Create a classroom culture of inquiry and mistake-making

Adapted from codetribe.

It’s great if you can answer student questions, but you’re not always going to have the answer, and that is okay. Share with students the reality that the disciplines taught within Luddy are vast, where no one knows everything. Developing software and addressing big questions related to the ethical use of technology is not about having the answers, but about cultivating the ability to figure things out using your resources: your classmates, the internet, the libraries, and your instructor.

Encourage students to follow a personal empowerment protocol to figure things out when they have a question. Similar to, “ask three, then me,” (C3B4Me)

this protocol encourages students to…

• Ask a peer

• Google it / Look it up at the library

• Ask the instructor

This protocol both helps students become independent problem-solvers, and also helps ensure the instructor isn’t bombarded with questions.

Finally, normalize errors and mistake-making.  Every time you compile your code in front of the class, announce that you’re going to check for any errors, which are just a normal part of a programmer’s life. Whenever you get an error or when a student sheepishly confesses that they have 20 compiler errors, remark on how totally normal that is.

Go the extra step and get excited when a student says they have 20 errors, or even better, a “fatal error”! Model being unfazed by errors and in fact seeing errors as an opportunity to learn new things. As a teacher, helping students debug IS an opportunity for you to learn more about how to be a better teacher and anticipate a wider range of student errors!

When you model this attitude, students will follow suit. As a result, they will be less likely to get discouraged by 20 compiler errors and learn to celebrate them with you as a representation of all the things the class has learned.

Office Hours: Approaches to improve student engagement

Explain WHAT office hours are for, not just when
In The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students, Anthony Abraham Jack argues that “office hours” is a classed term and one of many ill-defined yet consequential activities for undergraduates. The expectation that students attend office hours often goes unsaid and feeds into what Jack calls a “hidden curriculum” that further places low-income students at a disadvantage. Jack recommends faculty explain what office hours are, not just when you hold them. “I remember feeling apprehensive about communicating with faculty as a first-generation student. For a long time, I thought office hours was reserved for academic crisis rather than ordinary course-related inquiries. I recommend a more expansive definition of office hours that reframes the time as a student-centered resource and takes a holistic approach to teaching”. – Consider renaming office hours to “student hours” or another student friendly term.
 
Be Consist
Be consistent with when and how you’ll hold your virtual office hours. Have the link to your office hours listed on your syllabus, on your office door, in your LMS, at the end of your PowerPoint slides or other lecture tools each week and remind students of the link in your weekly announcements.  Keep the hours consistent.  Just as you hold your class at the same time and day each week, do the same with your office hours. For students learning how to self-regulate, this type of structure helps with student efficacy in planning for success.
 
Use A Scheduler that will allow students to make appointments
If possible, have an easy way for students to sign up for a specific time to meet with you; you could try sharing a Google Calendar appointment link. I strongly recommend using Canvas’s scheduler 

The more opportunities students have to see when you are available, the more likely they are to jump on and join. One final note: if you have some flexibility, consider asking your students when they would prefer you be available to help them outside of class. Once students have a stake in selecting your office hours, they’re more likely to take advantage of those times.
 
Consider Incentivizing attendance.

​Give students an incentive to come. Students are more likely to attend virtual office hours if you’re doing something they enjoy and value.

• ​​Use office hours to play games with the course content, and then give away small prizes to the “winners” like a point of extra credit, or a voucher for something they value. Examples include: “turning in one assignment up to 24 hours late with no penalty”

• You can also utilize digital quizzing tool like Top Hat where students can deeply engage with digital content like videos, pictures and web links, but my students also love traditional games, like bingo using key terms or concepts.

• Tools like Free Bingo Cards can allow you to create the cards, and then distribute these electronically to anyone that attends the office hours. During the game, students hear questions such as, “What word describes the technique where a function calls itself?” Students would have to know the answer is “recursion,” then see if they have it on their bingo card.

• Let students use their books and notes during these games so they’re actively engaging in the content. Then, ask a student who had the correct answer on their bingo card to share the answer and provide an example to the other students.

