Textbook reading is essential to a student's success, not only during his/her undergraduate education, but well beyond. Yet, students' compliance with class reading assignments is discouragingly low. Understanding why students don't read is a prerequisite to putting strategies into place that strongly encourage students to view their texts as useful and helpful tools, and ultimately encourage reading. Understanding Student's Aversion to Textbook Reading provides some literature-based insight into why students may not view their textbooks as the learning resources that they are, including reasons that are more under the control of the professor than the student. The presentation also offers some practical approaches to encouraging reading that address the specific reasons for students' aversion to textbook reading.
Category: Uncategorized
Best Practices for Posting Video Announcements
by Karen Nichols
In the September 8, 2014 issue of Faculty Focus, Amy Erickson and Catz Neset offer in their article "Building Community and Creating Relevance in the Online Classroom," several best practices for creating video announcements to post in Blackboard (or whatever Learning Management System you may be using).
In addition to your students having more exposure to you as a "real" person speaking to them, video announcements can also be a presentation of material or virtual tour of the week's lesson, narrated by you.
Here is the authors' formula for success:
- Provide an introduction each week and share your availability
- Give feedback and answer questions from the previous week
- Showcase exceptional student work from the previous week
- Highlight the objectives of the coming week and any special preparation or required resources
- Connect your coursework to relevant current events
- **I would add to this list: Keep in mind that students may be using mobile devices to access Blackboard so you'll want to create your video announcement to be easily viewed on a smartphone or ipad
Video announcements are not limited to strictly online courses. Posting a video announcement in a traditional face to face class can be a timesaver in that you can answer questions from last week and set up the coming week's agenda before the students arrive in class.
Here's a video announcement from Xavier's own Mark Gstohl. He introduces himself, gives his contact information and tells the students about an upcoming assignment. He also adds a bit of humor which goes a long way to building a rapport with the students.
Please feel free to share a link to one of your video announcements!
Failure is an Option
by Tiera S. Coston
For most of us, the words "mistake" and "failure" conjure up feelings of insecurity, humiliation and anxiety. And if the the words have such a negative effect, then think of how we feel when we actually make a mistake or fail at something. Further complicate the situation by imagining that the person who made the mistake or failed at something is a young college student who is already feeling overwhelmed and under-prepared. I propose a shift in the way we view mistakes and failure. We, as educators, must model to our students a mindset in which mistakes and failure are a natural part of mastering subject matter. We must teach them how to use their mistakes as valuable information that can illuminate their road to mastery. Mistakes are one of the most important things that can happen in the classroom because they have the power to direct students where to focus their efforts. Ultimately, academic success comes from how students feel about and use their mistakes. Helping your students to understand that failure is not only an option, but a necessity, is one of the most important things you will ever teach them. I certainly do not suggest that facilitating this shift in mindset in your classroom will be easy; it will require a great deal of work for both you and the students. However, consistent effort and a willingness to try (and fail at) different approaches will yield students who are in a better position to learn and succeed (master subject matter). Failure is an Option: Helping Your Students Make Their Mistakes Work for Them may help to give you a starting point if you would like to facilitate this type of paradigm shift in your classroom. Also, here is the form if you are interested in using the RAM Strategy.
CAT Support for Online/Hybrid Instruction
by Karen Nichols
Hi Everyone and welcome back for the fall 2014 semester! Here is a timely reminder of the various ways CAT can support your online/hybrid courses (and even technology-infused face to face courses).
- One to one sessions on using technology such as Blackboard, plus one to one sessions on the pedagogy of online teaching--please contact Janice Florent, jflorent@xula.edu, for Blackboard help and Karen Nichols, knichola@xula.edu, for pedagogical assistance with your courses
- Workshops, presentations and panel discussions about online teaching including accessibility, student conduct and providing quality feedback--please see our CAT events
- CAT's Online Faculty Resource Center, an organization in Blackboard to which you can subscribe by emailing Janice Florent, jflorent@xula.aedu, or Karen Nichols, knichola@xula.edu (If you use the Bb Mobile app on your mobile device, you'll be notified each time new content is added)
- ETC (Educational Technology Community), Xavier's special interest group that meets virtually throughout the academic year and which you can join by emailing Karen Nichols, knichola@xula.edu
- Camtasia Studio--please contact Bart Everson, bpeverso@xula.edu, for more information
- Books on best practices of teaching online that can be checked out--please ask Ms. Olivia Crum, ocrum@xula.edu, to check them out
- Resources on this blog page dedicated to Blackboard and other technology used
If you're interested in learning more about any of these items, please contact us: cat@xula.edu; 504-520-7512 We'll be delighted to assist you--wishing everyone a great fall semester!
