In an attempt to reduce stress and bring a little bit of tranquility and calm into my life, I’ve made a commitment to start meditating. I’ve tried several times before but always lost steam within a few days. In my most recent attempt, I found a really good app to get me started called 10% Happier. It’s a humorous and approachable introduction to mindfulness meditation. The highlight for me, though, is the amazing Buddhist teacher, Joseph Goldstein.
 
I appreciate the approach of 10% Happier and Goldstein primarily because it helps you develop your practice, but it doesn’t feel like too much pressure. One of the phrases that he weaves in to the different guided meditations is, “Simply begin again.” When you recognize that you’ve lost focus, rather than to get frustrated, angry at yourself or disillusioned, he instead urges you to simply begin again. Those are three powerful words. They have applicability way beyond meditation.
 
The end of the academic year is a great time to take stock, reflect, talk with others, consider priorities, and plan next steps. If you’re like me, you’re never entirely satisfied with how a course went. Or maybe you didn’t complete the writing project you’ve been working on. Or maybe your conference proposal or fellowship application wasn’t accepted. The great thing about working in academia is that we can simply begin again. Here are three things I’ll be working on this summer in this spirit of starting fresh.
 
Reimagining a course
I wrote recently about a faculty seminar I participated in focusing on Universal Design for Learning. The major outcome of the course was revising my course syllabus through a UDL lens. It was an interesting and productive experience. As I’ve thought more about it over the last few weeks and in light of an excellent course I’m taking on the Fundamentals of Online Teaching, I’m considering an even more radical redesign for the course. I’ve always enjoyed teaching it, but I really want to make an effort to truly personalize the experience for my students, so that the course topics, readings, and projects are driven by their needs.
 
In order to truly begin again, I thought it would be helpful to consult some others to generate some new ideas. I’ve talked with colleagues who teach similar courses at other universities. I’ve also done an abbreviated review of the literature. Finally, I’m meeting with practicing teachers next week to test some of my ideas with practitioners in the field for which I’m preparing my students. I’m confident that all these resources and ideas will help me to start fresh in the fall.
 
Resetting my scholarship
For the last two years, I’ve served as Associate Dean in my school. While it’s been a great experience in many ways, it really set me back in terms of my scholarship and writing. While I was able to work on some small projects and begin this blog, I’ve had to put the majority of my research on hold. It’s been a little disappointing, and I know it will take me some time to get back in the groove. But, this break has afforded me the opportunity to begin again with a clean slate.
 
With the benefit of having a little distance, I’ve been able to consider what I want my priorities to be for my scholarship. As a tenured faculty member, the direction and emphasis of my work is largely up to me. As I consider new research in the areas of innovation in learning design and engaging students in deeper learning opportunities, the ability to begin again has reinvigorated my desire for and ideas related to research.
 
Extending partnerships and collaborations
As I transition out of my current administrative position, I also have the opportunity to begin again in terms of my collaborations and partnerships. I now have the opportunity to nurture and extend some of the relationships I’ve developed with colleagues in teacher preparation and with our local school partners. I’m particularly excited to work more closely with my colleagues on professional development and research related to an innovative pilot program at a local high school – the Pathways Project at Warhill High School.
 
As one project winds down, it’s exciting to consider how to begin again with a new partnership or collaboration. We draw on our past experience and lessons learned as we engage in new efforts. If we’re reflective and apply what we’ve learned, each successive partnership offers greater potential for success or even transformation. We just have to have the courage and make the conscious choice to begin again.
 
What does it mean to you to “begin again”? 
Please post your comments below.

As we wind down another semester, it's time to consider student course evaluations. While there is certainly much discussion, disagreement, and critiquing of the validity and utility of student evaluations, I've found that they can be very helpful in informing my course design. The key is crafting questions that provide the kind of information that will be helpful to you as a teacher and instructional designer.
 
