The Process Of Inquiry In The Clasroom

By Tracie Weisz

In a story last year about Tony Wagner, author of The Global Achievement Gap, they quote him as saying, “The culture of schooling as we know it is radically at odds with the culture of learning that produces innovators.” We can tell you the kinds of environments where we know kids are excited, enthusiastic, and open to inquiry and discovery – it happens naturally for young children almost anytime they are given a little freedom to explore, experiment, and create. However, the structures we set up in school, many ingrained in us from preservice texts, and even before (anticipatory set anyone?), often have schools doing things that take away those very opportunities.

Inquiry In The Classroom

A couple of years ago, I started to simply turn my social studies lessons upside down so we could practice inquiry. My 8th graders had not had much practice. At the beginning of a lesson, I’d show them something – usually a picture, a piece of art, an article, a short video, an illustrated map – something. I’d tell them what it was, as in naming it, and maybe giving it a little context, and then they had 5 minutes to write down all of the questions they had about it. Initially, this was a difficult exercise for them – they would not have many questions. When we talked about some of their questions, sometimes another student would shout an answer, even though none was obvious. There was one boy who I knew was very sharp, but routinely would only write down about 3 questions. After the 3rd time we did it, I asked him why he had so few questions in 5 minutes. He said he didn’t want to write down very many because he was just waiting for me to assign an essay paper on all of them if he had a bunch! What an eye opener for me! Apparently, without any ill-intent to squash inquiry, I had done just that!

Depending on the unit we are studying, the students share their favorite questions (according to them) in a Google spreadsheet. We collect questions here over the course of a unit. At some point, students decide which one (or more) they really want to pursue, and we make an initial plan of attack. At varying points, through reflective journaling, concept maps, and more questioning, they continue to plot and re-plot their plans as their studies unfold.

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Popular Classroom Creation Tools

Popular Classroom Creation Tools

By Katie Lepi

Yesterday, we talked about six edtech trends in higher education that were highlighted by the NMC Horizon Report: 2014 Higher Education Edition . One of the trends identified for the second horizon (a mid-range trend, driving changes in higher education within three to five years) is a shift from students being consumers to being creators.

“A  shift is taking place in the focus of pedagogical practice on university campuses all over the world as students across a wide variety of disciplines are learning by making and creating rather than from the simple consumption of content. Creativity, as illustrated by the growth of user-generated videos, maker communities, and crowdfunded projects in the past couple years, is increasingly the means for active, hands-on learning. University departments in areas that have not traditionally had lab or hands-on components are shifting to incorporate hands-on learning experiences as an integral part of the curriculum. Courses and degree plans across all disciplines at institutions are in the process of changing to reflect the importance of media creation, design, and entrepreneurship.” – from the NMC Horizon Report

When students are creating, they’re not just seeing and memorizing material, they’re seeing it, internalizing it, and using it to create something. Applying the knowledge you’re gaining is one of the best ways to retain it and better understand it, so creating as a part of education is becoming a common theme. Makerspaces (or hackerspaces) are becoming more common, and many teachers are integrating that concept into their classrooms. There are a lot of different resources out there to give students a much more “hands-on” experience. Take a look at a few of our favorites below!

Creating in the Classroom

DIY

DIY.org is a website and app based tool that lets students choose from a very wide range of skills they’d like to acquire, and easily get started learning them. From building insect habitats to creating a solar cooker to making your own guitar, there is a huge array of choices. Users have a choice of different activities they want to practice for each skill, so there is a level of personalization available.

GarageBand

Seemingly basic, perhaps, but making music with Garage Band is a fun digital creation tool. You can use it in app form or on your desktop or laptop, there are built in lessons for piano and guitar, and users can easily get started composing. Lots of learning tools are wrapped into a really fun package! The downside is that it is not available for Windows based users.

iMovie

iMovie is another semi-ubiquitous program that can serve classrooms well. Available for your desktop/laptop or in app form, this is creation at its finest. Audio, video, and other elements come together to create any type of movie you’d like. You can even make trailers for your longer films, which could serve as an excellent smaller project or a piece of a larger (mid-term or final) project.

