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Field Guide: Annotating Student Work

4/4/2016

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As faculty members, it’s easy to get inundated with student work. I like to do as much grading and feedback with as little paper as possible. I prefer to do this digitally, not only to minimize paper, but also to keep a record of the feedback I provide, pass work back and forth electronically, and have the flexibility to provide this feedback wherever I happen to be.
 
I’ve tried numerous tools over the years, and have always run into difficulty. Using the commenting features in Word works great, but I really prefer to provide feedback in handwritten form. I like being able to highlight sections, draw diagrams, and add different marks in the margins. At last, I think I found the ideal solution and I wanted to share it with you.
 
Digital Annotation with Word on the iPad
In this Luminaris Field Guide video, I walk you through how I use Box.com, the Word app, and the iPad to easily and naturally provide handwritten feedback to student work. While I demonstrate the process with a 12.9” iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil, the process works with any iPad and any stylus. I hope you find the video helpful and informative.
What other tools and strategies do you use to annotate or provide feedback on student work?
Please post your comments below. â€‹
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Getting the Most out of Professional Conferences

3/28/2016

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Each year I attend several academic and professional conferences. These experiences cost a significant amount of time and money, so I try to get as much out of them as possible. I try to learn as much as I can, both in sessions and through conversations and meet-ups. I’m not a particularly outgoing person, so this is a struggle for me. It is certainly worth it, though, to make this effort to take away as much as possible from the experience.

I’m flying back from my second conference in the last few weeks and I’ve been reflecting on how I try to make the most out of the experience. It was helpful for me to think through the following tips.

Embrace the Hashtag
Many conferences publicize a specific Twitter hashtag so that as attendees tweet, they can be identified and tracked. This is very helpful to both publicize a session that you might offer as well as to find out about other interesting sessions. I also pay attention to tweets during sessions to see if there is an interesting presentation that I might be able to pop into if nothing piqued my interest in the program. I came upon one of the most interesting sessions at my most recent conference in this way. I never would have picked it out otherwise.

Tweet your Notes
I tend to tweet during sessions to share interesting ideas or quotes using the conference hashtag. I like the idea of promoting others’ work and it keeps all my notes together in my Twitter timeline for easy reference. If the presenter shares her Twitter name or if I can find it online, I always mention them as well. This not only helps to spread ideas that may be of interest to folks who follow me, it’s also a way that I can keep track of things that interested me so I can go back to them later.

Make Connections
Taking notes in this way helps me to connect with the presenters and other attendees. As I see folks tweeting about similar ideas that I’m interested in, I often view their profiles and end up following them. These are often some of the people I end up resonating with and learning from after the conference. It’s also a great way to make connections and arrange to meet at the conference. This can be a really productive way to make a connection around a particular topic or idea. It’s been my experience that people appreciate it  when you reach out to them in this way – particularly if you offer to buy them coffee.

Capture Images
Whether as a part of tweets that I share or in my note-taking app, Noteshelf, I often take pictures of slides with interesting content. Sometimes snapping a quick photo is more efficient and effective than trying to capture the idea in words. It’s particularly helpful when the presenter uses an interesting visual or diagram. Sometimes I’ll use my phone’s camera, but I’ve also been known to hold up my iPad Pro to snap a shot. While it may look a little ridiculous, it’s a great way to capture an idea.

Save the Paper
​When I want to dig deeper into the content of the presentation, I’ll often look up the paper associated with the talk. Many conferences now have Web sites for the proceedings that are available to attendees. I find that if I don’t do this while the idea is fresh in my mind, I’ll often forget to do this after the conference. I usually save the document in Evernote to read on the flight home or when I get back to work. If the proceedings aren’t immediately available, I’ll create a task in Todoist to prompt me to do it once I’m back in the office.

Reflect
This last one is the one I really need to work on. It’s easy to get fired up about ideas when you’re actually at the conference. Once you step off the plane back home, though, the reality of a full inbox, papers to grade, and meetings to attend to sets in quickly. It’s easy to not take the time to reflect on and synthesize what you’ve learned. I’m trying to be better with this by reviewing my notes (and tweets) on the way home and create action items in Todoist to encourage me to follow up. I also like to try to block the next morning on my schedule when I return to the office to really make the most of these notes.

