Think You're An Auditory Or Visual Learner? Scientists Say It's Unlikely : Shots - Health Blog iStockphoto.com We've all heard the theory that some students are visual learners, while others are auditory learners. And still other kids learn best when lessons involve movement. But should teachers target instruction based on perceptions of students' strengths? Several psychologists say education could use some "evidence-based" teaching techniques, not unlike the way doctors try to use "evidence-based medicine." Psychologist Dan Willingham at the University of Virginia, who studies how our brains learn, says teachers should not tailor instruction to different kinds of learners. For example, if a teacher believes a student to be a visual learner, he or she might introduce the concept of addition using pictures or groups of objects, assuming that child will learn better with the pictures than by simply "listening" to a lesson about addition. In fact, an entire industry has sprouted based on learning styles.
Building An Online Learning Community by Kevin Wilcoxon “One thing is certain, learning communities are more engaging and members more engaged than is the case with traditional instruction.” How can an instructional designer (ID) leverage social interaction online to engage learners, increase exchange and dialogue, and get better results, without losing the purposeful focus provided by an instructor or traditional course content and structure? Many IDs are intrigued by the potential of communal experiences online, but there is a great deal of uncertainty about how to proceed. Here are a couple of cases that you may find interesting. Afterward, I offer a roadmap for producing similar results. Online Statistics course Michelle Everson teaches a Statistics course online. Each group is required to work on eight small-group assignments during the course or series. Online Operations Management course Joel Mencena teaches Operations Management online. Learning communities Figure 1. We can further specify each element of a learning community. Figure 2.
Using Piazza to Encourage Interaction [This is a guest post by Abir Qasem, who teaches intro to programming, AI, cloud, and device programming courses for the Computer Science Department at Bridgewater College. You can find him online or follow him on Twitter at @abirqasem.--@JBJ] In my introductory programming courses, my pedagogy relies heavily on collaborative problem solving during class time. A big challenge for me, until recently, had been getting the “quiet” students in my class to participate in class discussions. Piazza is a Web 2.0 tool that allows students to ask questions and engage in dialogue on the Internet with the professor and with each other. Click for full size. Piazza has a chatroom feel to it, while offering enough structure to be used effectively in a classroom environment. My initial goal was quite modest – I wanted to use it as an extension to the classroom discussion. Piazza captures class statistics, which can be interesting (see screenshot for “posts” vs. What I specifically did The bottom line
10 Infographics for Learning We all love infographics. Why? Well, they help us grasp information in a quick and fun way that appeals to our visual senses. 1. Knewton published an infographic on “Blended Learning: A Disruptive Innovation” that explores K-12 blended learning models by Innosight Institute and Charter School Growth Fund. 2. Voxy Blog published an infographic titled “Are We Wired for Mobile Learning?” Photo Courtesy of Voxy Blog 3. Rick Man posted an infographic, “Why infographics accelerate decision making,” that identifies the ways we traditionally present information versus the visual way we can present information through infographics. Photo Courtesy of Rick Mans 4. Matthew Bloch and Bill Marsh published an interactive map, “Mapping the Nation’s Well-Being,” on the New York Times this March. Photo Courtesy of the NY Times 5. Rasmussen College published an infographic titled “The Evolution of Online Education Technologies” that explores the evolution of learning from the 1700s through the Millenium. 6.
Pedagogy and Moodle Let's sit back and really reflect on the pedagogy that is at the core of what we, as online educators, are trying to do. Definition of Pedagogy One definition of pedagogy in Wiktionary says The profession of teaching The activities of educating, teaching or instructing Wikipedia has a much longer page on Pedagogy. Moodle in three short paragraphs The heart of Moodle is courses that contain activities and resources. There are a number of other tools that make it easier to build communities of learners, including blogs, messaging, participant lists etc, as well useful tools like grading, reports, integration with other systems and so on. For more about Moodle, see and particularly the main community “course” called Using Moodle. Social Constructionism as a Referent I have these five points on a slide which I use in every presentation I do. Jason Cole from Open University recently referred to these as “Martin's five laws” (ha!) Finding a balance Progression Community Hubs
The Procrastinating Caveman: What Human Evolution Teaches Us About Why We Put Off Work and How to Stop July 10th, 2011 · 63 comments Survivor: Paleolithic Edition Rewind time 100,000 years ago: several different species of humans co-exist on earth.There was, of course, our own species, Homo sapien, but we were joined by our more athletic siblings from the Tree of Life, Homo erectus, who had left Africa and colonized Asia long before we ventured beyond the mother continent, all the while another sibling, the stocky Neanderthal, was hunkered down in a European ice age. Advance another 90,000 years, however, and our species is the only game left in town. Scientists have worked hard to figure out why we survived while other early humans did not. The Planning Edge “The most obvious answer [to the question of Homo sapiens’ survival] is that we had bigger brains,” explains paleoanthropologist John Shea, in a recent article from BBC News. Complex planning is a subtle skill: it requires you to both conceive of future steps and evaluate whether these steps are a good idea. Let me flesh this out.
