Do-it-yourself lecture makeovers

Years ago when I first started teaching my idea of an engaging lecture was to bring blank overhead transparencies to class, and write on them while talking. I even mastered a David-Lettermanesque delivery to my lectures that got me a few laughs here and there…and served to fuel my enthusiasm for teaching. What I didn’t realize then is that I wasn’t a good lecturer…and that what I was delivering was far from engaging.

Lecture is an instructional approach used by many faculty...sometimes out of habit, lack of alternative models, or necessity (e.g., constraints of the physical space, limited in-class time, high number of students). We know stuff about our discipline, so it requires little effort for us to talk about that stuff. Although we have to prepare for class, the preparation is relatively easy when our plan is to lecture...again, because we know our stuff. But, who is doing all of the fruitful cognitive processing on the topic -- the person preparing the lecture, or the person listening to the lecture? So, the questions of the hour are -- regardless of the efficiency of lecture, does lecture really achieve what we want to achieve? Are students engaged, and are they processing and retaining what we are sharing with them?

It turns out that the answer is no. So, does this mean we need to stop lecturing, or are there ways to improve the lecture approach?

Seems to me that the more we can have students do something with the content -- as opposed to listen to us talk about the content -- the better. Therefore, embedding students-do-something-now strategies throughout a lecture is a good way to enhance the students' experience and opportunity to process and reflect on the content. Acknowledging that this is not an easy task in a traditional lecture hall (equipped with fixed stadium seating!) with 100+ students, here are a few examples of students-do-something-now strategies that may work regardless of the instructional constraints:

• Think-pair-share. This strategy involves (1) asking the students a question about the content; (2) giving students an opportunity to consider the question, study their notes and/or text; (3) confer with their neighbor regarding their answer to the question. There are many variations on this strategy, especially in terms of how to handle the "share" aspect. For example, a pair can join up with another pair to discuss the question; using Clickers, pairs can log their response (this is a nice option for providing the whole audience with instant feedback, and for giving you as the lecturing information that can help provide direction for the next part of the lecture.); and pairs can log their response and their names on to index cards, pass them to the front, and the lecturer can randomly select a few responses to share with the whole group. [Note: This approach also provides a jumping off place for the rest of the lecture, and the index cards with students' names can be used for student participation grading.]
  


• Interview. Instead of lecturing, I have had students interview me about the topic. I start this strategy by telling students that during the interview they must collect all of the information they need on the topic to fulfill the requirements for writing an essay, completing a project, or preparing for an exam. Then students -- in teams with an elected interviewer, in rows with the person in the front deemed the official interviewer -- work together to determine what 3-5 questions their group (team or row) needs to ask in order to achieve the objective. This strategy encourages students to reflect on what they already know, what they can find out via their text or other resource, and what they absolutely need to ask their professor. It also helps them construct good questions, and prioritize needs. [Note: I have previously described a related strategy, called Stump the Professor.]
  


• Point-counterpoint. One of the best lecture-enhancement strategies I've used is to invite a colleague to participate in a point-counterpoint discussion on a particular topic (often controversial), with the students as our audience. This strategy allows students to listen to two (or more, as with a panel) practitioners/experts discuss and debate issues related to the topic. It helps students recognize that there are differing perspectives on the issues, and to see how colleagues grapple with those differing perspectives.
  


• Fishbowl. Another strategy that has worked well for me is to select different groups of students to participate with me in a small group discussion, with the rest of the students listening. I form these student groups ahead of time so I can keep track of who has participated, and make sure that I invite everyone in the audience to participate at least once.
  


• Value-added. I avoid lecturing on the same content the students have available to them via the textbook, article packet, or other set of resources. If I lecture on the same content they have available to them elsewhere they learn very quickly to either (a) not bother reading the text, or (b) not bother attending the lecture. As an expert in the domain, I have something unique to offer -- my take on the topic at hand, and my stories about how it plays out in practice. I want students to see the value in both the readings and what I have to share, so I avoid replication.
  


• Making it relevant, Part 1. As often as possible, instead of lecturing in the conventional way, I tell stories or describe cases that illustrate the points I want students to consider. This strategy helps students process the content in a more contextually meaningful way, helping students see how the content is relevant to the working world.
  


• Making it relevant, Part 2. It helps students engage in a lecture if they understand how the lecture content is related to (a) their professional preparation (i.e., what they will be doing on-the-job), and (b) how they are assessed in the course. I remind students at the beginning, middle, and end of a lecture how the content is related to both their professional work and/or the current assignment they are completing for the course. I then reinforce those relationships by incorporating them into my assessment of the assignment. For example, when I ask students to provide design documentation for an instructional product they have created, I require them to cite not only their readings but the lectures and class discussions as well. [Note: Related, I occasionally use the one-minute paper or quiz strategy, informing students at the start of the lecture that at the end of the class I will ask them to submit a one-minute paper or quiz. Knowing that this is coming encourages students to attend to the lecture and take useful notes.]
  


