Category Archives: Class Discussion

Teacher Voice, Reading and Assessment?

I recently came across a statement in John Hattie and Gregory Yate’s Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn (2014) that resonated with me and shed some light on the perspective of teacher talk and its impact on student learning and assessment strategies. As Hattie and Yates (2014) state, “a great deal of information flows through teachers’ talk. But when a teacher exposes students to high levels of their talk, the students’ basis for knowing what is relevant or not can be undermined.” As teachers, how does a lecturing style of instruction or overuse of teacher talk negatively impact the learning and development of our students? We see it in our classrooms frequently, and we identify areas of concern for students who can’t seem to sit still or can’t seem to listen. But are our expectations reasonable, or even appropriate for the learning of our students? In turn, I’m wondering how this translates into online learning, and whether a reliance on reading texts and materials might have a similar impact on student focus and learning.

According to Hattie and Yates, studies into the characteristics of effective teachers have found that material is best suited to learning when explained in 5 to 7 minute bursts (2014). Mental focus drops off significantly after 10 minutes, and other information overload factors come into play, as students’ ability to listen and focus intensively (or to try and focus) literally runs out through biological exhaustion in accordance with glucose levels available to the brain. As students try and conserve these energies for upcoming tasks and trials in the school day, mind wandering or other inattentive behaviours become adaptive strategies for the conservation of their physical and biological resources for learning (Hattie & Yates 2014). If we are basing online learning around a “new” style of lecturing, whether that be through videos or reading, what effect will this have on student behaviour? Is it reasonable to base assessment strategies around these methods of instructional delivery?

With information processing and mental organization, our minds aim for simplicity, but the input through excessive teacher talk creates an implication of complexity. Creating opportunities for meaningful student discussion, enhanced with authentic student voice, can help support students through building opportunities to promote higher order thinking. By reducing, and refocusing, teacher involvement in these discussions, students can be guided towards deepening their knowledge and understanding while shifting teachers’ roles away from more traditional models, both in the classroom and in online learning environments.

References

Hattie, J. & Yates, G. (2014). Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Thoughts on Social Media

This week’s topic of Social Media and Learning was especially interesting for me because of the two key points in the module:

The educational system acts to “isolate students within the walls of an educational model” is based on pre-industrial revolution world, despite the fact that knowledge accessibility and notions of authority have and are continuing to change.
“Trying to build stronger walls to keep the digital world and its information flows out is not going to work”.

Social media is a part of today’s world, and in order to educate individuals for today’s world Social Media must be integrated into teaching and learning practices. Bryan Alexander, describes a number of ways, from social book-marking, collaborative writing, to RSS feeds, blogging, and wiki projects. that social media is being used in education (2006). The article How Twitter can be Used as a Powerful Educational Tool, explores how Twitter can be used in education (2012). There is no shortage of the (Web 2.0) numerous apps, and social media tools that educators are able to, sometimes quite creatively, apply to their learning outcomes.

In this chapter, Bates (2014) poses the question about what new learning outcomes could the use of social media help develop? There are a number of outcomes which require special attention when it comes to the use of social media:

Digital literacy – Students need to know how to access, create using information communication technologies (ITCs) and the Internet.
Critical thinking – Students need to be able to critically assess the merits of online media. They need to be able to quickly “filter” through large amounts of information to determine what is most valuable to them.
Content creators – As content creators, and re-mixers students need to be aware of copyright practices, digital tattoos, and any privacy concerns.

Bates also asks whether it would it be better just to add social media to the course or to re-design it around social media (2014)? This question is not so straightforward, as the nature of the learning content factors into how social media can be incorporated as well as practical considerations. Considerations such as the lack of high bandwidth internet connections, and lack of digital literacy in the incorporation of social media in course design. For example, it’s not reasonable to assign a video creation project for an online course, and then assess students in remote regions on the same criteria as students with more computer knowledge, experience and faster internet access.