Standard course evaluation forms
My university uses a standard course evaluation form across courses which is required across the university. This standard form includes the typical kinds of items that I imagine are pretty common across higher education. For example, students are asked Likert scale questions about:

• The instructor's knowledge of the subject matter of the course
• The organization of content and learning experiences of the course
• The instructor's presentation and explanation of course content
• The instructor's openness to diverse opinions and questions

 
I'm sure your unit has similar standard questions. While I find these helpful, I like to ask a few additional questions that provide me with the information I need to modify the course content or my teaching in future semesters. We now have a way to do this within our course evaluation system. Prior to this, I used Survey Monkey to create a second course evaluation form for students to complete. Below I offer some suggested item types that you might find helpful in eliciting productive student feedback.
 
Mode and format
When trying out different course modes and options, it can be very helpful to get feedback on what the students think. For example, two years ago, I flipped much of the class, so that students would work through material prior to class time. For the most part it seemed to work well, but on the course evaluation form I created, students reported frustration with using several different technology tools during this time outside of class. The next semester, I pared down the number of technologies, and students responded much better to these outside activities.
 
Key elements of the course
In a similar vein, if you're trying out new elements in a course, you should ask specific questions to gauge students' engagement. Last year I implemented a three-week fully online activity during a primarily face-to-face course. I initiated this in part so that students could work more independently and at their own pace. On the evaluation form, however, students reported feeling isolated and disconnected from both me and their peers during this online module. In the fall, I plan to build in more opportunities for communication and collaboration to encourage this sense of connection.
 
New strategies or ideas
This semester, one of my colleagues is experimenting with Zaption - a tool that allows the instructor to create interactive, video-based lessons. The instructor selects and sequences video clips, interspersed with questions, discussion prompts, and other activities to guide the learning experience for students. While her in-class feedback on the activities has been positive, sometimes students are more reflective and/or honest in their feedback on an anonymous evaluation.
 
Assignments/activities
In my courses, I often have a number of different assignments and projects over the course of the semester. It can be difficult to judge, however, which of these experiences are most beneficial for students. Typically, I ask students to rank them in order based on what was either most interesting or most helpful in their learning. I've also offered opportunities for students to add comments on particular assignments as well.
 
Most significant experience
I've just recently started adding questions like this, "Please tell me about the most significant learning experience for you in this course. Be sure to include why it was particularly meaningful for you." This question has elicited some interesting and substantive responses from my students. When I see that a particular course reading, assignment or activity was most significant for a number of students, I know that I'll want to keep this in future iterations of my course. I also suspect that as I use this question across courses, I can better understand the kinds of experiences that are most powerful for my students.

What course evaluation questions do you find helpful?
Please post your comments below.

​On a recent trip, I flew out of JFK in New York. As we passed over the surrounding waterways, there were a number of ships of all shapes and sizes underway. I noticed that each ship, whether big or small, fast or slow, created its own unique wake; or the path or course of anything that has passed or preceded.
I’m not typically prone to deep philosophical thoughts at 30,000 feet, but I got to thinking that as we go through life, we all create our own unique wakes in relation to the people we encounter. As faculty members we stir up “water” in a variety of ways. We, of course, impact and influence our students. We interact with colleagues and staff members. We also participate in our local communities. When we consider all the people we encounter, it can be helpful to ask “who’s in my wake?”

We all leave a trail
I remember a history professor I had as an undergrad who always used to say, “We read for our degree.” He clearly and consistently communicated the value of reading deeply and broadly to expand our knowledge. A professor in my Masters program provided me the space, flexibility and extra time in his course for me to find direction in my emergent career path. I had a professor in my Doctoral program who epitomized work-life balance. While he was a serious scholar, he was never too busy to share a joke with one of the housekeepers, inquire after a sick family member, or buy a poor graduate student a cup of coffee.
I also had a professor who “motivated” us by belittling students who offered incorrect answers to the questions he posed. I was frustrated by the professor who didn’t bother to provide a single word of feedback on a semester-long project that I’d poured my heart and soul into. I sat through a 15-student seminar course with a professor who never bothered to remember our names.
We all leave a wake. How do we want our students and colleagues to remember us? What can we do today to be a positive influence and inspiration for those with whom we interact? Here are a few ideas:





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Who has had a positive impact on your own learning?
Please post your comments below.   

The further students move through upper level courses in their major and the more complex our learning goals for our classes become, the more student supports are required to help them be successful. The term we often use in education to describe these supports is scaffolds. While some disciplinary jargon can be trite or unnecessarily confusing, I really like the idea of scaffolds.
 
