globeandmail.com: Professor makes his mark, but it costs him his job
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090206.wprof06/BNStory/National/home
On the first day of his fourth-year physics class, University of Ottawa professor Denis Rancourt announced to his students that he had already decided their marks: Everybody was getting an A+.
very interesting. top marks for the courage to experiment. Geddit?! :)
I hate grading...
Shaping a Culture of Conversation: The Discussion Board and Beyond | Academic Commons
http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/essay/shaping-culture-conversation
I have been using this technology since 1995 and for the first time have really realized what it is that I have been working toward. I have always used a descriptive rubric to evaluate participation in the DF and that has helped somewhat in creating a learning community. But, now with Gallagher's "tools", the 5 Eyes, the legs, the social voice, I can really help students participate to regularly create the kind of community that has from time to time evolved serendipitously. For me, the social versus the solo voice has been the biggest challenge, but with the languaging Gallagher has shared, I am enthusiastic about my ability to raise the level of meaningful discourse a notch or two! I teach in a graduate program in Nursing, and one of the areas of my teaching is Nursing Education.
" The answers to question 13 on survey 1, for instance, revealed--quite frighteningly, actually--that these students saw themselves as passive, solitary, joyless toilers in a middle world devoid of intellectual community. "
News: Tenure in a Digital Era - Inside Higher Ed
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/05/26/digital
Among the "horror stories" Rosemary Feal has heard: Assistant professors who work in digital media and whose tenure review panels insist on evaluating them by printing out selected pages of their work. "It's like evaluating an Academy Award entry based on 20 film stills," said Feal, executive director of the Modern Language Association.
challenges facing using digital scholarship for p & t
MLA and humanities consortium start effort to be sure scholars up for promotion receive fair evaluations of electronic contributions -- and to give peer review a needed update.
From: Inside Higher Ed, 26 May 2009 Even as the use of electronic media has become common across fields for research and teaching, what is taken for granted among young scholars is still foreign to many of those who sit on tenure and promotion committees. In an effort to confront this problem, the MLA and a consortium called the Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory have decided to find new ways to help departments evaluate the kinds of digital scholarship being produced today.
Question 4 of hzau09. Article about tenure in the digital era.
Tenure & digital practices.
ClioWeb Blog Archive » Assigning Wikipedia in a US History Survey
http://clioweb.org/2009/04/05/assigning-wikipedia-in-a-us-history-survey/
fact-only writing vs analytical writing
As some of you might guess, I get mixed reactions whenever I reveal that I use Wikipedia in my history classes. And not just for reading
s some of you might guess, I get mixed reactions whenever I reveal that I use Wikipedia in my history classes. And not just for reading; I actually assign my students to research and write an article for Wikipedia. And it has consistently been one of my most successful assignments. It shows students the difference between fact-only writing and analytical writing, it provides an introduction to research methods, and it gives them more insight into the working of Wikipedia, so they understand why they should or shouldn’t use it for various situations.
Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover | Video on TED.com
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html
How we can reshape the math curriculum for critical thinking.
Today's math curriculum is teaching students to expect -- and excel at -- paint-by-numbers classwork, robbing kids of a skill more important than solving problems: formulating them. At TEDxNYED, Dan Meyer shows classroom-tested math exercises that prompt students to stop and think.
Views: Admissions of Another Sort - Inside Higher Ed
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/04/13/george
/ Mary W. George (April 13, 2009). It is clear from e-mail, reference encounters, research consultations in my office, and questions that arise in library instruction sessions, that most students simply do not retain the concepts and logic involved in discovering information sources — never mind the principles for evaluating the sources they do turn up.
Better Learning With Sites and Sound :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/12/03/audio
Even as many instructors embrace digital tools in the classroom, some are pushing the technology envelope with more complex tools for teaching or interacting with students. New research suggests the promise of such approaches.
EduDemic » The Ultimate Twitter Guidebook For Teachers
http://edudemic.com/2010/06/the-ultimate-twitter-guidebook/
Adopting a new communication tool is not easy. Figuring out the best way YOU can use Twitter is even harder. Luckily you are not going it alone. We have culled the following resources from an array of websites that try to help anyone understand and better use Twitter.
We have culled the following resources from an array of websites that try to help anyone understand and better use Twitter.
News: No Grading, More Learning - Inside Higher Ed
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/05/03/grading
In #HigherEd No Grading Might Mean More Learning: http://bit.ly/bVtRFk (Lots of applications to K-12) – Steven W. Anderson (web20classroom) http://twitter.com/web20classroom/statuses/15706374092
Duke
No grading meant students inspired to do work
"Davidson, the Ruth F. Devarney Professor of English, said that of the 16 students in the course, 15 already have earned an A and she expects the remaining student to soon finish an assignment that will earn an A as well."
Some educators question if whiteboards, other high-tech tools raise achievement
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/10/AR2010061005522.html
Under enormous pressure to reform, the nation's public schools are spending millions of dollars each year on gadgets from text-messaging devices to interactive whiteboards that technology companies promise can raise student performance.
Article about whiteboards and effectiveness in student achievement.
Some educators question if whiteboards, other high-tech tools raise achievement
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/10/AR2010061005522.html
Under enormous pressure to reform, the nation's public schools are spending millions of dollars each year on gadgets from text-messaging devices to interactive whiteboards that technology companies promise can raise student performance.
Article about whiteboards and effectiveness in student achievement.