Believing in Students: What Technology Can't Deliver

Why are emerging technologies valuable in an online class?  And what additional challenges do bring to the role of the course instructor, particularly at the community college level? How and why should college educators encourage older students to be open to experimenting with learning with new tools?  And to what extent can technology assist instructors with supporting students through their learning success?  As online instructors, we must always remain active, warm, human mentors in our students' learning. 

In the post I have written this month for the GETinsight blog, you will read a true story about how one of my older, online students, named Diane, transformed from reluctant and fearful of technology to stunningly successful and leveraged her new digital skills to secure a position as a blogger with a local newspaper by the end of the course.  Here is a comment Diane left at the end of the course, intended to be heard by my next, incoming group of students (shared here with her permission).


The full blog post is available at: Believing in Students: What Technology Can’t Deliver


Each month I write a sponsored blog post for Cisco's GETinsight blog on the topic of global educational innovation through technology.  To view a collection of my GETInsight posts, click here.

Video: Our Most Misunderstood Teaching and Learning Asset

This month, in my featured GETInsight blog post, I reflect on the ways in which video has been transformed as a medium and has transformed many aspects of our lives and I lay these significant shifts on top of the minimal changes in how video is applied in higher education today as a teaching and learning tool.  I invite you to read the post and view the related video, Online Learning in the Social Era: Human, Connected, and Inclusive, and leave a comment here or on the GETInsight blog in response to how you feel about whether or not video is engaged as effectively as it could or should be in online teaching and and learning today.  Be sure to consider video as a tool for both instructor *and* student use.  I would love to hear your thoughts!  Enjoy the post and the video and please share!

Click here to go straight to the GETInsight post, "Video: Our Most Misunderstood Teaching and Learning Asset"

*Each month, I write a sponsored blog post for Cisco's GETinsight blog, which is part of the GETideas.org network, a global community of educators with a shared interest in discovering ways to change and innovate education through technology.

Learning from Life

In my featured GETInsight blog post this month,* I share a very special story with you that I have titled "Learning from Life." I often get asked by other educators, how did you get started using social media and web 2.0 tools?  Well, this post illuminates the answer for you.  You may be surprised to know that it was a traumatic life event filled with a deep need to connect with other humans that empassioned me to engage with emerging technologies and, in turn, opened my eyes to the dazzling learning possibilities they held for my own classes.

As I share this post with you, I also view it as a celebration of the publication of my new book, Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies; for my book is, in many ways, a documentation of my journey.  Writing my book was an opportunity for me to share many of the valuable lessons I've learned along the way and capture exciting examples of how other faculty are transforming their own teaching approaches through emerging technologies.

I hope you enjoy the post.  And, as always, I welcome your comments.  Thank you for reading. :)

Link to the GETInsight post, Learning From Life (includes my Author Book Chat at the top):
http://getideas.org/getinsight/author-book-chat-and-learning-from-life/

*Each month, I write a sponsored blog post for Cisco's GETinsight blog, which is part of the GETideas.org network, a global community of educators with a shared interest in discovering ways to change and innovate education through technology.

How Learning Changes When Students Become the Teachers

Each month, I write a sponsored blog post for Cisco's GETinsight blog, which is part of the GETideas.org network, a global community of educators with a shared interest in discovering ways to change and innovate education through technology.

In this month's post, I share a detailed overview of a non-traditional learning activity I use in my online History of Photography class.  I have found that many educators see the potential in using web 2.0 and social media tools to activate student learning but what's critical at this moment is for specific practices to be shared so we call can come together, consider them, discuss them, and evolve them into what's right for our own classes.

The activity I share is titled Visual Thinking and it's a 2-week activity that uses VoiceThread as the platform for a student-curated learning unit about mid-20th century photographers.  In the activity, students take ownership of researching one photographer, contributing media (examples of the photographer's work) and voice or video comments to the VoiceThread to fulfill the content criteria for the activity, as well as an open-ended discussion prompt. The following week, the class re-engages with the newly curated unit, delving into each other's discussion questions. 

I invite you to peruse the details of the activity by reading the post and reflect on the deeper question that guided this teaching experiment for me, "How does learning change when students become the teachers?" This question will be further explored in a free VoiceThread-sponsored webinar I am hosting on Thursday, July 19th at 12pm PST/3pm EST. 

Click here to read the post.  Enjoy!

Motivating College Students with Social Media & Web 2.0

Each month, I write a sponsored blog post for Cisco's GETInsight blog, which is part of the GETideas.org network, a global community of educators with a shared interest in change and innovation through technology.

This month's post explores the dual topic of the role a professor plays (or should play?) in motivating students and the opportunities social media and web 2.0 tools hold for boosting motivation in the online environment.  Included in the post are my perspectives on this topic and a specific sample of an Animoto video I created and shared in my online class to announce winners of student-nominated blogging awards (also embedded above -- shared with permission from my students).

Click here to read the post.  Enjoy!

Learning to Unlearn

This month in my GETInsight blog post* explores the value of unlearning in changing education.  Like fish swimming fluidly through water, we become so accustomed to the patterns that inform our educational processes that we are unable to see them.  Without the ability to see them, we are paralyzed and unable to change them. 

This post examines connections -- difficult to accept at times -- between the assembly line thinking that inspired the United States' educational system in the industrial age and the same schools, classrooms, assignments, and tests our students engage with each day. 

I hope the post stirs you enough to see and maybe even ask a question, make a comment, send it to a colleague, or reflect on it in solitude.