• Making it relevant, Part 3. My courses are very project-oriented. Therefore, a strategy I have found very helpful is to focus my lecture content on issues directly relevant to the students' ability to fulfill the project requirements.
  


• "Give me a break"...i.e., a pause in the action. This is a simple strategy to implement during a lecture. I allow students time throughout a lecture to summarize what I've shared, clean up their notes, ask for clarification from neighbors, and -- in general -- process and reflect on the content. After the pause in the action, I ask for questions -- often, after time to reflect on the lecture, a few students will find they have a gap in their notes and will ask me a follow-up question. I have found that giving students time to summarize the lecture thus far, in their own words, allows them the time and space to do the same sort of fruitful cognitive processing that I've done in preparing the lecture. If I don't give them time to process and reflect, then the lecture is for naught...and all I have accomplished is hearing myself talk.
  

These are just a few ideas for enhancing the lecture approach. I find it helpful to mix up the strategies so I am not doing the same thing repeatedly. These strategies have helped me deal with the instructional constraints of large classes held in traditional lecture hall settings. And, ultimately, I have found that I do not actually do that much lecturing, instead allowing students time and space to work with the content in more relevant and meaningful ways that help them stay engaged.

A few strategies for setting the right tone for online discussions

As a staple of online instructional interaction, online discussions are a big part of what takes place in the learning community – it is through these discussions, often, that much of the learning occurs. Therefore, learners’ comfort with participating in online discussions can have a big influence on what they achieve in the course. Comfort can be achieved through establishing trust with the instructor and with course colleagues, and through practice via non-threatening discussion experiences. To establish trust, consider the following strategies:

• Share a story, related to the content of the course if possible, that gives learners insight into your values, passions, interests, etc. Consider using a tool such as PowerPoint to enhance your story with photos, images, and audio clips (including your voice) – making it a digital story, in other words. See http://www.augustcouncil.com/~jdunlap/movie for an example of a digital story that helps my students feel more connected to me (and, therefore, more willing to share and participate in course activities, specifically discussion) while introducing an important topic my courses – values for teaching and learning. Notice that students never see the me, but hear my voice, see photos of my family, and listen to me describe a life-altering event that reflects my own values around teaching and learning. Now that I have shared, the students are more open to sharing.
  
  
• Ask students to post bios/introductions, but to encourage discourse around the shared information ask them to share of list of “facts” about themselves – some true and some not true. Have students engage in a “20 Questions” like discussion so they can determine which facts are in fact false. Besides the practice with using the discussion forum tool and responding appropriately to others’ messages, students start making connections that help them feel more comfortable. “We graduated from the same high school!” “You like to quilt too. What was your last project?” “I’ve been to Australia too. You have to go to Perth…” “What do you mean, ‘Don’t get off the boat in Ensenada’? There’s a story there.”
  
  
• For purposes of practicing online discussion (using the tools, protocols, etiquette, etc.), give learners opportunities to discuss non-threatening, low-judgmental topics. Consider the following activities:
  
  • Send students to a website that requires they do something and then ask them to share their experience with the group. For example,
    
    • Have students visit http://trevorvanmeter.com/flyguy/ and respond to the following questions in a discussion forum:
      - What happens to you while you are there?
      - What is your favorite part of the experience?
      - Why do you think I am asking you to do these sorts of activities?
      
    • Have them visit the Mr. Picassohead website -- http://www.mrpicassohead.com/ -- and create an artwork, then submit a link to the discussion forum. Once posted, encourage students to comment on each other’s artwork.
      
    
    
  • Post entertaining photos (not related to the course content) and ask students to share their captions. See below for an example of one of my favorite photos with some student captions.
    
    
    A few student captions:
    
    • Wait please! I do have good news...I just saved tons of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico.
      
    • Tim Burton "re-imagines" When Harry Met Sally.
      
    • I can take the giant brain, I can take the claws for hands, but why must you insist on wearing blue leather pants every time we go out?
      
    • MIT student enrolls at UCD. Instructors panic!
      
    • Listen, you're a nice guy and have a great personality, but my mother simply won't accept a son-in-law whose brain is on the outside.
      
    • During a break on the set, Ted belts out a rendition of "If I only had brain" on his air guitar. Meanwhile, Mary makes a run for it, hoping her career as an actress is still intact.
    
    

Wordle...just for phluff?

I've been using a fun (and quite popular) online tool called Wordle to produce images of word collections. For example, I recently created a Wordle image as a main page graphic for my online course. Here is a simple one that summarizes what I write about on this blog --



In this example, some words -- such as teaching -- are larger than others because they are included in the word list more frequently than others. To illustrate, if I were creating a Wordle image to represent the concept of baseball, my initial list of terms for this concept would include: baseball, bat, field, hat, player, field, umpire, glove, stadium, fans, hotdogs, popcorn, etc. This list would produce a Wordle image in which all of the words were the same size, indicating that they were of equal importance in understanding the concept of baseball. However, from my perspective, the word baseball is more important to understanding the concept then hotdog or popcorn. Therefore, I would modify the list as follows to make sure baseball was the most prominent word in the Wordle image: baseball, baseball bat, baseball field, baseball hat, baseball player, baseball field, and so on. With the revised list, the most frequently used word is baseball, so it would be the largest word in the Wordle image. In this way, I can easily illustrate word strength and importance within a list of words if desirable.