Codeacademy

Codeacademy makes learning to code easy and fun. That sounds pretty cheesy, doesn’t it? That said, it is true – it turns something that can seem daunting and/or complicated into a fun and visual activity. The site offers a lot of different learn to code options and great step by step instructions with associated tasks to get you on your way to building fun digital creations (like games and animated stuff!).

Post Source : http://www.edudemic.com/popular-classroom-creation-tools/

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4 Things To Consider As You Allow Phones in Class

As a language teacher I find mobile phones are a great resource as a dictionary, a unique way to do homework and, for many of my students, an alternative way to take notes. I’ve been using them in my class for a while now and their presence is actually hardly noticed – so seamlessly is it a part of what we do. In working them into my class I’ve learned some things about how to introduce them that may help you if you just starting to allow them.

Out on The Desk

The first few weeks of my class always starts with the call to “take out your phones – upside down on your desk”. So stunned are most students that you are allowing this that the phone carriers all do. As we work through class I make a mental note of who has them. If I don’t see it when I initially ask them to take it out they will often get a personal reminder to do so. Gradually the action becomes a habit and having it in plain sight makes it easier to use, and not to abuse.

Silent/Upside Down

In the first few weeks of class I start each class the same way by asking them to take out their phone, place them face down on their desks and set to “manner mode” (‘mute’ as it’s called in Japanese). I warn them that sometimes we all forget to mute it and it will ring and usually tell a story on myself of how my mother likes to text or phone me at all hours of the day. Then I talk what to do if your phone goes off – apologize, mute it, don’t check it and continue on with what you were doing. By the way inevitably my mother does call, my phone isn’t on mute and my students hear the ring, look at me and say “your mom?” (target language of course!)

Use It As They Do

My phone is out, on my computer table during class. It is upside down and set to ‘mute’. I have blogged before about the usefulness of recording what happens in my classes. So I use my phone in front of them. The first few times I do it I tell them what I’m up to but eventually they don’t even notice. What am I doing? I take photos for me of my boards if I have been using them. I will often upload it (after converting it to a pdf or grey-scale photo) to my website – in front of them – for those without phones who want the visual as well. I update my website with it – in front of them. If we’re searching for a word I’ll use the dictionary app. For my Japanese classes I also use it to show them how to look up characters using ‘hand drawn’ input. Using it yourself is a powerful tool for you – and a great way to model it’s proper use.

Consequences When Needed

Okay there are still occasional slip ups. It’s not hard to notice the furtive glances or an attempt to key in a quick text. Generally I call out the offender with a “really?” and it doesn’t happen again. Students know it is a privilege to use the phone in my room – and that that privilege can be removed. It’s only ever happened once – a student who kept using their phone inappropriately. After 3 warnings they were asked to hand it over – each day at the start of class for 3 weeks. I kept a post-it on my computer desk to remind me to ask. Three weeks later, when the phone was returned, it was never misused again.

So go ahead – release the phones. If you set the ground rules, model what you want and monitor it a lot at the start they will learn to use it positively in class. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll unleash its potential benefits for you as well!

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Effective Online Courses

By Jeff Bergin

It’s no secret that online learning is one of the fastest growing trends in higher education. Currently, 33% of higher education students now take at least one course online, and nearly 75% of academic leaders rate online education as the same or superior to brick-and-mortar courses, according to the Babson Survey Research Group’s 2013 Survey of Online Learning.

With less face-to-face interaction happening between students and teachers in an online course, quality learning design becomes even more of an imperative to ensure the experience is engaging, effective, and matches students’ digital expectations. Drawing on research from fields such as informatics, human factors, cognitive psychology, and human computer interaction, the learning sciences are interdisciplinary and explore how learning is manifested, demonstrated and measured.

