Like Krazy

I came across a site for presenters entitled Interactive Lectures that contains summaries of 36 formats for making a presentation interactive. Certainly my job as a teacher is part presenter and I found many ideas to work with in my own classroom. I decided to put my notes here as I examine some of these formats and how I may use them. Please use the comment section to add your ideas and allow this to grow. Format #1: Best Summary Each participant prepares a summary of the main points at the end of a presentation. Teams of participants switch their summaries and select the best summary from each set. This reminds me of an "Exit Slip," which is a good way to check student understanding before they leave the room. The summary could be done in many formats (and may even be done several times during a class session). - working in groups or individually, put summary on index card. If in groups, have them read each out loud. If individuals, collect and read a few out loud. - techn...

While I was viewing The Field Guide for Change Agents created at Educon today I was reminded of an article I came across a few weeks ago entitled The Innovator's DNA . In it the authors identified five "discovery skills" in creative executives: associating, questioning, observing, experimenting, and networking. It is no surprise that the skills necessary to become an innovative executive mirror those of a change agent in education. The fact that the change agent presentation was created at the Educon conference not only entails networking, but us noneducon attendees (or educon nonattendees?) can only imagine the amount of associating, questioning, observing, and experimenting that went on to produce such a document. They are skills that Change Agents (and probably most of the best educators) wield. The great news is that in being drawn here and taking the time to read this post proves you have several of the "skills" of that innovative DNA. In this case, though...

During a recent class discussion about a Sherlock Holmes story ("Adventure of the Speckled Band") my students and I had read, it occurred to me that maybe Holmes would be out of work in the 21st century. After all, anything that he could possibly think of (in this case it was a "swamp adder" from India) could be googled. So I asked my class what they thought. The immediate response was that Holmes was obsolete. Google could take his place. All of his knowledge was available right there for quick and easy access. Why memorize when you can google it? Then there was a pause. They caught themselves and actually began to think about it. I could have stopped right then and called the entire class session a success. Heck, that might even be considered a successful week. But we did continue. It was time to press my luck and see where this thought was going. First one voice (you gotta love that one - the one you sometimes wait to call on until many others have had a turn), ...

In reading over this blog post by Tom Whitby and this post by someone about the negative end of this experience, it appears we may need to be more careful with the way backchannels are used. Obviously, the relative anonymous nature of Twitter allows cowards to be rude and unkind during presentations. Unfortunately, I don't think this will change but probably just needs to be tweaked. Instead of allowing the Twitter stream to appear on the overhead, it should display only for the presenter (or a moderator) to see. Then the presenter can take what is relevant and professional and work it into the presentation as needed. I have seen a similar situation pulled off pretty well in some of my online graduate level courses. While it certainly is an added skill and complication, with practice, many presenters may turn it into a positive experience - one that allows virtual "hand raising" and input with hardly any interruption.

Harold Shaw (hshawjr) had an interesting and insightful blog post concerning the November 24, 2009 #edchat discussion. Edchat takes place every Tuesday at 7pm and is a great way to discuss ideas with teachers from around the world. He feels that the discussion may have moved to involve a little too much "squeaking." While I agree with his perception about the direction of the #edchat discussions, I do think all teachers need that opportunity to "squeak," especially to those who understand where they are coming from. Having said that, it has come to the point where we need to act and try some of our ideas with our students and then share our success and failure with our PLN. One of the participants (@nashworld) voiced that opinion when he said, "I would love an edchat where everyone agreed to IMPLEMENT an innovation, and then return here to debrief." It's a great idea. Maybe the edchat sessions can add that dimension each week. Vote each week on the ...

It has been a while since I posted to this blog but the course director of the Education Media Design and Technology masters program at Full Sail Dr. Ludgate shared this on the program blog and I thought it very relevant and impressive. We will be doing some "puzzle poems" in my classes sometime in the next couple of weeks and I think this may qualify. In any case, it is certainly worth a look and something that I hope is shared by many.

No guarantees With the advancement in authoring systems, the wide array of web content creation tools, and the variety of available Web 2.0 applications online lesson creation is within every teacher’s grasp. But just as the fact that a teacher is given the material and steps into the classroom does not guarantee learning will take place, the ability to create a lesson and post it online does not guarantee success. Several factors play a key role in e-learning and educators must understand how those factors relate to the lesson that is intended. In a meta-analysis that was conducted using over 650 empirical studies which compared distance learning that involved media with traditional learning, the findings concluded that achievement was more strongly correlated to pedagogy than it was to the media itself (Handley et al, 2008). It’s the content AND presentation The ability to post class notes, a presentation, or even an audio or video lecture online has existed for some time. But “t...