Wordle can be used for instructional purposes. For example, I have asked students to produce Wordle images that represent their understanding of a reading, topic, concept, or idea. Then, I ask small groups of students to debrief their images together to discuss what terms they selected and why, why some terms are larger than others (or what terms should be larger than others because they are more important), and so on. A variation is to limit the number of words students (working as individuals or in small groups) can use to describe a complex concept (e.g., constructivism, eLearning, diversity), and have them create a Wordle image that captures the essence of the concept with exactly 20 words. I have also used it to create word collections and asked students to determine how the words are connected, and what topic the collection of words describe. These types of activities encourage students to reflect on a topic or concept, and articulate their understanding based on that reflection.

Wordle can also be used during class introductions, specifically in online courses. Instead of asking students to share a bio, students can produce a Wordle image that summarizes who they are, likes and dislikes, hobbies, and so on. Again, it is a fun way to encourage reflection, articulation, and sharing.

Scavenger hunts for encouraging students to read and process the syllabus

In my post on Jazzing up the syllabus, I describe a few ways to make going through the syllabus during the first class meeting a relevant learning opportunity. What I neglected to share is a strategy I've been using in my online courses for several years -- the scavenger hunt. In my online courses I ask students to complete a scavenger hunt about the course, with most of the content for the hunt coming from the syllabus. Here is a list of scavenger hunt questions I used in a recent course:

1. In your own words, state the learning objectives for this course.
   
2. In your own words, describe the purpose and requirements of the team project.
   
3. On what days of the week are assignments and projects due?
   
4. What learning objectives are addressed by the individual project due on March 9th?
   
5. For what reason(s) would a student be granted an incomplete in the course?
   
6. What is the purpose of the Weekly Survey?
   
7. Who are the authors of the required texts?
   
8. What is meant by academic freedom?
   
9. What will you be able to add to your portfolio and/or resume in terms of knowledge, skills, and products as a result of successfully completing this course?
   
10. What is the best way to reach Joni outside of the course? How quickly will Joni respond to email? And, when is it best to contact Joni with questions, concerns, challenges, etc.?
    

Everyone in the course is required to complete the scavenger hunt, so it is an easy way for me to verify that everyone has at least looked at the syllabus.

Syllabus scavenger hunts also work well in on-campus courses. On the first night of class, you can have dyads or triads working on a hunt, and make it a contest for teams -- which teams get it done the quickest, which teams' responses are the most accurate, and which team accomplishes both. You can make the questions more complex, so that students have to dig deeply into the syllabus to answer the questions.

A syllabus scavenger hunt is an easy way to ensure that students read the syllabus during the first week (if online) or first night (if on-campus), and it allows me an opportunity to immediately clarify things based on the students' responses. And, it's fun!

Pecha Kucha, an alternative format for presentations

My students and I have been exploring an interesting format for presentations, called Pecha Kucha (pronounced peh-cha ku-cha...but said really fast). The basic format is 20 slides/images, 20 seconds per slide/image (so, just under 7 minutes per presentation). Developed by two architects (see the Wikipedia entry for more background and links to useful resources) as a way to structure presentations of architectural designs in an efficient and non-detrimental-to-the-message way, Pecha Kucha is gaining in popularity. So, what is it exactly? For a few online examples of Pecha Kucha, see Daniel Pink's YouTube video on the topic of emotionally intelligent signage, Ginny Brady's Vimeo video on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and Dean Shareski's example for his students. Dean's stands out for me because I like that he is asking students follow the Pecha Kucha format for their reflections at the end of the course (his example serves as a model for the students). For examples of live, on-stage Pecha Kucha presentations, see Jeremy Fuksa's Facebook presentation at a Pecha Kucha Night in Kansas City, and Glasgow's Pecha Kucha Night (Note: adult content, view at your own risk).

For examples of the format in action during face-to-face sessions, search YouTube...there are several examples, although not really one that stands out for me as an exemplar. Why? Because there seems to be a tendency with the format for presenters to simply talk faster in order to say as much as possible in 20 seconds...instead of allowing the image up on the screen to speak for itself with limited commentary. It doesn't seem that folks use silence to their advantage (or music, for that matter), to allow the audience to process, reflect on, and explore an intellectual and emotional connection with the image (and this seems like a big loss because I perceive the format as a way to encourage us to present stronger visual images, instead of relying on our spoken words...). And, it seems a useful structure for storytelling...and I don't see a lot of great examples of its use in that arena (not that they're not out there). Another thing I have noticed is that it seems that the structure discourages presenters from more actively engaging the audience, and discourages them from using the physical space (many examples simply show the presenter standing rigid to the side of the screen, talking quickly). My final observation has been that given the intentional informality of a Pecha Kucha session, presenters seem to stutter, utter many "ummms" and "ands" and run out of time. Informality shouldn't replace the need for preparation...or the presenter's message is fuddled or lost.