Four Components of Learning Design & Evaluation

There are four distinct components that are important to consider when designing any learning experience. These components are necessary to deliver intended learning outcomes.

Educational Policy

This refers to the policies, held by the federal government, state governments, accrediting bodies and institutions that shape educational practices. Quality learning design meets these policy requirements in any number of ways, for instance, by supporting credit hour regulations; supporting accessibility recommendations; and supporting outcomes-based or mastery-based courses, such as those designed to be competency-based; and by providing transparent assessment and rigorous evidence of learning. Thus, courseware that is designed taking policy requirements into consideration is more likely to help instructors and institutional leaders ensure that they meet these requirements with relative ease.

Academic Research

There is a growing body of published, scholarly research around learning, from fields such as instructional design, educational psychology, and human computer interaction. Three important areas of applied research are instructional systems design, motivation and multimedia learning.

• Instructional Systems Design: This research ensures that products are engaging, intuitive, and match users’ expectations. Instructional design begins with the desired learning outcomes. Outcomes are broken down into objectives by the subject matter experts and instructional designers, who can then collaborate on the most effective strategy to obtain those said outcomes. The end result of this approach includes properly aligned assessments, practice, and instructional content (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998) .
• Motivation: The ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction) theory is a methodology to foster learner motivation in instruction (Keller & Suzuki, 2004) . First, motivating instruction should gain and then sustain the learners’ attention. Once the instruction has gained the attention or interest, learners must feel or believe that it has relevance to their lives. When learners feel the instruction is relevant, they then need to build confidence in their mastery of the content. Finally, the learners need to generate satisfaction from their mastery. If the learners are lacking motivation in any of the four areas addressed in the ARCS theory, motivational design is used to improve motivation where lacking. Motivated learners are more likely to be successful learners. The ARCS model allows instructors to create an effective motivational strategy in their courses. Therefore, user-centered design courses should reflect the ARCS theory, in order to avoid issues that inhibit motivation in learners.
• Multimedia Learning: The cognitive theory of multimedia learning is a research-based approach to helping students learn through the use of media components integrated into the course material. The theory has evolved with the understanding that effectively combining visuals, text and audio in programs for learning is complex, and requires deep and sophisticated examinations of how humans process information (Mayer, 2005) .

Learner-Centered Design

Learner-centered Design is an outgrowth of user-centered design or participatory design, in which the learner is placed at the center of the design process. This begins by creating learner personas then evolves to conducting design labs that involve actual learners, and culminate in increasingly sophisticated design reviews, design tests, usability tests, focus groups and survey research. The goal is to produce educational experiences that are intuitive, engaging, and consistent with learners’ expectations.

Multiple types of testing methods and associated technologies are leveraged throughout the learning design and evaluation process to collect extensive data that provides a better understanding of what occurs when students learn online. This information consists of “tasks successfully completed” during the process of taking a course, while measuring how and why the task was successfully completed (or not). Participants involved in testing exercises also complete surveys and participate in focus groups to provide more detail and context to the data they generated during the process of taking a course online.

Typically, there are three primary types of testing, including design testing, usability testing, and engagement testing. Each of these tests is measured using eye tracking software, two-way mirrors, screen recording technologies, usability software, and neurosignal headsets.

Third-Party Evaluation

This refers to the measures taken to ensure that a product or service meets rigorous quality standards devised by external experts and researchers.

• Endorsements: These include certifications, recommendations, and awards. Endorsements are provided by external reviewers, such as the American Council on Education (ACE), Quality Matters, and the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) CODiE Awards.
• Qualitative and Quantitative Studies: These include formalized case studies with both qualitative and data-driven outcomes, often conducted by institutions, third-party vendors, and external partners.

Extensive evaluation is integral to making data-driven decisions. Evaluations provide stakeholders with detailed and reliable analysis of their product, processes, and future initiatives (Russ-Eft, Preskill, 2001) . By committing to regular formative evaluation, including those conducted by respected third-party reviewers, institutions can continue to measure the effectiveness of user-centered design including instruction, media, functionality, and assessments.