As far as whether the course should incorporate social as an enhancement to the teaching, or whether the course should be designed around the use of Social Media really depends on the content and the course objects. In How Twitter can be Used as a Powerful Educational Tool, the geometry teacher was able use Twitter to engage students. The Khan Academy online videos can be used to better learn geometry. But these inclusions can replace traditional modes for teaching, where for example an instructor poses a question, or gives a lecture. A more extensive use of social media may work better for teaching a Communications or Political Science (Alexander, 2006) where much of the course assignments or learning can be in an online/social media environment where students can collaborate, share and re-mix existing information and media with more ease.

Works Cited

Alexander, B. (2006). Web 2.0: A new wave of innovation for teaching and learning? EDUCAUSE Review, 41(2), 34-44. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0621.pdf
Bates, T. (2014). Pedagogical differences between media: Social media. In Teaching in digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/9-5-5-social-media/ (Chapter 7, point 6)
November, A. (2012). How Twitter can be used as a powerful educational tool. November Learning [Weblog] Retrieved from http://novemberlearning.com/educational-resources-for-educators/teaching-and-learning-articles/how-twitter-can-be-used-as-a-powerful-educational-tool/

Social Media in the Corporate Context

It has been my experience that social media use in a professional context is very different than an educational context. Professionally, social media is used to network and develop business relationships. It is often also used to market a company or forward a brand. Educationally, social media is used to encourage collaboration, build digital literacy, and aid in knowledge management (Bates, 2014). The challenge I see in Professional Development is balancing professional and educational uses of social media. By that I mean, our learners would not want their professional social media feeds littered with educational content, yet they would likely enjoy using social media in our professional development programs. Realistically, I think learners would have to develop separate social media accounts for educational purposes (i.e. separate from their personal accounts/business accounts). We also have a social media policy which dictates what we are allowed to publically share and post related to the firm – making social media use a bit more complicated.

All that aside, I think social media would be a great tool to encourage learning and collaboration outside the formal classroom setting. Discussion forums or Twitter hashtags could help us keep our learners engaged and continue the conversation after a program ends. We are always encouraging our learners to take ownership of their professional development. I think incorporating social media would further this goal because learners would have to actively participate and drive course content. We have talked about creating an internally hosted learning blog. Perhaps we could encourage people to post on the blog as part of our live seminars (maybe even create our own tagging system).

I think social media integration must be considered when designing a program. You have to look at your program goals, content, and target audience and ask yourself, will this be beneficial? If the answer is yes, you should design the session with your social media strategy in mind. I don’t think that necessarily mean re-designing around social media but it must be thoughtfully incorporated – you cannot simply add it as an afterthought.

References

Bates, T. (2014). Pedagogical differences between media: Social media. In Teaching in digital age, Chapter 7. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/9-5-5-social-media/

Bedroom Selfies

My first foray into the concept of “digital footprint” happened in 2010 just after I got my school issued iPad. The school where I was working at the time had a cart of iPads. I was going through them one day deleting the masses of pictures on the camera rolls (I know, don’t even say it), when I came across a picture of my husband and myself sitting in our bedroom (clothes on). I had been showing him how to use an iPad to take a picture (remember this was 2010 the selfie wasn’t a phenom yet), and yet here we were on an iPad in the storage room of a school. Welcome to the Cloud! Our school district was just beginning what would be the largest deployment of iPads in NA, and there would be many kinks (like this one) to work out. I have always been very aware of the level of decorum expected from elementary school teachers by the Canadian public, so this “seeing myself” was a shocker.

Part of what we do in the two elementary schools I work, is guide students through the Digital Citizenship curriculum set out by MediaSmarts. However, digital citizenship isn’t so much checking off a box, as grooming a mindset of awareness.

Copyright is an issue that comes up all the time at school. Printing a picture off the internet, showing a movie (whether educational or not), photocopying the cover of a book for display were all occasions where strict copyright rules would forbid. I think part of the “fair dealing” push came from the arena of education, where the use of a picture wasn’t because someone was trying to claim the picture as their own, but that it perfectly showed what that person was trying to show their students.