Go to the Learning to Unlearn post on GETIdeas.org.


*Each month I write one GETInsight blog post which is sponsored by GETIdeas.org.

Community Colleges: A Defining Moment

Each month, I write a sponsored blog post for Cisco's GETInsight blog, which is part of the GETideas community.  Each post delves into a topical conversation about transforming education, particularly through the use of technology.  This month's post isn't focused on technology but it is one that will shape both the future of the United States and affect the lives of millions of people for generations to come.  And you or someone you care about may very likely be one of those people.

The topic is the historic commitment that community colleges have made to open access to higher education.  That commitment is being threatened as colleges across the nation, particularly in extremely deprived economic states like California, struggle to imagine how to serve students with pennies instead of dollars. 

Community colleges are always there for us. We have come to rely upon them to serve an array of functions in our lives.  As a result, the array of ways that community colleges have supported students' academic and personal success and contributed to local and regional economies is immeasurable. 

I hope you'll take a moment, first, to read the post, and two, to share your story in the VoiceThread about how your life has been touched, helped, transformed, or improved by a community college.  The VoiceThread is embedded below and also appears on the GETInsight blog.  You are warmly invited to leave a comment by following the instructions at the bottom of the slide.

Please share this VoiceThread and encourage your friends, family, colleagues to share their story. Thank you!  Use this link to share: http://voicethread.com/share/2927210/

Click here to read "Community Colleges’ Commitment to Open Access: Sharing Your Story at a Defining Moment." 

21st C Reflections on Gender and Technology

By Mike Licht, CC-BY-$

In my March blog post over at the GETInsight blog, I tackle some thoughts about gender and technology in a 21st century context.  One of them is unpacking the question about why, within a female dominated career, are there so few female ed tech leaders?  And even fewer who land primo speaking gigs? As technology continues to become more and more critical in education, what's at stake here?  I know, I know...nobody likes to talk about topics that may in some way suggest there are salient biases informing the way we live and work but, guess what?  There are.  And being able to see a problem is the first step in making a change.  Being able to talk about it is even more important.

The post also examines the relationship between gender and mobile devices which, more an more, are being placed in the hands of toddlers to play games and stay entertained. What opportunities does this hold for unhinging the gendering of technology as a male-dominated space and how can we, as adults, play an effective role in ensuring girls use those devices to unleash curiosities and be active contributors in, rather than consumers of products that will quickly turn them into passive, adorning objects.

Click here to read the blog post and please feel free to leave a reflection, comment, question in the VoiceThread at the top.
 
P.S.  Isn't this image by Mike Licht awesome?

Is Mobile Learning "Smarter" Learning?

by TZA on Flickr

Each month, I author a blog post on the GETinsight blog, part of Cisco Systems' GETideas.org network, about a topic relevant to educational innovation.  

This month, I am exploring the relationship between cognitive brain research and mobile learning -- not a topic a claim to be an expert on, but certainly one I've been pondering quite a bit lately.  From my own mobile learning experiences, I find a much a higher rate of retention and deep learning when I am a mobile learner (usually on a walk or in a quiet place at a time that is convenient for me) versus in a scheduled, face-to-face setting.  Mobile learning seems to meet the human brain's craving for multisensory experiences and offers the opportunity to, well, be mobile and engage in physical activity while learning -- which is kind of like sprinkling your brain with vitamin powder. 

I hope you'll venture on over to the blog post here, take a gander, and join in on the VoiceThread conversation I've set up.  Hope to "see" you soon!

Take me to "Is Mobile Learning Smarter Learning?"

"I'm Not Stupid!": How Open Ed Video Resources Will Change Education

For the past month, I have been a lurker in the Khan Academy Google Group.  I've been reflecting on the constant flow of comments submitted by "users" of the Khan videos who include a wide mix of people but often are teachers and students.  I am inspired but also saddened by the comments from students who share empowering stories of how the videos have enabled them to experience their capabilities to learn.  And this experience is the catalyst that sparked my most recent GETInsight blog* post.  I hope you enjoy it and feel inspired to leave a comment on the post or in the VoiceThread.

“I’m Not Stupid”: How Open Educational Video Resources Will Change the Future of Education

*The GetInsight blog is an integrated resource of GETideas.org, a community for education leaders.  I am a paid consultant for GETideas and write a monthly post about a related topic.  Everyone is welcome to participate in the conversation and I hope you'll join us!

Wake Up! It's Time for an Online Learning Reality Check

This month I attended the 17th Annual Sloan-C International Conference for Online Learning in Orlando.  I have shared my reflections this month in a new GETInsight blog post.  I hope you'll join me for a discussion there!


Wake Up! It's Time for an Online Learning Reality Check

From Grades to Badges?

There are some exciting things happening at the intersection of digital media, lifelong learning, and assessment.  Check out my latest GETInsight blog post on GETideas.org to read about the current HASTAC-Mozilla "Badges for Lifelong Learning" competition and ponder the future of information and formal assessment.

Click here to read the blog post -- and feel free to add a reflection in the companion VoiceThread!

Hey Prof, Wanna Hang Out in Google+

The potential that Google+ holds for college teaching and learning is a hot topic.  If you haven't yet participated in Google+ but want to learn a little more about its super-charged collaboration features -- and highly customizable privacy layers -- errr, "circles" -- I invite you to read my latest GETInsight blog post.

Click here to read: Hey Prof, Wanna Hang Out in Google+?