pedagogy

Labster: Empowering the Next Generation of Scientists to Change the World
Laboratory Simulations for Educators to Empower their STEM Students

From DSC:
I recently met Maaroof Fakhri at the Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference. It was a pleasure to meet him and hear him speak of the work they are doing at Labster (which is located in Denmark). He is very innovative, and he shines forth with a high degree of energy, creativity, and innovation.

Keep an eye on the work they are doing. Very sharp.

Also see:

2015 with Labster in review, and ahead to 2016

Learnathons, on the other hand are optimized sessions that teach participants how to apply what they learn as soon as possible. They are on the opposite end of how classroom teaching is organized, with lessons spread out over the course of a semester focusing on theory and weekly practice. They are a fairly new concept, but have created an environment for learning that is speeding up comprehension and application to levels that aren’t seen elsewhere.

Addendum on 3/16/16:

What are Remote Labs? <– from ilabcentral.org

Making high school science labs more real, more engaging, and more accessible
Remote Online laboratories (iLabs) are experimental facilities that can be accessed through the Internet, allowing students and educators to carry out experiments from anywhere at any time.

See balefirelabs.com for 5000+ expert, science-based reviews of instructional quality & usability

On 03/05/2016, in cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, education, education technology, instructional design, K-12 related, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, tools, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, youth, by Daniel Christian

balefirelabs.com — with thanks to Rene Grimes for this resource.

Per Rene:

I’d like to recommend you check out Balefire Labs, an app review service, because they have very solid objective metrics for determining the learning elements within content apps. We know not all edtech is actually educational (talking specifically about instructional apps). Content apps have their place, to be sure; but I have decided to only use adaptive, mastery based apps because these individualize instruction. Not all apps that use the word “adaptive” mean they adapt to learners levels of mastery. Check out their metrics and see what you think. http://www.balefirelabs.com

For example, see:

New Top-Rated Kids’ Learning Apps & Games of March 2016
Every month we look for the best of the best learning apps and games for kids and every month we find some new and very cool apps to recommend. Here are this month’s top eight apps and games we found for your kids…all of these top rated apps earned a letter grade of A or B, according to our research-based review criteria, putting them in the top 12% of the more than 5,000 apps we’ve reviewed. Enjoy!

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.

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?

Blogging in the classroom: How to get started [Banner]

On 01/20/2016, in blogs / blogging / vlogging, collaboration, communications, digital learning, education technology, ideas, K-12 related, pedagogy, student-related, teachers, by Daniel Christian

Blogging in the classroom: How to get started — from onblastblog.com by Matt Banner

Excerpt:

Here’s what we’ll discuss today:

Ways to bring blogging into your classroom and daily lesson plans
The litany of benefits blogging brings to education
Deciding the purpose and goals of your blog
Setting up your classroom’s blog
Easy ways to promote and grow your classroom blog

…
Blogging about a subject turns novices into experts.
There’s no other choice. When you write thousands upon thousands of words about something, doing research all the while, you become an expert in that subject. It’s unavoidable, and possibly the best way to learn in my opinion. Instead of having the information fed to them, students are taking it and putting it down on paper in their own words.

They live the information instead of simply seeing it. This is huge in terms of learning something for the long-term. Hands-on experience will always leave more of a lasting impression than something that is simply boiled down to a few questions on a test.

Michelle Lampinen, a high school English teacher in New Jersey wrote a great article on this here.

Also see:
How blogging is being used in the classroom today: Research results — from emergingtech.com by Mike Wallagher

Excerpt:

The 2015 survey has yet to be reported on, but 2014 research findings have something to say about the state of blogging in the classroom today.

Benefits of Blogging in the Classroom
Blogging in the classroom can have numerous benefits depending on how you use your blog. Just some include that:

Instructors can create a blog about class happenings so parents can stay up-to-date and students can access announcements from anywhere
Teachers can use their blogs to store lessons online or provide supplemental learning materials to students
Instructors can use blogs to organize assignments, such as posting them online for absent students or listing due dates so all students have access to the course materials from anywhere
Teachers can post previous students’ work as examples or publish current students’ work so they can show parents and family who live far away
Educators can open the comment sections on blog posts to get feedback from parents and the community as well as to create discussion between students
Student blogs teach children about writing techniques, online publishing, and proper Internet etiquette, which most students will use in future careers

How Blogs Are Being Used
“Blogging in the classroom” may bring up this idea that there’s one way to present blogging to your students, but there are a myriad of ways educators can use blogs. Just some options include:

Personal blogs for teachers
Student blogs
ePortfolios
Platforms for assignments, homework, and announcements
Classroom blogs for collaboration and discussion

From DSC:
Whether your school, university, or college has a web hosting service or whether you need to go out and find a web hosting service yourself — or use a free service/solution — blogging is a great way to create streams of content and to “think out loud.” It offers benefits for students, teachers, professors, staff, and administrators.

