Some Links and News

Good afternoon. I hope you have had a good week and are enjoying the weather. Here is some news, tech tips, and links that you may find useful.

New Report

The New Media Consortium (NMC) released a new brief titled,  Scaling Solution to Higher Ed’s Biggest Challenges. They identify eight challenges: Financial Aid, Integrating Student Data Across Platforms, Evidence-Based Methods Across Disciplines, Discovery of Learning Technologies, EdTech and Evolving Roles of faculty, Supporting Adjunct Faculty through Tech Deployment, Innovation Implementation Learning Curves, Sustaining Innovation through Leadership Changes and provide possible solutions to the challenges.

I would encourage everyone to take a look and the report. http://www.nmc.org/news/nmc-report-addresses-higher-eds-biggest-challenges/

Expand Your Toolbox

Dr. Byrnes, while giving her Dow lecture titled, Choreographing a Life mentioned that  having a toolbox that you can reach into to pull out useful tools is beneficial in life and work. Since we are well into the semester you may want to take some time and reflect on your instructional strategies. This article gives you 50+ instructional strategies that you can employ as an instructor. It doesn’t list everything  and doesn’t provide explanations, but it can serve as a reminder and a starting point as to what is out there. http://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/instructional-strategies/50-teaching-strategies-to-jumpstart-your-teacher-brain/ . Further explanation of strategies is provided at http://www.fortheteachers.org/instructional_strategies/

Organizing Data

Sometimes students (and researches) have difficulty breaking down data that they have collected into something meaningful that they can work with. This post from NPR gives a nice process on how you might approach your data. It could be especially useful for students just starting the process in your class.  http://training.npr.org/visual/what-to-do-with-a-big-pile-of-data/

Keyboard Shortcuts

Do you use the Chrome web browser? Keyboard shortcuts are a way to make your browsing time more efficient. It can often be faster than using your mouse.

Open a new window- Ctrl + n

Open a new window in Incognito mode- Ctrl + Shift + n

Quit Google Chrome- Ctrl + Shift + q or Alt + F4

Reload the current page- F5 or Ctrl + r

Save your current webpage as a bookmark- Ctrl + d

Make everything on the page bigger- Ctrl and +

Make everything on the page smaller- Ctrl and –

There are lots more shortcuts and you can see a list here https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/157179?hl=en .

Upcoming Online Conference

On December 2 and 3, Google is sponsoring an online conference “Education on Air: It takes a Teacher”. While many of the topics will be focused on Google products, there are some things that might interest you if you don’t use them.  You can filter by theme such as Empowering students or  21^st Century skills. Some presentations that might interest you; “Wicked soap company: an entrepreneurial approach to chemistry”, “Globally minded students”, “Making smart decisions online”, and “Media literacy in the digital age”. Registration is free. https://educationonair.withgoogle.com/

               

Twitter

Ever used Twitter before? It is a great way to  learn and share things. By using hashtags (#) you can note and search for things. This link gives you an idea of what Twitter is about and how you can use it professionally  http://ditchthattextbook.com/conferences/twitter/ .

Here are some hashtags that you may want to start searching regularly on Twitter.

#elearning

#onlinelearning

#highered

#engchat

#math

#arted

#science

#latinoedu

#collegeaffordability

#highered

#savelibraries

#humanrights

#education

#sustainability

#library

Here is a link to lots more. http://www.teachthought.com/twitter-hashtags-for-teacher/?utm_content=bufferbc706&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Open Access

This week was Open Access Week and many events were held throughout the world in support of this. Open access gives libraries, researchers, faculty, and students a way to economically do their research and share information. We are working on this at Cottey and these links may help you become more educated and find some resources.  http://openaccessweek.org/  - http://blogs.openbookpublishers.com/ - https://www.library.ohiou.edu/2016/10/faculty-panel-to-discuss-experiences-with-open-access/ You can also search Twitter  for resources #openaccess, #OAWeek2016, and #OAAlden

Reflective Questions for Students at the End of Class

Ever use questions at the end of class? Terry Heick wrote a blog post about doing this http://www.teachthought.com/learning/use-twitter-exit-slip-teaching/ This technique can help students retain and synthesize information.  Take 5 minutes at the end of class and ask them write down an answer to a few of these questions.

1. What surprised you today, and why?

2. What’s the most important thing you learned today? Why do you think so?

3. What do you want to learn more about, and why?

4. When were you the most creative, and why do you think that is?

5. What made you curious today? How does learning feel different when you’re curious?

6. When were you at your best today, and why?

7. (Assuming we were studying the same thing and you could decide and have access to anything), where would you start tomorrow? Why?

8. What can/should you do with what you know?

Thanks,

Mike