Over the past few years, I’ve been working on helping to develop a project called the Microsoft Technology Enriched Instruction (TEI) program. This is a professional development effort developed by faculty and sponsored by Microsoft to help college professors find ways to integrate technology in their teaching. It is structured around two frameworks. The first, technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), helps participants find ways to connect their disciplinary knowledge with their instructional approach in ways that utilize technology effectively. This part of the workshop helps faculty to identify ways the technology can support teaching and learning in their discipline.

In working with faculty from around the world, we found that many faculty also require some assistance in thinking about when technology will really make a difference in their teaching and their students’ learning. To address this need we’ve begun to draw on the 21st Century Learning Design (21CLD) framework. This framework was developed by Microsoft Partners in Learning in conjunction with SRI International and Innovative Teaching and Learning research program. In contrast to many other 21st-century skills frameworks, the 21 CLD framework is both research-based and very concrete in terms of classroom application.

The framework identifies six primary skills that students should develop as they progress through their education:
·      collaboration
·      knowledge construction
·      self-regulation
·      real-world problem-solving and innovation
·      use of ICT for learning
·      skilled communication
Along with the definitions for each of these skills, the framework offers detailed examples and rubrics of how educators can design learning experiences that address that particular skill. This framework appeals to me as a teacher in its specificity and the ability to think in terms of different levels of implementation. 

This 21 CLD framework has been very helpful in the TEI workshop in both providing a strong rationale for faculty to consider integrating technology into their teaching and in offering a vision for what this looks like in the classroom. If you’re interested in exploring ways to meet the needs of your students in the 21st century, increase the rigor and interactivity of your coursework, or challenge yourself to level-up in terms of what you ask your students to do, please check out the Partners in Learning website for an overview of the 21 CLD framework and associated rubrics for 21st-century learning design. If you’re interested in the Technology Enriched Instruction workshop, I encourage you to check out that site as well.

How do you integrate one or more of these skills and your teaching?
Please post your comments below.   

This time of year, classes can be canceled for a variety of reasons – particularly for snow. There’s always illness, power outages, and even hurricanes down here in the southern Atlantic states. Regardless of the cause, a canceled class can be very disruptive for the course schedule. If you’re like me, you have the course content mapped out carefully. And missing just one day can lead you to make some difficult choices about what to keep and what to let go of.

This past week, my doctoral course was cancelled due to incredible snowfall – practically five inches! (Readers from northern areas, feel free to snicker at this point). The challenge was compounded in my case because I had to schedule an online class for the following class session due to conference travel. This meant that I wouldn’t see my students for two weeks. I needed a plan to keep the students moving forward on schedule.

Some options to consider
Fortunately, a number of possibilities occurred to me:
1.     Record and share a lecture – This can be great for lecture-heavy courses. New tools enable you to capture audio with slides, or even embedded video clips of the professor along with the slides.
2.     Structure additional readings and online discussion prompts – When students can do some additional reading in lieu of meeting for class, this approach can be the simplest to implement.
3.     Offer a seminar-style audio or videoconference via Skype or Google Hangout – When “meeting” with your students is critical, common interactive tools can serve as an effective proxy for face-to-face discussion. This of course only works with a relatively small class.
4.     Design an independent learning experience with some sort of product (paper, reflection, essay) as a culminating activity – This approach is similar to #2, but can include a variety of sources and potential “deliverables.” When studying copyright and fair use policies, I once had my students create a handout that they could distribute to their own students that hit the salient points of fair use.
5.     Offer individual check-in sessions via Skype or Google Hangouts – In some cases - particularly if students are working on long-term projects during the semester – individual check-ins with students can be very productive. Again, this is more realistic for smaller classes. One variation of this is “virtual office hours” in a Google Hangout where students can drop in if they need to talk with you.

Any of these options would have enabled me to move things forward and preserve my “precious” schedule. In my case, recording and sharing a lecture or offering a seminar-style videoconference would have worked best given my relatively small class size (12 students). In order to choose between the two, I had to think about what would help me to cover the selected topics with the most fidelity.

My approach
In this case, the topic was one I had planned to introduce and build on in future sessions. Therefore, I’m not sure a seminar style class would have been as productive for this particular session compared with the later follow-up session. For this reason, I chose to do a screencast recording of my slides to introduce the topic.

To record a presentation in this style, I had three primary tools to choose from: QuickTime Recorder, Screenflow, or a new offering from Microsoft called Office Mix. Screenflow offers great options for screen sharing, recording video, editing, and a variety of ways to share the resulting video. In this case, however, my presentation was relatively short, so I was able to get away with doing a simple recording with QuickTime. It took me probably 15 minutes longer than the duration of my presentation to prepare, record, and share the completed video in BlackBoard.

 Office Mix is a really interesting (and easy) new possibility. It allows you to do either voice or video over your PowerPoint slides. In addition, however, you can also embed multiple choice or true/false questions, along with links to other materials, polls, and other features. I’ve enjoyed using it for another project that I’ll share down the road. In my next post, I’ll walk you through Office Mix, so you can see if it might work for you.

To sum, there are a number of ways and tools to help you to continue moving the class forward, even when classes are canceled. The key thing is to select the approach and tool that best fits the content and learning objectives for the class.

