What does discussion look like in your classroom? Do you normally see one student dominating the conversation? Do you have other students who are too shy to join in the conversation for fear of being wrong? Often our classroom discussions can be lopsided due to dominant students or even derailed by students introducing an off-topic to the mix. We want all of our students to be engaged and feel empowered to join in a class discussion. We also want to give students time to think in order to provide deeper answers. Verso can help you create dynamic class discussions by offering a safe, anonymous space for all students' voices to be heard and valued. Overview of Verso:
While student responses are kept anonymous, the instructor can see everything on their own dashboard, including who is typing and commenting. The instructor also has the ability to remove any inappropriate responses immediately. Students can also flag inappropriate comments and responses. For more information on using Verso, please watch the video below: Want more resources? Check out the links below! Also, be sure to leave a comment on how you use or plan to use Verso. Now, go get started with Verso! We all want to find different ways to get our students to reflect on their learning. One way to do this is to have students do a quickwrite. You can use this type of assignment as a weekly, in-class exercise, or you can ask students to do this in preparation for class. The quickwrite is designed to encourage students to reflect on the week's content and revisit their notes to review what they learned. It is a way to ask questions about course concepts without having to do a review in class. Quickwrite also helps the instructor to identify areas of review; for instance, if many students mention they are still confused about a concept, the instructor can follow up with review immediately instead of waiting to see students miss certain content questions on the exam.
Here are five questions you can use in a quickwrite assignment, though feel free to create your own as well:
When giving instructions about the quickwrite, be sure to point out that students should focus on the content information and not the operation of the course (i.e., grading). Also point out students should write in complete sentences and answer each question thoroughly. While they may not have an answer for question #2 (great!), they should definitely have answers for the other questions. You can assign points to each question as a graded assignment, or you could leave it open as a participation and process grade. Choose whatever method makes the most sense for your course and your students. The quickwrite never needs to be a high stakes exercise; instead, it should be a way to ask students to reflect on their learning and give you information on what content needs to be reviewed. The quickwrite can be done on paper, or you can ask your students to do the quickwrite digitally (it all depends on your objectives, but be sure to consider TPACK!). If you choose to go the digital route, you can give students options to complete the assignment. Below are some great tools that your students can use to complete the quickwrite and easily share with you in a digital format:
For more writing ideas, check out this list of writing tools! Want to share how you use quickwrites with your students, please leave a comment below! Happy writing! It’s easy to get confused when you set out to find apps that will best drive student learning. There are, after all, thousands of educational apps available in the iTunes and Google Play stores, and the number is growing weekly.
Like many educators, we also felt overwhelmed by the choices. But over the years we developed a process that allows us to sharply define what we need and then find the tools that help us meet our needs. Here are the five steps we consider: 1. Start by defining the problem of practice 2. Address the how of learning 3. Narrow down the type of tools 4. Look for sound advice 5. Evaluate the tools For more information on each of the five steps, read more here. According to the Teaching with Technology survey conducted by Campus Technology (2016), the majority of faculty in higher education are either flipping their classroom or plan to flip their classroom. The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model where traditional lecture and homework are reversed. Many flipped classrooms include short video lectures from the instructor in order to cover content knowledge before students come to class to discuss and practice the content through projects and exercises. The flipped classroom focuses on active, student-centered learning and has shown an increase in student engagement inside and outside the classroom. Flipping the classroom allows instructors to offer more interactive and applied practice to help students reach higher level learning. At its core, flipped learning really is a form of blended learning because it incorporates both face-to-face and online elements. Flipped learning can be used to modify learning to best support students' needs and learning interests. Flipping the classroom will be a change for both instructors and students. Instructors will move away from the Sage on the Stage model toward a Guide on the Side model (though carefully considering what that means and not leaving students to fend for themselves, but instead use their sage-ness to help guide student learning). Students will have more choice and responsibility for their learning. The collaborative and cooperative nature of flipped learning can be uncomfortable at first for instructors and students alike, but supporting students in their learning by offering more hands-on practice is worth it when we see students go beyond basic understanding and instead show mastery of content. Resources to ExploreThere is a movement in education right now focused on open educational resources (OER). OER are teaching and learning materials that educators can use and reuse at no cost and without needing to ask permission. OER are authored or created by an organization or individuals that retain few (if any) ownership rights. These materials can be downloaded and used with students or shared with colleagues. In many cases, you can also modify the materials for your own uses and re-post for others to use. The idea behind the OER movement is tied to the basic human right to quality education access. OER Commons is a great resource to discover OER materials, create materials to share with other educators, and connect with educators interested in OER resources. You can use the website to search for ready-made materials or use their module builder to create your own learning modules that you can build with OER materials. Use the links below to start your OER exploration.
