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Oh boy, you're going to be displeased with this week's "More about Week 8" Teaching Hub post! pic.twitter.com/1IrydVned8
— FlemingLDS (@FlemingLDS) October 19, 2016
Engaging Teaching
Do you know what “flipped learning” means? If you ask the Learning Design & Support Team, they’d probably tell you that it is either learning how to do a flip, or that you can learn anything whilst flipping on a trampoline. They try, they really do, but sometimes you gotta wonder about them.
Here’s what flipped learning really is: structuring learning so that content is delivered to students before meeting as a class, rather than delivering content in class. That way, so the story goes, you can focus your time together on applying the content to projects and practice, and give feedback in person right as it happens. In other words, you can really crank up the active learning. ‘Tis is a noble quest, but it can be tricky if not all students come well prepared. So maybe just flip a little bit to start if you want to try it. You don’t want it to end up being flopped learning.
flickr photo shared by JAIRO BD under a Creative Commons ( BY ) license
Why are we mentioning flipped learning, right here, right now? Well, don’t flip out, but there is an ulterior motive. We want to flip the learning (only a little bit) for our week 8 Teaching & Learning Day this Thursday. So, if you are coming, we’d like you to spend a little bit of time thinking about what active learning means to you, and ways that you get your students actively learning. If you do this pre-thinking, you will be ready to actively participate in the opening session in which you will join a team effort to create something that shows active learning.
Learning Technology
Once upon a time, in the heart of The University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, a course called ds106 was born (the “ds” stands for digital storytelling). This course attempts to use technology to tell stories, and to tell other people how to do it. And not just for UMW students. Nay! Anyone with the wherewithal to get involved and make some fun digital stuff is invited. Thus was born an online learning community that pulls you in for life and never lets you go. A community which now spans the globe and possibly even the universe. Oh, and one of the main things they do is called the Daily Create, in which you make something and share it with everyone and everyone lives happily ever after.
Guess what? You just read a digital story! Granted, it is not well written, is only text, and the details are sparse, but it is in digital format and story-ish, so it counts. On Thursday, if you are coming to our Teaching & Learning Day that we have been constantly going on and on about, we will be joining in on one of those ds106 Daily Creates. In fact, the Daily Create for that day will be in Fleming’s honour, which is a great honour. At the beginning of the day, we will give you directions on how to get going, but in the meantime, check out t