adjunct faculty

The Dangers of “Teaching the Way We Best Learn” [Zakrajsek]

On 02/27/2020, in active learning, adjunct faculty, blended learning, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, faculty/staff, online learning, participation, pedagogy, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

The Dangers of “Teaching the Way We Best Learn” — from scholarlyteacher.com by Todd Zakrajsek

Excerpts:

Not everyone sees the world as I do, and not everyone learns the way I do. Thinking of the implications of implicit bias is scary, but there is freedom in knowledge. Using evidence-based teaching allows faculty to overcome the adverse effects of teaching as we were taught.

We, as faculty members, are not passive recipients who choose a pedagogical strategy because we have no choice. We may select teaching approaches that work for ourselves as learners, not because we are consciously deciding to ignore the needs of others, but more so because we fail to understand effective alternatives exist.
…
This need not be an admonishment on our professional responsibility to educate others. It is merely a recognition that when we look at the world, we tend to see it from our perspective, the one with which we are most familiar. It takes effort to consider other perspectives.
…

The challenge is that teaching is not about our learning; it is about our learners. It is not the job of the server in a restaurant to offer only the food they most prefer, but instead to help you to navigate the menu to identify what works best for you, food allergies, preferences, and all.
…
I should not always “teach the way I best learned.” To do so will disadvantage students who are least like me, and those students deserve an opportunity to be successful.

If I primarily use the lecture method of teaching, I should add a “think-pair-share” at times. Perhaps even a jigsaw and problem-based learning sprinkled throughout the semester. If I get bold, I might also try a role-play in class.

From DSC:
I appreciate Todd’s reflections and insights in the above posting. I’d like to sprinkle in a couple of graphics to it.

Using AI to catch cheating…something to keep an eye on.

On 02/22/2020, in adjunct faculty, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, colleges, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, faculty/staff, higher education, ideas, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Using AI to catch cheating…something to keep an eye on.

AI in the perennial problem of authorship verification: From Shakespeare to contract cheating — from lmspulse.com

For those involved with creating/enhancing learning spaces as they relate to pedagogies

On 02/22/2020, in A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, attention, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, education, education technology, engagement / engaging students, expectations, face-to-face, faculty/staff, generational differences, higher education, ideas, innovation, IT in HE, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, pedagogy, platforms, smart classrooms, student-related, teaching & learning, technology (general), telecommunications, telepresence, tools, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, videoconferencing, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC — and with a shout out to Brad Sousa for this resource:
For those involved with creating/enhancing learning spaces as they relate to pedagogies:

How Has Technology Impacted Higher Education?
In part one of this three-part series, AVI Systems CTO Brad Sousa talks with Jeff Day, Founder of North of 10 Advisors, to discuss the key ways education and, specifically, pedagogy differs from 10, 5, even 3 years ago.

Discussion Topics

The impact of active learning and the introduction of the internet of things (IoT) in the classroom
Recommendations for deploying modern learning environments with technology partners
Classroom systems design, then and now

Some timestamps (roughly speaking)

5:15 — changes in pedagogy
7:15 or so — active learning
15:30 design needs around active learning
17:15 DE rooms and active learning — software-controlled platform
21:30 — advice; look to outcomes & expectations that want to achieve/meet; uses cases

Media controller w/ intuitive interface to mimic the way someone teaches / way a classroom goes:

“Class start” — chaotic; mics on everywhere
“Lecture” — gates /mics closed and focus shifts to the professor
“Class interaction” — presents roster of who’s there (20:00 mark roughly)

Also see this introductory posting re: the implications of active learning in the higher ed market.

“The teacher isn’t teaching and I’m having to teach myself the material” has three embedded misconceptions that need to be addressed. [Talbert]

On 02/18/2020, in active learning, adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, higher education, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, learning theories, pedagogy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, universities, by Daniel Christian

Three thoughts on active learning and self-teaching — from rtalbert.org Robert Talbert
“The teacher isn’t teaching and I’m having to teach myself the material” has three embedded misconceptions that need to be addressed.

Excerpts:

First: Learning is a process, not an action that one person performs on another.
…
But in the end, an outside person cannot cause you to learn. This isn’t how learning works. Learning instead is a process that moves back and forth, sometimes focused on an instructor but other times focused on the learner or a group of learners together.
…
Second: Not being lectured to all the time is not the same thing as having to teach yourself.
…
Third: In any event, the skill of self-teaching is essential in college and needs to be developed.

But in general, we need to see — and we have work to do in communicating this to students — that self-teaching is a feature, not a bug.

