adjunct faculty

Who inspired you to become an educator? Submit your story for a chance to win $2,000. [PeopleAdmin]

On 05/04/2016, in adjunct faculty, career development, faculty, higher education, K-12 related, teachers, by Daniel Christian

Who inspired you to become an educator? — from peopleadmin.com; with thanks to Chris Abraham for the resource

Have you heard of #Inspired2Educate?

Inspired2Educate is a national recognition program that encourages current K-20 educators to honor the teachers or administrators who inspired them to embrace education as their life’s work. Educators can share their story with PeopleAdmin for a chance to win $2,000.

Educators can tell their stories either via videos or via a written format and each month PeopleAdmin will award one person with $1,000 for professional development and $1,000 for their educational institution.

For further information, go to https://peopleadmin.com/inspired2educate.

Projections of Education Statistics to 2023 [nces.ed.gov]

On 04/22/2016, in 21st century, adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, education, faculty, future, higher education, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, teachers, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Projections of Education Statistics to 2023 — from nces.ed.gov

By William J. Hussar, National Center for Education Statistics
and Tabitha M. Bailey, IHS Global Inc.

Description:
This publication provides projections for key education statistics. It includes statistics on enrollment, graduates, teachers, and expenditures in elementary and secondary schools, and enrollment and earned degrees conferred expenditures of degree-granting institutions. For the Nation, the tables, figures, and text contain data on enrollment, teachers, graduates, and expenditures for the past 14 years and projections to the year 2023. For the 50 States and the District of Columbia, the tables, figures, and text contain data on projections of public elementary and secondary enrollment and public high school graduates to the year 2023. In addition, the report includes a methodology section describing models and assumptions used to develop national and state-level projections.

Also see:

Higher Ed in 2023 — from insidehighered.com by Joshua Kim

2016 Online Education Trends [bestcolleges.com]

On 04/15/2016, in adjunct faculty, blended learning, change, cost of getting a degree, digital learning, education technology, faculty, game-changing environment, higher education, hybrid learning, online learning, student-related, trends, by Daniel Christian

2016 Online Education Trends — from bestcolleges.com
Tracking the innovations and issues changing higher education

Excerpt:

Key issues are identified in three categories:

The state of online teaching and learning
Technology and tomorrow’s learning environments
The cost of online education

Through completely online virtual schools, hybrid or blended learning options, and some state-level requirements, K-12 students are entering college with online learning experience.

The results suggest that there are six new major types of students enrolling in college today. These types have multifaceted motivations and the need to consider more than just age or delivery platform when planning everything from curriculum and support services to marketing initiatives.

Aspiring Academics: high-achieving, high-income recent high school graduates who want the traditional college experience and professional focus, which may include graduate school
Coming of Age: unsure about career goals or major, but trust that college is the way forward
Career Starters: interested in majors that lead to specific careers; focused on researching program costs and placement rates when making college decisions
Career Accelerators: already working full-time and interested in advancing in their existing career field with part-time college options
Industry Switchers: have work experience, but want to change career fields; focused on cost, online and hybrid options, job placement services
Academic Wanderers: often returning to college after a break; unsure about career goals, but focused on finding low-cost higher education options to help them move forward

…

From the Who is teaching online? section:

Across higher education, online and on campus, the new normal is a reduction in full-time tenure-track faculty members and an increase in part-time or contract-based instructors in what are often referred to as contingent or adjunct positions.

…

According to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), “more than 50% of all faculty hold part-time appointments” [9]. This doesn’t mean, however, that they are not working the equivalent of full-time hours or teaching a full-time course load. Almost 75% of faculty are considered “non-tenure track,” meaning that they may work part-time or full-time, but without the support and resources usually available to those in tenure-track positions [10].

Education consultant Peter Stokes recently called for a switch in language and approach. Online learning has become synonymous with “tuition streams” and “content development,” and perhaps a specific type of degree program. Stokes recommends replacing this term with digital strategy. This all-encompassing term more accurately describes not only delivery mode and administrative decisions, but also “pedagogy”, “market relevance” and the use of educational technology in on-campus programs as well [26]. This broader focus represents the reality of today’s higher education system, which increases student access to college while improving the overall learning experience.

