Incubator Classroom Has its First Media Appearance

The incubator classroom was featured in Auburn University's student newspaper, The Plainsman, in their October 10, 2013 edition.

To read the article, please go to http://issuu.com/theplainsman/docs/the_auburn_plainsman_10.10.13_issue_ec3be4a714cc56/1?e=1266707/5171255

WrapUp from Teaching Professor Technology Conference

Last week's conference ended on a high note with some great presentations on using Web2.0 tools for collaborative work in classes.

Particularly interesting was the presentation on Prezi and how you can use it for brain storming (but you can only have 10 folks on it at the same time).  Watch out for possible accessibility problems.

Another highlight was the presentation on using Pinterest for business writing assignments.

For the full program, go to http://www.teachingprofessor.com/conferences/technology-conference-2013 and also check out the online resources they made available.

Second Day at the Teaching Professor Conference -- Technology, in Atlanta

I think this is the first conference I have been at where the majority of attendees are indeed faculty who are here because they teach, they want to learn about new ways to teach, new tools.  Quite exhilarating.

The topics from yesterday ranged from the commercial perspective (we can do it all for you) that textbook companies have moved towards to the collaborative perspective (with limited resources, what can we do jointly?).  From we provide the content (MOOCs) to we provide the guidance (active learning in a flipped classroom).  From small tools focusing on isolated tasks (interactive white board apps) to online help for tasks students do not want to learn (http://www.citelighter.com/ for citation management) to adaptive learning (platform that guides students individually through learning process).

And all the questions and discussion, here at the conference and on facebook with my friends center pretty much around one thing:  control.
Who has control over the academic content -- I am not just talking ownership but potentially more importantly about what is chosen to be learned?
Who has control over the students' approaches to this content?
Is it the textbook company that will develop the adaptive learning platform?
Is it the higher administration that, through their process of implementing online courses as templates, does not give adjuncts the choice of what they can or cannot teach?
Is it the students who choose what is important to them about a particular topic?
Is it the faculty member who teaches the course?

All of these options are on the table, and they all have some merit.

The Teaching Professor Technology Conference in Atlanta

The Teaching Professor Technology Conference in Atlanta

I am spending this weekend at the Teaching Professor Technology to see learn more tips and tricks for flipping the classroom, mobile learrning, and whatever else comes across as interesting.

You can find more information about this conference at https://cws.auburn.edu/oit/wah.

So, what did I learn about yesterday?
The two pre-conference workshops focused on student interaction and how to improve it -- essentially, how do you prepare as an instructor so that student discussions are meaningful and move into the direction you want them to move to -- and how can you flip your class.

Some of the highlights for me were points and reminders like

• prepare for discussion -- your questions to students need to be connected to learning objectives  in obvious ways
• give students time to answer -- research indicates that instructors think they have waited for 10-12 seconds for student answers but those seconds were really only 2.3.  Or they thought that they were teaching a discussion-intensive class but when observed, the discussion was dominated by the instructor who would talk ten times more than all students combined.
• give students other ways to participate than just the large class -- let them write notes, let them talk to neighbors or work in groups.
• remember cultural differences if you are fortunate to teach a diverse class.

But probably the greatest take-away was the wrestling with the issue of how do we grade participation -- should it be a real grade, and if so, how much of the final grade?  Or should it be simply seen as another tool to gain student learning towards the objectives of the class, and so no special grade needs to be attached to it?

I would argue that the second option may be the right one to go with -- but in a very transparent way for the students.  They need to understand not only that you expect them to participate but why this is important -- because they will learn better, and it is the learning of the content, skills, knowledge that really makes the grade of the class.

The second workshop on flipping the classroom was rather interesting -- it turns out that what we did this summer is almost exactly what other people get money to do -- hmmm.
The concept of flipping the classroom as something that has multiple definitions, eg, homework done in class, content absorption done at home or content delivery done at home and collaborative learning done in class or shifting what parts of Bloom's Taxonomy are focused on in the teaching of the entire class (flipping the pyramid on its head.)
 reminder of traditional pyramid