"I get so confused with APA"Try RefME: desktop, smartphone, tablets can help you organize AND get APA right* from the get-go with a project. Using the internet, your device's camera, doi(s), or old-school hand-entering of information, this web-based and app solution will assist in mitigating the APA headaches. *APA format is good with this solution, and I have never had one issue BUT RefME is technology, and meeting APA standards is always the responsibility of the writer/research (professor or student). "I want to look cool with my info"Infographics (online, on paper, on TedTalks) always look so "cool" and clean. They are a smart and succinct way to relay important information. They can be not-so-easy for those of us who are not graphic artists, though. There are many tools out there, and Easelly is one of them. Easy, and "cool" looking, this solution may assist in presenting information online. "Ok, so the professor expects me to know what?"Either we forgot, we never knew, or we thought we knew, but whatever the case is some professors assume/expect that some baseline experience or knowledge is present with students (especially graduate students). What happens, though, when one realizes they had a Ferris Bueller day when that important topic was covered in class? CrashCourse is a Youtube source of valuable, base-line knowledge in a number of fields. Funny videos, well researched, and not so long at all. "I have this idea in my head...."For speaking, teaching, writing, or planning mind mapping can be so helpful (especially for those who need/want to see the "big picture" at one sitting. MindMeister is an online tool to help create mind maps. Helpful for professors and students, its a fun way to take create an outline of, well, a speech, lesson, paper, or event. "This isn't history bingo!"It was a good day when the teacher took a game like Bingo, or Jeopardy and turned it into a lesson or review for the day. Kahoot can tap into that social fun that Bingo and Jeopardy did, only in an up to date sort of way. In minutes, students of all ages and levels can be engaged in a learning game!
0 Comments
Students, especially adult learners, are just as busy as we (the professors) and in some cases, maybe even busier. Desire to learn doesn't go away simply because one is busy, and if a person has enrolled in a course of study, the requirements do not lessen because someone has a busy life. I was working in a jail when I was trying to complete an undergraduate degree. With 12 hours shifts, overtime, and family life, it was always great when a professor honored my time and used our shared resource (time connecting in or about class) effectively. As an educator now myself, I try to be the facilitator of knowledge or understanding while understanding the value of time. Since teaching high school (when I always had the "bottom lines" on the whiteboard, I practiced the idea of the "lecturette" or what I have heard called "Micro Lectures." Here is one example of one I use: Progressing in the BCDC course, it is highly likely I am doing this particular portion incorrectly, but here it is nonetheless :-) As part of the course, I am re-crafting some of the elements of a graduate course on local government. The course is part of the sequence of courses to an MPA degree. This is the part of teaching that most students never get to see: the work that goes into framing and scaffolding the course. This is the "stuff" upon which the experience of the students hangs. Hopefully, done well, a teacher never hears "what's your point?" as a response to a talk/lecture or "what's the point of this assignment?" Re-crafting the CLOs seems as thought it should be easier given that there are preexisting sentences to work with. Here they are: There are six good CLOs above. There is one development that can be made: speak to a final product or behavior/skill that the students will acquire/demonstrate. As a matter of preference, the six also could be consolidated to reflect a brevity that hopefully contributes to the lessening of anxiety for the student. Predicated on the existing CLOs, with some re-crafting here are the revised ones for the local government course (for an MPA course of study): With a focus on helping the graduate student learning how to engage in practical, action-oriented work, and with the goal of arming the student with skills to learn on their own, the CLOs favor the acquisition of knowledge, the practice of synthesizing and analyzing for understanding and solution-seeking, and the production of a usable final product.
Anchored to an overarching goal-set of training solutions-oriented, wise consumers of the literature, and confident practitioners, it will be great to see how the adjustment to these learning objectives "play out" come the next academic year. Course Design
It's Summer 2016, and I am engaged in a program offered at Brandman University where I teach. The program is one designed to help us consider our ideas, assumptions and past practices in course design with a bent toward developing new skills. Our overall goal: design courses in our subject matter that are meaningful to students in the 21st Century. My goals for this course, BCDC are simple:
|
ArchivesCategories |