Podcast Reflection

Overall, I kind of enjoyed making a podcast. It was nice to have a project that called for a degree of creativity, we don't have much of those in graduate school. I liked pursing songs trying to find an acceptable 15 seconds of lead in or lead out music and I got really into editing that audio in Garage Band. I felt somewhat comfortable using Garage band so I never really found myself wondering how to do something. The biggest roadblock I encountered was the script. I really struggled with picking a topic and I ended up switching it a few times, first...twitter, second...clickers and finally I ended on iPads after hearing my boyfriend talk about how much he likes his campus-provided device. Even after I had my topic, I really didn't know what to say or where to begin. I struggled with keeping an audience in mind, a lot of times it felt (and sounds) like I was just reading text off of a page instead of having a conversation or speaking with purpose. I had a similar experience with the screencast project so I wasn't really surprised.

Ever since I started listening to NPR's Radiolab, I have always planned on incorporating media like podcasts into my classroom but I had never really thought about having students make their own. I'm still leaning towards activities that have a visual component but perhaps I could give students the option of doing a podcast instead of a movie or poster.

Podcast Script

What is the contemporary issue?

iPads in the classroom

iPads have the capability to drastically change how students interact with material both     inside the classroom and at home. These tablets can impact how students are introduced with new content; they can encourage self-discovery and change the face of group work. Applications for these devices can make the student experience far more interactive and exciting than a traditional setting but there are some challenges associated with incorporating these devices. iPad minis are retailing for $300 and their larger companion, the iPad air is being sold for $500. That’s a high price tag for one student device. Now suppose iPads airs are being used in a class of 50, that’s $25,000. Clearly these devices are expensive, but students and teachers see potential.

Who are the stakeholders & how are they impacted?

-       Students:  Students would have the opportunity to use technology that they may not normally have access to, giving them the potential to be more engaged.

   When interviewed by MSUM Campus News, Matt Steiinborn, a School Psychology Graduate Student said he feels like campus-provided iPads made his classroom more efficient.

- Insert Sound Clip -

-         Instructors:  iPads could enable an instructor to be more creative with their course design, especially in the ways of instruction and assessment, and potentially improving the learning environment.

Ryan Jackson is a Music Industry Professor at Minnesota State   University Moorhead and his students were recently provided with iPads, creating what he calls a more efficient and communicative course.

- Insert Sound Clip -

-         Institutions:  An iPad for every student could mean a large expenditure on a campus budget.

-         Apple: Obviously Apple would benefit from institutions purchasing iPads for students.

Why does the issue matter?

If technologies like iPads can improve the student experience and student learning, it should be the responsibility of the institution and the instructors to investigate how they can get this resource into their classrooms.

What are my reactions?

It’s easy to see how iPads could improve teaching and learning in some disciplines, such as Music Industry, but other content areas might require more creativity to utilize this technology appropriately. I feel that if an instructor can demonstrate (with evidence) how an iPad could be used effectively in their course, they should be encouraged and assisted in their pursuit of resources.

How has your thinking about that question changed or evolved since your first post?

I don’t really think my thinking has changed, I came into this class pretty open to the idea of using technology in my future courses. I had already been brainstorming about how I would go about teaching my online course this summer and it was pretty evident that if I wanted to teach it well, I would have to get even more familiar with technology. I do, however, think that this course got me thinking more critically about how I will use technology and which tools will be the most appropriate for what I am trying to accomplish. Prior to this course, I would get excited about a new technology and start brainstorming how I could implement it without taking a moment to investigate comparable tools or even if its actually beneficial. This course has helped me see that there are many different routes to choose from after saying “Yes” to technology, but its important to really evaluate those different options while keeping both your students’ learning and your sanity in mind.

I’ve also been introduced to multiple resources that I envision using for years to come. For instance, Netvibes has come pretty close to scratching an itch I’ve had ever since Google Reader closed up shop. I’ve also started to value curating tools much more than I had before. That could in part be due to the added pressure of teaching my own course but I think it’s also a result of dissecting these tools and discussing potential applications with my classmates.