Key issues in teaching and learning 2016 [educause.edu]

On 03/30/2016, in adjunct faculty, analytics, blended learning, digital learning, faculty, higher education, hybrid learning, learning spaces, mobile learning, multimedia, new business models, online learning, personalized/customized learning, professional development, smart classrooms, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

Key issues in teaching and learning 2016 — from educause.edu

4 ed-tech ideas face The Chronicle’s version of ‘Shark Tank’ [Blumenstyk]

On 03/30/2016, in adjunct faculty, competency-based learning/education, faculty, higher education, innovation, by Daniel Christian

4 ed-tech ideas face The Chronicle’s version of ‘Shark Tank’ — from chronicle.com by Goldie Blumenstyk

Excerpt:

Four innovators with four very different ideas for improving higher education brought their pitches to The Chronicle’s second-annual Shark Tank: Edu Edition during the South by Southwest Edu conference in March.

They included a professor with technology that turns students into moving elements of classroom visualizations, an entrepreneur whose company aims to ease the process of hiring adjunct instructors, a nonprofit organization supporting working-adult students as they pursue competency-based degrees, and a consulting organization proposing the establishment of a new kind of educational advisers, supported with federal dollars, to help students navigate an increasingly “unbundled” education system.

Also see:

What Compels People to Pursue Radical Innovations in Education — from etale.org by Bernard Bull

Excerpt:

What compels people to pursue more radical innovations in education? It has now been almost two decades since I started to more seriously and systematically study innovations in education and innovative learning organizations. Many of the musings about that show up in the chapters of my book on Missional Moonshots (not to mention the many articles on this blog), but since my exploration started, I can’t think of a single day that has passed without some thought experiment or reflection about educational innovation. In that sense, it has become a consuming passion for me because I see educational innovation as an important social good, and I have immense respect for those who tap into the courage, creativity and hard work necessary to pursue revolutionary or radical innovations in education.

As such, I’ve spent plenty of time thinking about what compels people to pursue such innovations. What is it that happens inside or outside of people that draws, drives or inspires them to get off the paved roads of legacy education models and frameworks and do the hard work of helping to create completely new roadways? Under what conditions is this more likely to happen for a person? While some of this has to do with how people are wired (both genetically wired and wired through a longstanding set of life experiences), there are other aspects at work as well. That is what leads me to start to put into words some of what I’ve seen. Amid many observations, conversations, formal and informal interviews, and my study of educational innovators and entrepreneurs, the following six consistently show up as conditions that often catapult people into trying something more radical in the education space.

Active Learning: In Need of Deeper Exploration — from facultyfocus.com by Maryellen Weimer

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The one proposed by Bonwell and Eison in an early (and now classic) active learning monograph is widely referenced: involving “students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing.” (p. 2)

Those are fine places to start, but as interest in active learning has grown—and with its value now firmly established empirically—what gets labeled as active learning continues to expand. Carr, Palmer, and Hagel recently wrote, “Active learning is a very broad concept that covers or is associated with a wide variety of learning strategies.” (p. 173) They list some strategies now considered to be active learning. I’ve added a few more: experiential learning; learning by doing (hands-on learning); applied learning; service learning; peer teaching (in various contexts); lab work; role plays; case-based learning; group work of various kinds; technology-based strategies such as simulations, games, clickers, and various smart phone applications; and classroom interaction, with participation and discussion probably being the most widely used of all active learning approaches. Beyond strategies are theories such as constructivism that have spun off collections of student-centered approaches that promote student autonomy, self-direction, and self-regulation of learning.