PBS’ School Sleuth: The Case of the Wired Classroom <-- A well done, creative, objective, solid discussion of technology in the classroom

On 01/16/2016, in 21st century, active learning, Apple, blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), change, collaboration, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, education, education reform, education technology, elearning, game-changing environment, generational differences, Google, hybrid learning, internet, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning theories, media/film, Microsoft, multimedia, online learning, organizational change, parents/guardians, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, research, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, tablets, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, tools, trends, United States, web-based collaboration, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
If you can clear up just short of an hour of your time, this piece from PBS entitled, “School Sleuth: The Case of the Wired Classroom” is very well done and worth your time. It’s creative and objective; it offers us some solid research, some stories, and some examples of the positives and negatives of technology in the classroom. It weaves different modes of learning into the discussion — including blended learning, online learning, personalized learning and more. Though it aired back in October of 2015, I just found out about it.

Check it out if you can!

Also see:

Schools push personalized learning to new heights — from edweek.org
Excerpt:
For most schools, reaching the next level of digitally driven, personalized learning is far from reality. Still, some schools are extending their digital reach in significant and sometimes groundbreaking ways, as the stories in this special report illustrate. They are making moves to integrate a variety of technologies to track how students learn and to use the resulting data to expand the use of hands-on, project-based learning. The goal is to build never-ending feedback loops that ultimately inform the development of curriculum and assessment. Plus, big data and analytics are gradually making their marks in K-12 education. This special report outlines the progress schools are making to use digital tools to personalize learning, but also raises the question: Are they reaching far enough?
.
A Pedagogical Model for the use of iPads for Learning — from higheru.org

Small changes in teaching: The first 5 minutes of class [Lang]

On 01/14/2016, in adjunct faculty, attention, colleges, community colleges, engagement / engaging students, faculty, higher education, ideas, pedagogy, teachers, teaching & learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

Small changes in teaching: The first 5 minutes of class — from chronicle.com by James Lang
4 quick ways to shift students’ attention from life’s distractions to your course content

Excerpts:

Open with a question or two.
What did we learn last time?
Reactivate what they learned in previous courses.
Write it down.

Reflections on “Gen Z is about to take over higher education—here’s what to expect” [Malat]

On 01/14/2016, in 21st century, active learning, blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, engagement / engaging students, expectations, experimentation, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, ideas, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, learning preferences, learning spaces, mobile learning, more voice more choice more control, online learning, participation, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, smart classrooms, strategy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technology (general), trends, universities, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Gen Z is about to take over higher education—here’s what to expect — from ecampusnews.com by Lisa Malat
Survey finds digital natives “Gen Z” set to reshape higher ed landscape with focus on careers, dependence on technology.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Educators take note: it’s time to make way for Generation Z (Gen Z).

In a recent study by Barnes & Noble College, 1,300 middle-school and high school students ages 13-18 from 49 different states shared their attitudes, preferences and expectations regarding their educational and learning experiences. The findings from the study are clear: Gen Z is significantly different than previous generations, and these students will bring both challenges and opportunities for the future of higher education.
…

With Gen Z being a generation of “digital natives,” it stands to reason that the future of educational technology is now. Technology is embraced almost universally by Gen Z. In fact, the students surveyed shared that they are apt to regularly use five different computer tools for their social and educational purposes: laptops, desktops, tablets, smartphones and video game consoles.

Unlike Millennials, who have broadly adopted technology, Gen Z has adopted a technology-centric lifestyle. They define themselves in online, digital terms. Gen Z doesn’t distinguish between devices or online territories. It is one continuous, multi-faceted, completely integrated experience – connecting social, academic and professional interests.
…
Gen Z also has different learning style preferences from past generations. While they are very into DIYL (do-it-yourself-learning), these students also embrace peer-to-peer learning, with 80 percent reporting that they study with their friends and classmates. Fifty percent said they enjoy the element of leadership it presents, and 60 percent reported that it gives them the perfect way to exchange ideas and consider new perspectives.

From DSC:
The article/report above prompted me to reflect…

Many throughout higher education are responding to change. But many are not. We aren’t nearly as nimble as we need to be.

I hope that the faculty, staff, boards, administrations, and the heavy-hitting donors at colleges and universities throughout the U.S. appreciate how important it is to be aware of — and respond to — changes within the K-12 world, changes in today’s students, changes within the higher ed landscape, and to changes within the corporate/business world.

We operate in a continuum.

With all of those changes, maintaining the status quo seems to be a dangerous experiment to me. We are not in control. Rather, we all need to adapt and to respond.

DanielChristian-MonitoringTrends

DanielChristian-what-should-our-learning-environments-look-and-act-like

Along these lines, maintaining the status quo shows a blatant disregard of our customers’ preferences — an unwise strategy to take. (And for those of you who don’t like the word customer here, bear with me…because in my mind, any person who pays anywhere near the price of a house to obtain their education has earned the right to be called a customer. Today’s students are paying a heck of a lot more than we did.)