I still plan on using bright and flashy technology to excite my students about science (3D printed vessels, The Skin Gun, mind controlled helicopters, etc.) but I think I have a much better handle on how I will use technology to help my students “create”. I’ve also got a much more realistic yet expansive view on how I can use technology to assess students in various classroom settings.

Reflection on SWOT Analysis of Google Sites

In some ways, the SWOT analysis task was much easier than I was anticipating. For starters, I didn't really realize how easy it would be to fill up 5 minutes. Because of this time limit, I didn't really have time to go into the specifics of using Google Sites, making the task much easier to accomplish. Jing was easy to download and use, just a few clicks and your off and running. However, I did feel like the audio on Jing was of poor quality than Snagit. I used the same microphone and acoustics (my office) in both recordings but it really sounds like I have a lisp in Jing and that wasn't the case in Snagit. Perhaps I did a better job of enunciating in Snagit but I doubt that was the case.

One of the biggest challenges to the screencast was the time limit. I experienced this before in my professional development project and ultimately switched to the free trial of Snagit. I felt like was rushing through the SWOT items and I couldn't really give examples or rational for my decisions. This task also made me realize how many times I incorporate "um" into my dialog. I had never noticed it being an issue for me before but now I question that. As a result of these three challenges (my newly adopted lisp, time, and "um"s), I ended up doing about 12 takes. It wasn't too much of a time investment because they were only 5 minutes long but I'm still not 100% satisfied with the product I submitted. This seems like a vicious game that could keep me recording at my desk for days.

How to overcome what scares us about our online identities

• Faculty members are hesitant to have an online persona
• Things like professional websites and online journals have made a big impact in how scientists communicate with one another
• Creating and maintaining a digital identity can be time consuming, but there are many tools available to make it easier

 I'm left wondering what are the most appropriate and professional forms of an online identity. Also, we made websites in previous classes but at this point in my career, I don't feel like I really need one. Is that naive?

I can see how online identities could help me find and share my ideas for things like pedagogy and research. It also makes me much easier to find (which I think is a good thing?). I also think blogs could be utilized in my future classes. I might have students blog about how current events or news articles relate to physiology.

What enhanced E-books can do for for scholarly authors

• Faculty have the capability to create their own textbooks
• These textbooks can be much more dynamic than traditional textbooks as well as traditional E-books
• Authors can scale the content of these books up or down depending on the audience

I do get a little concerned that the content of these textbooks isn't checked. I wonder what sort of quality control is available.

This article really made me think of Anatomy lab. Students currently use a text that is created for NDSU students by and NDSU instructor. This is a traditional text. An enhanced E-book could be a huge improvement. Having a lab manual with rich, high quality images and interactive components seems like it could greatly improve the way students interact with that material. I also think its really cool that Apple has a free product available, so maybe this isn't too far off of a possibility.

3D Field trip

Today's field trip helped me see that technology like 3D printing is in our near future and we should be open to incorporating it into our curriculum. A curriculum that asks students to create personalized models seems much more possible after today. I still think 3D printing could be a great tool for teaching form-function relationships. I'm imagining a giving students a scenario involving an alien with a list of behaviors. Students could be asked to hypothesize the internal structural supports of the alien and draw them out. An instructor could then pick a select number of articulations to 3D print to demonstrate why they would or would not work. The Oculus Rift would also open a lot of doors in education. We had talked a little bit about using this technology to teach internal anatomy, I think this is a really powerful idea. Students have a hard time visualizing things in A&P, especially the concepts focused on small-scale physiology. I would be interested to see what this tool could do for teaching things like action potentials, capillary exchange and reflexes. I keep getting brought back to the television show "The Magic School Bus". In this cartoon series, students would board a bus that would shrink down to the size of typical molecules. The bus would travel through biologic processes and students would see things that are impossible to witness with the naked eye or even a microscope. The Oculus Rift software could recreate this interactive experience for college students. This technology could also result in physiology games that are far more innovative than any current game being used.

Learning Catalytics

What are your initial reactions to the learning catalytics tool?
I was impressed at how much real-time interaction can come from using learning catalytics. I really liked the reaction graph that allowed students to communicate when they were feeling lost. I must also admit that I wish the tutorial used better questions to demonstrate the utility of this tool. I imagine it's capable of more than this tutorial leads on.


