Archives: July, 2009

Now that I have your attention…

Lesley shared an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education that really makes you think. We know that putting computers in classrooms doesn’t always make for a better learning experience, but what about taking them out? What are the advantages of “teaching naked”?

Jeff Young’s July 20th article entitled When Computers Leave Classrooms, So Does Boredom tells of a dean who is so unimpressed with the poor use of technology in instruction that he removed all computers from classrooms to encourage faculty to think about how they spend that classroom time between the bells. If your next lesson is to be presented as a lecture with [dare I say it] a PowerPoint presentation, is why take up precious face-to-face class time to deliver it? Technology allows for the publication and pre-class consumption of that lecture using podcasts, video, and screencasting. Class time can them be used for more engaging learning experiences including group discussions, hands-on activities and other more collaborative learning opportunities.

I would never think to encourage the removal of technology from a classroom and that is not, really, the point. It is not about shunning the use of technology in teaching, it is about effective technology use in teaching. To quote an excellent related blog entry from academhack,

This is not a story about a luddite professor, but rather about a professor who has developed an effective way to use technology in education. In fact what Jose has done, is allowed technology to thoroughly change the way education happens, rather than just treat it as a supplemental, incremental change.

In David A. Sousa’s article Brain-Friendly Learning for Teachers in the free online June 2009 edition of Educational Leadership, he reviews what we know about how we learn and asserts that we may just want to consider this important information when we craft professional development courses for teachers. Imagine that. Simple exposure, a.k.a. “seat-time,” is not enough to enhance teacher effectiveness. They actually have to LEARN something!

Of course this is not news to us, but you wouldn’t know it, really, from looking at how professional development is created. Too often we plan or procure professional opportunities for teachers without consideration for adult learning theories, let alone brain research. The article makes a few important recommendations and explains why, neurologically, each should be considered if a professional development activity is to make a positive impact. You must read the article to understand why, but here are a few brain-friendly findings:

• Motivation is key, and teachers, like other adults, are usually motivated to learn things to build their skills. Activities that connect directly to job-related goals are more meaningful.
• Effective feedback — timely, specific and positive feedback — contributes to motivation.
• A positive learning situation, one in which the teacher is engaged and has ownership, is more likely to stimulate the part of the brain that allows for attention and retention of the skills or knowledge presented.
• Topics must be presented over enough time and in enough depth to allow for thorough understanding. Social and collaborative opportunities around the topic can help with implementation.

From what we’ve observed, it seems that the impact of professional development, the learning and application of learning, is often not even evaluated. If an evaluation is done, it is usually a post-workshop survey that focuses on the event rather than its impact, and the result may be that the workshop serving the best box lunch is most highly rated! While effective evaluation is more resource intensive, it needs to happen. Otherwise, how will we know we are making the best use of our professional development dollars?

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has identified 25 websites deemed “Best for Teaching and Learning.”
AASL provides a description of each of these free, user-friendly web-based resources, teaching tips for using them in the classroom, and alignment of each to Standards for 21st Century Learners. The Top 25 include tools and resources in:

• Organizing and Managing
• Content Collaboration
• Curriculum Sharing
• Media Sharing
• Virtual Environments
• Social Networking and Communication

The Top 25 Web sites for Teaching and Learning were named so because they foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation and collaboration. The Web sites honored include: Animoto; Classroom 2.0; Curriki; Diigo; Edublogs; Facebook; Good Reads; Google Reader; Mindmeister; Ning; Our Story; Partnership for 21st Century Skills; Polleverywhere; Primary Access; RezED; Second Life; Simply Box; Skype; SOS for Information Literacy; Teacher Tube; Twitter; VoiceThread; Wikispaces; Wordle; and Zoho.

Happened upon the January 2 issue of Science magazine** today and thought there was a great deal of interesting content there, especially in light of our interest in the use of online resources, the development of game-based learning, and the improvement of teaching in the STEM disciplines.

The Table of Contents from this issue provides easy access to the articles. Of particular interest is an article by Merrilea J. Mayo about the use of video games in STEM education, something she’s been in discussion with various researchers in North Carolina to get developed. There is also an article that discusses the potential and reality of teachers’ use of digital assets from the National Science Digital Library.

If you are interested in media other than print, start with the video introduction to this special issue, or the podcast of an interview with Chris Dede on immersive interfaces for engagement and learning.

**note** You may need to access this while on campus or use NC LIVE to gain access to this subscription-based resource.