How do you keep things moving forward when classes are canceled?
Please post your comments below.   

When I’m planning my syllabi for the semester, one thing I always struggle with relates to required reading. In preparing for a class session, students need to build the requisite background knowledge so that they can engage effectively with the concepts and ideas addressed. The question I struggle with is how much is too much? If I go overboard in assigning readings, I know that a good number of students will just check out and not do the work. If I assign too few, however, they may not be prepared to engage as deeply in class.

Required vs. Suggested Readings
One thing that I try to do is, as honestly as possible, ask myself what readings are absolutely necessary for students to actively participate in the class session. It can be very tempting to add in those readings that would be nice for them to work through, but that aren’t really necessary. After all, when your steeped in your content, it can be hard to leave out those readings that may explore a nuance of the topic in more depth or a reading that is tangentially related.

I think it’s probably more productive to include the second category of readings as suggested readings. These kinds of readings can provide an entry point for those students who want to go deeper into the content than the required readings. We all know that some students in a given course will always read the suggested readings.  An even larger number will probably never read them.  Where this can be helpful is to encourage those students in the middle to dive deeper into a particular topic that speaks to them. When they see it as a choice, they may feel more empowered and less “put upon” to go deeper in their learning.

Crowd Sourcing Readings
Another way to approach supplemental readings is through crowd sourcing.  In my classes, I often post one or two suggested readings that I think may be interesting to students, but I also encourage them to suggest additional options. This works really well when students can post these directly to the course website if you’re using a collaborative web page tool like a wiki.  I’ve also encouraged students to Tweet their suggestions, using a custom hashtag for the course that I provide for them. If I’m not in a position to offer students either of these options, I encourage them to email me.  I then add them to the course website myself. I’m always careful to attribute the readings to the students who submit them. This provides them with the credit they deserve for taking the initiative to submit the suggestion.

Thinking Beyond Readings
Oftentimes, students assume that suggestions they submit should be scholarly works. In my field of education, this often equates to peer reviewed journal articles. While this kind of scholarly contribution is great, I think it’s important not to overlook other kinds of resources. Whether it’s a website, an editorial from a major newspaper, a video, or even an interesting infographic, these kinds of resources can provide engaging, valuable contributions as well.

At least for me, the key is sorting out what is most essential for the students to prepare in advance, and then providing options for students to extend their learning.

How do you determine what you should require? And how might you encourage students to offer their own suggestions?
Please add your comment below.

Education (and particularly post-secondary education) is preparation for life. We’re preparing our students to be more strategic thinkers. We’re preparing them to develop content expertise. We’re preparing them to be lifelong learners. If we’re teaching doctoral students, we’re preparing them for the academy. But are we preparing them for the skills they will need to thrive in their world?

“Since we live in an age of innovation, a practical education must prepare a man for work that does not yet exist and cannot yet be clearly defined.” -Peter F. Drucker

Recently, my colleague Jeremy Stoddard was leading an activity as part of our school-wide strategic planning process. In a design thinking approach, he asked us to identify what core elements of the William & Mary experience we should strive to maintain as well as those practices and approaches that we should consider letting go of or changing in some way. As part of the process, he shared an article from the New York Times written by Thomas Friedman called How to Get a Job at Google. It was an interesting angle for us to consider within the context of a university founded in 1693.

What skills might students need?
In the article, Friedman shares five key hiring characteristics that Google looks for according to Laszlo Bock, the senior vice president of people operations for Google:

• General cognitive ability – Bock contrasts this with both IQ and specific disciplinary knowledge (i.e., computer coding). Rather, they look for “...the ability to process on the fly. It’s the ability to pull together disparate bits of information.”
  
• Emergent leadership – Contrasted with formal leadership roles, Google looks more for the ability to step in and lead as part of a collaborative effort – and to know when to take a step back to let others lead.
  
• Ownership – Google values employees who take ownership of their work and the challenges they encounter, demonstrating a willingness to do what needs to be done.
  
• Humility – While Bock values both leadership and ownership, he suggests that they must also have the humility to step back and let others lead as well as to be willing to learn.
  
• Expertise – Interestingly, Bock purposely listed expertise last in the list of hiring characteristics. He argues that if you identify people with the other four characteristics, they can develop expertise related to their job in the context of their work.
  

In concluding the essay, Friedman notes, “Google attracts so much talent it can afford to look beyond traditional metrics, like G.P.A. For most young people, though, going to college and doing well is still the best way to master the tools needed for many careers.” It seems to me, though, that we might be able to find ways to integrate these and other skills and dispositions within the context of our instruction.  


What skills might you add to the list?
Please add your comments below.

Recently Clay Shirky wrote an interesting essay about why he chose to tell his students to put their laptops away in class. This is interesting because Shirky is an associate professor at NYU with a joint appointment in the Interactive Telecommunications Program and the Journalism Department who has been teaching classes about the Internet since 1998. Shirky is clearly no Luddite. So why did he ban the use of laptops in the classroom?

“I’ve stopped thinking of students as people who simply make choices about whether to pay attention, and started thinking of them as people trying to pay attention but having to compete with various influences…”

You’ll want to click the link to read the entire piece. It certainly is thought-provoking, even for a pro-technology teacher like me.

What is your policy and rationale for technology in the classroom?
Please post your comments below.