Best Embeds for Moodle, Wikis, and Blogs Apr26 Now that you and/or your students are using wikis and blogs, are you curious what could be added to them? From animated slideshows to collaborative documents to interactive review games, many great (and free) tools are available. As a follow up to my previous post “What Teachers Should and Should Not Be Posting on their Classroom Webpages”, I’ve pulled a master list of embedding options that will hopefully spark your imagination. As you browse the list consider how you will use these embeds. One note of warning, however. Good luck and again if you have any other suggestions please post them in the comments section. Collaborative Project Tools aMap is an excellent tool for social studies projects. Communication Tools to Parents and Students Google Calendar – I’ve become a big fan of Google calendar this spring. Photos Animoto –Animoto is a wonderful tool to make photo music videos that can be easily embedded on a wiki or blog. Student Products Videos
Do you think, “The Classroom Is Obsolete: It’s Time for Something New”? As I read the following article by Prakash Nair from Education Week, it began to make me wonder just where are we in education. Are we limiting our students’ growth and learning experience? Will technology change the obsolete classroom? Is there a need for those four walls? Can public education handle a transformation such as the one described in the article? What are your thoughts? Published Online: July 29, 2011By Prakash Nair The overwhelming majority of the nearly 76 million students in America’s schools and colleges spend most of the academic day in classrooms. The debate over education reform has been going on for longer than anyone can remember. Lost in all this hand-wringing is the most visible symbol of a failed system: the classroom. The classroom is a relic, left over from the Industrial Revolution, which required a large workforce with very basic skills. The classroom is a relic, left over from the Industrial Revolution, which required a large workforce with very basic skills.
Discussion Rubric University of Wisconsin - Stout — Schedule of Online Courses, Online Certificate Programs, and Graduate Degree Follow us on Facebook. This rubric may be used for self-assessment and peer feedback. * Open class discussion is an important and significant part of an online course. Original rubric developed by: Lynn E. Used with permission and adapted by Joan Vandervelde University of Wisconsin - Stout — Schedule of Online Courses, Online Certificate Programs, and Graduate Degree Readings on Authentic Assessment Examples of Other Rubrics
Community Forums Perhaps the larger questions are these: 1. To what extent are teachers selected into teaching based on their lack of critical thinking abilities? (Particularly their tendencies toward compliance, unwillingess to question authority, risk-aversion, high need for conformity, discomfort with ambiguity, perceived status as an oppressed class, etc.) It may just be that the structure and history of the profession has attracted a large percentage of people who simply don't apply critical thinking in their work -- even if they apply it regularly outside of work. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. If the ability to teach something to someone depends on possessing that something to a high degree, then it is vital that teachers have high degrees of critical thinking ability. if this is true, however, the only fix (if we care to fix it) is to create a system that selects differently -- and hope we can find enough different people to select. It's not the old saw that "you get what you pay for." Steve Peha
Moodle Tutorials ::: Educating Educators 50 really useful iPad 2 tips and tricks An absolute gem of an article by John Brandon and Graham Barlow from MacLife on 30th March over at TechRadar. This is going to become my iPad manual from here on in. Customised iPads for all iPad 2 tips and original iPad tips - get 'em here! iPad 2 review It's also fully capable of running the latest version of Apple's iOS operating system and great apps like iMovie and GarageBand. 1. iOS now supports folders. 2. Double-clicking the Home button shows you all the apps that are running on your iPad in a bar along the bottom of the screen. 3. The internet got mightily upset when Orientation Lock was replaced with Mute on the iPad during the last iOS update. 4. If you're carrying around sensitive data, you can now enable a feature that'll erase all the data on the device if someone inputs the incorrect passcode 10 times. 5. First, turn on Home Sharing in iTunes (Advanced menu) and on your iPad (Settings > iPod and enter your Apple ID). 6. Have you ever played Tap Tap Revenge on the iPhone?
30+ Moodle Videos and Tutorials by @sbrandt (nice work!) | Moodl Stumbled across this huge repository of video screencasts on Screenr.com last week and just had to share them. Shawn Brandt (@sbrandt) created them all and out of the nearly 80 videos he’s posted about 1/2 are all about Moodle. The topics range from beginner to more advanced and most videos are under 5 minutes. Note that many appear to pertain directly to a Moodle training course that is not available publicly. But that doesn’t detract from the great ideas and processes outlined in the videos. They include (but are not limited to), adding events and using the calendarusing assignmentscreating pages and resourcesdisplaying directoriesusing .zip files to upload multiple filesimproving your course aestheticsand so much more. Here’s a great one (creating a course that’s more learner-centric, For the full list of videos go to this link: And don’t forget to let @sbrandt know that the videos rock!