“It’s Not You, It’s the Room”— Are the High-Tech, Active Learning Classrooms Worth It? [2013] – from cvm.umn.edu by Sehoya Cotner, Jessica Loper, J. D. Walker, and D. Christopher Brooks

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Several institutions have redesigned traditional learning spaces to better realize the potential of active, experiential learning. We compare student performance in traditional and active learning classrooms in a large, introductory biology course using the same syllabus, course goals, exams, and instructor. Using ACT scores as predictive, we found that students in the active learning classroom outperformed expectations, whereas those in the traditional classroom did not. By replicating initial work, our results provide empirical confirmation that new, technology-enhanced learning environments positively and independently affect student learning. Our data suggest that creating space for active learning can improve student performance in science courses. However, we recognize that such a commitment of resources is impractical for many institutions, and we offer recommendations for applying what we have learned to more traditional spaces.
…
We believe that the investment in ALCs at the University of Minnesota was worth it. Documented increases in student engagement and confirmed average gains of nearly 5 percentage points in final grades are improvements in the student academic experience that few educational interventions could aspire to. However, whether these improvements warrant the capital investment in ALCs is a judgment each educational institution must make for itself, drawing on local priorities and resources.

Instructors may need to think seriously and creatively about changing the manner in which they deliver their courses in spaces such as these —not only for the sake of navigating the challenges of teaching in a decentered space, but also to take advantage of the features of the room that allow us to better realize the benefits of active learning. The classroom architecture is bound to frustrate the efforts of faculty who don’t yield to the rooms’ novel demands. There is no well-identified “stage” from which to deliver a traditional lecture. Half of the students in the class may be facing away from the instructor at any given time. Teachers who view silence as engagement will need to adjust their perceptions, as one goal of decentralized classrooms is increased small-group interaction and this activity can be noisy and difficult to monitor. And, in the case of the ALCs at our institution, there is a learning curve with respect to the technological capabilities of the rooms.

Excerpt from the University of Minnesota’s Active Learning Classrooms web page:

What Is an Active Learning Classroom (ALC)?
ALC is the term often used to describe the student-centered, technology-rich learning environments at the University of Minnesota. U of M ALCs feature large round tables with places for nine students. Each table supports three laptops, with switching technology that connects them to a fixed flat-panel display projection system, and three microphones. There is a centered teaching station which allows the instructor to select and display table-specific information. Multiple white boards or glass-surface marker boards are distributed around the perimeter of the classrooms.

Finding our voice: Instructional Designers in higher education — from er.educause.edu by Sandra Miller and Gayle Stein

Key Takeaways

A New Jersey workshop on instructional design gave attendees the opportunity to learn about instructional designers’ roles at different institutions and brainstorm good ideas, tips and tricks, important contributions to the field, and how to overcome shared challenges.
Instructional technologists and video production coordinators also are involved in the instructional design process, helping faculty learn how to use instructional tools.
A major challenge for instructional designers is faculty resistance to new pedagogies and deliveries — not just to hybrid and online courses.
Institutional acknowledgement of skill acquisition in their professional development can lead faculty to place a higher value on technology integration in teaching and learning.

…

What Instructional Designers Do
Instructional designers take on a variety of roles. They can be course development focused or technology focused. They can be facilitators, mentors, trainers, collaborators, reviewers, and mediators, and more likely some combination of those. They often have different roles to fill in addition to instructional design: they may supervise computer labs, have responsibility for classroom technology, and/or oversee video production facilities.

The instructional designers who attended the NJEDge.Net Instructional Design Symposium are involved in:

Providing both pedagogical and technology training, sometimes simultaneously and sometimes separately
Moving courses between learning management systems
Creating new online courses or transitioning face-to-face courses to online formats
Producing video and other multimedia
Supporting a variety of software that faculty want to use to create their courses or
Training faculty to teach more effectively using technology
Supporting students using LMSs
Ensuring that courses meet federal requirements for accessibility
Lobbying for funding for faculty who are taking time to create online courses
Creating challenging assessments to minimize cheating

…

Instructional technologists and video production coordinators also are involved in the instructional design process. They help faculty learn how to use instructional tools such as lecture capture, synchronous meetings, asynchronous discussions, collaborative document writing, group work, clickers, learning management systems, video production, and video editing.

