Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

Each semester, I receive student evaluations from the courses I have taught the previous semester. Similar to most professors, I’m sure, I open the document with excitement and a bit of nervousness. I want to see what resonated and what I need to improve upon for the semester. This year, instead of teaching in-person, I taught all of my courses from home. Now don’t get me wrong, I love technology and teaching from home had some benefits, mainly avoiding an hour commute each way to school; however, it was also a disorienting experience. I had to reimagine all of my lessons for the online environment and find a way to engage students in the content for 2.5 hours. As I waited for my evaluations to load, I wondered if I had done enough to forge connections with and among my students. The depth of those connections through the organic, in-person experience, along with informal meetings around campus, seemed difficult to imagine in this screen-to-screen world. 

Advantages Of Social Media In Education

Social media and technology are vital pieces of day by day life and incorporating the utilization of these into the classroom is more normal than previously, given how adjusted numerous students are to them.

Every social media stage offers various approaches to be utilized in the classroom, from sharing declarations to holding live talks, thus considerably more.

It’s critical to comprehend the effect of social media in education before utilizing it, yet we’re of the firm conviction that it will help advance students in innovation.

Teachers strive to help learners find their own answers by doing one thing—giving them the skills to do so. Although this seems like a tall order, in reality it’s simpler than you think. Part of it resides in ensuring students know they have options for this.

Exploring these options is the essence of philosophy of 3B4ME. If you haven’t heard of it, we discovered it on Adam Schoenbart’s blog. It’s an ingenious way to help learners find their own answers using simple paths to discovery.

Welcome to the Remote Teaching & Learning Lightning Talks 2020-21 speaker series video library. Co-hosted by Digital Learning & Innovation (DL&I) and The Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL), the Lightning Talks are a reflection and learning forum where Boston University faculty and invited guests identify areas of challenge and opportunity and share strategies for engaging educational experiences in the remote-learning environment. In this expanding video library, you will find complete versions of each topical event as well as individual video presentations.

The series grew out of the shift to remote teaching in Spring 2020 as a way to showcase instructors’ many creative and inspiring approaches and to build faculty community. CTL and DL&I are proud to support peer-to-peer learning through the Lightning Talks, as they bring together a committed coalition of faculty, staff, and students to share pedagogical experiences and ideas.

We invite you to join our community of learners, access 60+ presentations, and engage with the video content.

Groupwork is a valuable part of a student’s experience as it gives them the opportunity to work with peers and develop more confident teamwork and communication skills (amongst many other skills). In the classroom this activity can take place by asking the students to sit together in groups or if in a lecture theatre type classroom form groups of pairs by row and then one pair turn around to form a four with the pair behind. You might ask the groups to find a space of their own and return to the classroom after a set time. In these smaller groups students can be asked to work on a problem, engage in discussions, or any other activity they can work on collaboratively.

Researchers are gaining a better understanding of how people learn—both what works and what doesn’t go so well—in the classroom. The next step is to apply that research in actual college instruction.

One person pushing to put learning science into practice on college campuses is Sanjay Sarma, vice president for open learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

If letting students teach their own lessons sounds scary, take heart—it's one of the best ways for them to learn meaningfully and authentically. Here's how to do it right.