Copyright also comes up during discussion at school for projects, where students are asked to cite sources, acknowledge photos, and reference background music (those conversations have to start somewhere).

Copyright also came up during a conversation with a Zumba instructor I met who was raised in Chile. She said copyright is never even thought about there, and it was quite an eye-opener for her upon coming to Canada to have to consider that in her selection of music, as well as knowing that part of her yearly membership fees (who knew there was a Zumba teacher association) was going to pay for use of music.

Introverted Socializing

The [only] advantage of having 4 meetings this week is that I get to learn much from my esteemed colleagues. (I think I am the last to post on this).

Hopefully the posted link will work. It is to a YouTube that conveys the flux caused by the interface of information and people. Much of this is also paralleled in the Bates (2014) article in his delineation of the features that make social media distinct.

The question of what new learning outcomes could the use of social media help develop could be more accurately stated, how has social media helped to bring to the surface and satisfy the real learning outcomes of those who are learning?

The traditional educational structure of top down information transfer is currently most evidently foiled (foil here means opposite) in learning constructs “mediumed” in social media where end users are empowered to access and change information. Bates (2014) cites the use of the term democratizing, with regard to the use of information.

In light of this, the question of would it be better just to add social media to the course or to re-design it around social media, would depend on the intents and purposes of those after that information. If they are in a top down structure, it will depend on who is on the top. If they are co-creators of information, then the end result will be up to those contributing.

However, I believe the intent of the original questions were to induct the strengths/weaknesses of social media in an educational context to our thinking, especially to one we are currently in. In order to be pedagogically useful Bates calls for a “middle ground,” where clear educational philosophy grounds and guides social media implementation. In the current K-7, Canadian/BC elementary school context [here meaning the schools where I work] , students are “using” social media only in the form of “being educated about the potential dangers of using it and creating a digital tattoo.” Tragic that the implied focus is that learners are passive receivers as opposed to active participants.

Bates, T. (2014). Pedagogical differences between media: Social media. In Teaching in digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/9-5-5-social-media/ (Chapter 7, point 6)

Esteves, J. (2016, 01, 18). Did You Know 2016 [YouTube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqZiIO0YI7Y

Social media in O&G?

I wasn’t entirely sure how to engage with this questions. The teaching I do is a little different. I don’t have a set class that I teach over a long period of time, at least not yet. My teaching comes in spurts. A lecture here, a small group session there, some bedside teaching, and in the operating room (OR). If I have to choose something that I do the most, it would be teaching in the OR. So, could I use social media to develop new learning outcomes in this setting? First thing I have to consider is the patient and issues surrounding confidentiality. And then I would need to consider the learning outcomes for my resident/fellow. The learning objective in the OR would be:

to understand the risks and pathophysiology that led to the condition for which we are operating
to understand the indications for this operation, as well as the alternatives
to understand the anatomy of the pelvis
to know the potential complications of this operation
to know the precautions needed to avoid potential complications
to know how to handle the complications should it arise
the steps of the operation and the reasons or function of the steps
routine postoperative care
any special considerations for the patient and their specific set of circumstances

I’m sure there’s more but I can’t think of them right now. So now the question is can social media help develop any of these learning outcomes? Are there any outcomes that would be better learned through social media than through the means we currently use (one on one teaching/Q&A)?

According to Bates, the affordances of social media are (2014):

connectivity and social rapport
collaborative information discovery and sharing
content creation
knowledge and information aggregation and content modification

Based on the above, I can think of a few areas that can be aided by social media, but not specific to the OR. The first is to gain patient perspective. There’s an interesting article I read that demonstrates a positive correlation between physician empathy and patient outcome; the greater the level of empathy, the better the patient outcome (Hojat et al., 2011). Based on these finding, building empathy by understanding the patient perspective is an important learning outcome, though I failed to mention it above. Social media is a great way to connect to people with similar conditions and gain their perspective. Unfortunately, time in clinic is short as are the moments leading up to an operation. These moments may not afford enough time to establish a rapport and gain their perspective. Time and place is not an issue for social media, making it advantageous in this instance.

