Harvest of Teaching Ideas

Harvest of Teaching Ideas:
Seven Principles Workshop

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Seven Principles Workshop - LTAs that advance the seven principles

What ways of using technology in your courses work well and save time? We will share your ideas with all interested faculty.

Each of the ideas you describe should have all the following characteristics:

You've tried this use of technology, and it works for you;
It's a time-saver;
There are probably at least a few other faculty and instructors who would appreciate hearing about it; and
It's easy to describe in a few sentences. The brief description that you write below should be enough for those other faculty to try out this idea if they like it (especially if you also include your name and e-mail address so they can contact you if you have questions).

Before you fill in any of the questions, please skim the whole survey. Then answer just those questions where you have LTAs to share.

The first of these principles is 'encouraging faculty-student contact.' Chickering and Gamson wrote that, according to decades of educational research, "frequent student-faculty contact in and out of classes is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement. Faculty concern helps students get through rough times and keep on working. Knowing a few faculty members well enhances students' intellectual commitment and encourages them to think about their own values and future plans."

In what ways has technology been used in your courses and at your institution that makes such contact between you and your students more productive, satisfying or frequent? (NOTE: The following box appears small, but you can write as much as you like. Don't forget to put your name and e-mail address after your idea if it's OK for other faculty to contact you with questions.)

[test]
[Through Blackboard I can send weekly emails to the whole class reinforcing a key concept, commenting on a particular class discussion, or building anticipation for the upcoming week's class. The students are usually surprised to hear from me at first but then start to feel more comfortable with me when they see me face to face. Stephanie Ferriola sferriola@neit.edu]
[For a freshman poetry class students were asked to read the introduction to a poetry anthology which focused on techniques for reading and understanding poetry. The next day, in groups, the students discussed the book's suggested techniques as well as adding some of their own ideas. Coming together as a class, they decided upon a methodology that they would use for the remainder of the semester when reading a poem. From there, they developed a PowerPoint Presentation titled "How to Read a Poem." Initially, they were not familiar with PP and I worked with the students showing them how to use it. As the students became more proficient and involved with their task, I collaborated with a history professor and a visual production manager on campus to create a DVD which featured the history professor reading the World War I poem by Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est." The visual production manager created a montage of WWI original black and white clips and images and edited them to coincide with the words of the poem. The students were shown the video and as they commented "It was then that the words really came alive." The final step of the assignment was for the students, using their original PP as a template, answered their own questions, identified figures of speech, researched the historical context, the poet, etc. and created another PP which "explained" Owen's poem. The students found this not only engaging, but they were so proud of their work, that the final slide is a digital photo of them--titled "The Surviving Poets'Society." I believe this activity is applicable to all of the following principles as well. Anita Acklin, Cuyahoga Community College-Western Campus anita.acklin@tri-c.edu]
[In all honesty, I must report that most of my instructors would prefer to contact students face to face whenever possible. Naturally, email contact is expected by students....but more than one instructor has reported that in their experience, technology-mediated communications are a "second best" and less personal means of supporting and encouraging students, and I tend to agree on this point.]
[Incorporating an online journal assignment into a course]
[Instructors answer student questions in the discussion boards of course websites. They also offer optional telephone conference calls or interactive web conferencing (Breeze/Adobe Acrobat Connect) sessions to discuss materials, review homework and for student presentations.]

The second principle is 'encouraging cooperation among students.' "Learning is enhanced when it is more like a team effort than a solo race," wrote Chickering and Gamson.

In what ways has technology been used in your courses or at your institution that enables or encourages cooperation among students, inside or outside the classroom? Don't forget to put your name and e-mail address after your idea if it's OK for other faculty to contact you with questions.

