Clickers

Active student engagement in large classes is a pedagogical topic that is a constant buzz at many meetings, workshops, and conferences. One solution to engaging students in a large class is to use Clickers. Both the Vancouver Community College and University of Victoria are introducing clickers to their institutions and Vancouver's Georgia Strait recently featured a Professor from the University of British Columbia on his use of Clickers in the class- check it out "Clickers give students incentive to go to class".

For more information about Clickers read Educause's article on "7 things you should know about clickers".

The Art of Teaching

This is a professional development opportunity at SCoPE for EVERYONE interested in teaching. It is free and open to the public. This event is organized as part of the Professional Learning Series, a collaborative partnership with eCampus Alberta, Alberta-North, and BCcampus. Invite your colleagues!

What: A 3-week asynchronous discussion combined with weekly Elluminate sessions on the art of teaching.

When: October 19 - November 6, 2009

Elluminate Sessions
Week 1: Intro, Bridging, Outcomes
Monday, October 19, 10 - 11:00 PDT (your time zone)

Week 2: Pre-assessment, Participation
Monday, October 26, 10 - 11:00 PDT (your time zone)

Week 3: Post-assessment, Summary
Monday, November 2, 10 - 11:00 PST (your time zone)

Facilitators:
Neil Smith, Professor, Faculty of Education, Vancouver Island University
Nancy Randall, Past Head of the Vancouver Island University Teaching and Learning Centre
Andrew Marchand, Educational Technologist, Vancouver Island University

How to participate:
Each week of this 3-week seminar will be launched with an Art of Teaching video and live discussion in Elluminate. To participate in the seminar discussion you will need to create an account on the SCoPE site. This is a quick process.

Effective Practices in a Digital Age

Effective Practices in a Digital Age was published this week by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in the UK. This guide is intended for those in higher education seeking to understand how to better integrate technology into their teaching. The 60-page document is available for download at no cost. There is also an option to order a print version and accompanying videos and podcasts. It contains several useful case studies as well as practical learning design guidelines.

Thanks to Tony Bates for bringing this resource to our attention.

Facilitating Online | OER Commons

This new resource by Tony Carr, Shaheeda Jaffer, and Jeanne Smuts from University of Cape Town is comprehensive, and freely available for your use with a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 license.

Facilitating Online | OER Commons: "The Centre for Educational Technology (CET) produced a Course Leader’s Guide as an Open Educational Resource to assist educators and trainers who wish to implement a course on online facilitation within their institution or across several institutions. The guide contains the course model, week-by-week learning activities, general guidance to the course leader on how to implement and customise the course and specific guidelines on each learning activity."

Is Twitter a good tool for education?

A description and analysis of one educator's trial run at using twitter with her students. Christine Morris talks about Setup, Did They Understand, Interface Dilemma, and more.

Can we use Twitter for educational activities?

In short, yes! Of course! The full article is interesting, but if you're in a hurry, scroll about halfway down the article box to "Potential Educational Uses of Twitter". Excellent tips and ideas.

How to Present While People are Twittering

So, you're giving a lecture, and your students are all focussed on their handhelds, twittering back and forth or to/from the world. Read this article and you'll begin to feel differently about it all. As the article points out, at least they're not falling asleep!

The article has a very positive spin about what it calls "the backchannel". It's about people at conferences, but the positive notes and advice are something teachers ought to read and think about!

follow me on twitter! 

The Power (and Peril) of Praising Your Kids

New York Magazine article. A study was done on what kinds of praise to give kids, what works to encourage them, etc. I learned something....I've always thought it was a good idea to tell kids how smart they are. Not so much, apparently! Instead, the study indicates that we should "praise effort rather than intelligence" and that "giving kids the label of 'smart' does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it." Go figure!

I found a link to this article on a webpage about education and "Things that make you go Hmmmm...."

The Cheatability Factor

A PPT presentation on cheating in Blackboard.

"Could you be making it easy for students to cheat? What is your Cheatability factor?"

Recommended in Ask Dr.C by Kevin Reeve.

