Hear One, Do One, Teach One: Comments

Comment on "Desire2Learn: Neuroscience and Learning"

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:12:42 -0500

That still makes me wonder about the nature of the mission of higher ed. If someone makes it through the "weed out" courses thanks to an artificial environment, I have to question the worth. Will they be happy in the career? Will they perform successfully or will they always be the questionable engineers no one wants on their project? Will they be the ones who are thinking about a vacation and miss the effects of salt on a bridges metal structure? Possibly if there wasn't such a stigma on failing in higher ed, failure could be seen for exactly what it represents.

- DAVID R STONG

Comment on "Desire2Learn: Neuroscience and Learning"

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:28:35 -0500

In engineering, we had "weed-out courses". The idea was that if you couldn't tough it out through the basic calculus, chemistry, and physics courses, you had no place in engineering. I used to tutor those courses as well, so I had no problem giving some extra help to those who may needed it - I occasionally had one of my students make a breakthrough and was able to help others recover from a lower level of preparation.

It's very different from being in a military situation though, where grit practically defines the profession.

- ALLAN SHAWN GYORKE

Comment on "Desire2Learn: Neuroscience and Learning"

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:56:04 -0500

Thanks for posting this Allan! I am a big fan of Jonah Lehrer's so I really appreciated your perspective of his address. Like Dave, I wrinkled my brow at the thought of warming up the potential dropper outers of the West Point "grit" test. It reminds me of a good old fashioned football coach. Stepping up the activity to see who can muster through it without falling to the wayside. At what point do we stop doing that? hmmmm... Again, I appreciate your objective summary. Very nice!

- Alexis Ceule

Comment on "Desire2Learn: Neuroscience and Learning"

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 23:50:01 -0500

Thanks Dave. I'm glad you found this post useful. I'm planning on getting a few of the books that he recommended to pass around the office. I'd be happy to have you read a copy of How We Decide first if you like - or you're welcome to buy your own copy of course. It seems like a cost effective form of professional development.

About grit, I see your point. If grit is truly a personality characteristic that can't be learned, it may not be a good idea to provide a support system that makes West Point less "gritty" and graduate officers who aren't prepared to tough it out. On the other hand, if grit is something learned through experience and a support system can provide a little assistance to make it through tough times until grit is learned, then it's a different story. I don't know which is the case from his talk. It may be described more clearly in one of the books.

- ALLAN SHAWN GYORKE

Comment on "Desire2Learn: Neuroscience and Learning"

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 13:24:39 -0500

This is fascinating Allan; I might need to grab the book, too. You grabbed me when you spoke of the relaxed mental state that precedes an epiphany. I need that moment, and I prefer to work in a way that facilitates the insight from the almost zen-like focus of complete non-focus. For me, it's something hard to achieve in most of the collaborative environments I've experienced and wonder how we build it in.

A bit more scary for me was the discussion of grit. If West Point designs a test for "grit" then, finds a way with "extra support" to reduce their drop out rate, I have to wonder if they're still testing for "grit?" A lot depends on whether they view West Point's mission as creating successful West Point students, or creating successful officers. I guess we can get more people to graduate West Point with a blanket of student support structures- but to what end? Will the students be successful in a world that doesn't offer those support structures? Sure, the support structure helps West Point to look wonderfully successful at graduating West Point graduates; and perhaps. as education needs to be more dependent on a bottom-line, our mission, too, will be to create successful students who are expert at going to college.

I'm picturing our successful students walking about proudly with their two marshmallows.

- DAVID R STONG

Comment on "Duke: Educational iPad Apps"

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:45:58 -0500

Great news! Thank you for sharing! I use the Evernote App and it made my life so much easier!!

- iPad 2 Nerd

Comment on "University of Maryland Mobility Initiative"

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:58:56 -0500

I really enjoyed hearing about the DCC program. It is an academic program first, so the best way to get something like that started would be to share the essential ideas with some faculty, especially those in leadership positions, and see where it takes root. In particular, I'm thinking of the iPad project at the Hazleton as well as faculty in Liberal Arts and Communications who are working on various digital media communications/participation courses. It could be a good thing to kick around as part of one or more of our faculty fellow projects this summer.

I'm very excited about this kind of program. I'd love to talk about it with some people about it.

- ALLAN SHAWN GYORKE

Comment on "Educause Learning Initiative Keynote: Eric Mazur on Student Engagement"

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:52:33 -0500

Heh - it won't force an instructor to do anything they don't want to do! But I get your point.

I think it's up to us to create a variety of models to help faculty use them in thoughtful and creative ways. Maybe Brian could do a faculty-focused white paper like "five great ways to use clickers" by Summer Camp? I'm sure that would open some eyes and be useful for people at other universities.

- ALLAN SHAWN GYORKE

Comment on "Educause Learning Initiative Keynote: Eric Mazur on Student Engagement"

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:11:04 -0500

I think that overall effect is just what we think it is: the use of clickers helps instructors think more about the design of learning events rather than delivering long periods of information dissemination a.k.a. "traditional lecture". I like that it forces instructors to possibly alter their teaching based upon realtime feedback. Instead of continuing on the same old path, they may need to think on their feet and possibly restructure their message according to just-revealed gap.

- MATTHEW N MEYER

Comment on "University of Maryland Mobility Initiative"

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:03:18 -0500

Allan, while we are doing iPads in English here, would it make sense for PSU to initiate an even more focused program such as the DCC?