[Some of our faculty are using blackboard to set up student groups so they can consult with each other on difficult problems or assignments. Others use it so students can do peer editing in their writing classes. Stephanie Ferriola sferriola@neit.edu]
[Students, working in groups, develop a strategy or methodology to understand poetry. Many students view poetry as "dense" or "too heavy." When they were asked to work in groups and devise a strategy to understand the poem's possible meaning TO THEM, they became quite interested in "solving the mystery." The students, as they learned and became more proficient with PowerPoint, enjoyed demonstrating their poetry interpretations to their peers. anita.acklin@tri-c.edu]
[Technology often is used to aid in collaborative efforts, but the best examples of student cooperation I have seen involved very little technology....other than the standard low-level forms of communication (IM, email, file sharing)]
[Using a wiki in a course for group projects. This way everyone can participate in an online environment. The history/revision features allow the instructor and all group members access to see who is contributing.]
[The course discussion board is used to encourage student-student communication. Students are encouraged to post homework questions and work together on projects. Students are asked to serve as resources to their peers and told the instructor will monitor the discussions, but that peer students are expected to provide the main assistance. We also encourage students to use online collaboration resources such as the instant messaging, Google docs, Skype, thinkfree and Wrike.]

The third principle is 'encouraging active learning.' "Students do not learn much just sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives."

In what ways has technology been used in your courses or at your institution that, directly or directly, encourages active learning? Don't forget to put your name and e-mail address after your idea if it's OK for other faculty to contact you with questions.

[test]
[The quizzes and survey function of Blackboard can be used for practice quizzes, pre and post learning quizzes or practice homework exercises with explanations that can be used as a tutorial. Many of the Cross and Angelo Classroom Assessment Techniques are easily adaptable to Blackboard and actively engage students in learning. Some examples are Course-related Self-Confidence Survey, Minute Paper, Muddiest Point, Attitudinal Survey, Classroom Opinion Poll, Interest/Knowledge/Skills Checklist, Misconception/Preconception Check. Stephanie Ferriola sferriola@neit.edu]
[I find that instead of the instructor developing the PowerPoint presentation to teach a class, groups of students (usually no more than 3), given specific teaching tasks which involve the development of a PPpresentation, encourages active learning. The instructor, of course, should be available to help, answer questions, etc. but the concept of the students doing the actual learning,with the purpose of teaching it to the class, virtually ensures the intended outcome: lesson learned. anita.acklin@tri-c.edu]
[Some of my instructors report success using Blogger.com for a class "blog". A course blog will be set up so that the class members can all publish contributions on a regular basis, and respond to other student's contributions....of student contributions. The larger sense of audience gained from a publically accessible blog provided by blogger.com, (students receive comments from people all over the world) has led to more thoughtful reflections and comments. ]
[Video projects can be used to make presentations, tell stories, and chronicle the learning. Instead of making a power point presentation, the student could interview experts, record images, narrate the footage and make the presentation more active by showing he/she went out and actually conducted the research on-site.]
[Blackboard has a "team site" feature that allows studetns or groups to make their own websites within the course website. We also use the journal feature in Blackboard.]

The fourth principle is 'giving prompt feedback' about their ability and work, at the start of a program, as it goes on, and as it is ending.

In what ways has technology been used in your courses or at your institution that, directly or directly, improves feedback to students? Don't forget to put your name and e-mail address after your idea if it's OK for other faculty to contact you with questions.

[Students can submit initial drafts of papers or assignments for early feedback from faculty or peers using the Digital Dropbox in Blackboard. Stephanie Ferriola sferriola@neit.edu]
[Email and BlackBoard are probably the two most often used methods of communication to let students know how they are doing.]
[Automatically scored and graded quizes provide rapid feedback at the admittedly basic cognitive level. Online discussion boards make student understanding of new content visible, allowing instructors to anticipate and respond to students misconceptions, misunderstandings, in classroom discussion.]
[Using "clickers" in the classroom can help to incorporate feedback from students immediately into the class session]
[Discussion board feedback, online quizzes, electronic assignment submission that allows for instructors to grade work and send comments back to students.]

The fifth principle is increasing 'time on task.' "Time plus energy equals learning," wrote Chickering and Gamson. Technology can play a role here in attracting students to spend more time in their studies, reducing wasted time (e.g., commuting time, standing in lines, waiting for books), and in helping communicate to students how much time and energy you and your institution expect them to invest in their work.

In what ways has technology been used in your courses or at your institution that, directly or directly, results in students spending more time and energy in their studies? Don't forget to put your name and e-mail address after your idea if it's OK for other faculty to contact you with questions.