My students and I are exploring all of these aspects, and are in the process of creating some examples that might end up inspiring others to check out Pecha Kucha. Once we have something to share, I will be sure to post them in this blog. [Also, another instructional use I am considering -- so will keep you posted -- is providing students with a set of 20 images. Then, having each of them do their own Pecha Kucha presentation with that set of images. They can change the image order, say what they want, add a soundtrack, etc. (And, may I could allow them to change out up to five of the 20 images with something else, or add elements to the existing images.) I think it would be fascinating to see how different -- or similar -- each student's presentation ends up.]

A suggestion if this post has encouraged you to look into Pecha Kucha. Instead of only relying on online videos of Pecha Kucha in action, see if there is a Pecha Kucha Night in your area. I recently attended Pecha Kucha Night in Denver, and found the experience insightful in terms of understanding how the format plays out. I also enjoyed connecting in a live, physical space with like-minded practitioners...all interested in design and creative expression.

Note: Also see my short article in PerformanceXpress on the topic.

The essence of good storytelling

For me, storytelling is everything. When I pull it off and do it well, it helps me achieve so much as an educator -- engaging learners, establishing social presence, illustrating relevance, encouraging connections between theory and practice, holding attention, having fun, being in community, and so on. It is the key to connecting, to making sense of the world, to contributing to the world. To be a good educator, in my humble opinion, one has to be a great storyteller.

All of us have had people who contributed to our educational, professional, and personal journeys through storytelling. The person who most influenced my love of storytelling as a vehicle for connecting and educating is my father, Ray Dunlap. He was always telling stories (and jokes...humor is an important aspect of storytelling too). Ray died in June 2008. Luckily, I have one of his stories to share here, as an example of good storytelling. It illustrates what stories can accomplish (the laundry list above) with little fanfare. A good story works, even without a big media production to support it. Share your stories with others, it makes a difference.

Thank you, Ray, for sharing your stories.

I write the songs...digital music in the classroom

I am very interested in figuring out how to use digital music with students. Whether teaching online or on campus, my students are often carrying mp3 players, iPods, or some sort of device for playing and listening to music. Instead of asking them to set that stuff aside, I want to use music in instructional ways. Here are a few ideas:

• Pick a course topic and have students find songs that say something about that topic. For example, I teach educators, so I have students find songs about school (such as School's Out, We're Going to be Friends, Be True to Your School, Hot for Teacher, and so on). Then, they share their songs and we discuss what the songs tell us about the experience of school...the good, the bad, and the ugly.
  
  
• Related to the idea above, have students pick a word (e.g., power) or an event (e.g., when they felt like they had really succeeded at something) or an emotion/state-of-mind (e.g., confidence), and find a song that represents that word/event/emotion. Students can include an explanation of how/why the song represents that word for them, or students can engage in a 20-question activity to ferret out why each student selected their song.
  
  
• Have students bring in a song and rewrite the lyrics to reflect a particular course topic (everyone can write lyrics for a 12-bar blues, after all). I have a colleague who does this at the end of a course, and students perform their songs (original or rewrite)!
  
  
• Have students select a song, and then create a music video for the song. The video should reflect a particular course topic. For example, if I was teaching a course on language, literacy, and culture, I could have students pick any song, but then create a video in support of the song that reflects diversity. [This idea relates to the various digital storytelling posts in this blog.]
  
  
• As a way for students to get to know each other, each student could share a song and explain why the song is meaningful to her or him (I call this the "Soundtrack of Your Life" activity). Or, alternatively, students could share their songs, and then the group could ask questions about the song -- sort of a 20-questions activity -- to figure out why each student selected the song she or he did. Finally, the shared songs could be used to consider the groups shared interests, differences, and so on (e.g., how many folks like jazz, or female songwriters, or sad songs). A great tool for this is Finetune. Finetune allows you to create playlists from a large library of music, and then makes it easy to share your playlists with others. Songza is a similar tool that I also like. So, for the Soundtrack activity, I ask students to create Finetune or Songza playlists that are shared with others in the class. To give you an idea of what you end up with, here are a few examples of my playlists:
  
  June 17, 2008 (in Songza) ~
  
  
  
  Easy Listening Groove (in Finetune) ~
  
  http://www.finetune.com/playlist/2284782
  
  Living in London 1978 (in Finetune) ~
  
  http://www.finetune.com/playlist/2285010
  
  Is that the Amtrak train, already? - Chico, 1988 (in Finetune) ~
  
  http://www.finetune.com/playlist/2289503
  
  
  

"Stump the Professor"

I have been playing with the idea of playing games with students in online courses, mostly influenced by recently seeing an episode of "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" online. When I think about those types of games -- Jeopardy, Millionaire, and so on -- I think that it is the questions that make the games interesting. And, that the folks who have the most fun and learn the most are those who construct the questions. It is hard to write a good question. If you can write a good question...that's everything. So, I've been having students -- as individuals or in teams -- compete to develop a great question that can stump me and the rest of the class. Then we have a race to see who can answer it first -- me or them (usually in teams). They usually win, and that's very cool.