What are the similarities and differences between traditional clickers and the learning catalytics tool?Both clickers and learning catalytics allow instructors to assess students and get results in a matter of seconds. This allows an instructor to provide feedback far quicker than a traditional pen and paper assessment. In both forms, this data can provide information about individual students which could result in targeted, specific feedback. Both tools could also be utilized for an early warning system and monitoring attendance. Learning catalytics seems to offer more flexibility in the types of questions an instructor can ask. As demonstrated by the tutorial, students can do more than type in a response, they can interact with the questions.



Would you consider using learning catalytics? How likely are you to use it in the future?
I could imagine myself using a learning catalytics tool to facilitate regular formative assessment. It seems like this tool would be useful in a large lecture course like A&P. Maybe this would be a way to execute reading quizzes. I would be interested to see how this technology evolves, perhaps allowing students to create their own visual models or participate in an educational game.

Social Media

I feel like I didn't do as good of a job promoting the use of social media in the classroom as I would have liked. I had the mindset that I could change the views of an individual who was opposed to social media. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I failed to meet this goal I set for myself. However, I'm now aware that this goal wasn't really an achievable one. I made the assumption that because we are a group of future educators well aware of the benefits of active, student-centered learning,  we would all be receptive and eager to try any and all learning tools. We may be a cohort of future educators focused on improving student learning, but we, as individuals, still have preferences and opinions. The idea that every student-centered instructor would be open to trying new pedagogy is a lofty and unreasonable expectation. Until there is ample evidence to support new practices, I would have to agree that some degree of aversion to said practice is understandable. I also thought about how I would have to improve my "pitch" for social media for a group of faculty members who are less familiar with and involved in STEM Ed research. If I can't get a STEM Ed researcher to get on board with a new technique, how will I help a more traditional instructor see the utility? Maybe those instructors already using social media in their personal lives would get on board, but what about those instructors who haven't the slightest idea of what tweet is? I would start to approach this problem by making a good example out of my own use of social media in the classroom. Demonstrating its value in my course might help my peers get more comfortable with the idea.

Learning Analytics

• What are your thoughts/reactions to this implementation of the specific important development?The ideas presented in the reading seem to be appropriate for any and all online course. They're potential benefits are relatively straight forward and it's easy to see how many of the items mentioned can improve student learning through a LMS. I've heard of many of these suggestions before, like promoting student interaction and motoring student engagement, but I hadn't really thought of some of them before, such as implementing a progress bar and monitoring how often they view instructor feedback.
  
  
• What aspects of this implementation could you replicate in your future teaching? What aspects of this implementation would you alter or revise for your future teaching? I would dare to say that most instructors, my future-self included, wouldn't be outwardly opposed to the suggested applications of learning analytics, I think the problem is more so in the presumed time it takes to execute these tools and a lack of familiarity with these tools. Obviously the LMS itself would play a big role when deciding what types of learning analytics you would use in your course and I think most faculty that I interact with are unfamiliar with what Blackboard can really bring to the table, especially in an online or blended course. I think I would be on board with most of the examples provided in the reading but I'm not fully aware how to implement/gather this information on Blackboard, such is the case with many faculty. For example, I have heard of "Early Warning Systems" and I'm somewhat familiar with how that looks in Blackboard but prior to starting my course I will still be seeking out information on how to utilize this and most of what Blackboard has to offer in way learning analytics.

Games and Gamification

• What are your thoughts/reactions to this implementation of the specific important development?
  I was impressed with how far Lee Sheldon took gaming in his classroom. My previous experience with gaming and gaming literature is usually centered around one or two activities embedded within the curriculum. I haven't read much about gaming being present for the whole semester. I also wondered how students really reacted to the course using "experience points" instead of grades. It seems like these points are some sort of hybrid between a traditional point system and a contract grading system. I'd be interested to know more.
  
  
• What aspects of this implementation could you replicate in your future teaching? What aspects of this implementation would you alter or revise for your future teaching?
  I could see myself using something similar to the "zones" described here. I like the idea of grouping students into teams that will remain throughout the semester. These teams could serve as study partners as well as the semester-long groups for collaborative work.  I could imagine giving these teams case studies in which they'd compete to see who can appropriately diagnose the patient first. Perhaps the most efficient teams could be rewarded with dropping an assignment or with extra credit. I also liked the "farming for errors" idea but I think I would have to tread lightly with this activity. I would want the students to talk about the questionable validity of selected statements and decide as a group instead of individually prior to submitting them to me.