What strategies do you use to make the most from your professional conferences?
Please post your comments below.


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Analyze and Revise your Syllabus from a UDL Lens

3/21/2016

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I’ve had the pleasure of working with a group of colleagues from across our university in a faculty seminar focused on finding ways to personalize learning for our students. We’ve approached this using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a framework to guide our discussion and design efforts. Recently, I wrote about an activity in which we focused on removing unnecessary barriers from our teaching. We’ve each chosen to work on one element of a course we teach. I decided I’d analyze and revise the syllabus for one of my courses to more fully integrate UDL principles.
 
The process
For this exercise I selected a course that I teach each year, Designs for Technology-Enhanced Learning. The course is part of our teacher preparation program and challenges students to identify, assess, and select technologies to support their teaching practice. It’s a two-credit course that meets once a week for 15 weeks. You’ll see the basic outline of the course below.
 
In order to analyze my course, I dissected the process of the course in terms of the three UDL principles:
 
- Principle 1 – how do students access content and concepts in the course (e.g., readings, materials, presentations, etc.)?
- Principle 2 – how do students interact with each other and express their understanding?
- Principle 3 – how are students engaged in their learning (e.g., real world audience, authenticity)?
 
Rather than try to make sure that each week of the schedule addresses all of the principles, I focused on taking the semester-long view to create a balanced experience for the students. Below I discuss a summary of what I learned about my course and how I plan to modify it for the fall semester.
 
The (old) course
In terms of principle 1, my analysis revealed that I relied almost exclusively on Web-based readings and class discussion to introduce students to the course content. In some cases, I gave students some choice in their reading – but all text-based readings. I also noted that during class I only used one brief slide-based presentation the entire semester. Instead, I relied on class discussions and demonstrations. While this would be considered a more student-centered approach, many students enjoy and benefit from brief lectures and the ability to access the slides afterwards.
 
For principle 2, I think the projects I employed provided at least some options for presenting their understanding. For the first assignment, students had the option of writing a paper or creating a Web resource. They also had choice in terms of the focus of their research and curriculum development project. I also set up some course experiences where they worked together in class and through asynchronous online work.
 
For engagement, I relied mostly on student choice to motivate students in their learning. Many of the projects they completed and materials they developed could be used in their teaching placement. This contributed to authenticity for the assignments. In reviewing the syllabus I also realized that there were opportunities to frame the work in more interesting ways as well as to provide students with an authentic audience for their work.
 
The (revised) course
After I realized that I relied so heavily on Web-based texts and class discussion, I made a concerted effort to provide more variety for my students to access the course content. The first change I plan to make is to incorporate five brief slide-based lectures to introduce topics. I will then post these slides on the class Web site so that students have access to them for future reference. I also have identified several video clips, podcasts, and infographics that connect with course topics. I plan to allow students to select from among these different options for each outside reading. I like the idea of one core reading (or video) with additional options in different formats.
 
I don’t have any major changes in mind for principle 2. I may offer multiple options of “deliverables” for the major topics, but there is already a good variety of ways for students to express their understanding during the semester. I think I may also formalize an opportunity for students to propose an alternate product that would meet the learning goals.
 
In terms of engagement, the one real missed opportunity I identified relates to audience. One way to encourage students to really grapple with the content and maximize their effort is to provide an audience beyond the class. Because the products they create are digital (slides, Web-based content, etc.), it’s easy for them to share their work. In the course, we explore social networks (particularly blogs and Twitter) as important elements of their personal learning networks (PLN). It would only be natural to ask students to consider how they can share what they learn and create to “pay it forward” to others in their PLN. It could be different for each student, but if they know they will share what they create, I suspect they will have more ownership and invest themselves more in the process.  
 
While I’m not sure I identified any mind boggling new opportunities in this process, I found it helpful to see the course through my students’ eyes in these three areas. I teach about UDL (including in this course) and have significant experience in UDL course design, but I still found multiple ways I could strengthen my approach. I hope that this simple process may inspire you to consider your own course with a UDL lens.