These types of games can not only be fun to students for exam reviews, they’re great formative assessment activities to see where your students are with the course content.
 
Make it relevant.
Use Google alerts to identify possible real-life examples of what is taking place in the class or find an accessible research article to discuss. Once or twice during the semester, select an interesting and relevant article and provide a link to the students telling them this article will be the focus of your office hours. Record these discussions for students who cannot attend in person so they can watch later if they choose.
 
Use live coding
Rather than using slides, instructors can create programs in front of their learners (this tip comes from this great article:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006023 and has a bit more detail as to why it works).
 
Provide study ideas
There are many strategies that can be used for any class, but some subjects have specific strategies that work particularly well for that class. Provide tips about ways students might consider studying or taking notes for your class.

Get Feedback
Ask students about their classroom experience. Students are poised to evaluate your pedagogical practices better than anyone else. Let’s say a student is seeking clarification on a confusing term. You can follow up by asking what, if anything, would have better clarified the term in class. It’s likely that they will comment on the pace of lecture, which provides you with priceless feedback for improving lecture comprehension (e.g., slowing down, repeating main ideas, introducing fewer terms per class, or making more time for discussion).
 
Foster connections
Lastly, and this is a big one, be proactive during your office hours to reach out to students and engage.

• ​Lead by asking how a student is doing instead of waiting for them to pose a question.

• Did a student answer a question in class in an exceptionally insightful way? Send the student an email acknowledging the great contribution made during the class discussion.

• Did a student miss class? Send an email telling them their absence was felt and remind them the lecture was recorded and is available in the LMS (if applicable). – The attendance tools in Canvas might help with this task https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Basics-Guide/What-is-the-Roll-Call-Attendance-Tool/ta-p/59

• Do you have an athlete/performer/musician that recently had an event? Send them a note of congratulations and recognition.

• Is it almost time for registration? Send students individual reminder emails via Canvas and tell them about a course they have to look forward to next semester.

• Is there a big paper coming up? Send a note to a student who struggled with the first paper and ask if they’d like to schedule a time to discuss their concept.

• Finally, use this time to reach out to students and ask them to “help” you during the next synchronous class session by having an example ready to share when you discuss a specific topic or describe a concept in their own words. This builds engagement during the synchronous session, as well as creates a connection with the student

Slack in the Classroom

Slack provides a reliable, easy-to-use, platform-agnostic chat and instant messaging service that faculty and students have many locations, including Luddy, have readily adopted. The articles below examine the different ways faculty have repurposed Slack to meet their pedagogical and administrative needs. Examples include using Slack as an email replacement; as well as for academic and social discussions; increasing engagement; interviews with experts, polling; and file storage. They also detail how well features such as external app integration with YouTube, Microsoft OneDrive and Azure work for them in Slack. Additionally, they explain how students can use Slack for group work, crowdsourcing notes, and creating resource repositories.

Evan Peck, Bucknell HCI discusses how he used Slack across 5 different courses in his department’s Computer Science curriculum. https://medium.com/bucknell-hci/how-i-use-slack-in-my-courses-a-3-year-reflection-888c7e742d04 A summary of the tips he shared in this article include:

• If you use Slack, throw away course email and commit to it. (Please note: Sameer Patil provided me with this information in regards to using Slack for email (thanks Sameer!):

In terms of using it for official IU purposes (especially teaching, which has FERPA implications), please note Slack is not currently an IU enterprise system.

UITS informs me that “Slack is subject to all other policies like data management, SSSP, IT-28, acceptable use agreement, etc. If someone wants to use Slack, they should fill out the SSSP and describe how they will use it, what kind of data, and audience, and then the data stewards, purchasing, and security and privacy offices will vet the request.”​

My apologies for the confusion.

• Slack can be used to increase engagement and interactivity amongst your students. Feel free to contact me for clarification on how to keep those activities FERPA compliant.

• Don’t create too many channels for critical information (homework)

• Leverage the creation of new channels for non-critical information (interesting articles, etc.)

• Use Slack outside class to create assignments that involve an interactive component between students (it’s what Slack is good at!).