Overcoming the challenges of large courses [Weimer]

On 02/18/2020, in adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, faculty/staff, higher education, ideas, innovation, law schools, pedagogy, teaching & learning, universities, using teams, by Daniel Christian

Overcoming the challenges of large courses — from teachingprofessor.com by Maryellen Weimer

Excerpt:

The course redesign promotes students’ engagement with a student response system, peer instruction, and active learning strategies that get all students present involved in each day’s planned activity. The learning assistants tackle problems of anonymity. Each are assigned a group of students, and various means are used to connect students with their respective learning assistant. Learning assistants offer study sessions. Students also get email feedback on their exam scores, and those who are struggling are invited to meet with an instructor to develop improvement goals.
…
Large courses require special teaching skills; not every teacher has them. Those who do should be supported and rewarded for using them in this most challenging teaching situation. Students at the front end of a college experience deserve the best we can deliver, and often that’s not what they get.

Optimal Video Length for Student Engagement — from blog.edx.org by Candace Hazlett and Philip Guo

Excerpt:

In this first post, I’ll share some preliminary results about video usage, obtained from initial analyses of a few edX math and science courses. Unsurprisingly, students engaged more with shorter videos. Traditional in-person lectures usually last an hour, but students have much shorter attention spans when watching educational videos online. The graph below shows median engagement times versus video length, aggregated over several million video watching sessions:

From DSC:
If you have access to a tool like Canvas Studio, then you can probably extend the length of your videos if you are interspersing your videos with a healthy dose of interactivity — i.e., inserting quiz questions every few minutes.

6 Ed Tech Trends to Watch in 2020 [Kelly, Burns, Frazee, & Perez]

On 02/13/2020, in accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), bots, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, data related items, digital learning, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future of higher education, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, learning ecosystem, Mixed Reality (MR), tools, trends, United States, universities, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

6 Ed Tech Trends to Watch in 2020 — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly with:

Bridget Burns, Executive Director, University Innovation Alliance
James Frazee, Chief Academic Technology Officer and Associate VP, Instructional Technology Services, San Diego State University
Ernie Perez
Director, Educational Technology, Digital Learning & Innovation, Boston University

This year’s top issues in education technology reflect the bigger picture of a student’s pathway from individual courses all the way to graduation and career.

Topics include:

1) Workforce Readiness
2) Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots
3) Extended Reality (XR)
4) Video and Accessibility
5) Predictive Analytics and Advising
6) Industry Partnerships

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy — from Iowa State University; with a shout out to Matt Miller for his blog posting entitled, “10 tips for lesson planning writer’s block” — where I saw this reference

A two-part series from Educause re: inclusive design/accessibility [Gonzalez & O’Neil]

On 02/10/2020, in accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, blended learning, colleges, community colleges, elearning, faculty/staff, higher education, law schools, more voice more choice more control, online learning, participation, pedagogy, universities, by Daniel Christian

A two-part series from Educause regarding inclusive design/accessibility — with thanks to Ray Schroeder for his posting on this out on LinkedIn.

Part I: A Taxonomy of Inclusive Design: On Disclosure, Accessibility, and Inclusion — from er.educause.edu by Lorna Gonzalez and Kristi O’Neil
Part II: Moving a Taxonomy of Inclusive Design from Theory to Practice
— from er.educause.edu by Lorna Gonzalez and Kristi O’Neil

An excerpt from Part II:

The previous two definitions have tried to articulate the idea that students carry intersecting invisible circumstances with them into the classroom. Whether or not students disclose their circumstances—or whether faculty members invite students to disclose them—does not determine their existence. From this perspective, inclusion means designing and teaching for variability. Faculty can practice inclusive pedagogy by following universal design principles and offering multiple options for representation, engagement, and expression:

Options are essential to learning, because no single way of presenting information, no single way of responding to information, and no single way of engaging students will work across the diversity of students that populate our classrooms. Alternatives reduce barriers to learning for students with disabilities while enhancing learning opportunities for everyone.4

In a Nutshell …
Inclusive pedagogy can be an act of intention—something that is initiated before and during the course design process—rather than being an act of revision or omission.

Making (low-stakes) practice tests more effective [edutopia.org]

On 02/07/2020, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, assessment, faculty/staff, higher education, K-12 related, memory, pedagogy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, universities, youth, by Daniel Christian

Making (low-stakes) practice tests more effective — from edutopia.org
Practice tests not only help surface gaps in knowledge—they also strengthen memory.

Flipped Learning 3.0 [Flipped Learning Review]

On 02/01/2020, in adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, faculty/staff, higher education, instructional design, K-12 related, pedagogy, teachers, teaching & learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

The January issue of FLR features an exciting new career path for frustrated Flipped Learning teachers. Yes, the first edition for 2020 is all about new trends and new directions Flipped Learning educators are pursuing as we move into the new decade.