Flipped Classrooms

• What are your thoughts/reactions to this implementation of the specific important development?
  I thought it was interesting that the instructor thought it would be a somewhat natural transition, recognizing that their students had already begun to outsource information. This resignation with me since I hear examples of this all of the time, Grey's Anatomy, viral Facebook videos, health related Twitter posts. I was also impressed at how the instructor seemed to be very willing to accommodate their students and meet them in their preferred platform. She acknowledged that she was uncomfortable with a lot of the technology students were using but was ready to change the curriculum to allow for the adoption of new devices/technology with the hopes of increasing student learning. 
  
  
• What aspects of this implementation could you replicate in your future teaching?I plan to use instructional videos in my online course this summer, perhaps I can use them to facilitate a flipped classroom in future semesters, maximizing the utility of the videos. I also plan to use Twitter. Also, I think the scaffold approach to student driven learning could be very helpful when trying to create a flipped setting
  
  
• What aspects of this implementation would you alter or revise for your future teaching?
  I could see myself utilizing everything addressed in the article. However, I would add more to the "outside of class" portion than just the video lectures. I'm not sure what it would look like yet, but I hope I could think of more creative ways to expose students to new information.

How will the "Key Trends" impact my teaching?

Social media

• I will definitely be using social media in my courses, the extent, however, is still undecided. I really like the idea of groups communicating with one another in a readily used social media format like Facebook. I would have to really be thoughtful of how I would execute this, especially after hearing some of the concerns that we raised in class. At a minimum, I will promote Twitter and encourage students to see it's educational value.
• In preparation, I'm thinking about creating a professional Twitter account that I'd feel comfortable informing students about. I will also begin to identify other Twitter users that I would feel comfortable pointing my students to.

Online/hybrid/collaborative learning

• Online learning is in my very near future as I will be teaching an online course this summer. I would say that I've always been pretty open to the idea of online education, I've taken courses as an undergrad and assisted with courses in previous semesters. There has been a little inquiry regarding what a hybrid and/or collaborative approach to A&P might look like so I would agree that these scenarios are not unlikely for me. When creating my course, I plan to utilize the Blackboard Exemplary Course rubric, Mayer's EBP for multimedia design and Backward design as well as instructional videos. I will also consider using one of the online platforms supported by a textbook company such as Mastering by Pearson. 
• I have started to formulate how I will construct this videos and I have started to think critically about what assessment will look like in my course this summer.

Data-driven learning

•  I've started to think a lot more about data-driven learning in light of my role in the Gateway to Completion Committee. I'm still not as comfortable with some of the data points/predictors we discussed in class, high school GPA for example, but perhaps this is because I'm not too interested in teaching a traditional introductory course. Recently I've seen data that is valuable in conversations regarding prerequisites and course requirements. These data points also support the claims we have been making anecdotally and I've started to think a little differently about how I approach students based on these predictors.
• I would be interested in gathering more data about the students who take A&P and the conditions in which they take it. Perhaps I could start a conversation and potentially investigate all the different variables we constantly hypothesize about.

Students-as-creators 

• This trend seems like it would be the most difficult to tailor to the courses I'd be interested in teaching but as I mentioned in class, I do have a few ideas about how I could implement this. I've spent a considerable amount of time investigating how students think about structure/function relationships but a lot of that time has been focused on static visualizations and open-response assessment. I'm interested in seeing how the construction of dynamic models could affect the way students think about structure/function relationships. I'd also be interested in seeing if the construction of one type of relationship affects a students ability to recognize other relationships. By implementing these construction activities, I could also be able to incorporate more collaborative work and a new type problem solving into my curriculum.
• I think my first step would be a pilot study using the knee joint. I'd also start by diving into a whole new body of literature and familiarizing myself with how students have been able to create in previous A&P classrooms. In addition to the beginnings of a literature review, I'm hoping this reading would uncover new ideas for my classroom.