• Use Slack during class as a low-barrier mechanism to share information (both from you to students as well as from the students to you).

• In project-based classes, Slack will help facilitate behind-the-scenes communication between groups.

• Posting metrics can provide additional feedback about assignments.

• Use Slack as a way to make learning more playful

Phil Simon, a lecturer at Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business, and author of Slack for Dummies https://www.philsimon.com/blog/trends/use-slack-inside-classroom/ explains, “I can take the temperature of the room anonymously. This makes it safe for students to address potentially controversial themes,” he says. Perhaps most importantly, it empowers students to take initiative…

Christina Paxman, an Assistant Professor of Broadcasting and Professional Communication at Minot State University shares in this paper presented at the National Communications Association https://www.natcom.org/sites/default/files/pages/eTools_Slack_January_2018.pdf   how she uses Slack as a file storage system, and takes advantage of Slack’s app integration features.

Engineering Lecturer Jennifer Bernstein provides current students at Johns Hopkins University https://ii.library.jhu.edu/2019/04/12/using-slack-in-the-classroom/ opportunities to interview recent grads about their experiences working in the medical field.

There are many more ways that Slack can help support your teaching, learning, and communication needs. Do you want to share how you use Slack, or a similar tool in your class?  Or, do you have questions about which tools  best support your personal teaching needs or student learning outcomes?  Drop in on the first Monday of each month, for an informal conversations around teaching and learning. Next month (02/01/2021 at 11:00 AM) we will chat about the different ways Slack, Group Me, Microsoft Teams, and other tools can be used to communicate with students:  https://iu.zoom.us/j/81576128938 . ​

Pre-Course Survey

One way to improve engagement with your students is to learn more about them. A precourse survey is one way to help develop a connection with your students, and get to know them beyond what is shared in an introduction discussion.

What do you want to know about them?

Diligent student in college with classmates, taking notes of teacher lecture.

A survey can help you conduct a needs assessment about where your students are at in terms of prior knowledge, demographics, mindset, learning preferences, goals, content confidence level, preferred feedback style, and/or access to technology.  Because this takes place “behind the scenes” and is only shared with the instructor, rather than in a public discussion forum, you may be more likely to receive candid responses.

What strategies and skills will students need and/or develop in your course?

These kinds of questions can help students flex metacognitive skills and become more aware of their learning habits. As an instructor, this can help you provide more specific feedback on student work, suggesting similar strategies and stretch goals.

• Reflection on Strategies: Metacognitive reflection questions ask how students get things done. Do you take marginal notes or highlight as you read? What conditions do you need to do your best work?

• Planning Ahead: Beyond what has worked for students in the past, you might ask about strategies they will use specifically in this class. What times each week do you have earmarked to work on this course?

• Setting Goals:You might ask them to review the learning objectives, asking what they will commit to accomplishing. And beyond the learning objectives for the course, are there other skills or competencies they plan to work on in the course? Do they have any suggestions for the instructor about strategies for helping meet those goals?

During the first week of your course

Providing students with an opportunity to quiz themselves not on the course topic but on the course itself–how to get started in the course, how to navigate the course, what the course should help students accomplish, and how the course is structured–can help instructors send fewer emails saying, “It’s in the syllabus!”

Given multiple choice or true/false question types, these kinds of pre-course surveys can be automatically scored. Don’t forget to compose feedback for incorrect responses and allow multiple attempts!

What tools are available?

IU supports the Qualtrics survey tool and Canvas includes a dashboard feature that allows instructors to create a type of quiz called ‘ungraded’ that can be used as a survey. In Canvas, once the survey, or ‘ungraded quiz,’ is published online, students can login to their Canvas course page and participate. IU also has access to Google Forms and Microsoft Teams (Microsoft Forms are Available in the Channel and Chat features) for quick survey and quiz creation.

If you’d like support implementing a pre-course survey or questionnaire in your online class, or in any other aspects of teaching and learning, please contact me at your earliest convenience with your availability.