Using del.icio.us instructionally, with a cherry on top

Del.icio.us is a very useful online social bookmarking tool. It allows individuals and groups to collect a library of online resources (i.e., webliography). For instructional purposes, I have asked groups of students to create a webliography on a particular topic. But, honestly, I find this to be somewhat limiting, and less than satisfying in and of itself. It works well if I then have students do something with the resources they have collected. But, if the process ends with the collection, it just doesn't work for me. I don't really like the idea of, "hey kids, let's social bookmark together!" I think it has to have a purpose so students are social bookmarking in order to create something else...something unique, creative, constructive.

So, here are two suggestions for using del.icio.us that have worked for me:

• Collect a set of sites in del.icio.us, and then ask students to use the sites to create a unique presentation or story. It is interesting to see how different the products students create are, even though they used the same source sites provided via del.icio.us. [Alternatively, have groups of students collect and share a set of sites via del.icio.us instead of you.]
  
  
• Post a set of seemingly unrelated links in del.icio.us, and then asked students to figure out why the sites are collected together. The students have to be detectives to figure out why the links/sites are related. [Again, you could have groups of students post a set of seemingly unrelated links in del.icio.us instead of you.]
  

No more teachers' dirty looks...

Students carry a lot of technology with them wherever they go, including into the classroom. Because these technologies -- such as iPods, computers, cell phones -- can serve as distractions from what is instructionally happening in the classroom, many faculty are requiring that students turn everything off at the start of class. What a loss! Instead, my suggestion is to find ways to use students' technology in ways that serve the objectives of the class. Here are a few ideas (Note: I suggest you have students in small groups, so that there is the potential for a more balanced distribution of technology...because, even though it may feel like it, not all students are carrying technology):

• In small groups, have students answer a set of challenging questions (or complete a scavenger hunt), allowing them to use their computers (to look things up via static sites, or by accessing an online community of practice) and cell phones (to phone a friend).
  
  
• In small groups, have students use their technology to locate the most unique response to a question, or a current news item that is related to the topic.
  
  
• Set up an IM address for the course. Periodically, ask student groups a question and have them IM their response to your IM address. Report out what groups are sharing.
  
  
• Set up an IM address for the course, and have it on during all classes to enable students to ask questions during lectures.
  
  
• Set up a wiki for the topic being covered in class (or throughout the week, depending on the course schedule). Explain to students that the group will collaboratively create a summary of the topic at hand. A few times during the class session, have student groups access the wiki and update it to reflect what has been covered and discussed so far. By the end of the class session, the wiki can serve as a collaboratively developed set of class notes (for the lecture, discussion, lab, and/or activity/project).
  
  
• Create short podcasts (or locate relevant, pre-existing podcasts) related to the topic at hand. Have students download the podcasts to their iPods or computers prior to class. In class, present students with an activity (e.g., a case study) that requires them to access a variety of online resources, including one or more of the podcasts you created or made available.
  
  
• In small groups, have students search their iPods for a song that lyrically reflects what the class is covering, and prepare to share the song and their rationale for how it is related to the current class topic.
  

Wikipedia, friend or foe

I have recently found that some of my faculty colleagues are leery of allowing students to include Wikipedia references in their papers. I don't blame them. Some of the content in Wikipedia is well established and supported, some content isn't. Sometimes students don't know the difference...or, more accurately, how to determine the difference. And, it is important for them to learn how to determine the difference because we are getting more and more of our content via online sources. So, instead of not allowing students to reference Wikipedia:

• Allow students to reference Wikipedia as long as they can find two non-Wikipedia sources to support the Wikipedia reference
  
  
• Have students find -- and support with other resources -- the problems with a Wikipedia reference (sort of a WikipediaBusters activity)
  
  
• Have students figure out the biases implied in a Wikipedia entry (e.g., was the entry written by a man, or a Democrat, or someone living in the United States, or someone who doesn't like cats, and so on), and then rewriting the entry to (1) minimize the bias, or (2) reflect an alternative perspective
  
  
• Have students fix a Wikipedia entry, after all an expectation of the Wikipedia community is that participants contribute
  

I like Wikipedia, and think it can be a great first step in students' writing/research process...as long as they know that anything they read on the Web (or in print, for that matter) is mediated by the author's perspective and biases, and may or may not be accurate. I think activities, like those listed above, can help reinforce this, and also reinforce that they are eligible contributors to community resources, such as Wikipedia.

What does it really mean to "engage the learner"?

For a number of years now, I start my courses with the following activity (stated differently for different contexts):

1) Describe your best learning experience. Think about your most valuable, effective learning experience and in at least 250 but no more than 500 words share your learning story. When you write your "Best Learning Experience" story, don’t editorialize or try to explain why you think it was your best learning experience, just tell the story. After everyone shares her or his story, we will analyze the stories.

2) Analyze each person's "Best Learning Experience" story. Take time to dig deep to discover why each particular learning experience was so special. This will probably require you to ask probing questions of each person. The goal of this analysis is to uncover a set of underlying strategies or strategic themes that seem to be at work behind the scenes in these stories.

