Technology in the Classroom
When I was in college, the only technology used in my classes was the powerpoint presentation, and most professors still used the chalkboard if the class was small enough! Maybe occasionally we emailed assignments, but that was about the extent of it. Now there are lots of different resources available. Classroom organizational technology like Blackboard makes it easy to post assignments online and have online quizzes, and students can upload assignments and keep track of their grades. Most students are now expected to have remotes for responding to questions in class ('clickers'). And besides powerpoint, lectures could be presented using Prezi, or over Skype, and wireless internet connections make pulling up an educational YouTube video a piece of cake.
Choosing and perusing the technology that is right for your classroom can therefore take a lot of time and some trial-and-error. Follow the link below for some great options some of my classmates and I found if you want to administer exams online (or have your entire class online).
Choosing and perusing the technology that is right for your classroom can therefore take a lot of time and some trial-and-error. Follow the link below for some great options some of my classmates and I found if you want to administer exams online (or have your entire class online).
Artifact #1: I attended a seminar, 'Enhanced Learning in Neuroscience Courses', as part of the Neuroscience Seminar Series. Below you will find a description of the seminar and my reflections on what I learned.
Artifact #2: I attended a workshop, "Incorporating Technology in the Classroom", as part of the college teaching certification institute at Michigan State University. The following are some notes I took pertaining to what I found helpful and interesting. My reflections and thoughts on the usage of what I learned from this workshop are also in a section below.
Artifact #3: Online Testing Resources: My classmates Indu, Victorya, and I researched some resources for instructors interested in using online assessments. Read about our take on some of the products and programs available, and best usage.
Artifact #2: I attended a workshop, "Incorporating Technology in the Classroom", as part of the college teaching certification institute at Michigan State University. The following are some notes I took pertaining to what I found helpful and interesting. My reflections and thoughts on the usage of what I learned from this workshop are also in a section below.
Artifact #3: Online Testing Resources: My classmates Indu, Victorya, and I researched some resources for instructors interested in using online assessments. Read about our take on some of the products and programs available, and best usage.
Enhanced Learning in Neuroscience Courses: Video Guides and Collaborative Writing
Dr. Richard Olivo, Smith College
Neuroscience Program Seminar Series, September 19, 2013
Dr. Olivo is a professor of Neurobiology in the department of Biological Sciences at Smith College and an associate director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University. In his seminar, he discussed teaching practices he has employed in the classroom, including techniques that incorporate various forms of technology.
Dr. Olivo doesn’t think that a student’s first exposure to information should be in the lecture- we are better off having students familiarize themselves with the information before the class session, through homework or reading of the textbook, then use the classroom for discussions or interactive work. But reading textbooks can be difficult, and even though you may think students should already have this skill, many do not know how to focus on information (and figures!) when reading through textbooks. So, he has devised a simple way to teach students this skill. He records videos of the textbook as he flips though the assigned chapters of the class text, while narrating which sections students should particularly pay attention to, or which pages or sections are too detailed and need only be skimmed. Dr. Olivo also assigns collaborative writing assignments, where groups of students work together to write a set of notes that basically functions as the textbook for the course. These student writing teams will produce chapters with illustrations to summarize the different sections covered in their course. They are critiqued by Dr. Olivo, and the best version(s) of each chapter are made available to the entire class, so the materials can be used to study for exams. The student writing teams consist of a student who is the 'Organizer/Editor', another student as the 'Caption Writer', another student as 'Text Author 1', and finally 'Text Author 2', writing the second half of the text that weaves the illustrations and captions into a whole. The given roles rotate through the semester. The guides are written up using Google Drive (formerly, Google Docs), an online authoring environment that allows multiple authors to work on the same document. For more details on the writing project and the different roles, please see Dr. Olivo's website. |
Help guide students through all those books we ask them to read!