- CAT's Online Faculty Resource Center
Using technology for teaching … or not
by Karen Nichols
Faculty Focus just released the results of a poll of instructors which included asking them if they used technology in their classes this past year. 75% said they did. While discussing this percentage yesterday in a meeting, our Director was thinking that number was rather low. I mean, everyone uses technology these days, right?
Well, actually, there are some professors who don't wish to have technology invade and take over their face to face classes where they are bonding with their students. They prefer for their classroom discussions to be organic without the clutter of gadgets and digital distractions. I can't fault them for that.
In my own discipline of world languages, technology has greatly enhanced our ability to provide students with authentic experiences. We can take virtual tours of museums, skype with a partner class on another continent and perfect our skills using recordings and videos. But I can also remember experiencing a class on learning Bantu via the Peace Corps method of the 1960's. Just a few students and instructor and only the target language and gestures. It was intense but 25 years later, I still remember a few words and that experience helps me to empathize with how our students may feel when they approach second language learning.
So technology or no technology? That's a decision best left up to the instructor and the material. I do believe one should keep abreast of what's available in order to make an informed decision that will ultimately provide the best experience for the students.
3 Megatrends Influencing Distance Education
by Karen Nichols
One interesting session I attended at this year's Distance Learning Administration conference was a presentation by Dr. Connie Reimers-Hild called Future-Focused Leadership: Three Mega-Trends Influencing Distance Learning. To paraphrase her three trends, Dr. Reimers-Hild discusses the rise of the "Gig Economy", the fact that more people are choosing to live with purpose and the global marketplace becoming de-centralized.
I was not familiar with the "Gig Economy" but having learned more, I can see numerous examples here in New Orleans. In fact, there's a group of gypsy adjuncts in the city who have created a social network to promote their skills, inform each one of potential employment and support each other during these difficult economic times. How this phenomenon affects distance learning is far-reaching in that we must offer support in the way of courses, advisement and training programs to assist this burgeoning sector of the workforce.
We must also prepare our students for a de-centralized global marketplace. In addition to offering appropriate courses, all of the course offerings can be designed to promote higher order critical thinking skills and include projects in which students use and develop tools they will need to be able to survive and thrive in this environment. Distance learning providers must also consider these economic conditions in their strategic planning.
Finally, I found it interesting that "living with purpose" is a mega trend. CAT has worked a great deal with contemplative pedagogy. For distance learning, I have been researching ways to include contemplative aspects in online courses. For me personally, living with purpose and meaning is a necessity. In fact, I have posted in my office a quote I found from Dr. Vicki Zakrzewski, director of the Greater Good Science Center:
"Helping students find a path to purpose is one of the noblest aspects of teaching." This is my mantra whether I'm teaching a face to face class or online.
Let’s Make a Movie
CAT is looking for Xavier faculty to collaborate on a grant proposal to make a movie (or, potentially, some other media project) for a general audience addressing significant figures, events, or ideas and drawing its content from humanities scholarship.
The National Endowment for the Humanities is accepting proposals for Media Projects, due August 13.
Many subjects are possible, but projects that examine connections between the humanities and science and technology are especially encouraged. Projects that engage the power of the humanities to promote understanding of and respect for people with diverse histories, cultures, and perspectives (within the United States and abroad) are also encouraged. Collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches are especially appropriate.
More information on the Media Projects can be found on the NEH website.
Time is of the essence. If you are interested, please contact CAT's Media Artist, Bart Everson, as soon as possible.
2014 NCF Honorees
CAT salutes this year’s recipients of the Norman C. Francis Faculty Excellence Awards. The university has produced a short video tribute to each faculty member.
Dr. Sara Al-Dahir from XULA CAT on Vimeo.
Dr. Lisa Schulte-Gipson from XULA CAT on Vimeo.
Dr. Maryam Foroozesh from XULA CAT on Vimeo.
Dr. Syreeta Tilghman from XULA CAT on Vimeo.
Dr. David Lanoue from XULA CAT on Vimeo.
Rising Tide 9 Request for Proposals
CONTACT: Rising Tide Programming Committee
WHO: Rising Tide NOLA
WHAT: 9th Annual Rising Tide New Media Conference
WHEN: Saturday, September 13, 2013, 10am – 3pm
WHERE: University Center, Xavier University of Louisiana, 1 Drexel Drive, NOLA, 70125
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Rising Tide NOLA, Inc. will present its 9th annual new media conference centered on the recovery and future of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast on Saturday, September 13, 2013 at the University Center of Xavier University of Louisiana.