Scaffolding in construction projects provides the necessary support structure to enable the carpenters and other crew members to do their work. In building a skyscraper or even working up high on a home, these scaffolds are absolutely essential. When these supports are no longer required, they are gradually removed.
 
Learning scaffolds function in much the same way. They provide the necessary guidance and support that students need when they are new to a concept, procedure, or skill. When they are no longer necessary to enable students to be successful, they are removed so that students can function independently.
 
Common Learning Scaffolds
If you think back to English class in middle school, I’ll bet you remember being introduced to the “five paragraph essay.” This format consists of an introductory paragraph with an assertion, three supporting paragraphs with some form of evidence, and a summary concluding paragraph. This relatively simple approach to helping students to structure an evidence-based argument is a very concrete, albeit simplistic, way to help students develop the habits of mind for argument structure. Once students have some practice with this approach, the teacher removes this structure and encourages students to develop more sophisticated and creative approaches to convey their ideas.
 
And who can forget the classic atomic structure diagram with electrons orbiting neatly around the nucleus in a perfect circle? We later learned that the structure of an atom is much more complex and messy than this simple diagram reflects. However, these more sophisticated understandings are built with the help of this initial, more simplistic way of understanding the concept.
 
One interesting contribution by Tom Brush and John Saye exploring learning scaffolds in historical inquiry through computer based simulations is the categorization into hard and soft scaffolds (Brush & Saye, 2002). They define the two types of scaffolds in this way (p. 2):

• Hard scaffolds are static supports that can be anticipated and planned in advance based upon typical student difficulties with a task.
• Soft scaffolds are dynamic, situation-specific aids provided by a teacher or peer to help with the learning process

The two examples I offered above (i.e. five paragraph essay and atomic diagram) are what Brush & Saye would describe as hard scaffolds. They are built around an understanding of how students struggle with a particular concept or process and are designed to help the students overcome these obstacles. Other examples of hard scaffolds are pre-created concept maps that students complete, specific strategies to solve problems or work through an experiment, and structured case studies that walk students through the process.
Soft scaffolds come more in the form of “just-in-time” support during a learning experience. For example, when we see that a class discussion is headed off the rails or students seem to be developing misconceptions related to the topic, we can  redirect the conversation through a carefully formed question or simply reframe an idea. This can happen in an online discussion board in much the same way. To effectively facilitate a discussion online, we need to be “present” and interject strategically into the conversation when necessary. I have also stopped a class working in groups when I see multiple examples of questions or misunderstandings for a brief discussion or demonstration to get them back on track. These are not often issues you can anticipate, but these soft scaffolds can help to save the day in many instances.

How to Determine the Appropriate Scaffolds
 Whenever I’m teaching a topic or concept that I know or suspect might be challenging for students, I try to anticipate the trouble points. These can also be identified based on prior experience in teaching the same topic. In these cases, I work to develop some form of hard scaffold in advance that I may or may not choose to use in the class session, depending on how things unfold. It’s comforting to know, though, that I have a support planned out in case I need it. In other cases, I implement the hard scaffold from the outset. In either case, I try to determine the minimum level of support needed and try to remove it as quickly as I can to help students develop independence in their learning.
 
Soft scaffolds can be more tricky. If you’re like me, it can be difficult to think on your feet – particularly when a carefully designed lesson seems to be faltering. I do my best in these instances to redirect students, particularly drawing on past experience when it’s relevant. My other strategy is to “unpack” the class session afterwards and make notes on any challenges I encountered. As best I can, I then reflect on the experience to learn from the challenge so that I can better anticipate the need for a hard or soft scaffold in subsequent class sessions.
 
The reality is that teaching and learning is challenging stuff. Where we can anticipate challenges and put scaffolds in place, we should do so. Where we can’t, we try to adjust on the fly. In all cases, we should strive to be reflective and learn from our experience to grow as teachers.
 
What kind of scaffolds do you find effective?
Please post your comments below.   

A common misconception about the Amish is that they shun all technology. I certainly had this impression growing up in Indiana and watching the slow trot of horse-and-buggies along the side of the road. As a kid, I couldn’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to zip around at breakneck speeds behind the wheel of a sports car.

