Teaching in the Age of Participation — keynote address by Michelle Pacansky-Brock
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Cisco to close Flip business; cut 550 jobs; take $300M Charge — from Forbes.com by Eric Savitz
Cisco Systems (CSCO) this morning announced a multi-part plan to revamp its consumer business, including shutting down the Flip video camera business. Cisco bought Pure Digital, the company that originally made the Flip, for $590 million in 2009. While the Flip line has admirers, the widespread availability of video-capable mobile phones undermined demand for the kind of simple stand-alone video cameras offered in the Flip business.
Using screen capture software to improve student learning — from Faculty Focus by Rob Kelly
By using podcasts, vodcasts, and screen capture software to provide supplemental and remedial materials, instructors can focus on higher-order learning activities during class, says Dave Yearwood, associate professor and chair of the Technology Department at the University of North Dakota. In an email interview with The Teaching Professor, Dr. Yearwood shared some ideas for getting started.
From DSC:
I wish they would be more upfront about their pricing — i.e. how many credits each “course” is. You purchase credits…and then you find out how many credits you will need to get their services. I mainly post this to show the level of innovation occurring out there in the online-based world; and online-based tutoring will only grow.
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Originally saw this at Ewan Mcintosh’s links for 2-24-11
The Backwards Class — from The Journal
A fairly new teacher has come up with a way to help her anxiety-ridden AP Calculus students relax more in class. She’s using an approach dubbed by her students as the “backwards classroom.” Results have been remarkable. She credits the method of an increase in test scores and says the teaching style suits motivated students…
What’s the approach?
The students watch pre-recorded lectures the night before the class, when homework problems are traditionally done, then spend the time in class getting answers to questions, working on additional problems with partners, and getting one-on-one assistance from the teacher. No more lectures in class.
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Also see:
“The main idea behind the ‘flipped’ classroom is for teachers to be available when students need them most. If I lecture for 30 minutes … in my chemistry classes, that would leave me about 20 minutes to assign homework and let students start on it,” he explained.
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Spencer began to create screencasts of his lectures using Camtasia the day before. Those screencasts then became the homework—and class time was for doing “homework,” or answering questions and doing labs/demos.
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“Many students are good at ‘playing school’ and going through the motions. Now that they have to demonstrate what they learn before moving on, some of them get quite upset when they scribble down a page of notes from a screencast without thinking about it and then are asked to redo it when it becomes obvious that they are just trying to work the system. Another complaint I have heard [from parents] is that ‘I’m not teaching them anything.’ Many students and parents expect the teacher to be the ‘sage on the stage’ and not a voice on an iPod.”
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“My greatest challenge is time. It does take time to set this up and build in the flexibility to meet the students’ needs. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of compensation for extra hours invested, but for me, the investment in our future is worth it.”
His advice to other teachers and schools looking to implement this learning is to “start slow—one or two vodcasts a month is plenty to whet your students’ appetites. Build libraries collaboratively, and don’t be afraid to make a mistake. It is through experimentation and modification that we hone our art of teaching.”
Online learning official: Lecture capture helps students ‘review, review, review’ — from CampusTechnology.com by Dennis Carter
UMass Lowell leader eases faculty concerns over video lectures as program proves popular among students
Jacqueline Moloney wants college students to do less transcribing and more listening.
Moloney, executive vice chancellor and head of online learning at the University of Massachusetts Lowell campus, has overseen an effort to make lecture capture technology a standard feature in the university’s classrooms, along with a host of other technologies that can be tailored to fit instructors’ preferences.
Along with a suite of other technologies—digital document cameras and interactive LCD touch screens among them—about one-third of UMass Lowell’s classrooms have been equipped with lecture capture programs that, Moloney said, let students “review, review, review” by rewinding the video lectures and hashing over complex concepts.
Furiously jotting down every key point that instructors make, she said, isn’t for everyone.
“I personally love to take notes,” said Moloney, who has headed UMass Lowell’s online learning program since it launched in 1996. “But with lecture capture, we find that students are able to focus and listen to what faculty members are explaining, versus having to scribble down every single word.”
She added: “You lose a lot of what the faculty is trying to teach you when you focus more on transcribing. With [lecture capture], students don’t feel nearly the pressure to take down every word.”
From DSC:
I know such an endeavor/service such as lecture capture would have helped me in several of my classes during my college days. It would have allowed me to be more “cognitively there” and actually free to reflect on what was being said (instead of madly trying to write down what the professor said before he/she erased the board.) Some faculty are using such tools as Wimba Classroom to do their own lecture capture, with students in mind who don’t have English as their primary language. Such a service allows these students to stop, rewind, play again, etc. — as many times as they need to without disrupting the rest of the class.