Today, nearly any course can be taught partially or entirely online — and the choices for designing a specific course are endless. But with more focus on performance-based funding, and potential changes in how institutions are evaluated, efficacy in higher education is more important than ever. Overall, when designing courses, institutions and educators should consider how their design model supports efficacy. What are some other components to consider when designing an online course? Leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comment section below!

__________________________________

1) Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (1998). “What is backward design?” in Understanding by Design. (1 ed., pp. 7–19). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

2) Keller, J. M., & Suzuki, K. (2004). Learner motivation and e-Learning design: A multinationally validated process. Journal of Educational Media, 29(3), 229-239.

3) Mayer, R. E. (2005a). Introduction to multimedia learning. In R. E. Mayer (Ed.). The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (pp. 1-30). New York: Cambridge University Press.

4) Russ-Eft, D. & Preskill, H. (2001). Evaluation in organizations: Enhancing learning, performance, and change. Boston: Perseus Books.

 Authored by: Jeff Bergin, Ph.D., Head of Learning Design, Pearson

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What To Know About Using Colors In The Classroom

By Katie Lepi

I have aversions to certain colors. I’m sure I’m not alone in this – most people find themselves drawn to either warm colors or cool colors, and there is a whole business of the psychology of colors. The handy infographic below takes a look at the psychology of colors and how they’re used in branding. Not applicable to the classroom, right?

Wrong. There are so many different ways you can incorporate color into what you’re doing in your classroom to help boost your efforts. From designing your presentations mindfully to how you mark student work, color can come into play a lot more often than you may realize.

So what colors should you use for what? Take a look at what the infographic below has to say about colors with branding, and we’ll give you an idea of how this crosses over into the classroom. We’d love to hear if you’ve used colors intentionally in your classroom setting, or if you have other ideas. Leave a message in the comments!

Using Colors in the Classroom

Red

Red evokes strength, passion, and excitement. It is often used with food brands to trigger appetite, convey confidence in the brand, and attracts a lot of attention. On the flip side, it can also convey anger or frustration. Note that in some cultures (Chinese, for example) the color red is strongly associated with happiness, so know your audience!

The infamous ‘red pen of correction’ is probably what red is most often associated with in the classroom. That certainly falls into the ‘attracting attention’ category, but students can often have a negative association to red markings on their paper. Try switching it up and using multiple colors when annotating your students’ work – easy to do especially if you have a paperless classroom and are making notes in Word or Google Docs. You can give them a legend or guide to what each color means at the beginning of the semester.

Yellow

Yellow evokes intellect, joy, and energy. Indicates fun, energy, happiness, and attracts attention.

Do you have something that you want your students to notice and get involved in? A project, field trip, fundraiser, or volunteer extra curricular project? Incorporate yellow into the ‘branding’ of your project.

Blue

Blue tends to evoke feelings of loyalty, trust, and intelligence. Blue is the most popular brand color, and is associated with intelligence and trust.

It is not surprising then, that hospitals use so much blue (and green, see below). Introducing a difficult new concept in class, or asking your students to head way out of their comfort zone? Incorporate some blue into your presentations and materials!

Green

Green is considered the easiest color for human vision, and is often associated with freshness, growth, and safety. Often used to indicate environmental friendliness, green can be used in any scenario that you want to evoke a relaxed, safe feeling.

Your classroom environmental initiatives can obviously be ‘branded’ green, but don’t forget that green is the color associated with “GO”, so take advantage of that! (Side note: Starbuck’s, green logo, caffeine, GO. Coincidence? I doubt it!).

Don’t underestimate using colors to talk about emotions and language directly in your classroom. Reading materials and visuals can come together as students discuss book or movie characters, their experiences and emotions, and the language that goes along with that. Talk about synonyms, antonyms, and alternate descriptions!

Post Source: http://www.edudemic.com/colors-in-the-classroom/

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