Moving to remote instruction immediately: Where to get started — from thejournal.com by Dian Schaffhauser
To help schools make the transition as quickly and comprehensively as possible, THE Journal reached out to education technology experts across the country to answer the questions we believe nearly every educator is rushing to answer right now.
On 03/25/2020,
in adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Australia, business side of he, Canada, change, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, Europe, face-to-face, faculty, flipping -- inverted learning, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, India, instructional design, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, Michigan, mobile learning, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online media, online tutoring, parents/guardians, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, remote teaching and learning, smart/connected TV, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telecommunications, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, UK, United States, universities, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Due to the impacts of the Coronavirus, learning ecosystems across the globe are going through massive changes!
Each of us has our own learning ecosystem, and the organizations that we work for have their own learning ecosystems as well. Numerous teachers, professors, and trainers around the world are now teaching online. Their toolboxes are expanding with the addition of several new tools and some new knowledge. I believe that will be one of the silver linings from the very tough situations/times that we find ourselves in.
At the WMU-Cooley Law School, our learning ecosystem is also fluid and continues to morph. This blog posting speaks to those changes.
Learning from the Living [Class] Room: Due to the impacts from the Coronavirus, this is happening today across many countries. But this vision is just beginning to develop. We haven’t seen anything yet.
On 03/18/2020,
in adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, digital learning, distance education, elearning, higher education, instructional design, learning, online learning, pedagogy, remote teaching and learning, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online,
by Daniel Christian
On 03/18/2020,
in curriculum, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, engineering, face-to-face, ideas, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, love of learning, more voice more choice more control, science, society, STEAM-related, student-related, teachers, traditional / tradition, United States, user experience (UX), youth,
by Daniel Christian
My wife sent me this video from John Bennett, a math teacher. This was posted to YouTube back on 11/8/11.
In fact, if it were up to me, I’d would no longer require math to be taught…in middle school and high school.
NOTES:
- 300 million people in the U.S. (as John mentioned back in October 2011)
- 1.5 million engineers
- 1/2 of a percent; and you can add another 1/2 of a percent for other kinds of jobs that require that kind of math
- That leaves 99% of us in the United States who don’t use what we learned about in middle school and high school math classes. But the problem is, math has caused major stress for people in the last 40 years.
- John Bennett had some major cognitive dissonance to the reasons WHY he was suggesting his students know the math concepts that he was trying to relay.
- He came to ask, “When do most of us use math in real life?”
- Money. Financial stuff. Balancing checkbook. Tipping. Cooking and carpentry.
- Why are we still teaching algebra? Because it teaches us about inductive and deductive reasoning. Math helps us develop that kind of reasoning.
- So a better plan would be to:
- Let people who want to take math in middle school and high school take it.
- For the rest of the students, provide strategy games and logic puzzles that help develop those cognitive reasoning skills.
From DSC:
When this math teacher meets people out in society, people confess how much stress math brought to them in school….and they’re aren’t joking.
Given that we are all required to be lifelong learners these days, I love what John Bennett is saying here…because we really aren’t serving society at large by requiring math be taught in middle school and high school.
- It causes stress and very negative learning experiences for many people.
- We don’t use it. (By the way, I could plug and chug ok, but I had no idea what I was doing. No real understanding. I haven’t used algebra and/or calculus since my youth.)
What does it take to change our curricula like that?! Is it possible? I sure hope so.
On 03/10/2020,
in A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, adult learning, attention, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education, elearning, engagement / engaging students, face-to-face, faculty, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, learning theories, multimedia, online learning, pedagogy, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, training / L&D, United States, universities, user experience (UX),
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
For those of you who teach and/or give presentations, you might be interested in a new video that I put together regarding cognitive load. It addresses at least two main questions:
- What is cognitive load?
and - Why should I care about it?
How do I put it into practice?
- Simplify the explanations of what you’re presenting as much as possible and break down complex tasks into smaller parts
- Don’t place a large amount of text on a slide and then talk about it at the same time — doing so requires much more processing than most people can deal with.
- Consider creating two versions of your PowerPoint files:
- A text-light version that can be used for presenting that content to students
- A text-heavy version — which can be posted to your LMS for the learners to go through at their own pace — and without trying to process so much information (voice and text, for example) at one time.
- Design-wise:
- Don’t use decorative graphics — everything on a slide should be there for a reason
- Don’t use too many fonts or colors — this can be distracting
- Don’t use background music when you are trying to explain something
On 03/04/2020,
in assistive technologies, biology, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, health, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, learning preferences, learning theories, lifelong learning, love of learning, neurodivergent/special needs, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, youth,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
What I mean by this is this:
While I certainly agree that research has produced excellent, proven, effective pedagogies that work with many students (the majority even), the fact is, learning is messy. When a child walks into a classroom, there isn’t even one other child with the exact same neural situation.
Nor is there even one other student with the exact same experiences, background, passions, motivations, interests, etc. I’ve experienced this with our daughter who isn’t a part of the 80% that the typical education train addresses. Look out if you are part of the 10% of either side of the bell curve! As your learning experiences are too costly to address and likely won’t be addressed in many cases.
All that said, I still agree that the teaching and learning strategies are still highly relevant across the masses. My point is that there is still a lot of diversity out there. They say that learning is messy for a reason. If you doubt that, go sit in on an IEP sometime.
On 02/13/2020,
in adjunct faculty, attention, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, CMS/LMS, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, engagement / engaging students, higher education, ideas, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, learning preferences, lifelong learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multimedia, online learning, online media, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, universities, usability, user experience (UX),
by Daniel Christian
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.
On 02/12/2020,
in adjunct faculty, adult learning, assessment, blended learning, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education, elearning, face-to-face, faculty, higher education, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, online learning, pedagogy, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, training / L&D, universities,
by Daniel Christian
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
On 02/07/2020,
in adjunct faculty, adult learning, assessment, faculty, 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.
On 02/01/2020,
in adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, faculty, 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