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Reflections:
There was a comment from a professor in attendance to the effect of “but students should already know how to read textbooks”. This idea frustrates me, because of the ‘should’. I understand that we all have pre-conceived notions about what our students should be able to do when they come into our classroom. But when the evidence is there that they cannot do this, why are we shuttling them out of our classes without this skill yet again? Why not actually teach them the things that we expect of them, if we find that they are indeed deficient? Dr. Olivo’s talk reminded me a lot about a study I read about in my Teaching College Science course that described the reading habits of successful and less successful students. Students in this study were assigned an online module that contained text, diagrams, animations, and homework questions. The students that did better on this assignment engaged with the reading material in some way. They may have articulated why they didn’t understand a certain concept, or the opposite, were able to support why they chose an answer based off of what they read. Their answers were typically in their own words. They spent more time on concepts they did not understand, and skimmed sections they felt they had a handle on. Students that did not do well on this assignment typically did not answer questions in their own words, but used citations from the text. These students were less likely to be able to articulate why they answered questions the way they did (answered based on ‘hunches’ instead) nor were able to articulate what sections they did not understand (more general, I don’t get it, rather than, I don’t understand why such and such…).
In having similar conversations in the past, someone will always contend that teaching things outside of what the textbook/syllabus says takes too much time. To which I say, what is a more useful skill that they should be walking away from the class with, and what is the time-cost really, if it is something you could do once and use for multiple semesters? That is why I really appreciate that Dr. Olivo came up with a simple technique to address an issue that many students have.
Applications:
I can really see myself using a similar method of instruction for guiding students through the textbook. Before using the video guides, I would also like to include a lesson about good note-taking skills. Then students could watch the video guides and take notes in preperation for class. I would most likely incorporate homework questions into the video guide or collect their notes to make sure that students are finding these efforts useful.
I like the idea of students working to put concepts in their own words, as in Dr. Olivo's collaborative writing project. An idea that I would like to incorporate in my classroom is the use of Mozilla's Popcorn Maker. I find that there are lots of great simulations online that illustrate many core neuroscience concepts. I would like students to find a simulation online of a concept we cover in class, and use Mozilla's Popcorn Maker to add their own notes and explanations to the video. Popcorn Maker lets users add their own comments and links to web video or images that they upload into the program. I would ask the to add comments to the video that explains its content, what is helpful about it, or what students should be paying attention to, and can add links for more information, for example, explanations of unknown terms. I would have them share their 'remixed' video with the class to supplement the textbook and lectures.
In having similar conversations in the past, someone will always contend that teaching things outside of what the textbook/syllabus says takes too much time. To which I say, what is a more useful skill that they should be walking away from the class with, and what is the time-cost really, if it is something you could do once and use for multiple semesters? That is why I really appreciate that Dr. Olivo came up with a simple technique to address an issue that many students have.
Applications:
I can really see myself using a similar method of instruction for guiding students through the textbook. Before using the video guides, I would also like to include a lesson about good note-taking skills. Then students could watch the video guides and take notes in preperation for class. I would most likely incorporate homework questions into the video guide or collect their notes to make sure that students are finding these efforts useful.
I like the idea of students working to put concepts in their own words, as in Dr. Olivo's collaborative writing project. An idea that I would like to incorporate in my classroom is the use of Mozilla's Popcorn Maker. I find that there are lots of great simulations online that illustrate many core neuroscience concepts. I would like students to find a simulation online of a concept we cover in class, and use Mozilla's Popcorn Maker to add their own notes and explanations to the video. Popcorn Maker lets users add their own comments and links to web video or images that they upload into the program. I would ask the to add comments to the video that explains its content, what is helpful about it, or what students should be paying attention to, and can add links for more information, for example, explanations of unknown terms. I would have them share their 'remixed' video with the class to supplement the textbook and lectures.
Incorporating Technology in the Classroom
by Carol Wilson-Duffy, Kathy Doig, & Stephen Thomas
Teaching Workshops, May 11, 2012
Technology can be used in many different types of classrooms, from Face to Face classes, to Hybrid Class, to the all-online course.
Design of the course is very important. Follow Backward Design: Objectives ---> Assessments ---> Teaching Material. These three aspects should be cohesive, should line up together.
When using technology in the face-to-face classroom, you want to make sure your students don't get distracted or forget to take notes. You might want to take some time or share some resources to teach students how to take notes (ex.The Cornell Note-taking System).
