​We launched Luminaris in February 2015 as a simple idea to explore teaching and learning in higher education. I’ve written at length about different learning activities in higher education, Universal Design for Learning, 21st century learning design, technology tools and resources, and more. I’ve especially enjoyed interacting with readers via email and on Twitter. It’s a pleasure to be able to talk teaching and technology with colleagues from around the world.
 
The last six months have been a significant time of transition for me. First, I stepped down from an administrative position to come back to the faculty full time. In conjunction with this switch, I also am now the Co-Director of the Center for Innovation in Learning Design (CILD) in the School of Education at the College of William & Mary.
 
My intention was to continue to work on Luminaris, even as my responsibilities and projects multiplied. However, in the spirit of discernment, I’ve determined that it’s probably not realistic for me to continue to try to do it all. Therefore, I won’t be regularly updating the blog here at Luminaris.link. The posts and resources will remain here, but new content will be sporadic at best.
 
If you’re interested in reading about innovation in teaching and learning – and deeper learning in particular – I invite you to visit the CILD blog. I think much of the content that we develop there will be of interest to Luminaris readers. I hope to connect with you there!

I’m excited to be coming back to teaching full-time after two years in a hybrid administrative position. Particularly with my work on Luminaris, I’ve been giving considerable thought to new approaches I want to try out. Following up on my earlier post on discernment, I wanted to be more focused on what I want to emphasize this year, without taking on too much. After some thinking, I've decided to try different ways to encourage curiosity in my students.
 
Why curiosity?
I considered several different possibilities. I thought about student-centered strategies, although that was too broad to be helpful. I also thought about focusing on empathy for my students. I think seeing things from the perspective of our students can be really revealing and informative. It didn’t really do much to inform the kinds of activities to drive my teaching, though.  I also considered authenticity. This is one I considered for quite a while, as I think there’s great value when we can engage students in authentic tasks and projects. Ultimately, though, curiosity won out.
 
Encouraging curiosity in my students appealed to me because I feel like one of the most powerful and important aspects of learning is asking questions. Too often, our students look to us to pose the questions. It’s easy then for them to work to find the answers. What’s lacking in this approach, however is ownership and buy-in. When students ask their own questions or approach the course material with a curious mind, they are more likely to be invested and intellectually engaged in their learning. As students ask interesting and insightful questions, it also helps to keep things fresh for us.
 
How can we encourage curiosity in our teaching?

1. Model curiosity – One of the quickest ways to kill curiosity is to project the image that you have everything all figured out. If we intentionally or unintentionally communicate that the content is rote, the students will assume that their role is simply to absorb our wisdom. However, if we acknowledge the unanswered questions or debates in our field, this sparks students’ interest and curiosity. Similarly, if a student asks an interesting question, it can be a good thing to say, “That’s a great question. We’ll have to explore this together.” This not only models your own curiosity, but also invites students to contribute their questions and ideas.
2.  Encourage students to generate questions – Following up on the last point, it’s important to invite students to ask questions related to a reading, lecture, or activity. One obvious way to do this is to invite students to ask questions in class. With large classes, however, this can be more difficult. In many cases, students may be nervous to ask a question in front of their peers. Instead, encourage students to email, Tweet, drop you a note, or otherwise submit a question in a more anonymous manner. I also like to employ a physical or virtual “parking lot” for my classes. This is typically a physical space in the classroom where students can write out a question on a sticky note and either during or at the conclusion of class adhere it to the space reserved for this purpose. I typically use Padlet, a virtual corkboard where students can post questions anonymously. You can then either address the questions as they arise, at the beginning of the next class, or in a follow-up email to the class. In any of these formats, by encouraging students to ask questions, you encourage their curiosity. 
3. Engage students in full-on inquiry. In an earlier post, I explored the idea of levels of inquiry. In this model, projects can be comprised of activities that require increasing levels of student ownership in the process. At it’s most basic level an inquiry experience can simply encourage students to verify an idea, formula or concept that you present to them. At the next level, you provide a structure or series of steps for them to follow. Leveling up one more time, you can provide less structured guidance for them. In all these models, however, the instructor provides the focus and question that creates the parameters for inquiry. I think to really encourage curiosity in our students, we need to design open inquiry experiences for our students in which they specify a question and determine the process by which they will answer it.
     

These are just a few ideas for how we can encourage our students to be curious in our courses this year.
 
What strategies do you use to pique your students’ curiosity?

The old adage suggests, “You’ll have never have a second chance to make a first impression.” This is true in our interactions with others, but also with our students. Nothing sets the tone for a new semester like the first day of class. Blogger Michael Hyatt refers to making a positive impression as creating a “wow experience.”  While not an educator, I think the way he characterizes “wow” can be really instructive for us.