The instructional designers found that it made a difference in terms of trust and respect accorded them when they sat on the academic side of the house. (Nonetheless, the majority of instructional designers at the symposium report to the IT side and ultimately (usually) to the financial/administrative side, despite their preference for the academic side.)

A prediction from DSC:
Those institutions who develop and use internal teams of specialists will be the winners in the future.

Below are some of the forces that will reward those institutions who pursue such a strategy in order to design, create, and provide their offerings/services include:

The rise of personalized/adaptive learning (data mining, learning analytics are also included in this bullet point)
The increased use of artificial intelligence and the development of intelligent systems/assistants/tutoring
Higher ed’s need to scale and reduce the going rates/prices of obtaining degrees — yet maintaining quality
Rapid technological changes and an ever increasing amount to know as instructional technologists (this is also true with videographers, multimedia developers, copyright experts, and other members of the team)
New discoveries and advances w/in the various disciplines — which require faculty members’ focus to stay on top of their disciplines
The changing expectations of students, and how they prefer to learn
The rise of alternatives to institutions of traditional higher education who, from their very start, develop and use internal teams of specialists (all the more relevant if these alternative organizations obtain the financial backing of the Federal Government)

The trick is how such teams should actually operate so as not to become bottlenecks in keeping the curricula relevant and up-to-date. After all, it takes time and resources to effectively design, create, and deliver blended and/or online courses.

The Research Pirates of the Dark Web [Waddell]

On 02/18/2016, in adjunct faculty, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, faculty, higher education, research, society, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

The Research Pirates of the Dark Web — from theatlantic.com by Kaveh Waddell; with thanks to Faculty Row for this item
After getting shut down late last year, a website that allows free access to paywalled academic papers has sprung back up in a shadowy corner of the Internet.

Excerpt:

There’s a battle raging over whether academic research should be free, and it’s overflowing into the dark web.

Most modern scholarly work remains locked behind paywalls, and unless your computer is on the network of a university with an expensive subscription, you have to pay a fee, often around 30 dollars, to access each paper.

Many scholars say this system makes publishers rich—Elsevier, a company that controls access to more than 2,000 journals, has a market capitalization about equal to that of Delta Airlines—but does not benefit the academics that conducted the research, or the public at large. Others worry that free academic journals would have a hard time upholding the rigorous standards and peer reviews that the most prestigious paid journals are famous for.

From DSC:
Though the jigsaw technique has been around for decades, it came to my mind the other day as we recently built a highly-collaborative, experimental learning space at our college — some would call it an active learning-based classroom. There are 7 large displays throughout the space, with each display being backed up by Crestron-related hardware and software that allows the faculty member to control what’s appearing on each display. For example, the professor can take what is on Group #1’s display and send the content from that display throughout the classroom. Or they can display something from a document camera or something from their own laptop, iPad, or smartphone. Students can plug in their devices (BYOD) and connect to the displays via HDMI cables (Phase I) and wirelessly (Phase II).

I like this type of setup because it allows for students to quickly and efficiently contribute their own content and the results of their own research to a discussion. Groups can present their content throughout the space.

With that in mind, here are some resources re: the jigsaw classroom/technique.

From Wikipedia:

The jigsaw technique is a method of organizing classroom activity that makes students dependent on each other to succeed. It breaks classes into groups and breaks assignments into pieces that the group assembles to complete the (jigsaw) puzzle. It was designed by social psychologist Elliot Aronson to help weaken racial cliques in forcibly integrated schools.

The technique splits classes into mixed groups to work on small problems that the group collates into a final outcome. For example, an in-class assignment is divided into topics. Students are then split into groups with one member assigned to each topic. Working individually, each student learns about his or her topic and presents it to their group. Next, students gather into groups divided by topic. Each member presents again to the topic group. In same-topic groups, students reconcile points of view and synthesize information. They create a final report. Finally, the original groups reconvene and listen to presentations from each member. The final presentations provide all group members with an understanding of their own material, as well as the findings that have emerged from topic-specific group discussion.