Through connectivity, not only can you gain the patient perspectives but also communicate with experts in the field that were beyond our reach previously. Every residency program has a journal club where a paper from an academic journal is chosen, read, and critically appraised. I have heard of some places where they get the actual authors involved through Skype or twitter to ask them about the paper, clarifications, and justifications for their decisions during their research. This makes for greater, in-depth understanding of the paper, and a great learning experience. Webinars are another area that could be a useful learning tool for the resident. By participating, they have the opportunity to engage with experts beyond our institution.

But as Bates acknowledges, students need structured support (2011). I think my job as an educator is to facilitate these connections, and provide the residents with these opportunities, give them learning objectives, and set aside time for them to complete these objectives.

References

Bates, T. (2014). Pedagogical differences between media: Social media. In Teaching in digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/9-5-5-social-media/
Hojat, M., Louis, D. Z., Markham, F. W., Wender, R., Rabinowitz, C., Gonnella, J. S. (2011). Physicians’ empathy and clinical outcomes for diabetic patients. Academic Medicine Journal, 86, 359-364.

Social Media: Hopes and Fears

It is one thing to help prepare students for active participation in the current society, quite another to prepare them for future society; as mentioned in Wesch’s video A vision of Students Today (2007), we are preparing students for jobs that might not yet exist. As such, we can no longer content ourselves by ignoring today’s technology and confining knowledge and learning uniquely within classrooms and books; we must open the student’s horizons and ensure that they, not only, have the tools to become life-long learners but that they also know how to use the tools that are currently ubiquitous in our society.

The idea that learners are creators and consumers of content (Mabrito & Medley, 2008), not just passive recipients, beckons the need for adopting a path away from the confines of the “traditional” classroom. The incorporation of social media in classrooms can empower students (Bates, 2014) and allow them to interact in many manners with content, community and other students (Anderson, 2008a). The incorporation of social media can help students explore the subject matter (in my case science) in a more up-to date manner. They can see the relevance of what is being taught first hand, rendering the material covered more meaningful and memorable. There is value in mimicking the changes that social media has had in the sciences (and other courses); research groups collaborate, experiments and databases are shared and the extraordinary is brought into everyone’s home through the internet (e.g. Chris Hadfield tweeting from space or the robotic advancement of Bostondynamics). The greatest advantage that I can fathom from teaching with social media, if that it proves that science, and any subject taught therefore, is not confined to the classroom and dusty books, it is not boring and that the material covered has real life applications and implications. It proves that science (and knowledge in general) is happening now, and that the students can and will pay an active role in its development.

In spite of this overwhelming push to integrate social media in the classroom, it is difficult to judge the affordances and opportunities of a technology that I personally, in spite of being part of the N-generation (Mabrito & Medley, 2008), have had little experience with by choice. I believe that like all technologies, the course should be re-designed to incorporate it properly. To simply add it in my existing context might not truly open all the opportunities that this media can provide; to simply tack on social media might decrease its efficiency or relevance to the students. Obviously the purposes educators hope to achieve with social media will determine the amount and depth of the necessary re-designing. Redesigning is important for we need to take the time to properly learn and assess the technology if we hope to properly integrate it in our classrooms and model it to our students (November & Mull, 2012). We also need to consider re-designing the system to ensure that all stakeholders (administrators, students, parents, teachers, community) are on board with these changes (Mabrito & Medley, 2008).

Social media, as described in the articles, is described almost as the universal problem solver. Yet these are affordances only. Social media can give voice to anyone, somewhat adding to the potential chaos that can be found on the net. It is important to teach students how to decipher relevant and valid sources from the cries of the most boisterous. I cannot help but feel saddened and worried that we, as a society, are so anxious for change, for the new, that we often forget the past. We forget what brought us to this point, forget what we truly need in order to learn, to grow and to expand our horizons. I fear a world in which we believe that learning cannot occur without technology or is deemed of lower quality/lesser value if technology is not involved. I believe that there is still relevant knowledge that can be learned without technology, and that technology, although having great potential, is not the only answer.