3) Compile strategies and themes into a list of Common Instructional Values. When you design learning experiences and opportunities for others it is very important to consider what you instructionally value as a learner and educator. Your values -- based on your experience in the world and on what you know about how people think and learn (from the study of conceptual, theoretical, and empirical literature) -- should be reflected in your design and selection of instructional approaches and strategies. For example, if you believe that people learn best in collaborative settings, then your instructional design should include opportunities for collaborative learning. So, let's get our values about these things out on the table -- they will provide us with a foundation for the rest of the work we do in this course.

Using the story analyses that you did last week, work together to derive a list of common instructional values that seem to be in use throughout most of the learning experiences. For example, do each (or most) of the stories involve a hands-on component? If so, it is a common instructional value...part of the learning experience that made that experience so valuable and effective. Note: assessment of your instructional design projects throughout the course and program will include an examination of the effective incorporation of these values.

What I have found interesting is how consistent the types of stories are, and the resulting lists are. Here is an example of a "common instructional values" list:


Learner-centered --
Learning activities: are relevant, meaningful, personal, and motivating; require learners to be self-directed, self-regulating, autonomous, intentional, and metacognitively aware; and develop skills and disposition needed for lifelong learning.

Educators: facilitate and guide learning; support students in taking ownership, responsibility, and control over their learning; help students with prior knowledge activation, goal setting, action planning, and reflection; and are culturally-responsive, honoring diversity.

Learning environments include: flexible physical structures, access to a variety of resources, and tools and rubrics that encourage self-assessment and process/goal-achievement monitoring.


Contextual --
Learning activities are: authentic, real world, challenging, relevant, context-specific, complex, ill-structured, project-based, problem-based, enculturation, situated, and anchored.

Educators are: focused on professional preparation and identity; and attentive to the development of students’ confidence and self-efficacy to participate in the professional community of practice.

Learning environments include: simulations, immersion, problems, projects, case studies, service, communities of practice, enculturation.


Active --
Learning activities: are hands-on, generative, dynamic, exploratory, experiential, engaging; involve students in inquiry, discovery, problem solving, decision making, and expression; and culminate in the creation, construction, and building of products, or a performance.

Educators: provide opportunities for questioning, knowledge building, practice, and experimentation; conduct demonstrations; model performance; and engage in think-alouds.

Learning environments include: materials, labs, simulations, case studies, role-playing, and projects.


Social --
Learning activities involve: collaboration, teamwork, group work, cooperation, discourse, discussion, negotiation, debate, conversation, communication, sharing, storytelling, working together, reciprocal teaching, peer teaching/mentoring/coaching, peer review, and co-creation.

Educators: establish teacher and social presence, participate, facilitate discussions and community building, provide coaching and mentoring, and cultivate the social context.

Learning environments include: space for small group work, communication and collaboration tools, rubrics that encourage balanced voices and contributions, and access to external communities.


Supportive --
Learning activities are: culturally responsive, differentiated, fun, entertaining, and scaffolded.

Educators: are humanistic, caring, non-judgmental, competent, credible, well-organized, passionate, inspirational, enthusiastic, and attentive; minimize frustration; provide clear and complete directions/information, constructive feedback, coaching, and mentoring; and honor diversity and creativity.

Learning environments are: safe, non-threatening, celebratory, accommodating, flexible, equitable, resource rich, and multimodal.


So, my thinking is that an "engaging" learning experience requires the experience to be learner-centered, contextual, active, social, and supportive. However, I think you can have all of those things going on and still not create an engaging learning experience (although you have a better chance of it). I think about all of the students' stories over the years, and there is something more that just doesn't seem to be completely captured in the resulting lists of common instructional values. The students' learning experiences (which they might describe as "engaging") seem to be comprised of happenings/occurrences that reflect both an episodic uniqueness and a structured order...there is an ineffable qualitative character that is enjoyed, providing the basis for experienced value and aesthetic appreciation. [Note: My digital story describing my best learning experience is an example of this sort of experience.]

So, how do we engage the learner? A learning experience should be learner-centered, contextual, active, social, and supportive...but we (educators, instructional designers) also need to look at what is experienced by learners and think about how to enhance that (and I can't help but think that we can be helped a lot in this quest by considering what we know about the experience of art, music, theatre, and literature...the emotional and cognitive journey those experiences can take us on).

For a much more in-depth exploration and explanation of these ideas, please visit Pat Parrish's website -- I consider him to be an expert in the area of aesthetic principles for instructional design, and you will be able to access some of his writings via his site. (Or Google him...he has articles published on this topic.)

Using blogs for educational purposes

“We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.” ~ Herman Melville

While preparing a workshop on the educational uses of blogs -- online, Web-based journals in the form of frequent, chronological publications of thoughts and ideas, typically within a specific theme or area of interest -- for the Center for Faculty Development at UC Denver, I've been reflecting on my own use of blogs in my role as an educator. I started blogging for several reasons:

• To be heard, have a voice on issues of my choosing (e.g., my thoughts on teaching), and disseminate ideas.
  