From jigsaw.org

A smorgasboard of resources re: “clickers” / student response systems [Christian]

On 02/08/2016, in adjunct faculty, assessment, attention, communications, education technology, engagement / engaging students, faculty, higher education, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, participation, pedagogy, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, by Daniel Christian

Personal Response Systems and Student Engagement — from er.educause.edu by Stephanie Blackmon

Key Takeaways (the professor used Poll Everywhere)

A professor who wanted a mechanism for students to share their learning experiences, particularly a tool with the potential for anonymized feedback, implemented a mobile personal response system to accomplish that goal.
This article explains how the Poll Everywhere system helped the professor gauge students’ experiences in her course and consequently adjust aspects of the course based on students’ learning needs.
Practical uses for a mobile personal response system in a face-to-face course can spur further ideas for their effective use in synchronous and asynchronous online courses and other online environments.

…
Practical Online-Course Uses
Specific practical uses for a mobile personal response system in synchronous and asynchronous online courses can spur other ideas for their effective use. Some immediately practical uses include:

Poll students at the end of a lesson to assess student learning and adjust the remainder of the class time based on their responses (synchronous courses)
Use polls to quiz students on course material (synchronous and asynchronous courses)
Use polls for early course activities to get to know students and allow them to get to know each other (synchronous and asynchronous courses)
Imbed polls in course presentations to get just-in-time responses from students about course material during the presentation (synchronous courses)

From DSC:
A polling/student response system can be a solid tool in your toolbox, especially if you are teaching in an active learning environment.

Stephanie Blackmon, in the article above, mentioned that she was using Poll Everywhere:

Professor Derek Bruff also uses Poll Everywhere and has some solid thoughts re: clickers out at his website:

In fact, Derek was presenting last year at Vanderbilt University, during a Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference. He effectively used Poll Everywhere’s clickable image question type in the session that I attended:

While not an exhaustive list, below are some other tools to consider in this space:

Turning Technologies

iclicker

Top Hat

Mentimeter.com

Socrative

Via Response

Microsoft Pulse

Survey Monkey

From Campus Technology 2015 Readers’ Choice Awards (09/30/15):

Student Response Systems and Classroom Clickers
Faculty members want to know whether their students are paying attention in class, and student response systems provide a simple way to know whether that’s happening. i>clicker, grabbing first place, introduced REEF Polling in April 2015, a free app for instructors that can be set up in two minutes, according to the company, and can allow dynamic polling sessions with any presentation application without having to import content first. Students subscribe to a paid version of REEF Polling to use with their smart devices to answer questions and show the instructor whether lessons have stuck or not. Runner-up Turning Technologies sells software and response devices for polling in the classroom (TurningPoint) and remote locations (RemotePoll). Third-place finisher Poll Everywhere’s higher ed plan offers an app that’s free for up to 40 responses per poll.

Platinum: i>clicker

Gold: Turning Technologies

Silver: Poll Everywhere

Addendum on 2/9/16:

The i>clicker: A decade later — from dailyillini.com/

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Nelson said there are many ways of effectively utilizing the i>clicker in classes: to facilitate discussion; to test preexisting knowledge; to ask anonymous questions; or to quiz students on the material taught, where instructors can give points to correct answers or simply to student participation.

5 ways to address student resistance in the flipped classroom [Honeycutt]

On 02/08/2016, in active learning, adjunct faculty, change, colleges, community colleges, experimentation, faculty, flipping -- inverted learning, participation, pedagogy, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

5 ways to address student resistance in the flipped classroom — from ractuslearning.com by Barbi Honeycutt

“Students forced to take major responsibility for their own learning go through some or all of the steps psychologists associate with trauma and grief: Shock, Denial, Strong emotion, Resistance and withdrawal, Struggle and exploration, Return of confidence, and Integration and success” (Felder & Brent, 1996, p. 43.)