Featured articles include:

Micro-Schools: An Exciting New Career Path for Frustrated Flipped Learning Teachers
It’s a New Decade: Time for a Flipped Learning Reality Check
2020: Taking Your Flipped Learning Effectiveness to the Next Level
It’s 2020: I’m Never Going Back
The Missing Link: Getting Flipped Learning Assessment Right
Frustrated With the Status Quo?
Flipped Learning To-Do List for 2020
Top 10 Must-Read Research Papers in January
Why I Want My Students to Struggle in Class This Year

Also see:

Live from Bett: What’s new in EDU–Free resources to boost engagement and collaboration — from the Microsoft Education Team on January 22, 2020

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

In addition, on the day of a presentation, educators and students now can help every person in the classroom or audience understand what they’re saying by clicking on “Present Live.” Live Presentations enables every audience member to view the presentation on their own device, such as a laptop, tablet or phone. Each audience member can turn on live captioning and choose subtitles from more than 60 languages. They can even navigate between slides, so they don’t miss a single, important detail. The audience is engaged throughout the presentation and sends reactions in real-time. After the presentation, the audience can provide feedback on the content and delivery of the presentation, which educators and students can use to improve skills over time.

Live Presentations will be coming soon to PowerPoint for the web as part of Office Education, which educators and students can access for free. If you haven’t already done so, get started with Office 365 Education now.

From DSC:
Might this type of functionality be a solid component of a global, next generation learning platform? Hmmmm…

Pearson Bets on Adaptive Learning (Again) With $25M Acquisition of Smart Sparrow [Wan]

On 01/24/2020, in adjunct faculty, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, education technology, faculty/staff, higher education, instructional design, intelligent systems, law schools, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Pearson Bets on Adaptive Learning (Again) With $25M Acquisition of Smart Sparrow — from edsurge.com by Tony Wan

Excerpt:

Smart Sparrow, which provides course-authoring tools for faculty and instructional designers to build adaptive courseware, has found a new home in a much bigger nest.

Last week, Pearson announced it paid $25 million to acquire Smart Sparrow’s technology, in a move that the publisher says will bolster the digital infrastructure that will soon support all its future higher-education offerings.

In recent years, Ben-Naim says his team has been building the next iteration of its adaptive course-creation tool. Called Aero, the platform has been in the works since 2017. And though Aero has not been publicly released or announced, that was the technology that attracted Pearson, he adds.

Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. Another unintended consequence appears on the landscapes. [Christian]

On 01/18/2020, in 21st century, adjunct faculty, Amazon, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, colleges, community colleges, computer science, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, emerging technologies, engineering, ethics, Facebook / Meta Platforms, faculty/staff, future, Google, higher education, ideas, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, Microsoft, morals/values, platforms, political science, programming, research, social learning / networks, social media, society, student-related, teachers, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, United States, universities, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I’ll say it again, just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.

From the article below…we can see another unintended consequence is developing on society’s landscapes. I really wish the 20 and 30 somethings that are being hired by the big tech companies — especially at Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple, and Microsoft — who are developing these things would ask themselves:

“Just because we can develop this system/software/application/etc., SHOULD we be developing it?”
What might the negative consequences be?
Do the positive contributions outweigh the negative impacts…or not?

To colleges professors and teachers:
Please pass these thoughts onto your students now, so that this internal questioning/conversations begin to take place in K-16.

Report: Colleges Must Teach ‘Algorithm Literacy’ to Help Students Navigate Internet — from edsurge.com by Rebecca Koenig

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

If the Ancient Mariner were sailing on the internet’s open seas, he might conclude there’s information everywhere, but nary a drop to drink.

That’s how many college students feel, anyway. A new report published this week about undergraduates’ impressions of internet algorithms reveals students are skeptical of and unnerved by tools that track their digital travels and serve them personalized content like advertisements and social media posts.

And some students feel like they’ve largely been left to navigate the internet’s murky waters alone, without adequate guidance from teachers and professors.

Researchers set out to learn “how aware students are about their information being manipulated, gathered and interacted with,” said Alison Head, founder and director of Project Information Literacy, in an interview with EdSurge. “Where does that awareness drop off?”
…
They found that many students not only have personal concerns about how algorithms compromise their own data privacy but also recognize the broader, possibly negative implications of tools that segment and customize search results and news feeds.

On the care and handling of student ratings [Talbert]

On 12/28/2019, in adjunct faculty, assessment, career development, colleges, community colleges, faculty/staff, higher education, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, pedagogy, student-related, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

On the care and handling of student ratings — from rtalbert.org by Robert Talbert
Student evaluations of teaching are not true evaluations. We should call them what they are — perception data — and use them accordingly.

Excerpts:

How to handle student perception data as a department

Never use student perception data as the sole, or even the main source of information about a faculty member’s teaching. Teaching, as I said, is a wickedly complex problem. It simply cannot be reduced to a set of data, or in some cases to a single number. To get an accurate picture of faculty teaching, you need more than just student perceptions. Use faculty self-evaluations, peer evaluations via class visits, faculty-initiated data collected through pre- and post-testing… Insist on using multiple sources of data for faculty evaluations and make it easy to include them.
Never compare one faculty member to another based on student perception data.
Look at trends over time and how faculty respond to their data.

Learning Ecosystems

Overcoming the challenges of large courses [Weimer]

A two-part series from Educause re: inclusive design/accessibility [Gonzalez & O’Neil]

Pearson Bets on Adaptive Learning (Again) With $25M Acquisition of Smart Sparrow [Wan]

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