What might you change about your course to better incorporate UDL principles?
Please post your comments below.

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Developing Meaningful Projects

3/14/2016

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One of my favorite parts of teaching is designing and then facilitating student projects. I feel like students derive a lot of benefit from working with simulated or authentic tasks that are relevant to my course work. Whether it be an inquiry project, a service learning experience, a case study or some other learning activity, I really value challenging my students to apply what they’re learning in the form of a project.
 
I don’t know about you, but I find that I meet with mixed success in these efforts. Some projects work really well while others don’t go nearly as smoothly or don’t seem as valuable. In other words, not all projects are created equal. I recently read a great post on the Creative Educator blog called, What Makes a Good Project. The author shares eight elements that make for a successful project:

  • Purpose and Relevance – will the project be meaningful for students?
  • Time – will the students have enough time to engage in deep learning?
  • Complexity – will students have to draw on concepts, skills, and practices in other courses or even other fields to complete the work?
  • Intensity – will the project inspire the students to engage in intense work?
  • Connected – will the students collaborate with each other and/or experts in the field as they learn?
  • Access – will students access a range of materials and resources?  
  • Shareable – will they share their work with an audience beyond the classroom and instructor?
  • Novelty – will students encounter a new challenge or experience in the work?  
 
I thought I might pull back the curtain a bit and share my thinking about redesigning a project for a course I’ll teach in the fall.
 
The existing project
One course I frequently teach is called Designs for Technology-Enhanced Learning. It’s a course for Undergraduate and Masters students in our teacher training program. The core goal for the course is to help the students build the requisite knowledge and skills to integrate technology in their teaching. The course includes a number of different assignments, but there’s one that I think has great, but unrealized potential.
 
Towards the end of the course, I challenge students to identify an opportunity or challenge they have observed in the K-12 teaching placement that they think could be approached through the use of technology. The students form design team groups around a shared interest in the problem. Then, they collaboratively explore the issue and develop a plan to approach the opportunity or challenge they identified. As it currently exists, I think that it incorporates several of the elements described above, including purpose and relevance, complexity, connected and access. I think, however, there are opportunities to tweak the project to make it even more meaningful for my students.
 
The “good” project
Of the missing elements, I think the two biggest missed opportunities of the current version of the project are intensity and shareable. Because the semester is winding down, I don’t see the engagement and intensity on the part of students that I’d like to see. They go through the motions, complete the work, and occasionally get fired up about it, but I think there’s a real need to ramp up the intensity.
 
I think one way to do this is to increase the authenticity a bit. While the opportunities or challenges they select are authentic given that they have identified them based on their experience in the school, they sometimes are still a bit contrived. I think I could increase the intensity and authenticity by involving the K-12 classroom teachers as clients for the work. Rather than asking the students to identify the opportunity or challenge, I could ask their mentor teachers what they see as important in their classroom. The students could still group up based on their interest. In this case, though, the intensity would be ramped up knowing that a teacher would be counting on them to create a realistic and viable approach that would actually be implemented with students.
 
In terms of “shareability,” in the past, I’ve only asked students to either briefly present their work in class and/or post their work to a class discussion board. There’s no reason that they shouldn’t share the work more broadly. I’m thinking it would be great to host an after-school poster session event for teachers in our local school division to share the work. Students might also vote on one or two projects to share as formal sessions to the whole group in addition to the poster sessions. This approach would also ratchet up the intensity and perhaps also be a novel experience for the students.
 
While we could undoubtedly identify additional elements that define a meaningful project, I think these eight elements are a great place to start when designing a new project or breathing new life into a tried and true project.

What kinds of meaningful projects do you incorporate in your courses?
Please post your comments below.

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What Can We Learn from Benjamin Franklin about Scheduling Our Days?

3/7/2016

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One of the best things about being a professor is the flexibility and control over one’s time. This is something I’ve missed as an administrator the last few years – and something I’m looking forward to when I return to the faculty full-time next year. This flexibility can also be challenging, though. Without any external constraints, it’s up to us to choose how we spend our time.
 