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

In these [active learning] environments, you’re not going to see a classroom where students are listening to the teacher’s voice as he or she presents information from the textbook. Instead, you’ll see students engaged in a task and solving a problem. They are often working groups. The room is noisy since the students are discussing, solving, and testing ideas. The teacher’s voice is one of many.

The flipped classroom is one type of active learning environment. It’s dynamic, it’s engaging, and it’s “messy” since students are actively engaging in higher level thinking skills during class time. It requires us to change the way we think about teaching and learning.

It’s also hard.

It’s hard because flipped classrooms require a new set of skills for both the instructor and the students. Just as we (the instructors) are learning how to create these flipped learning experiences for our students, our students are also learning how to thrive in these new learning environments. And this is why we might see more student resistance in active learning environments. Just as Felder and Brent explain in the opening quote, it’s almost like our students are moving through the stages from shock and withdrawal to confidence and success.

Also see:

New Challenges to Active Learning Initiatives — from er.educause.edu

Key Takeaways

Year two of Case Western Reserve University’s Active Learning Fellowship program supported the first year’s evidence of success in using active learning techniques in active learning classrooms.
Unexpectedly, active learning techniques applied in large classes in regular classrooms proved unpopular with students, as expressed in surveys and focus groups at the end of the semester.
The challenges teased out of the data indicated additional factors influencing active learning success and guided modifications to year three of the Active Learning Fellowship faculty selection process.

New Media Consortium (NMC) & Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) release the NMC Horizon Report > 2016 Higher Ed Edition — from nmc.org

Excerpt:

The New Media Consortium (NMC) and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) are jointly releasing the NMC Horizon Report > 2016 Higher Education Edition at the 2016 ELI Annual Meeting. This 13^th edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in higher education.

The report identifies six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational technology across three adoption horizons spanning over the next one to five years, giving campus leaders, educational technologists, and faculty a valuable guide for strategic technology planning. The report provides higher education leaders with in-depth insight into how trends and challenges are accelerating and impeding the adoption of educational technology, along with their implications for policy, leadership, and practice.

Example slides from one of the presentations at the Flipped Classroom Conference 2016
[Held at Harvey Mudd College in January; with special thanks to Mr. Jeremy VanAntwerp,
Professor of Engineering at Calvin College for this resource]

Three reasons for switching to flipped learning — from rtalbert.org by Robert Talbert, Mathematics Professor at Grand Valley State University in Michigan [USA]

Excerpt:

The argument from pedagogy: We use flipped learning because it puts the best-known/best-available practices for teaching and learning in the spotlight, including active learning of all kinds, student-centered instruction, constructivist techniques, differentiated instruction, spaced repetition, Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development idea, self-regulated learning, and the like. Whereas these things can be featured in a traditional classroom but it feels unnatural, like the wrong tool for the job.
The argument from logistics…
The argument from relationships…

Peer instruction for active learning — by Harvard University Prof. Eric Mazur on difficulties of beginners, teaching each other, and making sense of information

Also see Eric’s presentation out at Auburn University from back in September 2014:

Why are we so slow to change the way we teach? — from facultyfocus.com by Maryellen Weimer, PhD

Excerpt:

However, lecture isn’t the only example of where we’re slow to change. Many aspects of teaching—course design, approaches to testing, assignments, and grading—have also changed little. Granted, some faculty do change, a lot and regularly, but not the majority. The question is, “Why?” Here are some possibilities I’ve been considering.

Crafting questions that drive projects — from learninginhand.com by Tony Vincent

Excerpt:

Not only does project based learning motivate students because it is an authentic use of technology, it facilitates active learning, critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity. Projects begin with a driving question—an open-ended question that sets the stage for the project by creating interest and curiosity. Writing an effective driving question is surprisingly challenging. You want the question to be intriguing and irresistible to students, which makes it very different from the typical questions they encounter on tests.