Also, maintaining the status quo seems like a dangerous strategy when we’re talking about recruitment and retention. Remember, we are talking about depending upon the decisions of 18 year olds here.

So as I:

Read the above article and the report that it refers to
Consider the higher ed landscape that continues to encounter new alternatives
Observe that different pathways that are cropping up all the time
See that the federal government is moving towards funding such alternative methods

…I am forced to ask myself, “Given all of this, will maintaining the status quo suffice? Really?“

This report should encourage us to:

Seek to do a better job of pulse checking the K-12 world and the students’ learning preferences coming out of that world — and to develop our responses to those changing preferences.
Pursue more instances of blended/hybrid learning and active learning-based classrooms
Provide a variety of delivery mechanisms to meet our students’ needs — including a solid line up of online-based courses and programs. Students are often having to work in order to get through college, and they need flexible solutions.
Better address our physical learning spaces, which should offer strong/secure wireless networks and means of quickly collaborating via BYOD-based devices.
Continue to invest in selecting and investigating how best to use a variety of educationally-related technologies (something which, in my mind, invites the use of teams of specialists).
(I could, and probably should, think bigger here, but I’ll stop at these reflections.)

I’ll leave you with the following graphic, relaying that often times members of Gen Z tend to prefer active learning-based classrooms:

Flipping Feedback: Screencasting feedback on student essays — from facultyfocus.com by Ron Martinez

Excerpt (emphasis):

But, I thought, what if students could actually watch and hear me in a video as I go over their papers? If possible (which it is), that would approximate the kind of feedback experience I aimed to offer students without constraining it to a particular time or location.

Screencasting (recording and narrating actions performed by the instructor on a computer screen) did that and much more for me and my students. Below I describe the process and the resulting benefits.

From DSC:
Though Ron mentioned that he selected Screencast-O-Matic on his PC (and he also mentioned Quicktime), I wanted to offer up a couple of other possibilities:

Professors using Blackboard Collaborate can be heard while marking up a document in Word, Google Docs, or in other applications by making recordings while using the Application Sharing feature. See Chapter 10 in this document for example, for the “original experience” (Bb Collaborate Version 12.6) or the Application Sharing portion of this page (for the new “Ultra Experience”).
Screenflow — where you can be seen, heard, as well as share and record your screen while you are mocking up/editing the document in whatever Mac OS-based application you want to use
Adobe Captivate
Camtasia Studio
(On the iPad) Explain Everything
(On the iPad) PDF Expert
Jing
Though not exactly a preferred way (at least in my mind), you can insert an MP3-based audio file within Microsoft Word 2013
…as well as many other tools out there that can capture your screen

Using 3D printing to provide deeper learning for those taking calculus, geometry, & the like

On 12/21/2015, in 3D, adjunct faculty, faculty, higher education, ideas, K-12 related, learning, maker movement, mathematics, pedagogy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Could 3D printers help students trying to learn about geometry, calculus, data visualizations, and the like? These articles seem to think so, and so do I:

Re-envisioning the Calculus Curriculum

$3Dprint-math$

Thinking like Archimedes with a 3D printer

Math Professors + 3D Printing = Real World Learning

Explore Calculus with the MakerBot 3D Printer Bundle

3D Printing in Calculus Class

Also see:

Schools, Universities Largest Market for 3D Printers — from educationnews.org

Excerpt:

Schools and universities are beginning to incorporate 3D printers into their curricula more often, and now make up the largest market for 3D printers under $2,500.

Contrary to expectations, educational institutions buy more 3D printers than individuals. The number of US schools that have 3D printers hasn’t been quantified, but 5,000 schools have MakerBot’s 3D printers, and they are only one of the major sellers. Others include Stratasys, 3D Systems, and Variquest.

3D printer purchases are expected to double in 2016 to 496,500 shipments. By 2019, numbers could reach 5.6 million. These statistics come from a report by Gartner Inc., an independent technology research company.

Turning course materials into a digital magazine [Raths]

On 12/09/2015, in creativity, digital learning, ideas, innovation, pedagogy, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Turning course materials into a digital magazine — from campustechnology.com by David Raths
Instructors are experimenting with the Flipboard news reader to present up-to-date course materials in a magazine-format mobile app.

Excerpt:

She started by asking students to pay money out of their pockets for the magazine subscriptions — which tended to be unpopular with students. Then she migrated to free e-zines, but students complained about the material clogging their e-mail inboxes. “They hated that, too,” she said. “I happened upon Flipboard and I haven’t had any complaints. They love Flipboard, and it is really helpful to me where textbooks lag,” she said, “especially in social entrepreneurship and social media. I use Flipboard to curate on these topics that I don’t have access to in textbooks.”

Learning Ecosystems

Small changes in teaching: The first 5 minutes of class [Lang]

Turning course materials into a digital magazine [Raths]

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