References:

Anderson, T. (2008a). Towards a theory of online learning. Theory and practice of online learning, 2, 15-44.

Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in a digital age. Open Textbook.

Mabrito, M., & Medley, R. (2008). Why Professor Johnny can’t read: Understanding the Net Generation’s texts. Innovate: Journal of Online Education, 4(6), 2.

November, A., & Mull, B. (2012). How Twitter can be used as a powerful educational tool. Retrieved from http://novemberlearning.com/educational-resources-for-educators/teaching-and-learning-articles/how-twitter-can-be-used-as-a-powerful-educational-tool/

Wesch, M. (Producer). (2007). A Vision of Students Today. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

Challenges and Opportunities

For the Moodle course I am creating some major issues are:

the large number of adult students per class and only one online facilitator.
a wide range of student motivations. For example, some students are taking the course due to personal interests, whereas others are taking it as work-related professional development.

Often due to the lack of resources, non-credit adult education courses for professional development are often designed to be self-paced and without a facilitator or instructor. For example, think of the Human Resources or WHMIS courses organizations often require their employees to complete.

One of the goals for the course I am working on is for the learning to be based on constructivist principles, so that learners can share knowledge, and prepare them to access resources and become involved in the communities. Therefore, a facilitator is necessary to guide discourse, and provide expert input where required.

In order to focus attention to the integration of key concepts, rather than the memorization of knowledge, the course is designed to limit the instructor’s time with the rote knowledge. The use of frequent knowledge check-ins, thought-provoking questions, and weekly auto-graded quizzes will provide repetition, knowledge assessments, and feedback.

This will free up the facilitator’s time to focus on the discussions. The discussion questions are designed to capitalize on the wide knowledge base and experience of the learners.

Social Media in a Classroom

Bates (2014) states that social media’s main focus is to allow users to share and create information in a friendly open environment. I completely agree with his statement. Although I am an avid user and believer in using technology in my classroom, I have to admit that I am not using social media as a learning tool as much as I would like to. The article by November (2012) really opened up my eyes. Other than using Facebook, I was reluctant in signing up for another social media site. I thought to myself, “Do I want to have another way of occupying or wasting my time?” Well, after learning at the beginning of this course briefly that Twitter could have an advantage in engaging my students in the classroom, I said, “Well it won’t hurt to try.” I’m glad I did because Twitter is not just another waste of time, but actually a powerful learning tool that my kids would love to engage in.

Like Candy (1991) mentioned, many students come to class not as independent learners, but need support in learning how to use a certain tool (as cited in Bates, 2014). This is one task that us teachers need to be aware of. Even though many students have their own cellphone or iPad, they don’t necessarily have the skills to learn how Twitter can be used in an educational setting. When I try using Twitter out this summer for my English 11 class, I will make sure I teach my students just that.

There are many learning outcomes that social media can help develop in students. Bates (2014) said it best:

“digital literacy
independent and self-directed learning
collaborative learning
development of global citizens
networking and other inter-personal skills
knowledge management
decision-making”

All of these learning outcomes, according to the MYP IB curriculum that I use, will help develop the necessary skills for students in a global context. Many teachers use the curriculum handed to them to only teach certain concepts, but rarely the skills and ideas that students can use in everyday life.

The following poses an excellent question, “Would it be better just to add social media to the course or to re-design it around social media?” In my opinion, using social media is just another tool that educators can use in their classroom setting. I believe it would be better to add social media to a course, rather than re-design it around social media. I do not want to be restricted in my teaching practice to just use social media, as I like to incorporate different tools to engage my students.

Bates, T. (2014). Pedagogical differences between media: Social media. In Teaching in digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/9-5-5-social-media/ (Chapter 7, point 6)

November, A. (2012). How Twitter can be used as a powerful educational tool. November Learning. Retrieved from http://novemberlearning.com/educational-resources-for-educators/teaching-and-learning-articles/how-twitter-can-be-used-as-a-powerful-educational-tool/