The Joy of Goals

I was delighted this week to work with two faculty members in the vet school who are revising the curriculum for their program. I was showing them the learning modules and assessment tools, and they asked about linking their content to learning objectives. Blackboard Vista (eLC) has a terrific tool called "Goals" that is perfect for them. Using this tool, you can link from almost any content or activity to the appropriate goal or goals. Students can then see the content and activities that help them accomplish each of the goals listed. It's great for designers, too. When adding an activity, if it does not align with any of the listed goals, it becomes obvious that something is amiss. Either she has an unwritten goal in mind, or the activity is not appropriate for the course. 

The joy of archived reflection

I confess to you, my students and friends, that I only blog when I have to. Yes, it's true. I am a fair microblogger and love Twitter...but for work. I don't do much tweeting as @sherryclouser, but check out @ugactl, and you'll find something new most days.

Like many of you, I consider this blogging exercise for EDHI 9040 a "have to." It's a good "have to" though, because as I look back at the archive of this blog, I am pleasantly surprised by some of my posts. There are some good resources there, some good ideas, and a shopping metaphor that I think holds up two years later. I hope when our blogging is done for the term, you will find some joy in your archive as well!

A Quote for Spring Break

The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner.
- Elbert Hubbard

This is particularly relevant to me this week, as I am participating in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons conference at Georgia Southern. If you haven't heard of SoTL, there are a few sites you might be interested in browsing.

SoTL at UBC: http://tag.ubc.ca/isotl/
SoTL at Illinois State University: http://www.sotl.ilstu.edu/
SoTL at Vanderbilt University: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/cft/resources/teaching_resources/reflecting/sotl.htm
SoTL at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse: http://www.uwlax.edu/sotl/

The Twitter Experiment

Monica Rankin, History Professor at UT Dallas, was looking for a way to better engage students in a large survey course. She developed a technique that included using Twitter once per weekduring class. Watch and read for the details of this innovative teaching method.

Is this something that you would consider doing? What do you see as the risks and rewards?

Midterm is upon us...

According to the UGA Academic Calendar, midterm is March 2. Does “midterm” mean anything in your classroom? For me, it is the perfect time to do a little reflection on how the course is going so far and whether there are things I can do to improve the learning experience for me and for my students. Besides looking back myself, I like to do a brief online survey of students for their take on the class so far. It’s usually nothing fancy, just a few simple questions – what’s working, what’s not, and what could make it better? I like technology for this purpose, and use a web-based survey tool, but some instructors have a colleague come into the class to do a facilitated activity with their students and then report back with the results. Regardless of the delivery strategy, it is important to talk about the results with the students, including what changes can be made and what can’t be changed.

What do you think of incorporating a midterm evaluation in your own courses?



BTW, survey coming soon to EDHI9040...

Jing!

Have you ever been looking at something on your screen and wanted to preserve it as a file to use later? Maybe your computer is doing something wacky, and you want a snapshot to e-mail to your tech support...or you want to record some video detailing steps in a piece of software. There are a number of ways to do this, but one of the easiest I've used is a *free* program by TechSmith called Jing. Jing allows you to do static and movie screen captures, and then save them locally or online. It's also available for both Mac and PC!

Just start Jing, and you can capture everything that happens on your screen! Check out a sample Jing capture here.

Read more at jingproject.com

How might you use Jing? Do share!

Thinking Outside the Wii

Kevin Remington/Washington and Lee University

In Friday's Chronicle, there was an article about a dance performance at Washington and Lee University which featured the Wii and encouraged audience participation via Twitter. The Twitter component is particularly interesting to me, because I can imagine a number of people arguing against it - it's distracting to other audience members, it's distracting to the person Tweeting - just as they might argue against it in the classroom. While I understand the arguments, I appreciate that the company gave it a shot, and I wonder if they will do it again.