- MATTHEW N MEYER

Comment on "Educause Learning Initiative Keynote: Eric Mazur on Student Engagement"

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:38:45 -0500

This is a great example, and I've seen from my visits how effective it can be.

About 40% of the instructors are doing this in the pilot. The students engage in the conversation, and it's interesting that on more than one occasion, the debate between students spurred deeper discussion on related topics.

At the other end of the spectrum, I just returned from a class that was extremely structured. Like no talking during the clicker quiz, structured. It was also extremely effective. And when I spoke with some students on the way out, and they agreed. They preferred to be quizzed on what they understood, not what the class understood. It's also effective because the instructor took the time to create really good questions that challenged the student. I will say that there was tons of discussion and interaction during the class, just not during the quiz.

My experiences with this pilot are totally changing my perceptions of education and technology. The use of clickers changes both the teaching and classroom dynamic. While I've seen some uses that I would say are more or less effective, the end result of ANY usage (aside from straight attendance) is that students are more attentive and engaged in class, and instructors are more accountable.

- BRIAN YOUNG

Comment on "Educause Learning Initiative Keynote: Eric Mazur on Student Engagement"

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:02:22 -0500

Definitely. Someone tap Brian Young on the shoulder and make sure he reads this post. This conference has already paid for itself.

- ALLAN SHAWN GYORKE

Comment on "Educause Learning Initiative Keynote: Eric Mazur on Student Engagement"

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:38:05 -0500

This is certainly a timely presentation for us here at PSU and the clicker's pilot. Nice to see an instructor's use of the technology but also data that supports his pedagogy around it.

- MATTHEW N MEYER

Comment on "Drop in Individual Blogging Activity among Teens"

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 11:26:33 -0500

Hey Brad. I agree with your thoughts on not letting the report data be the only thing that drives our decisions. It does raise questions about motivation to participate and differences between systems that are naturally growing versus ones that show declining activity.

I think about this a lot when I think about gaming. People expect games to have scores, achievements, save points, leader boards, achievements, unlockable content, and other social and competitive components. Not all games have all of those, but when they're missing, they feel incomplete. And they really do affect motivation. I've been playing a game called Swords and Soldiers for a while now. The campaign mode was easy and took a few hours to complete, but I've spent a lot more time playing the survival mode because it keeps a record of the time that you can survive waves of invaders and then ranks you along with everyone else who plays the game.

So does our blog system on its own feel incomplete or unsatisfying for our most-connected students? Would those same students be more likely to participate in individual blogs that have more social aspects - a social rating system could have a huge impact on discovery and discussion associated with individual blogs.

We should talk about this more when we get back.

- ALLAN SHAWN GYORKE

Comment on "Drop in Individual Blogging Activity among Teens"

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 11:14:04 -0500

I agree about the social component, and having a class working together in a shared space to create a meaningful whole can be powerful.

I think the dimension of a personal space, a place where one can create an archive of what one has done and thought, is still powerful too.

I don't think it is an either/or scenario. Of course we started blogs@psu looking at individual personal publishing but have found that group blogging is really the advantage that blogs@psu provides, and I am still wondering if personal publishing should be so personal that the institution is not equipped to provide such an environment.

As for the survey showing blogging among teens on the decline, I would not use that as reasoning to move away from individual blogging as part of higher ed. If a survey showed reading is on the decline, I don't think we would say that higher ed should focus less on reading.

It's a wonderful multifaceted issue. Makes me happy to be alive at this time.

- Brad Kozlek

Comment on "Funny: This is why YouTube automated captions aren't good enough"

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 10:54:02 -0500

I agree - the acting is great. I'm sure they were only doing it for humorous purposes, but it's a nice way to illustrate a point without being heavy handed.

- ALLAN SHAWN GYORKE

Comment on "Funny: This is why YouTube automated captions aren't good enough"

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 08:25:43 -0500

This is hilarious! I don't know how they pull off reading the captions with such accurate emotion. Very well done. Great find Allan.

- DAVID R STONG

Comment on "Funny: This is why YouTube automated captions aren't good enough"

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:40:31 -0500

oh, the fun that could be had with these.

- MATTHEW N MEYER

Comment on "Faculty Development and Course Management with Moodle"

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:06:21 -0500

Hi Harriet. We're doing pilots of Moodle and Desire2Learn this semester. Posts related to those pilots are going to be going on a new site if you want to have a look.

http://blogs.tlt.psu.edu/projects/lms-pilot/news/

If we pick one of these two, we'll probably host it ourselves so we can have the most control over updates and downtime. We'll have our own help desk as well.

- ALLAN SHAWN GYORKE

Comment on "Faculty Development and Course Management with Moodle"

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:44:42 -0500

I have just come across your blog, and I'm finding it very interesting and informative. We are about to launch our own managed open source LMS, Loom, also based on Moodle, in the next week or so. We have our own help desk (I know that Moodlerooms has recently outsourced their help desk, in contrast) and host Moodle on the Cloud, thus focusing on technical support and customer service. So I am enjoying hearing some of the issues we may be faced with shortly! (Things like Firefox running Moodle most efficiently, we have already witnessed for ourselves.)

What is your institution's answer to LMS? (I am new to your blog, and feel that I might come across the answer myself!)

Oh, and we are located in Wilmington, NC. If you were wondering. :P

- Harriet May