Making Change: Ideas for Lively eLearning

"In this blog, you'll find practical ideas that will help you create lively, powerful elearning for adults in the business world." I like the blog entries because they're not just theoretical suggestions; the focus is on ACTIVITY. Each entry includes very practical examples for what's being suggested or described. As just one example, I've linked to the entry entitled Which verb will keep your learners' interest? (I had fun doing the short, fun active-verbs task included in the entry.)

Growing up with Google: What it means to education

Diana G. Oblinger in Chapter 1 of Emerging technologies for learning, begins with a description of the 'Net Generation'. "Today’s students bring a consumer orientation to education..." As an educator I appreciated the detailed exploration of the world of today's net student, as well as the section on what we can do for this generation (the Implications For Education section). "It is dangerous to assume that we understand students simply because we were once in the same shoes."

The Reluctant Online Professor

"...when I was asked to put my course online, I felt quite unprepared ... I started the experience with great reluctance and trepidation. Much to my surprise, I finished it jubilantly. It turned out to be one of the best classes I have ever taught."

Cynthia Corritore, Ph.D., describes the process in detail: creating her course (design, content, 9 main components of the course, web tools used, etc), the outcome, and lessons learned. A refreshing example to read, especially for others in a similar position, but also for experienced online instructors.

Wiki Pedagogy

"This article endeavours to denote and promote pedagogical experimentations concerning a Free/Open technology called a 'Wiki'."

Wikis in Education

from wwwTools for Education, a full page all about Wikis. Headings include Terminology, Overviews & Background Reading, Role of Wikis, Pedagogy, Implementations, and many links to existing wikis for you to explore - teachers, students, courses, etc.

Blogging for Learning

From WWWTools For Education, an excellent page of with links, resources, and much more. Headings include: Terminology, Ideas for Content, Pros and cons of Educational Blogging, Pedagogy, Practical Treatments. Also a section of links for Adminstrators, Educators, Learners, Classes, Librarians, and several other education categories. The article quotes Will Richardson (from Webblogg-Ed) as saying that "people know what blogs are, and what they are really seeking now is pedagogy, not training. It feels like, finally, this is no longer a technology as it is another way to connect and communicate. It's feeling like in some places, at least, blog thinking is becoming embedded."

Recognising Learning: Educational and pedagogic issues in e-Portfolios

A paper presented by Graham Attwell at the e-Portfolio conference in Cambridge at the end of October/05.

"It is argued that insufficient attention has been paid to the pedagogy of e-portfolio development and that existing applications and implementations tend to be overly dominated by the requirements of assessment. The paper looks at the different pedagogic processes involved in the development of an e-portfolio. It considers the competences required for developing and maintaining an e-portfolio. The final section considers the challenges in developing e-portfolio applications."

Getting to grips with learning styles

eLearning researcher Stephen Downes calls this paper "a good introduction for practicing teachers and instructors". One reason it's worth a look is that it refers in areas to the pedagogy of the online student in relation to learning styles. The introduction says,

"This booklet gives teachers and trainers in vocational education and training some easily digestible information about learning styles. It provides practical tips on how to identify students' learning styles, and how to respond to individuals and groups based on their preferred methods of learning. There is not a 'best' theory about learning styles; however, understanding learning styles theories helps teachers to observe their students more systematically and be more methodical in experimenting with alternative teaching approaches."

Are the basics of Instructional Design changing?

Article author Stephen Downes says,

"I wrote this item, first, to underscore the role of philosophy as informing educational theory, and second, to highlight the difference between online learning and 'traditional' distance education. I argue that the theory of distributed representation has a profound implication for pedagogy, as it suggests that learning (and teaching, such as it is) is not a process of communication, but rather, a process of immersion. Put loosely, it suggests the idea of teaching not by telling or even demonstrating but rather through the creation (or identification) of an environment into which a learner may be immersed."

The 7 Challenges of e-learning Design

The 7 Challenges of eLearning Design: This article is called Part 1, but doesn't say what's coming next. Graham Attwell, author, begins:

"I am designing an e-learning programme for the European Commission funded ASSIPA project. The project aims to develop a face-to-face and e-learning programme for teachers in adult education to develop their skills and practices in self-evaluation. Converting the programme to e-learning provides a series of challenges. I think I would argue that these challenges lie at the heart of good e-learning design - whatever the subject. Part one of this [re]port reviews the challenges [and] will outline my approach to the pedagogy and design."