I know that for me, this isn’t always easy. I often feel like a ship being tossed around in a storm. It’s so frustrating looking back over the week and realizing that I didn’t accomplish much of substance aside from reacting to others’ concerns or responding to emails. In the absence of some kind of hard deadline like a conference proposal submission deadline, it can be hard to make time for things like reading journal articles, exploring new options for teaching (link), or dedicating time for writing. When I go back to faculty in the summer, I’m determined to be more strategic with how I spend my time, and I think Benjamin Franklin can help.
 
Benjamin Franklin’s Daily Schedule
When I was reviewing my list of blog feeds recently, I came across this great post by Shawn Blanc on Franklin’s daily schedule. In the post, he reviews the approach around which this creative genius structured his work and life. To summarize, Franklin segmented his days into the following six blocks of time:

  • Getting ready for the day: shower, breakfast, personal study, and prepare for work (3 hours)
  • Morning work (2 hours)
  • Review of current projects and to eat lunch (2 hours)
  • Afternoon work (4 hours)
  • Dinner and rest and wrapping up the day (4 hours)
  • Sleep (7 hours)
 
Three things strike me about this schedule. First, there is significant time allotted to prepare and rest at various points during the day. Second, margin is accounted for every day. Third, there is an emphasis on evaluating and recalibrating during the day as the inevitable unexpected opportunities and challenges arise. I’m thinking there’s a lot we can learn and appropriate from Franklin’s schedule to make our 21st century lives more purposeful and productive.
 
My Version of the Schedule
Getting ready for the day: my tasks would look pretty similar to Mr. Franklin’s here. In terms of personal study, I’d want to include reading around topics, issues and ideas that are important to me. I don’t mean digging into a collection of journal articles as part of writing a paper. What I’d like to focus on is reading a curated collection of blogs, podcasts, and non-fiction books that are related to something I’m interested in. For example, in my study on innovation, I’ve been enjoying reading Little Bets by Peter Sims. I’d conclude this portion of my day with goal setting. I’d try to identify 2-3 key tasks or goals that I want to pursue. This would set up the subsequent work sessions later in the day. I might finally spend 15-20 minutes on triaging my email to make sure there isn’t anything critical that I’d need to plan around for later in the day.
 
Morning work: the morning is when I do my best thinking. In this block of time I’d make sure to keep my email closed (with no alerts or notifications) to make sure I can focus on one of my key goals for the day. This is when I would typically do any significant writing or synthesizing of information. This point of the day is perfect for more academic reading or course planning Or providing students with feedback on their work.
 
Midday “reset”: like Mr. Franklin, I would take this opportunity to break for lunch. Rather than review projects, which I would have already done, I’d take some time to get outside and stretch my legs. I find that this really helps clear my head and helps me to transition into the next portion of the day.
 
Afternoon work: during this block of time, I would do more routine tasks and meet with others. Because I’m not as fresh mentally at this point, it would be helpful to save these kinds of tasks for the afternoon. If I have heavy-duty work to do at this point of the day, I might get out of the office to work in a coffee shop or park, which usually helps me to focus.
 
Dinner, rest, and wrapping up the day: I think it’s really important to take the last 30-60 minutes of the day to wrap up and position myself for the next day. This is where I’d attend to email, Twitter, and update my Todoist task list. Ideally, I’d review the day and identify and celebrate the progress I’ve made. After I’ve done this, I can make a hard break with work and enjoy the evening with my family.
 
Sleep: I’m more of an 8-hour a night guy, myself.
 
This schedule is perhaps a bit idealistic. Things don’t always work out so cleanly in the real world. I think, though, that if we aspire to a schedule that builds in time for reflection and rest, situating tasks according to our energy levels, and prioritizing proactive over reactive work, we’d all be better off.

What tips and strategies do you use to make the most of your day?
Please post your comments below.

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    I'm Mark Hofer, a Professor of Education and Co-Director for the Center for Innovation in Learning Design at the College of William & Mary. I share research and practice on teaching in higher education.
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