This year, Rising Tide invites participation from community and university organizations from across New Orleans by issuing this request for proposals for programming, panels, and presentations at the event. The conference is a one day event with programming presented in a variety of formats including but not limited to individual presentations, directed conversations, keynote addresses, and onstage panel discussions. The space available allows for significant flexibility when it comes to programming proposals.
Successful proposals will address issues relevant to New Orleans and the Gulf South’s ongoing recovery, diverse history, unique culture, or emerging concerns. Additionally, proposals could focus on or incorporate aspects of new or social media, information technology and access, and creative uses of communication. Collaboration between organizations to present programming is encouraged to add multiple and diverse perspectives. While programming is free to address political topics, Rising Tide maintains a strict nonpartisan forum, current elected officials and campaigning candidates for political offices are discouraged from participating in programming.
PROPOSAL FORMAT
Proposals should include the following: a brief description of the topic being considered, with an indication of the relevance of the topic to local issues and what the audience should take away from the experience; a list of participants/presenters that describes their roles to the presentation and describes their relationship to or expertise on the topic; and a draft facilitation plan for how the programming will be presented to the audience, and how the audience will be involved in the presentation through questions, participation, discussion, etc.
Please email brief (2 page max) proposals in plain text, word documents, or PDF attachments to Jeffrey Bostick, Katy Monnot, and Patrick Armstrong at programming@risingtidenola.com.
PROPOSALS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH JUNE 2, 2014. Acceptance notifications will follow within two weeks.
CONFERENCE BACKGROUND
While hosting the event at the Xavier University Center, attendance has averaged more than 300 attendees, media, and volunteer staff annually. The conference content has been live streamed on the web with over 1000 unique viewers during each event, with archives on our website. For this conference, organizers are hoping to coordinate programming for three separate spaces: a large stageoriented venue with seating for up to 200; a medium venue with seating for between 30 – 40; and a seminar or group discussion venue for seating around 20. Program length can run from a minimum of 30 minutes for presentations or directed conversations in the smaller venues, to hour and a half panel discussion for the stage-oriented space.
Last year's conference featured a keynote address from Lt. General Russel Honore, U.S. Army (ret.), a discussion on Creating Community for Writers of Color by members of the Melanated Writer's Collective, as well as panel discussions on charter school accountability, tourism in the NOLA economy & recovery, a slate of programs on new media in Tech School, and an "unconference" for fashion and style bloggers. Past conference speakers have included author Lolis Eric Elie, Tulane historial Laurence Powell, Treme and The Wire creator David Simon, geographer Richard Campanella, journalist Mac McClelland, entertainer Harry Shearer, and authors David Zirin, John Barry, Christopher Cooper, and Robert Block. Schedules, list of previous panelists, and descriptions of programming history can be viewed on the Rising Tide website.
More information is available at the Rising Tide website; at the Rising Tide blog; on the Rising Tide Facebook page; and the organization can be followed on Twitter @RisingTide.
Rising Tide 9 is sponsored by The Center for the Advancement of Teaching at Xavier University.
Rising Tide NOLA, Inc. is a nonprofit organization formed by New Orleans bloggers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the federally built levees. After the disaster, the internet became a vital connection among dispersed New Orleanians, former New Orleanians, and friends of the city and the Gulf Coast region. A number of new blogs were created, and combined with those that were already online, an online community with a shared interest in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast developed. In the summer of 2006, to mark the anniversary of the flood, the bloggers of New Orleans organized the first Rising Tide Conference, taking their shared interest in technology, the arts, the internet and social media and turning advocacy in the city into action.
iPad Apps for Use in Education
I had the privilege of attending several virtual sessions of the Sloan Consortium conference on Emerging Technologies recently. Several of the sessions were interesting and quite useful. The first session I'll report on is the one on using iPads in education.
Author Sam Glicksman was the presenter. His book iPad in Education for Dummies was well-received and is a great way to get started using iPads with your students. In the presentation, Mr. Gliksman talked about a few trends and apps to engage the students.
Explain Everything is an app that allows students to add text and video while recording in real time--very much like an interactive whiteboard but more features. New School Technology reviewed this app and has a nice video to demonstrate the features.
Mr. Gliksman also suggested having the students explore time-lapse photography and experiment with a few of the animation apps.
What great ways to enhance student engagement and foster creativity! Let us know if you're using any of these apps and how they're working for you and your students.