PLE and PLN

1. What are the similarities and differences between a PLE and a PLN?
   It seems that a PLN relies on other individuals being involved in the originators learning. A PLN can be a part of an overall PLE. Both are directed by the learner but a PLE can be created and maintained without any person-to-person contact, relying on other resources.
   
2. Who are the assets in your current PLN?
   STEM faculty would play a huge role in my PLN as would the STEM students. For the most part, I have a say in how much or how little I interact with those individuals, I also seek out guidance from those individuals who I feel can greatly impact my learning.
   
3. How have you previously kept track of your PLN?
   I don't think I have had any formal method of maintain my PLN. Maybe declairing my committee?
   
4. How could you formalize your PLN in a PLE?
   I could start by following those individuals in tools associated with the 4 C's (i.e. twitter, diigo, blogs, etc.)

Rise of data-driven learning and assessment

1. What is the 'Moneyball' phenomenon in sports, and how is data-driven learning similar?
   I believe that the 'Moneyball' phenomena is an approach where all players actions are quantified and seen as data points. These data points then inform decisions in terms of risk, reward and value. Decisions made in drafts, trades, lineups, etc. are made by analyzing the data.  In the classroom (face-to-face or online) the student actions are seen as data points. Things like peer discussion, assessments and problem solving serve as data points to inform an instructor (or institution) about potential outcomes when combined with final student outcomes. Instructors can use analytic to ensure students are on the path of most potential.
2. How can data-driven learning be used for Benjamin Bloom's two-sigma problem?
   Data-driven learning can personalize learning and instructors can be informed of the learning progression of each individual student, closing the gap between traditional instruction and one on one instruction.
   
3. What are potential complications for data-driven learning in regards to FERPA?
   Data from previous students is important for predicting the success of current students. Without taking privacy precautions, the privacy of past students could be at risk.

Integration of online, hybrid and collaborative learning

1. What do you feel are the benefits of online instruction?
   Like the author said, online learning offers students a lot of flexibility in when they will learn, as well as where. I recievied a Psychology minor through primarly online courses. I would have never had the time to fit these classes in to my school and work schedules but the online delivery made it possible for me to work on these courses during my free time, AKA nights and weekends. I also suspect that for some students, online interecations are less stressful and intimidating than face-to-face interactions. Perhaps this means that some students communicate more with instructors and other students in an online setting compared to a traditional face-to-face.
   Of face-to-face instruction?
   Anactodoally I would say that it's easier for instructors and students to receive more informal, real time feedback in a face-to-face setting. Face-to-face instruction is also a more natural fit for hands on instruction and lab courses.
   
   
2. Limitations of online?I would say that online education expects the students to be more proactive. Since a majority of course inforamtion comes the them in the ways of email and Blackboard, they need to be actively using those resources to stay informed and up to date. As I mentioned above, its more difficult to do hands-on instruction in an online format and feedback is conveied a little differently in an online course.
   Limitations of face-to-face?Most face-to-face instruction has to happen in at X University, in Classroom X, at X:XXpm. It limits what students can take the course due to its predetermined time and setting. Face-to-face instruction can also be more expensive due to the high number of resources it demands (buildings, desks, heating, lights, maintenance, parking enforcement, etc.)
   
   
3. Do you believe that "blended learning" actually presents the best of both types of instruction?
   I do. I could see myself using a blended approach for my future courses. The online portion might house a majority of the factual/memorable content (for instance, the anatomy materiel) and the face-to-face time might be spent on diagramming the more dynamic concepts (physiology). The online portion would also be able to house resources to reinforce the content covered in class.

Shift from students as consumers to students as creators

1. Benefits and drawbacks of "makerspaces"
Makerspaces could increase motivation and be really engaging for the students to participate in. These activities would be very interactive and it would reduce the likelihood that a student could take a "passive" role in the learning process. They also have some grounding in education theory, that being Constructivism (shout out to Dr. Boyer for planting this thought in my head).

One draw back of this approach could be the logistic limitations of available space, time, materials, and instructor resources. I imagine it would also be difficult to use this approach in an online form

2. How are "makerspaces" being used in education? How have you used "makerspaces"? 
From the article, I gather that "makerspaces" are used in informal education (and probably in formal education) to have students construct something while learning. I think this might be things like making biomes while receiving instruction about carbon cycles. I've never used this approach before.

