Thoughts on Teaching
Teaching for the ways students learn: Ditching the lecture
Benefits of peer-to-peer education
The lecture has been the traditional modality that professors have used to impart their knowledge to students. However, the lecture based learning style may be an anachronistic method given the emerging paradigm of student-centric learning. While the lecture has undoubtedly been used to educate some of history's brilliant thinkers, there are several shortcomings with this method. The amount of information intake an individual has is limited. There is an inherent lack of feedback given the…
OfflineThis post asserts a strategic approach to help students develop a sense of what academic writing is generally and how to be an effective and efficient presence in the discussion forum, specifically. It demonstrates how to be substantive in the Discussion Forum while simultaneously learning how to prepare for written assignments.
Help for Students in the Discussion Forum and Written Assignments
Only as high as I can reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I can look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be (Ravn, 2012).
The Discussion Forum is the center for excitement in the online learning environment. For students who thrill to learn from sharing ideas, inspire thought, and build a developmental database of experience, the discussion forum is an actualized paradise of an intellectual…
OfflineParticipation is a task every student will need to complete as an online student. Some students have a more difficult time than others to create meaningful posts. These posts can be difficult to create because students do not know how to make connections and expound their thoughts. By implementing a concept I learned as an Early Childhood Educator has improved my students’ participation quality.
As I continue to improve myself as an online instructor, I began to realize I can implement the skills and tools I learned as an Early Childhood Educator. One of these skills relate to a reading comprehension strategy. This strategy is called text connections. There are three forms of text connections - text to text, text to self, and text to world.
These connections are what I am currently teaching my students. These connections are taught through metacognitive strategies (thinking about your…
OfflineMaking education more fun can be a fruitful pursuit.
Recently, I was watching a Ted Talk where Jane McGonigal (2010) was arguing for the latent potential of videogames to change the world. Her argument was that we have a generation of expert gamers who are busy working on virtual problems that are highly complex, require focused attention, and are inherently engaging--but are somewhat meaningless in the "real world." Thus, she proposes that we find ways to make games applicable to real world problems (McGonigal, 2010). While Gonigal (2010) is…
Providing Quality Embedded Feedback for Students
Your students have just submitted their drafts, and now you are faced with the daunting process of editing these drafts. Stop. First, consider your role in this stage of the writing process. Are you the editor or the instructor? If you are the editor, you are doing the work, and the student does not necessarily process the changes you will make. On the other hand, as the instructor, you are guiding your students through this phase of the…
OfflineCreating critical thinkers should be a primary focus of higher education. Incorporating Socratic questioning into our instruction, especially in an online environment, can be incredibly effective as shown by research.
What is the purpose of higher education? What is the responsibility of an online instructor? The answers to these questions vary depending who is asked (and when). However, I think at the heart of every answer lies a common theme: online instructors should help students become critical thinkers so that this skill can help students make the most of their lives.
As any online instructor, at times I struggle with getting my students to think critically. With the…
OfflineFive Most Essential Skills of the Online Full Time Faculty
This article represents a sample of online full time faculty perceptions of the five most essential skills of online full time faculty.
Online Full Time Faculty shared responses to this question, "What are the five skills most essential to the tasks Online full Time Faculty Serve?
The following responses appear exactly as they were shared:
- Be myself
- Constructive feedback
- Active in the learning environment and with the students
- C…
OfflineWhen an individual considers returning to school, he/she is faced with multiple choices. Although online education is often considered one of the choices potential students must make, is it really a choice?
In the world of online education, we often talk about the choices our students have. The first choice is whether to return to school; many online students are returning to educational pursuits after many years of focusing on family and/or their careers. The second choice students face is where to go; there are an ever-increasing number of schools finding new and creative ways of reaching out to potential students. The final choice, we say students must make, is whether to go to…
OfflineThe welcome call is the moment of relationship formation that defines the tone for interaction between online students and online faculty. This blog post speaks to the moment of first “LIVE” connection when online faculty dials new students for the first time. The application is real. The student’s name is not.
Relationship is what humans do over a lifetime for which there is the least education and training.
~Magi Aata
The welcome call is the moment of relationship formation that defines the tone for interaction between online students and online faculty. This blog post speaks to the moment of first "LIVE" connection when online faculty dials new students for the first time. The application is real. The student's name is not.
The number is dialed. The phone is ringing. This is not the time…
One of the significant challenges we face is removing the isolation that online students often face and promoting interconnectivity between the teacher students. So how do we encourage this type of interconnectivity amongst a diverse population set? Part of the answer is encouraging both diversity and commonality
A short vignette:
In my management courses during my graduate program one of the main foci was on teamwork. Questions regarding what constituted a great team abounded. At that time I had limited experience in the professional world so I would hearken back to my time in school. One experience always came to mind - my experience of being a part of the team that put on a performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet during my 8th grade year. Typical of many intermediate schools my school was full of…
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