Whether you are a new teacher in the classroom or a veteran teacher with a lot of knowledge and experience, everyone has their own level of expertise when it comes to using educational technology in the classroom. There is a misconception that newer teachers must have better understanding of technology because they have used it most of their lives. They are often referred to as "digital natives." That perception is not always accurate. In fact, my experience working with teachers shows that while new teachers may have used technology most of their lives, they do not necessarily know how to leverage that tech use in the classroom. Using educational technology is a whole different practice when it comes to the classroom and working with students. Here are a few tips for all teachers when using educational technology:
Tech Tip Tuesday: Digital Leviathan - How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Organize My Google Drive9/27/2016 I tend to be OCD-level organized when it comes to work and school (not so much in my personal life, but that is a whole other issue for another day). However, I found my Google Drive was never quite up to speed. When Google started letting users share larger files by simply attaching them, I embraced that system change wholeheartedly. I was regularly sharing documents, images, etc. with colleagues and just throwing it all in to my Google Drive, until I realized one day how messy and not user-friendly it had become. So I finally sat myself down and organized the darn thing. Ta-da!! Then I started to wonder what the best way would be to use a well-organized Google Drive in the classroom, and I found this wonderful blog post that I felt really understood the need to hold the chaos at bay with a little Google Drive organization. The post explains how to organize using Google Drive, how to give students assignments and have them share assignments with you, among other great tidbits of help. Check it out!
Many of us sometimes feel too connected to and distracted by our devices. This is evident in our classrooms as well. Many educators have started to notice, and feel frustrated by, student distraction in the classroom when it comes to devices. Laptops have become ubiquitous in the classroom and have become a focal point for faculty frustration.
However, banning laptops and other devices is certainly not the answer. We allow our students to use clickers, cell phones, and other devices for limited purposes in the classroom, such as polling, but we do not necessarily guide our students in how to best leverage these tools at their fingertips. In fact, many educators point to studies on the value of taking paper notes. The argument in the studies is that learning improves when we force our students to write out their notes. This practice requires them to think more deeply about their learning and commit more content to memory. That is a valid objection, as is the argument about how distracting devices in the classroom can be to learning. We have all witnessed students with open laptops with multiple browser windows open that often do not have to do with the class content at hand. While I am not concerned about students who prefer to distract themselves from their learning (after all, they are causing themselves a disservice), I am concerned with the distraction to other students who want to pay attention. This frustration with devices has led many faculty to ban technology from the classroom. The argument is the ban will take away all student distractions. The first issue with such a ban is one of accommodation. We have students who require devices for accommodation purposes, and by issuing a general ban on technology, this can call a much-needed accommodation to everyone's attention. This can make students uncomfortable and may cause them to stop using their own accommodation. Instead, we should embrace technology and teach our students how to leverage technology successfully in the classroom. We need to ban the classroom technology ban. We should use technology as an opportunity to engage our students in different ways of learning. We should use technology to expose our students to new information and ideas. We should use technology to help our students learn to collaborate synchronously and asynchronously. Leveraging technology can help teach our students much-needed skills they will use beyond our classrooms. So what we need to do is set ground rules for using technology in our classrooms. Discuss this openly with students. Create a class contract that includes the appropriate use of educational technology in class. Be purposeful in how you teach with technology. Be purposeful in how you ask your students to use technology. Don't ban technology in your classroom. Embrace the opportunity to use technology effectively and support better teaching and learning every day. |
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Julie K. Marsh is a long-time educator, a PhD candidate at The College of William and Mary focusing on curriculum and educational technology, and the Coordinator for Distance Education and Instructional Design at Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing in Richmond, Virginia. Her current research interests include Design Thinking, Community of Inquiry, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), creativity in the classroom, open sourced educational resources, and participatory culture.
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