3. How could you incorporate "making" into your future teaching?
Last semester I thought about having some of my students construct "knees" using soda bottles and rubber bands in they hopes it would help them understand how ligaments work. They really struggled to visualize how the joint functioned so I thought they would benefit from being able to manipulate a model of that concept. I struggled with the construction of my own model and never actually did it with my students. It would be nice to be able to build moveable models for some physiology concepts but like this article mentioned, I really struggle with the DIY construction part. Maybe I'll get lucky and a board filled with them will pop up on Pinterest.

NMC Horizon Report

Key Trends:

            1. Rise of Data-Driven Learning and Assessment

            2. Integration of Online, Hybrid, and Collaborative Learning

            3. Shift from Students as Consumers to Students as Creators

            4. Growing Ubiquity of Social Media

            5. Evolution of Online Learning

            6. Agile Approaches to Change

Significant Challenges:

            1. Relative Lack of Rewards for Teaching

            2. Scaling Teaching Innovations 

 

            3. Keeping Education Relevant

            4. Low Digital Fluency of Faculty

            5. Expanding Access

            6. Competition from New Models of Education

Important Developments:

            1. Flipped Classroom

            2. 3D Printing 

            3. Games and Gamification

            4. Learning Analytics 

            5. Virtual Assistants

            6. Quantified Self

Blogging on Blogs

Nate

• Questions: From the author's statement of "registered users" I thought there would be some students taking this course for college credit.  I also assumed the creators of the MOOC would have some way to regulate the comments being made, by regulate, I mean delete if necessary. The courses in question, "Forums for a Future" and "Arts and Humanities: What Does It Mean To Live Well?", seem like they have the potential to bring up some potentially controversial topics and although an exciting discussion could be informative, it would need to be moderated. 
• Nate's Future Teaching: I've never experienced an educational application of reddit but with proper guidance, I can see how it would be helpful in fostering student-to-student communication.
• My Future Teaching: While reading this article, I kept thinking about how generous these instructors were. They were willing to offer up their course, without direct compensation, to as many people who were interested. Yes, they were getting paid to teach the "registered" users but I imagine their would be a significant amount of time spent reading and giving feedback to those students who took it out of their own interest. I can't say if I'd ever be able or willing to offer something like this to the general public, but it is something to admire. 

Jon

• Question: Maybe this would mean longer hours of operation for computer clusters or fewer assignments scheduled over weekends to ensure students had ample opportunity to complete their assignments. I also wondered how this would affect coffee shops and other establishments offering fee internet to their patrons.
• Our Future Teaching: I liked Jon's statement regarding how this loss of net neutrality would make the differences of financial states of our students more extreme. Instructors already have to keep cost top of mind when assigning required course materials, this would make that cost even more extreme. I would hope that students would be offered some sort of additional financial aid to meet the monetary demands of accessing valuable sites in the event this does occur. 

Jessie

• Question: I think your concern about the capacity of an automated computer software to help students develop necessary skills is valid. When I read this, I too was wonder what that would look like and how it could give meaningful feedback to each student. Students make different error and have different levels of proficiency in all areas of a course. How can software be created to address each and every possible issue? Or maybe there would a more standardized form of feedback for those misconceptions or errors we might predict and then the more obscure problems would be dealt with by the actual course instructor. Maybe seeing this in real time would make us believers, maybe.
• Our Future Teaching: Again, I agree with your points Jesse. I would say MOOCs are still relatively new in the grand scheme of education and the long term effects are still TBD. With more evidence (I admit I'm not well versed in the world of MOOCs so maybe it's already out there) I might have stronger feelings either way. I can say that from my own experience with MOOCs, they do require amply motivation to succeed, not unlike traditional instruction.

Technology Blogger

I choose to follow Danielle N. Lee. Danielle is a behavioral ecologist who uses technology and media to connect with learners. She is an award winning blogger that focuses on science and technology. The purpose of one of Danielle's blogs is to make science more approachable by explaining concepts through hip hop songs.