Happy New Year! New Publications in 2020 and 2021

Happy New Year,

I have not kept up on my post…so as you may have guessed, one of my New Year Resolutions is related to writing. To hold myself accountable, I enrolled in a writing class. However, I should mention that just because I haven’t shared a post hear in a while does not mean I have not been productive (writing wise anyway: see Google). My most recent publication is an edited book that I was fortunate enough to work on with Dr. Erik Byker. The Title is Elementary Education: Global Perspectives, Challenges and Issues of the 21st Century.

The book is organized into three sections: (1) context, (2) competencies, and (3) content. The context section examines the historical and current context for elementary education from international perspectives. The competencies section focuses on the skills and dispositions necessary for pre-service and in-service teachers to navigate the contours of elementary education in a global age. The content section explores elementary education subject matter—largely in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)—that will continue to eminent throughout the twenty-first century. Elementary Education: Global Perspectives, Challenges and Issues of the 21st Century is a timely book for internationally-minded educators, government leaders, parents, practitioners, and policymakers for gaining deeper insight into the critical role of elementary education in preparing children for our dynamic, interconnected, and globalized world. For more information on this book, click here.

Quick Updates - March 2017

At the beginning of this month, I was elected to serve as president of the Culture, Learning and Technology Division of AECT. I have served as VP of Communications for the past few years and am grateful for this new opportunity.  Also, I am happy to be part of the following edited volumes released this year:

• The chapter with Keith Heggart and Erik Byker in Culture, Learning and Technology: Research and Practice  describes how hip hop can be used as a pedagogical tool.
• The chapter in Learning and Knowledge Analytics in Open Education with Wei Zakharov,  Pat Reid, James Willis, and Donalee Attardo examines best practices for faculty interested in integrating social media into their pedagogical practice, and
• In the Handbook of Research on Teacher Education and Professional Development, Christopher Seals, Inese Berzina-Pitcher, Punya Mishra discuss the philosophies and practices that drive the MSUrbanSTEM Leadership & Teaching Fellowship Program.

I have four more publications in progress and look forward to sharing more about them later this year.

Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership by the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA)

A colleague ( C. R. Wright ) recently shared with me the recently published report on the Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership, by the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA). Below are the key leadership qualities identified in the publication:

1. Advocacy and Leadership within the University: Those charged with leading an enterprise must build internal alliances, and reflect the larger goals, values, and strategies of their institutions.
2. Entrepreneurial Initiative: Recognizing that online education is inevitably about innovation, experimentation, risk, and imagination, emerging leaders must have the skills and creativity to facilitate responsible change.
3. Faculty Support: Leaders must envelop their faculty with the tools they need to create education equal to, if not exceeding, that of the traditional classroom.
4. Student Support: Recognizing that online students demand a learning experience at least comparable to that on-campus, leaders must be ongoing advocates for students earning their degrees remotely from their institutions.
5. Digital Technology: Leaders must provide an environment that is current, dependable, and rich in the creative use of tools to enhance learning, interaction, and program integrity.
6. External Advocacy and Leadership beyond the University: Since online enterprises must represent their institutions to an often skeptical public, leaders must be an authoritative voice to regulators, accreditors, alumni, members of the business community, and many others.
7. Professionalism: Recognizing that emerging entities need policies and practices that demonstrate the integrity of a profession still establishing itself, those leading the growth of online learning must exemplify the highest ideals and contribute to a growing professional community on a national scale.

While all of these ideas are paramount, I have been spending quite a bit of time examining the idea of what the term "Entrepreneurial Initiatives" means not only for institution of higher learning , but the student. While the report focuses in on the online class as part of the brand of a university (the concepts and ideas of which are worthy of its own blog post), considering how authentic assessments can be used by students in a similar type of branding can be valuable in certain educative contexts. I work with educators and help them think through not only how their work in the online environment can be applied in the real world, but how how representations of their work can be used to create their personal brand beyond web portfolios. I am interested in how other disciplines view this idea, as well as more perspectives of what it looks like in the K-12 setting. Feel free to share your ideas in the comments.