A Driving Force
Like many educators, I call the “mission statement” of a project a driving question. It captures the heart of the project by providing purpose using clear and compelling language. With so many different flavors of project based learning (including problem based learning, challenge based learning, student centered learning, exploration, student driven inquiry, and authentic learning), it’s not surprising that we have a variety of other terms for a question or statement that is the project’s driving force. These terms include essential question, challenge, prime question, WILD HOG question, focus question, and smart question. I’ll stick with driving question, but do know that sometimes the driving question is not interrogative. It might be a statement, but I’ll still refer to is as a question.

Literacy help: Alan Peat story bags – How to develop story writing and literacy skills in younger children. — from hubpages.com

Excerpt:

There is no getting away from the fact that the more a child has been read to and the more they try to read themselves then the better their literacy skills are going to be. Parents have a massive influence on this. As a parent myself I considered reading to and teaching my daughter to read the one most important thing I could do to aid her life at school.

Sadly this is not always the case and too many students we teach read rarely at home or in rare cases don’t even own a book. Sad I know and to be honest I can’t imagine a house without books in it. I jokingly refer to my daughters collection ‘her library’ because she has so many which are updated as she reads through them.

But lets be fair, it is not only the students who struggle with reading that need help with story writing. A lot of students will benefit from this approach including your high flyers. I have taught this in year 3, although i would consider it to be more a KS1 activity, but in year 3 they do need certain aspects of a KS1 curriculum to help there development as it is a hard transitional year. Saying that I have seen other teachers use it in higher years than that and why not if it will benefit their writing.

…
On the front of each bag, so every child can read it easily should be the questions:

Who?
Where?
Where next?
Why?
What goes wrong?
Who helps?
Where last?
Feelings?

Simple tips to create a blended learning classroom — from blog.edmentum.com by Jasmine Auger

Excerpt:

We’ve compiled this list of five easy ways to start incorporating technology into your classroom and building a blended environment!

Blogging
Social Media
Virtual Presentations
Infographics
Video

Other somewhat related items:

Full STEAM ahead: Why arts are essential in a STEM education — from edutopia.org by Mary Beth Hertz

Excerpt:

The connection is also obvious for anyone who has ever worked in any traditional STEM career. Everyone from software engineers and aerospace technicians to biotechnical engineers, professional mathematicians, and laboratory scientists knows that building great things and solving real problems requires a measure of creativity. More and more, professional artists themselves are incorporating technological tools and scientific processes to their art.

Also see:
STEM to STEAM: Resources Toolkit — from edutopia.org | Originally Published: 5/21/14 | Updated: 1/20/16
Whether you are looking for resources on integrating science, technology, engineering, and math or on infusing the arts to transform STEM into STEAM, these curated compilations will help you plan different approaches to integrated studies.

…and a related item re: curriculum, but at the collegiate level:

What is the value of an education in the humanities? — from npr.org by Adam Frank

Excerpt:

In spite of being a scientist, I strongly believe an education that fails to place a heavy emphasis on the humanities is a missed opportunity. Without a base in humanities, both the students — and the democratic society these students must enter as informed citizens — are denied a full view of the heritage and critical habits of mind that make civilization worth the effort.
…

So, these are my traditional answers to the traditional questions about the value of humanities and arts education vs. science and engineering. From my standpoint as a scholar, I’ll stand by them and defend what they represent to the last breath.

But the world has changed and, I believe, these answers are no longer enough.

It’s not just the high cost of college that alters the equation. It’s also vast changes that have swept through society with the advent of a world run on information (i.e., on data). So, with that mind, here is my updated — beyond the traditional — response to the value of the humanities in education: The key is balance.

It is no longer enough for students to focus on either science/engineering or the humanities/arts.

Collaborative classrooms mark wave of the future in higher ed — from educationdive.com by Tara García Mathewson
Student-centered models turn instructors into guides as students investigate for themselves

Excerpts:

The designs put students at the center of instruction, shifting the faculty role to one of tutor or guide.

“This changes the whole way we teach,” Benavides said.
…
Some colleges and universities are designing these spaces in new, modern buildings, while others are remodeling existing classrooms and making them work for this next generation of teaching and learning.