[You can extend classroom discussion by using Blaclboard's Discussion Forum. Make sure you give explicit directions for posting and take some class time to demonstrate how to use the forum. Also, limit students' response time to the time between classes and grade postings with a criterion based rubric. Stephanie Ferriola sferriola@neit.edu]
[When students are assigned to teach a lesson using PowerPoint, there is a lot of student "time on task." They need to teach themselves before they can teach the rest of the class. Research needs to be done. What begins as a simple PP presentation, as the semester progresses, the students learn to add special effects, music, images, etc. to enhance their presentations. This, as all instructors know, takes quite a bit of "time on task." anita.acklin@tri-c.edu]
[I think the emphasis ought be placed on increased learning efficiency - rather than increasing "time on task". In this regard, the campus Library Reserve Desk, and to a considerable extent - the use of the Library stacks, has been almost entirely replaced by the use of electronic reserves, digital media, and the use of streaming digital video materials, accessed through online course web sites.]
[By decreaing the number of projects/assignments and making them more complex the students increase the depth of their experiences. Require the project to incorporate one new technology never used before.]
[Making assignments relative to their work environment. Having interactive narrated PowerPoints. Have students view a narrated ppt, stop and journal or write out responses, then view more slides, journal, etc. Another way is to get students to interact in groups on the discussion boards and share experiences.]

The sixth principle is "communicates high expectations.' "High expectations are important for everyone -- for the poorly prepared, for those unwilling to exert themselves, and for the bright and well motivated." Expectations are communicated not only by what students hear you say but also by the nature of assignments.

In what ways has technology been used in your courses or at your institution that, directly or indirectly, communicated high expectations to all your students? Don't forget to put your name and e-mail address after your idea if it's OK for other faculty to contact you with questions.

[Use the Gradebook function of Blackboard to post students' grades. Students can monitor their progress and get a better idea of how much more time and in what areas they need to focus their study. Stephanie Ferriola sferriola@neit.edu]
[Though it is customary in college level classes to tackle more abstract and critical thinking projects,and Dev/Ed English students may not begin with the necessary grammatical fundamental skills, this should not preclude them from developing these much-needed skills using subjects and themes that are of college level. Instead of performing simple worksheet tasks to learn the parts of speech, sentence structures etc., Dev/Ed students are capable of producing thoughtful responses and intelligent solutions to current events, for instance, while learning what they need to know (grammar, syntax) in that context. I have found that by challenging them with matters concerning ethics, beliefs, politics, current events etc., they have much to say, and appreciate the opportunity to express themselves. Though they may not always be well-informed on an issue, they are enthusiastic about using the Internet (preceded by a class on recognizing credible information on the web), to find out more on the subject. Asking traditionally aged college students as well as older students to work on simple sentences is often a demeaning experience for them. I believe in treating them as adults and assigning challenging work that is befitting of their age, experience, etc., regardless of their initial lack of fundamental writing skills. One can learn subjects, verbs, adjectives, etc. from reading and writing about presidential preferences, globalization, etc. - which elicits much more engagement on the part of the students than learning by completing simple "grade-school" worksheets. anita.acklin@tri-c.edu]
[Organic chemistry instructors have used molecular modeling software to give students a taste for the type of research carried out by major pharmaceutical houses. Art instructors use collections of original artwork such as ArtStore, to permit students access and use of high resolution images of artwork intheir reports and projects.]
[The projects students complete for the class are "authentic", they are made available publicly.]
[Posting examples of past student projects/assignments (withough names on them) that were poor and having students as a group review them and discuss them. Posting high quality examples of past student work.]

The seventh (and last!) principle is 'respecting diverse talents and ways of learning.' Students are different from one another. In different ways, each of them needs "the opportunity to show their talents and learn in ways that work for them. Then they can be pushed to learning in new ways that do not come so easily.

In what ways has technology been used in your courses or at your institution that, directly or indirectly, help all students learn despite their differences and/or in ways that take advantage of their differences? Don't forget to put your name and e-mail address after your idea if it's OK for other faculty to contact you with questions.