Dr. Thomas teachers a fully online course, Ecology. He uses a whiteboard and drawings cut out from white paper to animate his lectures (Paper Pusher Productions). Lessons also involve simulations that students can manipulate to help learn concepts. Check it out. He discussed that he keeps students and instructor connected with online discussion groups. Students could also use Flickr to upload their own images and share examples of what they are learning ( e.g. food web mapping), and they can geo-tag their photos to keep track of where they were taken, like real ecologists would.
Suggested resources:TPACK- There are three major areas of knowledge- Technological Knowledge (expert on the uses of technology), pedagogical knowledge (education expert), content knowledge (subject-matter expert). The TPACK approach attempts to connect and utilize all three in the classroom. In fact, if you visualize the three in a venn diagram, overlapping areas represent new forms of learning and knowledge.
Prezi- a dynamic presentation tool.
Design of the course is very important. Follow Backward Design: Objectives ---> Assessments ---> Teaching Material. These three aspects should be cohesive, should line up together.
When using technology in the face-to-face classroom, you want to make sure your students don't get distracted or forget to take notes. You might want to take some time or share some resources to teach students how to take notes (ex.The Cornell Note-taking System).
Dr. Thomas teachers a fully online course, Ecology. He uses a whiteboard and drawings cut out from white paper to animate his lectures (Paper Pusher Productions). Lessons also involve simulations that students can manipulate to help learn concepts. Check it out. He discussed that he keeps students and instructor connected with online discussion groups. Students could also use Flickr to upload their own images and share examples of what they are learning ( e.g. food web mapping), and they can geo-tag their photos to keep track of where they were taken, like real ecologists would.
Suggested resources:TPACK- There are three major areas of knowledge- Technological Knowledge (expert on the uses of technology), pedagogical knowledge (education expert), content knowledge (subject-matter expert). The TPACK approach attempts to connect and utilize all three in the classroom. In fact, if you visualize the three in a venn diagram, overlapping areas represent new forms of learning and knowledge.
Prezi- a dynamic presentation tool.
Reflections and Applications of Teaching and Learning
Session: Incorporating Technology in the Classroom
What skills and techniques did I learn that will help me become a better educator?
There are lots of technologies available to help turn passive observation into active engagement. Technologies covered: Online discussion groups. Flickr to share digital assignments. Prezi for dynamic presentations. iClickers.
What things am I still uncertain about regarding this topic that I need to investigate further in the future?
Family Education Rights and Privacy Act- how might this affect what I can do in the classroom?
Prezi is flashy and eye-catching, but is it too distracting in the classroom?
How can I apply materials from this session to my own class to enhance the effectiveness of teaching and learning?
One thing I think I could easily integrate into classes is to use ANGEL (our institutional classroom organization tool) to make assessments that students can take at home, so as not to take away from class time and provide students with timely feedback so they know how they are mastering material.
iClickers can keep students participating, especially in large classrooms. They can help shy students participate. The key to using iClickers successfully will be designing questions that actually require the students to think, not just guess well. I like the possibility of using clicker questions as a type of formative assessment. After I cover a topic, I could have a few questions to gauge whether students are getting the point and I can move on, or if the subject might need a little more time in class.
There are lots of technologies available to help turn passive observation into active engagement. Technologies covered: Online discussion groups. Flickr to share digital assignments. Prezi for dynamic presentations. iClickers.
What things am I still uncertain about regarding this topic that I need to investigate further in the future?
Family Education Rights and Privacy Act- how might this affect what I can do in the classroom?
Prezi is flashy and eye-catching, but is it too distracting in the classroom?
How can I apply materials from this session to my own class to enhance the effectiveness of teaching and learning?
One thing I think I could easily integrate into classes is to use ANGEL (our institutional classroom organization tool) to make assessments that students can take at home, so as not to take away from class time and provide students with timely feedback so they know how they are mastering material.
iClickers can keep students participating, especially in large classrooms. They can help shy students participate. The key to using iClickers successfully will be designing questions that actually require the students to think, not just guess well. I like the possibility of using clicker questions as a type of formative assessment. After I cover a topic, I could have a few questions to gauge whether students are getting the point and I can move on, or if the subject might need a little more time in class.