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In the pandemic many higher ed faculty, forced onto Zoom and other videoconferencing platforms, have continued teaching online just as they always did face to face, delivering lectures over streaming video as they did in person. Many are unaware that teaching online can actually open new possibilities to innovate their teaching practice.
In fact, many college instructors have been downright grumpy about having been thrown into a new teaching format.
Via EDTECH@UTRGV
America is suffering through two insidious and deadly pandemics, one brought forth by a novel virus and the other by a long-overdue reckoning of the intransigent racial and ethnic disparity at every level within all of our systems. Nowhere is this more evident than in our public schools, where nearly 50 percent of children come from communities of color, and with nearly one-third of Black children and one-quarter of Hispanic children living at or below the poverty level. It is precisely these students who are trapped in the crosshairs of both pandemics: the coronavirus having laid bare inequities in health risk, access to virtual education platforms and basic safety both in and outside of their homes—all factors compounded by the profoundly damaging effects of poverty and racism.
Teachers who want to learn more about teaching with technology will find this Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), Introduction to Technology-Enabled Learning (TEL), informative and engaging. Using up-to-date learning design and simple, accessible technology, the course runs on an easy-to-use learning platform available via the Internet. The course is designed for teachers who want to build on their knowledge and practice in teaching and learning with technology. It will run over five weeks and requires approximately three to five hours of time each week. Designed to accommodate teachers’ busy schedules, the course offers flexibility with options for learning the content. You will learn from readings, videos, discussions with other participants and instructors, meaningful exercises, quizzes and short assignments. Certification is available for those who wish to complete all required exercises and quizzes.
Via Peter Mellow
The flipped classroom approach is becoming increasingly popular. This instructional approach allows more in-class time to be spent on interactive learning activities, as the direct lecturing component is shifted outside the classroom through instructional videos. However, despite growing interest in the flipped classroom approach, no robust frameworks have been developed for the design or school/faculty-wide implementation of flipped classrooms. The aim of this article is to provide a foundation for the flipped classroom approach in Spector’s (Foundations of educational technology: integrative approaches and interdisciplinary perspectives, Routledge, New York, 2016) model of six pillars of educational technology. After reviewing previous discussion of the flipped classroom approach, each pillar (i.e., communication, interaction, environment, culture, instruction, and learning) is discussed in the context of flipped learning.
With many schools now practicing blended learning, it can be helpful for educators interested in blended-learning programs to know which edtech tools are being used. For over five years, we at the Christensen Institute have been collecting data on blended-learning schools from around the world. In 2016, we launched our redesigned Blended Learning Universe (BLU)—a hub for resources and research, including a directory of schools practicing blended learning. To date, the directory features nearly 600 school and district profiles that capture both quantitative and qualitative data. In their profiles, schools can share the ins-and-outs of their approach to blended learning including their instructional model, the grades and subjects in which they are rolling out blended approaches, and the software powering those models.
Overview: This post compiles two previous blogs from hastac.org (Cathy Davidson) (originally published in June 2015 and October 2017) and concludes with a bibliography of scholarship on active learning (or "radical pedagogy").
Via Becky Roehrs
More than 400 college faculty attended the Magna Teaching with Technology Conference last month, and they came away with a dizzying amount of new ideas
Via Becky Roehrs
Teaching and learning. For decades, we focused almost exclusively on the teaching side of things. More recently, we’ve been paying attention to learning, and that’s a good thing. However, we shouldn’t be thinking about one without the other—they’re both important and inseparably linked.
Have you wondered what the Teaching Excellence Framework is but been too afraid to ask? Have no fear, Wonkhe's Ant Bagshaw has provided a comprehensive guide to this complicated and high profile exercise.
As a school principal, parents would regularly come to my office to share concerns about something a teacher had “done” to negatively impact the educational performance of their child. Invariably, they felt that whatever had transpired was a conscious act on the part of the professional, and would often pressure for the complaint to be anonymously addressed because otherwise the teacher might ‘“take it out on my child!”
Pinnacle's principles of effective teaching are grounded in research into practices that have the largest impact on student learning. Yet, they are practical and written in plain English.
The semantics of school reform are sometimes deceptive. This is apparent when educators talk about “personalized learning”. Personalized Learning is an attractive proposition that is, in an increasingly number of instances, ironically characterized by an absence of the “personal”. Many of the emerging “canned” approaches to Personalized Learning are predicated upon false assumptions about student engagement and motivation. Thomas Armstrong, writing for the American Institute For Learning and Human Development, articulates this concern in succinct terms:“I’m taken aback by some of the highly packaged ‘’personalized’’ learning systems now being developed …. These edtech products often give the appearance of offering personalization, but in reality, they more often rate and process a student’s learning needs, wishes, strengths, and aspirations through impersonal algorithms, then generate a profile of the student that includes content ‘’deliverables’’…. Sounds kind of de-personalizing, doesn’t it?”