For Hyatt, creating a “wow” experience begins with first determining the specific expectations a customer (or student, in this case) brings to the experience. From there, you determine what both meeting and failing to meet those expectations looks like. With these in mind, think about what it would mean and look like to exceed their expectations.
 
Let's consider how we might create a “wow” experience for our students on the first day of class. First, though, let’s consider a typical first day.
 
What is a typical first day like?
On the first day of class, students are typically nervous, unsure or overwhelmed. If they registered for your course as an elective, they really have no idea what to expect other than the short blurb in the course description and what they hear through the proverbial grapevine. If they are a major in your department, they might have additional anxiety related to the pressure of doing well in their major course of study as well as to impress you as a potential mentor or advisor. They also might feel overwhelmed as they receive syllabi from all the courses and may be wondering how in the world they will get all the work done over the course of the semester.
 
So what do these students typically experience? Speaking for myself, I know that I’ve been known to go over the syllabus in painstaking detail. I’ve also gone to great lengths to explain my rationale for the course, why I structured assignments the way I did, research I’ve conducted, and more not-so-exciting activities. When I shift perspective and put myself in their shoes, I have a really different view of how I have approached the first day. It’s not exactly the kind of “wow” experience I’d like to create.
 
How might we “wow” our students instead?
This was essentially the question my colleague Lindy Johnson and I posed to our school’s faculty in our opening faculty retreat. Specifically, we asked small groups the following three prompts:

1. What specific expectations does a typical student bring to the first day of class?  What might they be feeling and thinking?
2. What does failing to meet students’ expectations for this experience look like?
3. What does exceeding students expectations for the first day look like?  How might you “wow” students to set the stage for a meaningful and engaging semester?

 
At the conclusion of this simple, 15-minute empathy exercise, our colleagues had some amazing ideas. Perhaps some of these ideas will inspire you as they did us…

• Begin class by introducing a controversial case to begin meaningful discussion and engagement right away.
• In a course focused on teaching reading, students develop timelines of books that have been very important in their lives and then share with a group. This helps to kindle the passion for reading and inspires students.
• Begin class with common false assumptions or misconceptions related to the focus for the class. This captures students’ curiosity and draws them in.
• Students begin by sharing in small groups the experiences in their lives that brought them to where they are today. The instructor then bridges this to encourage them to think about how the course might help them in future efforts.
• Because many students have anxiety related to courses, one instructor plans to encourage them to name and share their concerns about the course. The instructor can then tie back to these concerns to illustrate how the course will help them alleviate their fears.

 Sometimes developing empathy for our students can lead to simple or substantial shifts in our practice. Like a lot of elements of teaching, it’s important to remember that even small shifts in our practice to enhance the student experience can have a significant impact.
 
Armed with this new perspective and hopefully inspired by these new ideas, how might you “wow” your students on the first day of class?

If you skim through the archive for this blog, you can see that I enjoy experimenting with different technology tools and resources. I even wrote one post on how to take new tools for a test drive. I don’t just try new things willy-nilly or for the sake of trying something new. In fact, I set a pretty high bar for a tool before I incorporate it into my daily work or try something with a class. My personal time and our class time are just too precious to waste.
 
That said, the endless stream of new tools and resources do present new opportunities, efficiencies and teaching/learning affordances. With this in mind, each year I try to focus on a collection of new tools to test out and try to understand how they might or might not fit into my work and teaching. Sometimes new tools really fit for me. Other times they don’t. Of the five tools I mention in the blog post above, only two have really stuck with me.
 
What I look for in a technology tool
When I’m considering whether to try out a new tool, I try to determine if it helps to solve a problem or make something I do easier. For example, a colleague recently got me to try out Zotero to manage my research references. I had tried a number of these before, but always found them to be more trouble than they were worth. With Zotero, though, it is so easy to pull the reference in from either a library database (e.g., JSTOR) or even a Web resource. I haven’t used the bibliography creator much yet, but just storing and sharing resources is a tremendous advantage over how I have done it in the past.
 
When I’m considering a new tool for my teaching, I think it’s important to make sure it’s a good fit for what I’m teaching and how I want to teach it. For example, while Poll Everywhere is a great tool, it doesn’t lend itself really seamlessly for the smaller, discussion-oriented classes I typically teach. I’m sure there are ways I could integrate it, but I never want to force a new tool into my repertoire.
 
Finally, I think the design, interface and feel of a tool is really important. I’m a bit of a snob with how things look and work. I’ve been known to delete apps from my phone based solely on the look of the logo. I think this is important, because you have to enjoy using a tool to get the most out of it and integrate it in your daily routine. This is a particular strength of the five tools I suggest trying below.
 
Five tools worth taking for a test drive
Full disclosure – some of these tools I have used more than others. That said, the ones I’m less familiar with come highly recommended from colleagues I trust.