I had an interest in Danielle because of her "youthful" approach to informing the public about science. Based on her acknowledgements and awards, she also seems to do it quite well. I was especially sold on her use of hip hop to reach out to her nearby urban population.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/urban-scientist/about.php?author=20

Exactly How Many Students Take Online Courses?

Main points:

• Prior to 2012, the Babson Research Group was the leading source of information on online student demographics.
• In 2012, the Education Department started requiring colleges and universities to report out on their online student population.
• In 2012, 5.5 million students took at least one online course.

Further questions:

• I'm quite surprised that this information about online learners wasn't really of interest at a national level until 2012. Why weren't we interested until now?
• What does NDSU's online population look like?

 
Teaching implications:


I was quite taken aback by the number of students reported to be taking part in online education. In 2002, the Babson group reported that 1.6 million students (which the blog suggests is an overestimate) were formally learning online.  In ten years almost 4 million people caught the online learning bug. What does that mean for the future of post-secondary education? We know that instructors are, for the most part, lacking any real training in how to teach by using evidence-based pedagogy in the face-to-face classroom, I imagine they receive far less for the online classroom. Due to the rise in the online student population, both in the past ten years and the predicted future, I would hope that we, as a community, see an increase in online education research and resulting evidence driven pedagogy.

Exactly How Many Students Take Online Courses?
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/exactly-how-many-students-take-online-courses/49455

Fortune favors the bold (and the italicized): Effects of disfluency on educational outcomes

Main points:

• Disfluency increases retention. This increase is observed over an array of subjects and difficulty levels.
  
  

Still unclear: 

I haven't had much experience with Z-scores and am unsure how they are calculated. The authors state their rational for this conversion, to provide a common metric for comparison across different courses, but its still unclear why that was necessary. Perhaps the courses at this high school used different scales to assign letter grades but why wouldn't the percent correct on the exams still correlate?

I also wonder what types of questions the exams were comprised of. The authors seem to think they only measured memorized concepts. I imagine this is an accurate reflection of the assessments but I was surprised to see there was no further discussion of exams used, especially since it was surveying a number of different courses and subjects.


Further questions:

• So disfluency increases retention of memorized concepts... but how does it affect deep, meaningful learning?  
• How much disfluency is too much? The protocol here was 60% of the presented text. What would the affects be if 75% of the text was disfluent? How about 40%?
  

Teaching implications:

As much as I wish it wasn't so, I really feel that some concepts in human anatomy and physiology, or any course for that matter, can be sufficiently mastered by memorization. For instance, when my students are learning about the ankle and wrist, I'm completely fine with them memorizing the names of the articulating carpals and tarsals prior to a discussion of joint physiology. Often times we make lists of the names/terms we want our students to memorize and provide them as a study tool. I could envision that this article could change how I create those lists.

Cognitive control in media multitaskers

Main points:

• An individual's prior interaction with varying amounts of media affects how they interact and process information.
• Individuals who have a regularly high media intake have a more difficult time directing their attention than those individuals who use media less often.

Still unclear:

My most burning question after reading this article addresses the potential impact of attention disorders in this study. I acknowledge that learning disorders like ADD and ADHD are not often addressed in STEM Ed literature but the nature of this article and the content area it's housed in makes me feel like it's presence would be appropriate. This article is making claims about certain individuals being more "distract-able" than others, a trait that is thought to be present in those with diagnosed. The three tasks utilized in this study consisted (at a maximum) of 19 high media multitasker students. Green and Rabiner (2013) suggest that up to 13% of college students sampled (n=197) likely had the disorder. The small sample sizes used by Ophir and colleges could be reflective of a population who is innately more likely to be distracted.

I was also weary of the sorting of students as high and low media multitaskers. The survey threw out the media I would anecdotally say is most prevalent on college campuses, that being texting. Also, if the survey was presented to the students in a manor similar to it's presentation in the article, the results of other media forms might be misleading as well. With the ready access students have to technology, I think a better survey would have included the source of the media.

Further questions:

•  Does this evidence change what we originally gathered from the Mayer paper? There seems to be some overlap (i.e. limiting excess content) but I imagine that a multimedia lecture adhering to those 10 principles would not best support the HMM and LMM learners as made evident here. Who do you tailor it to?
• Were the three tasks presented here really getting at processing?
• According to this survey, I am most definitely a high media multitasker, should I do something about that? (The evidence here does not convince me to toss out my technology.)