Via Mel Riddile, Dean J. Fusto, Mark E. Deschaine, PhD
"If we talk about literacy we have to talk about how to enhance our children's mastery over the tools needed to live intelligent, creative, and involved lives." -Danny Glover At ISTE 2016 I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel, sponsored by Samsung Education, with other educators and industry experts, spending an hour talking about literacy in the age of technology. It was an engaging discussion that looked at how one district in Tennessee leveraged technology to improve reading in the middle grades and also how literacy instruction is being impacted by the use of technology. My role in the discussion was that of a former District Technology Leader and what I’ve seen when implementing district technology programs centered around literacy.
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We have a concept we want the class to understand, so we stand and explain it to them. We give them background. Offer details. Anticipate and pre-empt common misconceptions. Illuminate the more entertaining bits. Emphasize the nuance.
Via EDTECH@UTRGV
Creating a successful learning experience is at the heart of instructional design and delivery. “In addition to academic instruction, one of a classroom’s teachers most important roles is to help students develop the critical thinking, collaboration, and self-reflection skills necessary to foster a better society” (Blacke, 2015, para. 1). Encouraging students to explore the topics of power and privilege resulting from social classifications and their impact on the thoughts and actions of themselves and others is an important step toward encouraging social justice. However, creating a classroom environment that facilitates and supports discussions about sensitive topics can be challenging.
A multitude of modes considering ‘blended learning’ in context Leo Havemann, Elizabeth Charles, Sarah Sherman, Scott Rodgers, and Joana Barros @leohavemann #RIDE2019 CDE RIDE conference, Senate House, University of London, 15 March 2019 goo.gl/bKPvpm Presentation at University of London Centr
Even if you weren’t born with some of these qualities, you can develop them. American higher education seems to be experiencing a kind of teaching renaissance. Articles on the subject proliferate on this site and others, suggesting a renewed interest and commitment to the subject across academe.
Founded by philosopher Nelson Goodman at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1967, Project Zero began with a focus on understanding learning in and through the arts. Over the years, we have continued our inquiry into the arts and arts education, while drawing together diverse disciplinary perspectives to examine fundamental questions of human expression and development. Our research endeavors are marked by a passion for the big questions, a passion for the conceptual, a passion for the interdisciplinary, a passion for the full range of human development, and a passion for the arts. Today Project Zero is an intellectual wellspring, nourishing inquiry into the complexity of human potentials – intelligence, understanding, thinking, creativity, cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural thinking, ethics – and exploring sustainable ways to support them across multiple and diverse contexts. Anchored in the arts and humanities, and with a commitment to melding theory and practice, we continue to work towards a more enlightened educational process and system that prepares learners well for the world that they will live, work and develop
Teaching well takes time—time to prepare content and course materials, to interact with students in class, during office hours and electronically, to keep up with developments in the field, to grade and provide constructive feedback, and that just starts the list. To allow for scholarly work, campus responsibilities, and a personal life, teaching tasks need to be handled with as much efficiency as possible. Fortunately, some efficiencies not only expedite teaching tasks, they promote learning! Here are some examples. Most entail an upfront time investment, but it’s recouped with time saved subsequently.
In addition to literacy strategies, approaches to assessment, and grouping strategies (among many others), knowing the right teaching strategy for the right academic situation may not be a matter of expertise or training, but memory: out of sight, out of mind, yes? Which makes the following infographic from fortheteachers.org useful. While it doesn’t offer definitions and explanations for each strategy (it’s an infographic, not a book), and many great strategies are missing (e.g., 3-2-1, exit slip, project-based learning, accountable talk, ask a question, etc.) it does work well as a kind of reminder for what’s possible, even offering categories for each strategy, from progress monitoring (think-pair-share, KWL charts), to Note-Taking (graphic organizers). There are 87 instructional strategies listed below, but several are repeated across categories, so let’s call it “50+” strategies.
Via John Evans, Dean J. Fusto
Technology is changing the landscape of teaching and learning. Textbooks are being phased out, makerspaces are becoming increasingly common, and communication between teachers and students has never been easier or more abundant. Technology is unavoidable, and while some teachers may still feel hesitant about the changes that are coming fast and furiously in the wake of these advancements, most teachers want to embrace the potential. Teachers that are successfully integrating educational technology in their classrooms are beacons for their peers – and there is much they can teach us.
Via Becky Roehrs
Want your college class to be exceptional? These strategies will make your teaching more engaging, effective, and satisfying for you and your students.
Via Becky Roehrs
The two most important days in your life are the day you were born, and the day you find out why. - Mark Twain. Discovering that above all other things, you want to be a teacher, is one thing. Seeing that long and sometimes tortuous journey through to its conclusion is another.
As the world economy shifts away from manufacturing jobs and towards service industry and creative jobs, there’s a consensus among parents, educators, politicians and business leaders that it is crucial students graduate into university or the workforce with the ability to identify and solve complex problems, think critically about information, work effectively in teams and communicate clearly about their thinking.
You want to teach with what’s been proven to work. That makes sense. In the ‘data era’ of education that’s mean research-based instructional strategies to drive data-based teaching, and while there’s a lot to consider here we’d love to explore more deeply, for now we’re just going to take a look at the instructional strategies themselves.
Via Marta Torán, Jim Lerman, Dean J. Fusto
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