  
• To engage with the subject area as a lifelong learner.
  
  
• To connect with others who have similar interests, and build a network of colleagues and collaborators.
  
  
• To share and test ideas and perspectives that might otherwise not see the light of day (via a formal presentation or journal article).
  
  
• To collect and organize ideas to support my teaching and my scholarship (for example, I have an article under review now that started because of ideas I was sharing via my blog).
  
  
• To engage with Web 2.0 technologies in a relevant and meaningful way that supports my practice (in other words, my blog has become my base camp/homestead on the Web).
  
  
• To establish a reputation as a source of ideas for postsecondary and online teaching practices (and to establish a reputation, if I can do this well, for my online MA program and for the Center for Faculty Development).
  

In terms of using blogs with students, I have primarily had students use blogs for reflective journaling -- summarizing class discussions, reflecting on what they learned during a class activity or project, sharing ideas for applying what they have learned to their own practice, and so on. In addition, I have used blogs with students to accomplish the following objectives:

• To encourage students to articulate their ideas and perspectives, make their thinking visible, and be brave and bold about their contributions to the greater discourse. (Note: This goes both ways. I create a course-specific blog where I share my thoughts about the course as we are in progress (see my IT 5130 Design Ideation Journal for a current example). This allows students to see how I am thinking about what works and doesn't work, what I want to do next time, ideas that occur to me because of our in-class discussions, and so on. I used to do this privately, in a course notebook for my eyes only. Now, with a course blog, students get to see my thinking, and I effectively -- hopefully -- model reflective practice in the process.)
  
  
• To engage students in reflection on the subject, requiring them to critically analyze ideas. Because student blogs are linking together in our course community, there is a social context that supports a unique caliber of thoughtfulness, very different than the private reflective journals I've used in the past. [Update 10/29/08: Here is a good Blogging Rubric developed by Ryan Bretag that gets at things like critical reading and critical thinking.]
  
  
• To encourage students to see themselves as participating and contributing members of a professional community of practice, using their blogs as (1) avenues for garnering feedback on ideas from course and community colleagues and (2) opportunities for collaboration with colleagues.
  
  
• To help students express themselves and share their ideas and perspectives in an articulate way; to write, organize their writing, and develop a habit of writing.
  
  
• To have students use Web 2.0 tools as vehicles for self-expression, inquiry, construction, and collaboration; and to learn to use these tools to support their lifelong learning endeavors. (And to take advantage, for educational purposes, the Web 2.0 tools they are using themselves in their personal -- and often professional -- lives.)
  

For me, those are the main positive reasons for using blogs and blogging for educational purposes. I also have some thoughts about the pitfalls:

• Maintaining a blog is a time-consuming proposition. For it to be valuable, you need to be active -- reading others' blogs to continue to learn about the topic and connect with others, and contributing new posts to your own blog.
  
  
• Unless your blog is set up to be private (so that only those invited have access), a blog is very public. When having students set up blogs, it is important to help them understand this, and act accordingly.
  
  
• Blogging tends to reinforce a more casual, informal writing style. I actually like this because a more informal writing style can be more inviting to the community, allowing community members to feel more comfortable participating in the conversation. However, that sort of writing style is not appropriate for all activities or projects, so it is helpful to keep this in mind when you involve students with blogging.
  
  
• Recently, I saw a photo of a gentleman wearing a t-shirt he received as a gift from his wife. Stenciled on the shirt was, "My blog has an audience of 2." It is certainly desirable to have more than an audience of two for your blog. To achieve this, you have to strive for a balance between the intrapersonal (personal reflective journal) and interpersonal (connecting with others in discussion) aspects of blogging. This means that it isn't enough just to post in your blog -- you have to read and connect with other blogs, linking your posts to others, and so on.
  

In terms of tips, besides the ones that are embedded throughout this post, I have a few obvious ones to share:

• Select a very specific, unique focus for the blog.
  
  
• Do not ask students to share anything publicly that may do them harm.
  
  
• Establish a blogging schedule -- for example, Stephen Downes has a great blog called Half an Hour -- with the title referring to the amount of time he spends each day (or, at least tries to) sharing with the community via his blog.
  
  
• Pursue opportunities to connect and collaborate with colleagues. When people connect with your via your blog, respond. When you go out searching others' blog, make a connection to your own.
  

The use of blogs for educational purposes makes me think of Dewey, and the idea that the "impulses" of the child -- the impulses of communication, construction, inquiry, and expression -- are the true resources of a school. The power of blogs, and other Web 2.0 tools, is that they can support students' communication, construction, inquiry, and expression activities. This is what turns me on about this genre of Web tools, and blogs in particular.


Note:
If you are interested in blogs for educators, check out --

Blogs in Education
2c Worth
Weblogg-ed
4RxT
Conversations About Teaching

Creating digital stories with VoiceThread

I have a couple of different posts about digital stories and digital storytelling in this blog. The first digital story I ever created -- to help enhance my teacher presence in my online courses (see Storytelling for presence) -- was done using Premiere, which is a fantastic tool. I have also experimented with iMovie and FinalCut, also great tools. But, the issue I come back to over and over is how long it takes to create a final product with those tools. I am an impatient person when it comes to technology.