[test]
[Give students choices in assignments. Have students do a multimedia presentation or design a web page instead of writing a paper.]
[Simply by dispensing with the single lecture format, and using audio, visual and tactile methods, students who learn differently are brought into the learning enviornment. When students teach a grammatical lesson using PP, as time passes, their presentations evolve into more complex technological productions, and their writing and reading skills develop simultaneously. anita.acklin@tri-c.edu]
[Course Management Systems and the availability of video editing and animation tools make it easier for instructors to offer students simulations, animations, video and audio content to engage various types of learners.]
[Making assignments more flexible to respect the diversity of students and their learning styles. By making technology tools available for students to use, showcasing how others have used them in the past, helps to encourage the students to be creative in their projects. For example; digital audio recorders, animation software (captivate), and digital still & video cameras.]
[Materials are posted in multiple formats. In an accounting course we assign readings, use narrated powerpoints that walk students through problem solution, post the powerpoint slides for printing or download and mp3 files containing just the audio. Other courses also used videotaped guest speakers that can share experiences. For student projects, allowing for creatvity in project presentations. Students can submit a web page, narrataed ppt, videotape, etc that shows their work.]

Additional Teaching Ideas Submitted Separately

Last semester at Cuyahoga Community College's Western Campus, our English class studied Waiting for Godot. Anyone who is familiar with the play knows that it is a very difficult drama for students to get their minds around.

This is how my students came to see how Beckett arrived at such a work:

I created a PPpresentation beginning with pre-WWI Europe. It begins with the gentle music of Claude Debussy, several slides of Impressionist art, and Oscar Wilde with one of his famous quotations, "Life is too important to be taken seriously." We talk about the softness of the music, the beauty of the art and the light comedy of Wilde's plays.

Then we arrive at World War I. The music abruptly changes to the atonal sound of Arnold Schoenberg, followed by a slide of the cover of T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland. To show the radical change in the art of the period, I present a painting by Hannah Hoch done in 1919 titled Cut With the Kitchen Knife Through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch; it is quite different in content than the art of the Impressionists.

After WWI there are slides of Picasso's 1937 Guernica, and the cover of Joyce's Finnegan's Wake. The students SEE through the art, and HEAR through the change in music how the world changed from before and after WWI. We continue through time with a photograph of Albert Einstein followed by a mushroom cloud; then we see Jean Paul Sartre holding a copy of No Exit.

The next slide is David Caspar Friedrich's Two Men Contemplating the Moon; which is the painting Samuel Beckett claims was his inspiration for "Godot." I then bring up three very stark, very solitary images from productions of "Godot" and conclude the presentation. Narrating throughout the slide presentation, I bring the students closer and closer to the time and zeitgeist in which Beckett wrote his play. When we begin reading Waiting for Godot, the students have a sense of its origins. In order to understand "Godot," they need to understand that art reflects life, that art is not created in a vacuum and that history, science, politics, music, literature are all woven together on some level.

Anita Acklin

Cuyahoga Community College

***************

At Cuyahoga Community College's West Campus we have a wonderful resource called The Crile Archives and Historical Center. The director is a retired history professor, Dr. James Banks.

When my college-age daughters were home during the summer, they had me listen to a half spoken/half sung poem by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd called When the Tigers Broke Free. The story behind the poem is that Waters' father died in WWII at the Anzio Bridgehead in Italy. Waters was three months old at the time. This poem/song was written for his father.

I knew that my fall English class would be reading the World War I poem by Wilfred Owens Dulce et Decorum Est. The idea came to me of combining both works to better engage the students. Then I thought of integrating some history with the poetry. I walked into the Crile Archives and Dr.Banks and I started talking. Dr. Banks then enlisted the help of our audio / visual production department and also offered to read Dulce Et Decorum Est for the video. The result was a DVD with a montage of clips and images from both wars; in fact, he was able to locate actual footage of Anzio Bridgehead. The students were initially engaged simply by being told Pink Floyd had something to do with what they were about to see. (I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but currently the music of choice on many campuses is actually from the sixties and seventies...retro)

The students asked to see the video no less than three times. They studied the poems, the figurative language, etc., and learned quite a bit about the history of the two World Wars. They also developed a PowerPoint presentation "explaining" Dulce et Decorum Est.

I am once again working with Dr. Banks to create series of classes on the Vietnam War and the May 4, 1970 Kent State tragedy. (Dr. Banks was a dorm director at KSU at the time.) I am researching for literature and poetry dealing with the era, the war and the May 4 event. This is a work in process. I have not determined the exact essay prompts I will offer the students to choose from, but this will be the topic for their final exam.

Anita Acklin

Cuyahoga Community College

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Takoma Park, Maryland 20912
Phone: 301.270.8312/Fax: 301.270.8110

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