As an adult who now enjoys the more calm method of train travel to the more efficient 747, I better understand and appreciate their reluctance to adopt technologies as a default option. As a professor of educational technology, it may surprise you to know that I probably have more in common with the Amish in relation to technology adoption than I do with many of my peers in academia.

How the Amish approach new technologies
The Amish have always understood that technology is not neutral or value-free. The use of different technologies changes our relationship with our work, our leisure time, and each other. While Amish children learn to be intentional and skeptical about new innovations, I wasn’t introduced to this concept until my doctoral program in instructional technology at the University of Virginia.

The Amish are not opposed to all forms of technology. Many Amish communities share “phone shanties” – outdoor buildings with a communal phone that serves multiple families. Many own refrigerators and hire drivers when necessary to travel longer distances more quickly.  They don’t view technologies as inherently evil. They also recognize that technologies are not wholly good either. So how do the Amish determine when to embrace technology and when to avoid it?

An Amish community is organized according to carefully established communal values – reflected in the German word “Gelassenheit” which can be translated as “yielding to a higher authority.” One of the core values is that “the welfare of the community ranks above individual rights and choices.” It is through this communal lens that any new technology or innovation is viewed. A central question when considering adopting a new technology is the likely impact the technology will have on the community. Adam Graber explains it this way – “The Gelassenheit posture toward technology could probably best be summed up with this question: ‘Does it bring us together, or draw us apart?’… They think seriously about the long-term effects of technology, and about what technology does to them.”

We could use more of this kind of thinking in education – both in K-12 and higher education. Currently, there is an implicit assumption that more technology equals better/more engaged/deeper/more productive learning for students. In some cases, these assumptions may prove accurate. They may also have less desirable and/or unintended consequences as well. I think we can all benefit from a more deliberate, intentional consideration of technology in our teaching practice – particularly in regards to how its integration benefits or harms the learning communities of our classrooms.

Points to consider and examples of more mindful technology use
On her blog, Struggle to Victory, Kari Scare offers five tips for adopting an Amish approach to technology:

1. Be deliberate about the technology you choose to use and when you use it.
2. Don’t assume new technology is always better.
3. Consider if any given technology helps or hinders your life as a whole.
   
4. Ask if a technology will bolster or tear down your relationships.
   
5. Make simplicity a priority.
   

I actively try to consider these questions when I consider how and why I might integrate technology into a course or single class session. For example, in my first class session for Designs for Technology-Enhanced Learning course this semester, I asked students to put away their laptops and capture notes and ideas on paper for a portion of the class. Because they would be shifting back and forth between taking individual notes and working to synthesize ideas in small groups, I didn’t want the laptops to serve as literal and figurative barriers between the students – I wanted them to actively engage with each other.

For the rest of the semester, I have scheduled a number of expert guest speakers on different topics. During these presentations, I will ask students to use a customized Twitter hashtag as a kind of back channel conversation during the talk to share questions and comments. I’ll be monitoring the Tweets to pull out the most common questions and interesting points to begin the Q&A portion of the talks. In this way, the boldest students won’t drive the conversation. Rather, the most important and compelling points will shape the interactions.

Finally, all the courses I teach are hybrid, meaning that some sessions are face-to-face in the classroom together while others take place asynchronously offline.  While in some ways, these online sessions decrease our opportunity to learn from each other in community. They do, however, afford the students the opportunity to think more deeply, explore more broadly, and elicit feedback and perspectives from others outside the class in comparison with a face-to-face class. I very strategically and deliberately select those experiences that will benefit from these affordances when choosing what to put online.

A call to action
An Amish approach to technology integration shouldn’t encourage you to avoid technology use absolutely. It should encourage you to be more deliberate, intentional and mindful of the choices you make. Think about the impact that the use of technology will have on you, your individual students, and the larger learning community. A helpful metric is to ask yourself whether the use of a particular technology will bring you, the students, and the learning closer together or create additional distance. It's easy to be tempted to use the latest, trendiest technology in our teaching...can we take a step back and follow the lead of the Amish in inviting the use of technology into our classrooms? 


How do you determine when and how to integrate technology in your courses?
Please post your comments below.