MSU Urban STEM

I have been fortunate to work with this program for the past two years as an instructor and contributor to the curriculum. I have learned so much from the teachers and look forward to see their projects continue to grow, as well as share the ideas with more educators.

The MSU-WIPRO STEM & Leadership Teaching Fellowship program is the culmination of the partnership between global tech giant Wipro, Chicago Public Schools and Michigan State University's College of Education. Fellows participate in an innovative year-long integrated learning experience to build STEM teachers' capacity to lead and inspire innovative practice in urban K-12 schools. This video highlights some of the experiences and takeaways of the 49 members of the second cohort. For more information on this project, please visit http://www.msurbanstem.org/.

AACE SITE 2016

Last week I was honored to present at my second SITE conference. This year it was in Savannah, Georgia. SITE is always a wonderful opportunity to share work and to connect with colleagues. I was involved in a symposium with the amazing MSU Urban STEM team.  Our symposium was titled: Reinventing TPACK, STEM Teaching and Leadership in an Urban Context

This symposium discusses the pedagogical make up and impact of the MSU-Wipro UrbanSTEM & Leadership Fellowship program on teacher practices, efficacy, and competence. We will describe our instructional approach, which uses the educative experience (Dewey, 1938) involving real world, hands-on engagement with technological devices, pedagogies, and teachers’ relationships to STEM content. Our fellowship program is driven by TPACK (Technology Pedagogical Content Knowledge) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) framework. We will discuss curriculum and practices highlighting several teachers from program. Specifically, we will focus on their teaching experiences showcasing how they creatively integrate technology into their pedagogical practices, with an emphasis on creativity and aesthetics. Among the presenters in this symposium are the leaders of the project, members of the instructional and research teams from the university, and participants from Chicago Public schools.

I have included my section below:

It was also great to catchup with several MSU College of Education alumni

View fullsize

AACE SITE 2016 - Savannah, GA

Grant Writing Resources

After writing a couple of small grants successfully, I decided to take a few grant writing courses to learn more about the types of grants available and the resources related to grant writing for a wider variety of contexts. I recently worked with Candace Marcotte and Kyle Shack to develop content for a mini workshop aimed at helping K-12 STEM educators locate funding for classroom tools and projects. The workshop was presented to fellows in the WIPRO MSU Urban STEM program. Below are a few tips and resources we shared with the teachers. Feel free to comment below with feedback on how this list can be expanded: 

1. Find out the protocol for soliciting funding via your school/district.
2. Locate Sources: Visit your regional funding library to get a first list of potential foundation, corporate, and government funders.
3. Network with Potential Partners: 
   1. community members
   2. community groups
   3. service organizations
   4. local businesses
   5. corporations
   6. individuals with resources
   7. VIPs
   8. local politicians
   9. government officials
   10. foundation program directors and program officers
   11. corporate contributions representatives
4. Language: Read application guidelines carefully, you will learn the language, or buzzwords, that they use to express their mission and programs. The way that you tell a funder that you share the same goals and objectives is to include their key language or buzzwords in your proposal.
5. Needs Statement: Develop a set of  goals and measurable objectives you wish to achieve with the funding. If you can, construct an elevator pitch that can convey the essence of your needs in 90 seconds or less.
6. Contact: Make introductory phone calls to verify and clarify the funders' application guidelines (some funders will expect e-mail communications).
7. What to say:  When speaking with a representative of a funding agency, share:
   1. Your name and your position within the organization.
   2. Your organization's name and mission.
   3. A one-sentence statement about the problem that your organization is working to solve, with one or two relevant statistics.
   4. One or two recent major accomplishments that relate to this problem.
   5. A one-sentence statement about the programs that need support.
   6. At the end of the conversation,  thank you for your time
8. What to ask:
   1. Is the funder interested in supporting your organization or program?
   2. What programs are they specifically interested in supporting?
   3. Which areas of the proposed program are they most interested in funding?
   4. What is the appropriate amount to request?
   5. What are the next steps to take in requesting support?
9. Follow Funders Guidelines EXACTLY.
10. Remember to tell a story when writing the proposed program paragraphs.