Teaching in Higher Ed

Jonathan Malesic on finding meaning in our work.

Guest: Jonathan Malesic

What typically doesn’t show up on Jon’s bio: The Parking Lot Movie

I learned a lot working as a parking lot attendant. I think it’s made me a better worker and a better person. – Jonathan Malesic

Don’t search for “purpose.” You will fail. by Jonathan Malesic in The New Republic.

Find your purpose! pic.twitter.com/m3WKV2tWAa

— Jon Malesic (@JonMalesic) May 23, 2015

The best productivity tool we have as faculty is not a technology; it’s our personal self-investment in our work. It’s our commitment to students. It’s our commitment to research. It’s our commitment to our institutions. – Jonathan Malesic

We can be so committed to our work that we eventually start to hate it. We have identified ourselves so strongly with it that it becomes too much of  a burden for our work. – Jonathan Malesic

Students’ evaluation of us and student learning doesn’t necessarily match up very well with our evaluation of ourselves. – Jonathan Malesic

That’s still something worth hoping for… But, it’s important to tell students that [the center piece] isn’t always attainable. There’s a lot of meaning to be had in our work, even if we don’t hit that “sweet spot.” – Jonathan Malesic

Article: Job, career, vocation, life by Charles Matthews in Inside HigherEd

In the Name of Love, by Miya Tokumitsu

A Life Beyond Do What You Love, by Gordon Marino

No Time: How Did We Get so Busy?, by Elizabeth Kolbert

Peter Newbury joins me to talk about peer instruction and using clickers in the higher ed classroom.

The Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative

Achieving the most effective, evidence-based science education

The Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI) is a multi-year project at The University of British Columbia aimed at dramatically improving undergraduate science education.

The CWSEI helps departments take a four-step, scientific approach to teaching:

The Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative resources on general teaching, clickers, and peer instruction

Whether we are using physical devices, such as clickers, or we are using more of a bring your own device / smart phone /tablet option, it’s really just a tool.

“I certainly don’t want to say that in order to use peer instruction, you have to have this piece of technology. It’s not about the clicker.” #peerinstruction

“Peer instruction is not a shiny thing that comes with clickers. Clickers are one tool you can use to facilitate peer learning.”

Peer Instruction Fundamentals

How People Learn (free ebook) states that experts must:

More on peer instruction basics:

“The expert has the same content as the novice, but it’s organized [and more easily retrieved]…”

Bonni recommends:

Peter recommends:

Kevin Gannon shares ways how to respect our students in our teaching.

Guest: Kevin Gannon

Kevin shares the “behind the scenes” backdrop of the photo with the alligator (above and on his blog-about page).

Book mocking college students that Kevin mentions has been retitled, it appears.

Ignorance is Blitz: Mangled Moments of History from Actual College Students

Kevin quotes Maslow:

If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. – Abraham Maslow

Our students are our allies, not our adversaries in higher ed. – Kevin Gannon

Movie dance compilation video (mentioned by Bonni): Shut Up and Dance

I didn’t go to grad school to be the behavior police. – Kevin Gannon

Daniel Goleman – Social Intelligence

“Dear students” blogs on The Chronicle

Jesse Strommel’s response

Everyone that comes into even casual contact with Vitae’s “Dear Student” series is immediately tarnished by the same kind of anti-intellectual, uncompassionate, illogical nonsense currently threatening to take down the higher education system in the state of Wisconsin…

Giggling at the water cooler about students is one abhorrent thing.

Publishing that derisive giggling as “work” in a venue read by tens of thousands is quite another.

Of course, teachers need a safe place to vent. We all do. That safe place is not shared faculty offices, not the teacher’s lounge, not the library, not a local (public) watering hole. And it is certainly not on the pages of the Chronicle of Higher Education, especially in Vitae, the publication devoted to job seekers, including current students and future teachers. – Jesse Strommel

Kevin’s revised “Dear student” post:

Dear Student:

Faculty (a.k.a. former students)

Kevin’s Blog, including these posts:

Learner-Centered teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice, Maryellen Weimer

Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms, Stephen Brookfield and Stephen Preskill

(Bonni suggests/adds): Stephen Brookfield on Episode #015 of Teaching in Higher Ed

The Skillful Teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom, Stephen Brookfield

Sandie Morgan and Bonni Stachowiak talk about how vulnerability shows up in our teaching.

A former guest on Teaching in Higher Ed, Josh Eyler, gets me thinking about vulnerability in our teaching…

Guest: Sandie Morgan

Luke bringing me a broken egg yesterday.

What’s this, Mommy? What was inside, Mommy?

With vulnerability comes a lot of poop.

Josh Eyler talking about how vulnerable our students need to be on episode 16

Wrote a powerful post about his wife’s health challenges and his vulnerability this past semester.

And so, like Carl, we are working together to turn a new page, to imagine a new life for our family—one in which we do not ignore the reality of Kariann’s illness but at the same time do not let it define our future. This is much easier to say than it is to do. How do we begin then? We are trying to make each day as good as it can possibly be without thinking too much about the bigger picture just yet. From there, I think we just keep swimming. – Josh Eyler

Evernote chat (Bonni)

Countable app (Sandie)

Past guests and listeners celebrate significant learning from 50 episodes of Teaching in Higher Ed. Many also share their recommendations to the listening community, too.

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Dr. David Yates, Director

Cameron Hunt-McNabb on episode #24, shared how to cultivate creative assignments.

David mentioned:

Ken Bain on episode #36

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Christine

The biggest and best take away for me is the knowledge that I’m not alone in my efforts to actively engage students with activities/tasks/projects/problems during class. Thank you! Also, though I’ve used Remind for several years, I didn’t know the features of the app until you told me last night on my way to teach folks how to train their dogs!

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I am thoroughly enjoying your podcast episodes and have shared them with many of my colleagues already. I believe what I have taken away from the shows is your ease of describing the technology and pedagogical challenges, the show format with the notes and the wide variety of topics that are so pertinent to me and many of my colleagues.

I am just so thirsty for knowledge and application to help revitalize our faculty at the college and get them more excited about technology in education.

We are also very involved with the CA Online Education Initiative, piloting online tutoring at this time so this is also very timely to have come across your podcast series. You have a very unique, gentle and fun-loving attitude toward technology topics and with your guests.

I am in the process of developing a new course, Universal Design in Online Course Development, and was wondering if you would be, or have already covered universal design in one of your podcasts. I would also be interested in hearing more about instructional design. Although you may have already covered some of these topics, I will eventually hear them all.

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Missy McCormick

Missy mentioned:

Recalibrating our teaching with Aaron Daniel Annas (#45)

Amanda Bayer’s website: Diversifying Economic Quality: A wiki for instructors and departments

Recommended by Doug McKee on his blog post