Teaching in Higher Ed

Five faculty members share how they are spending their breaks and what recommendations they have for how to take a break…

Ten things to do instead of checking email, by Natalie Houston (guest on episode #034)

BusyContacts

David Allen on the Coaching in Higher Ed podcast

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Bonni Stachowiak shares about a few things she’s doing over Spring break to recharge. Spoiler alert: It is mostly all about getting caught up and staying caught up for me.

a) give assignments for students to work on over the break

Recharge, refresh for Spring break?

Leave a message at: 949-38-learn.

Recharge – Kindle Voyage

Please call 949-38-LEARN to record a message about your Spring break recommendations and / or ideas beyond what I spoke about on this episode.

Steve Wheeler joins me to share about Learning with ‘e’s…

Steve Wheeler

Bio

Learning with ‘e’s

If Web 1.0 was the ‘Write Web’ and Web 2.0 is the ‘Read/Write Web’, then Web 3.0 will be the ‘Read/Write/Collaborate Web’.

Mark Frensky – coined the phrases digital natives and digital immigrants in 2000 / 2001 – The Horizon

It’s not about age; it’s about context. -Steve Wheeler

Residents and visitors – coined by David S. White and Alison Le Cornu

Challenging to find a universal digital literacy tool

Every individual’s context is unique. -Steve Wheeler

I know what I need to do with the tools that are available to me and so do my students. -Steve Wheeler

We learn best when we are curious. We become curious when we don’t know the answer to something. And we don’t know the answer to something when we get challenged. Problem based learning is probably the most powerful method you could possibly use. -Steve Wheeler

Initially got interested in the backchannel chatter happening at a conference.

@stevewheeler account – started with that, though his more popular account to follow is…

@timbuckteeth – avatar – Dave, the astronaut on the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey

Twitter for me is probably for me the most powerful tool for communicating I’ve ever used. -Steve Wheeler

Lack persistence – You need to give it time.

[Twitter] is not about the content; it’s about the conversation. -Steve Wheeler

If [professors don’t blog], how else are they going to express themselves? -Steve Wheeler

Professors normally express themselves through closed, academic journals. The academic capital that most universities currently subscribe to… That’s going to change.

Why Steve knows that blogging is much more effective:

Wrote an article in 2005: wasn’t published for nearly three years; revised. 36 academic citations.

At the same time, wrote another article, sent it in to an open-access journal; five people instead of two… Not only did they publish it within six weeks. The way forward for disseminating… 550k views; Almost 1,000 citations.

Blogging. People are actually reading it. Could be much harsher in their criticism. Reflect on practice more deeply. 3,000 views in a day. Don’t know how he could possibly get that kind of exposure through traditional academic journals.

Audrey Watters on Teaching in Higher Ed podcast

Death of privacy – all surveilled; all followed; difficult to be a private citizen

The death of privacy has happened. It’s very difficult to be a private citizen these days. -Steve Wheeler

How the maker movement is moving into classrooms

Taupaki School in Aukland – principal of the school, Stephen Lethbridge (on Twitter)- primary plus school. 5-13… through making things. Papert’s Constructionist theories. Learning the curriculum subjects in a fun, challenging, exciting way.

Bonni recommends:

Doug McKee’s kids’ books recommendations

Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus

…partly about life, partly about revolution and lots about hope – for adults and others including caterpillars who can read.

Steve recommends:

Don’t Change the Light Bulbs: A compendium of expertise from the UK’s most switched-on educators

Tine Reimers helps us define the term critical thinking and truly start developing our students’ skills.

[GUEST ]

Tine Reimers

Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Specialist

Defining critical thinking (and the inherent challenges when we want to improve critical thinking in our students, without actually agreeing, collectively, on what we mean)

Different disciplines define critical thinking differently than each other

Difficulty in the concrete way in how to get students to think critically in the discipline-specific way that I’m trying to develop…

HANDOUT: Taxonomy of [some] critical thinking theories

* Developmental

* Learning styles / bio-neurological models of thought

* Categories of cognitive skills

* Processes of self (in culture and society)

Episode with stephenbrookfield/15

[Correction: I said I was listening to the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, but I meant that I was listening to the Inside Higher Ed podcast on competency-based programs]

Rabbit holes are a way of thinking… and we don’t give our students enough chances to do that type of thinking in foundational classes.

ARTICLE: First day questions for learner-centered classrooms, by Gary Smith, University of New Mexico

From Tine:

Ken Bain describes What the Best College Teachers Do…

Guest: Ken Bain

President, Best Teachers Institute, Ken Bain (Twitter: @kenbain1)

“Internationally recognized for his insights into teaching and learning and for a fifteen-year study of what the best educators do”

“His now classic book What the Best College Teachers Do. (Harvard University Press, 2004) won the 2004 Virginia and Warren Stone Prize for an outstanding book on education and society, and has been one of the top selling books on higher education. It has been translated into twelve languages and was the subject of an award-winning television documentary series in 2007.”

He was the founding director of four major teaching and learning centers.

Many will be familiar with What the Best College Teachers Do… If not, press stop, and get your hands on it.

What’s still the same, in the >10 years since the book was published?

“Ask engaging questions that spark people’s curiosity and fascination that people find intriguing…”

What’s changed, if anything?

[Good teaching] is about having students answer questions or solving problems that they find intriguing, interesting, or beautiful. (Ken Bain)

Learner isn’t in charge of the questions. Teacher can raise questions that the learner will never invent on their own.

Need to give learners the same kind of learning condition and environment that we expect as advanced learners.

[As an advanced learner, asking for input from colleagues]… I would expect an environment in which I would try, fail, receive feedback… and do that in advance of and separate from anybody’s judgment or anyone’s grading of my work. (Ken Bain)

Bonni’s introduction to business students are listening to the StartUp Podcast and making recommendations to the founders in the form of a business plan

The tone that you set in the classroom matters

We often teach as if we are God. (Craig Nelson)

Need to recognize the contingency in our own knowledge.

As advanced learners in our respective fields, we are interested in certain questions, because we were once interested in another question. (Ken Bain)

Another important study by Richard Light at Harvard asked: What are the qualities of those courses at Harvard that students find most intellectually rewarding?

When he published his initial results:

As a historian, could begin with: “What do you think it means to think like a good historian.” Think, pair, square, share… Would then have an article on hand that someone else had written on the topic. Ask them to look at that article to compare their own thinking with that.

Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence, and the Authority of Knowledge, by Kenneth Bruffee

What people are doing when they learn something is joining a community of knowledgeable peers. (Kenneth Bruffee)

Essential to this whole process is engagement

Harvard Professor: Eric Mazure, winner of the $500k Minerva Prize

Peer instruction

Think, pair, share (Bonni)

The girl who saved the king of Sweeden, by Jonas Jonason (Ken)

@kenbain1

bestteachersinstitute.org

kenbain [at] usa [dot] com