When I have students create digital stories, I am mostly interested in the stories themselves, and the way the students have pulled together words and still or video images (and even music) to express their point of view or idea. And, although learning to use the tools mentioned above is helpful if they are going to use those tools with regularity for professional and personal endeavors, if the focus of their work with me is on self-expression through the articulation and sharing ideas and perspectives, I want them to use tools that allow them to achieve that goal with as little plug-into-the-wall technical effort as possible.

In my previous post about Flickr, I shared a digital story created in Flickr called Her first word. In the example below, I used VoiceThread for the same story, for comparison purposes.


Keeping in mind I already had the photos and text for the story in Flickr (and VoiceThread allows you to easily import your photos from Flickr, your computer, Facebook, and so on; or import documents from Word, PowerPoint, pdf, and so on), I was able to create this digital story in less than 10 minutes using my Mac with its internal microphone (the voice track would be a lot smoother with an external microphone -- like a headset -- but the quality is still good).

Other things I really like about VoiceThread is that I can use it to create how-to videos, showing students how to set up a blog or change setting in Moodle; the video doodle feature is especially useful for this. Another creative use is to have students share a design (for example, my students design websites and web pages) and then use the voice track to explain why they have made certain design decisions, or to share their work on a math problem and use the voice track to explain their work.

Another great feature is that you can have students share their work and ideas, and then other students -- or you, as the instructor -- can make their own text or audio comments. [Note: When you create a voicethread, you can choose to make it publicly accessible, or you can just make it available to a subset of folks you select. In this way, you can just involve your students in voicethread sharing and commenting, and not have to worry about moderating external commenting.] So, this is a great way to provide feedback on students' papers.

VoiceThread allows folks to create three voicethreads for free. If you decide you like the tool enough to use it frequently, you can pay a minimal annual fee.

Now, what do you lose if using a tool like this instead of Premiere, FinalCut, iMovie and the like? You lose all of the great editing tools and multitracking functionality those tools provide that help you create a professional quality product. For example, in the VoiceThread digital story I share here, I am not able to add a separate music track, or to do fade ins and outs with the images, or edit the audio (I can delete the audio and start again). All of those are incredibly useful features, and if I am creating a digital story or product that I know has a longer shelf life and a wider audience (e.g., beyond a single course or presentation), it is worth the time and effort to use those tools. But, for so much of my work or what I ask students to create and share, I prefer that our time and effort be spent on the content instead of the technology.

Bottom line, check out VoiceThread if you are looking for an easy way for you and your students to share stories, ideas, work, instructions, and so on.


Related posts in this blog:
Storytelling for presence
Flickr photo sets

Flickr photo sets

I have three new Flickr photo sets:

-- Kids...

-- Attempted Creativity

-- Her First Word
Note: This is an example of how to use Flickr for digital storytelling.

I've been thinking about the various ways to use this tool with students. You could have students take photos on a particular topic and set up a Flickr site (an individual can set up 3 sets for free). For example, given that MLK Day is right around the corner, students could set up a Flickr set illustrating how the fight for freedom and equality has been manifested (or not) in their lives, or what "honoring diversity" means to them. Or students could work together sharing photos that illuminate what it's like to be a student at their school, or what it's like to be their age. Or, if students cannot provide their own digital photos, you could provide students with a large set of photos, and have them select a sub-set that tells their story or a story they want to tell.

Since Flickr allows the inclusion of some commentary, the tool can be used for digital storytelling and self-expression (my "Her First Word" Flickr set is an example of a digital story)...which can be very empowering. And fun.


Related posts in this blog:
Storytelling for presence
Creating digital stories with VoiceThread

Thinking about our audience....

This YouTube clip really got me reflecting on our changing university audience and their use of technology (and our use of technology and teaching strategies). I plan on using this clip to start a discussion with students in the spring about both of these topics. Check it out. [Update 10/29/08: Dr. Michael Wesch recently posted an entry to his blog,
Revisiting “A Vision of Students Today". I suggest you watch the video and then read his blog post, written more than a year after creating the video.]



And I plan on using this clip when talking with my Education colleagues about the importance of integrating technology more fully and creatively in our work with teacher candidates and in-service teachers -- to help prepare them to engage, inspire, and empower our digital-native students.

Tools for using film clips in the classroom

I really like to use film clips to illustrate various points. It's easy to do these days if you have Internet available in the classroom with so many film, tv, and advertising clips available via YouTube. This fall, I ended up in a room without Internet access. Luckily, there are tools that help you download clips to your computer. The two tools I've been using are Video Downloader and KEEPVID.

Here are a few of the clips I use in my courses:


To talk about classroom discussion facilitation --




To talk about the lecture format --




To talk about the future use of technology to support teaching and learning --





To talk about adult learning theory --








To talk about student engagement --





To talk about classroom management --