From DSC:
This sort of change may be uncomfortable to students and to faculty members alike. However, to shift the ownership of the learning to the student is a positive move. Why? Because we all need to be lifelong learners now. The learning rests with each one of us now, or we could be broadsided and have a very difficult time getting back up. So to come out of college knowing how to learn…that’s a huge plus in my mind.

Also see:

Learning Spaces Collaboratory

What do we want our learners to become?
What kind of learning experiences enable that becoming?
What kind of learning spaces enable such experiences?
How do we know?

“Microlearning: The e-Learning method taking off around the world” [Knowles]; also, podcasting for professors

On 01/16/2016, in A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, Adobe, Apple, Asia, Australia, blogs / blogging / vlogging, Canada, colleges, communications, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, educational games / serious games, elearning, Europe, faculty, flipping -- inverted learning, global / globalization, higher education, ideas, India, learning ecosystem, microlearning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multi-touch, online learning, podcasting, social media, streams of content, teachers, tools, training / L&D, UK, United States, universities, vendors, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Microlearning: The e-Learning method taking off around the world — from educators.co.nz by Catherine Knowles

Excerpt:

Technology is disrupting traditional learning bringing new methods and tools into educational institutions and businesses.

Microlearning, for instance, has displayed great potential for growth, according to Association Learning + Technology 2016 – a report published by Tagoras and sponsored by YM Learning.

The report looks at the use of technology to enable and enhance learning in the continuing education and professional development market and provides insight into how the role technology plays in learning has and will evolve.

In fact, among five emerging types of learning (microlearning, massive open online courses (MOOCs), flipped classes, gamified learning, and microcredentials), microlearning shows the highest rate of adoption – and arguably the greatest potential for growth.

Podcasting is perfect for people with big ideas. Here’s how to do it — from by Todd Landman
Surprisingly few academics have learned how to podcast – but it’s a great way to reach a wider audience

Excerpt:

In the face of conflict in the Middle East, the flow of refugees to Europe and the violence associated with Islamic State and other militants, there has never been a more important time to talk about human rights. And talk about them is what I do – not in a lecture hall or at conferences with academics, but in a podcast series. Let me explain why.

I have worked as a political scientist for 25 years, focusing on human rights problems such as the struggle for citizenship rights in Latin America and the relationship between inequality and human rights violations.

I am part of a wide network of people dedicated to producing sound evidence on human rights, and my work has been communicated through articles, books and reports. But I am limited in my ability to reach the people I would most like to engage and influence – those who do not have an academic understanding of human rights but might benefit from finding out about it.

There is a new breed of academic who understands this and is committed to bridging the gap between academia and the real world. Many blog, actively seek media coverage of their research and appear on radio and television to shed light on the issues of the day.

From DSC:
Some of the tools that Landman mentioned were:

Skype and ecamm Skype Call Recorder:

A MacBook Pro and its free audio editing software GarageBand (for Mac OS X and for iOS)
A lapel mic used with his iPhone

Some other tools to consider:

From DSC:
The above articles point to the idea — and the need — of creating “streams of content” — something that I wish more professors, teachers, staff, administrators, trainers, and instructional designers would create. Blogs, podcasts, and the use of Twitter come to my mind. Such channels could really help build others’ learning ecosystems.

Many professors and academics — folks who have so much information to share with the world — often produce works just for other academics in their discipline to review/check out. Such bubbles don’t have the impact that would occur if professors created streams of content for members of society to check out and learn from. Such mechanisms would also hopefully strip away some of the more academic sounding language and would get to the point.

Also see:

Learning Ecosystems

Key issues in teaching and learning 2016 [educause.edu]

4 ed-tech ideas face The Chronicle’s version of ‘Shark Tank’ [Blumenstyk]

“It’s Not You, It’s the Room” — Are the High-Tech, Active Learning Classrooms Worth It?” + other items re: active learning

The Research Pirates of the Dark Web [Waddell]

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