1. OneNote – After having tried several other note-taking tools, I keep coming back to OneNote. It is a very flexible, powerful, and easy-to-use tool. It’s particularly good on the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, there are apps for Mac, Windows, IOS, Android, Windows, and probably anything else you can think of. Your notes are stored in the cloud and thus automatically backed up and accessible across all your devices. If you need a powerful, flexible note-taking tool, I highly recommend it.
2. Canvas – On our campus, BlackBoard is the learning management system for academic courses. For years though, I’ve wanted to experiment with Canvas, an alternate LMS option.  Last year, a colleague and I designed a short course using Canvas and we had a great experience. So this year, I’ve designed one course in it completely to offer a hybrid learning experience for my students. What’s great is that you can create a free account and use it right away. So, if you’re designing an online or hybrid course, I’d encourage you to check out Canvas.
3. Zoom – Zoom is a free and powerful web conferencing tool. With Zoom, you can schedule a virtual room, share the link, and then interact with one or more students or colleagues using a powerful web conferencing platform. You can use it like a webinar, or in a more interactive way with audio or video. While I haven’t used this yet, I plan to use it for a couple of different experiences in my course this fall. Based on the recommendation of colleagues and my experience in setting up the rooms, I think it will be a great choice.
4. Zaption – Zaption is a tool that allows you to create an interactive learning experience from a YouTube video. After you create an account and paste the URL of the video from YouTube, you can add annotations, provide prompts for students to stop and consider, or create quiz questions time-stamped to different parts of the video. This is another tool that I haven’t yet used substantively, but I’m really looking forward to trying it out with a couple videos for my course this fall.
5. Eas.ly – Eas.ly is a Web tool that enables you to design infographics to create a visual representation of data. There are a number of these tools available, some for free and some paid, but Eas.ly looks very user-friendly and slick. I’ve begun creating an infographic on findings from research on educational technology in classrooms, and found it very intuitive and user-friendly. In fact, I’ve enjoyed it so much that I plan to require my students to create their own infographics for a class project.

What technology tool are you interested in trying out this year?
Please post your comments below. 

Welcome back from what I hope was a restful summer for you. If you haven’t taken time away yet, there’s still (a little) time. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did. I took nearly six weeks away from email, and I’m more rested and ready than any other time I can remember.
 
As we begin a new academic year, it can be tempting to be really ambitious about what we want to accomplish in our teaching, scholarship, service or leadership commitments. A new start is always brimming with opportunities. Unfortunately, focusing on too many of them means that you’re less likely to be effective in any.
 
I’m particularly conscious of this as I’ve just stepped out of a largely administrative position to go back to my full-time faculty role. As you can imagine, I’m really itching to get back to teaching and research. Over the last few months, I’ve identified far more opportunities than I can reasonably take on. Coupled with a desire to “re-calibrate” how I approach my career, I’ve been thinking a great deal about this over the summer.
 
Essentialism offers a different path
The first day I was really on summer break, I cracked open (or downloaded to my Kindle) a book I’ve been wanting to read for several months – Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. It’s an excellent book and I highly recommend it. McKeown’s thesis is basically that when we pare down our focus to only those activities where we can make the biggest and most unique contributions to our families, careers, and communities, we are much more effective than when we try to do it all.
 
This sentiment is strangely liberating. Rather than feeling the pressure of trying to do more and more, essentialism offers a different path and challenge. What we really need to do is to figure out what our best contributions can be and try as best we can to eliminate those that divert our attention. The challenge then is to learn to say no and be disciplined with our commitments. One suggestion that McKeown offers to help in this regard is to pick a word for the year.
 
Why you need to pick a personal word for the year
A word for the year is simply a way to direct your energy to what is most important for this year of your life. This one simple word can help you to be disciplined and quickly decide whether taking on a new opportunity is in line with your values and priorities. For my pre-tenure readers, the word might be something like “publish.” With a focus on teaching, your word might be something like, “listen” or “creativity.”  For leaders or administrators, it might be something like “delegate.” Whatever the word, it should capture your core values and priorities in a simple, tangible way.
 
My word for the year is “discernment.” I’m naturally both a people pleaser and an achiever. So, as you can imagine, my inclination is to say yes to any and every new opportunity – particularly if it’s a request from a friend or colleague. With McKeown in my head this year, I’m going to really try to stop and think about what I commit to. I’m going to leverage a simple phrase from Essentialism: “let me think about that and get back to you.” I think just having a little distance between request and response will really help me.
 
The other benefit of this word for me is to encourage me to really reflect on how a particular request or opportunity fits into my priorities and greatest contributions. I know this will be a challenge for me, but I think this word, posted in my office, on the homescreen of my phone and on the background of my desktop, will help me to make the most of my new opportunity as a faculty member.
 
What will your word be for the year?
Please post your comments below.