Teaching implications:

I felt like this article is subtly suggesting that instructors should be more mindful of the type of media they use in the classroom and to what extent. Technology can be exciting, especially when you find something you feel aligns well with your learning objectives, but this article suggests that it might not always be beneficial. I'm left with the suggestion that bigger, rather "more" in this case, isn't always better.



Green and Rabiner (2011). Prevalence and Correlates of ADHD in College Students: A Comparison of Diagnostic Methods. Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology. Vol 3, No 1.

Applying the Science of Learning: Evidence Based Principles for the Design of Multimedia Instruction

Main points:

·      Multimedia instruction can and should be designed in accordance with education literature (theoretical and empirical).

·      The 10 principles of multimedia learning are the result of theory informed evidence and can be applied when designing multimedia instruction.

Still unlcear:

            I struggled with the amount of weight the authors put on the relationship between basic research and applied research. A lot of space was devoted to this argument and as a result, I feel like I only have a superficial grasp at the presented concept. I understand that research can be conducted in the frame of a learner and in the frame of instruction and I also understand that theory and pedagogy can be applied at different depths. But is this all that the authors are striving for? I also struggled with their definitions of learning objective and learning outcomes. We have been introduced to these terms multiple times and this explanation is minimal compared to other education literature. Explicit examples could have improved this area. I felt like the authors may have over simplified the evidence they brought forth to support their claims. I often had lingering questions about how they measured performance and I would have liked to see the retention and transfer tests explained better. I also wondered the amount of time students could have with the animations in question. Could they review them multiple times? Could some of the performance gains be attributed to time on task?

Further questions:

·      The animations attached to many of the textbooks I’ve seen often contradict many of the 10 principles identified here. It seems like this evidence could be convincing to a novice in the research world. Why haven’t mainstream biology textbook manufactures caught on?

·      Should “personalize” all of my A&P instruction?

Teaching application:

            I think the evidence presented here will be top of mind when I’m selecting animations or other resources to present to my students. I will be aware of how any media selected aligns with the 10 principles identified here. I think it also might affect how I personally present information to my students. For instance, I plan on recording lectures for my summer class and I planned on diagramming through the recorded lecture.  I imagine I would have made an effort to write/draw and then verbal explain due to anecdotal evidence.  After being introduced to the temporal contiguity principle, I will think about doing those two acts simultaneously.

Digital Autobiography

I can honestly say that 80% of the time I devoted to this project was spent on the ascetics of the autobiography. I spent time creating a background and layout that reflected who I am and my style as opposed to heavily textually representing myself, with which I struggled. I tried to keep my audience in mind when choosing what to include but that seemed to be even more problematic. I found myself asking "Do I really want my students to know that?" and often times the answer was no. As a result, I only included the bare-bone facts about myself that you could probably discover through a standard Google search, my hometown, my education, and my aspirations. I clearly need to work on how to professionally present myself in an online format.

I'm planning on teaching an online course this summer and I do plan on introducing myself to my students in some fashion, however, I'm not sure if it would be in this way. I found Gloggster awkward to use (I was even less impressed with Narrable) and I often thought about how much easier it would have been to create this through PowerPoint. I know that would have been much more limiting as far as the types of media I would be able to include, but I think it actually it would have allowed me to be much more original and creative.

What role should technology play for you and your students in a college classroom?

In my classroom, technology will be used as a tool to improve student learning. This is an incredibly broad goal and can take form in a variety of different ways. I will use technology to increase and improve student interaction with material covered in my course. This might mean making the material more accessible (ebooks, mobile compatibility, apps), more interesting and relevant (podcasts, social media) and more exciting (animations, interactive games).

It will also be an important part of assessing students understanding of course material. I imagine I will often be teaching large lecture courses and an efficient and quality assessment of a large student body will involve technology. For example, group work will rely heavily on students communicating and collaborating outside of class and technology will play a large role in that. Technology will provide me with usable data (clickers, personal response items) that will inform my curriculum decisions.