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Do Teachers Hate Discovering Academic Dishonesty? Yes!
[social-bio] In my reading, researching, writing and chatting about the topic of academic dishonesty over the past decade, teachers’ reactions to academic dishonesty can range from feelings of general disillusionment with students to feelings of personal affront by a specific student. Many struggle with questions like why would students do this, what could I have done differently, what is the right thing to do now? Beyond avoiding the disappointment that encounters with suspected academic dishonesty entail, as teachers I propose we are called to create the conditions for academic honesty because of our commitment to students’ achieving the learning outcomes set out in our courses as well as our commitment…
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Debates as a Teaching Method or Course Format
[social-bio] Recently, I did some reading on using debates as a course format. I had been familiar with using debates as an instructional strategy, but not as the actual format for an entire course. I was able to find a few examples of where this had been previously done, including the Genome 475 course at the University of Washington: For this course, debates were used for all of the units. Each unit was broken into three parts A introductory lecture or discussion The debate An open discussion of issues raised in the debate Other important pieces of information from this example were that Class attendance is required and part of…
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The Profession of Learning
[social-bio] My title here at the Gwenna Moss Centre is officially “Instructional Design Specialist”; I apply my instructional design background to help faculty and instructors develop and improve their skills and abilities as teachers and course designers. However, I think of my “real” work as being more fluid and less prescriptive than the title suggests; I think my ultimate role is to be a “professional learner”. A philosopher at heart, I am prone to reflecting on ideas such as “What is learning? What is teaching? Is it truly possible to have one without the other?” and hoping that I can inspire others who are also on their own teaching and…
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An Open Letter to Canadian Universities
Guest Author, George Siemens The following post was written by George Siemens from the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute at Athabasca University. It is reprinted here with his permission. An Open Letter to Canadian Universities Dear Canadian Universities, You are, as the cool 4chan/Reddit kids say, about to get pwned. The dramatic entrance of elite US universities into online learning will change the education landscape globally. Where we, as Canadian higher education institutions, should be leading, we are laggards. The geography and distributed sparse population of Canada lends itself well to technology-enhanced learning. Remote northern communities can benefit substantially from being able to join classes on subjects where local expertise…
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Learning Styles Don’t Matter? Who Knew?
[social-bio] I blush as I confess that I’ve been guilty of it myself—I’ve promoted the notion of learning styles in my graduate teaching courses. In my defense, it has been with the purpose encouraging future faculty to consider employing teaching strategies beyond a (poor) lecture. Thinking back to my own days as a student, classes that included discussion, multi-media, collaboration, problem-solving, etc., were few and far between, and perhaps this is why as an educator of educators I clung to a theory that’s corollary was that teaching styles should be multi-modal. Cedar Reiner and Daniel Willingham, in “The Myth of Learning Styles” (Change magazine) argue that educators are mistakenly focused…
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Copyright – Easing the Pain?
[social-bio] Canada’s new copyright bill has passed Parliament and Senate and there are several things instructors on our campus need to know. 1. What copyrighted electronic materials can I share with my students? Answer: share links, but if you are copying or uploading articles for students to access, make sure copyright is cleared (I.e. open access materials, material for which you have publisher permission to reproduce, or material for which a license to copy is in place). 2. May I post a PDF article on my class Blackboard or Paws site? Answer: NO, unless you have copyright clearance do so, or it is open access, creative commons, or created by…
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Surface or Deep Learning?
[social-bio] While I was reading Taking Stock: Research on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Executive by Lindblom-Ylänne, I found myself reflecting on my own learning and asking which of my experiences and courses led me to deep learning? Conversely, what types of activities that I as an instructor have employed have led to deep learning for my students? Surface approach to learning is described as adopting minimal effort in the learning process. One example of this approach is when reading a text as an exercise the student concentrates on reading the text itself. A deep approach to learning is based on a genuine interest in the subject matter and…
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Making History With Technology in the Classroom
[social-bio] Last December someone pointed me towards an article about John Boyer, a professor at Virginia Tech, and his intriguing uses of technology in his World Regions class. By the time the column about Boyer was published, he had already “used his viral YouTube tactics to lure actors Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez to present their film, ‘The Way’.” He had also had his students create clearly fake Twitter accounts to pose as current world leaders in government and business to respond to current world issues. The most amazing part of the story, however, was what was yet to come in Boyer’s class of 3000 students. He and his students…
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Naming Assessments by Our Intentions
[social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet” (William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet) If what determines the nature of a flower is its smell and not its name, then what determines the nature of an assessment tool is its use and not its form or label. The same identical test can be used for formative, summative or mixed purposes. What determines if an assessment is “Formative” or “Summative” is who has access to the resulting evaluative information and what is the subsequent use of such information. When the purpose of assessment is to provide information…