The neuroscience of learning

I recently attended (and co-presented) at the Metro State University Teacher and Scholar Forum in February. The keynote speaker was fabulous so I wanted to share a summary and key take-aways from his presentation.

Professor Terry Doyle is from Ferris State University in Michigan. He has been focused on learner-centered teaching and faculty development for 35 years. The title of his keynote at this conference was "The new science of learning."
You can review the slides from this keynote at his website: http://learnercenteredteaching.wordpress.com

He starts with 3 Vital Questions:

1. What is the best use of our time in helping students master learning outcomes?
2. What would make us happy that our students still knew and could apply from the content and skills from our course one year later?
3. How do we get students to be more responsible for their own learning?

  He goes on to explain the actual neuroscience of learning. What exactly is going on in our brains when learning happens. Memory and retrieval processes are certainly key to not only retaining the information but being able to remember it when you need it in a given situation or application.

What I found really interesting is the list of things that the brain needs in order for learning to occur. Then with each item on the list he explains why and some research that has been done to prove its importance in the learning process. The ironic thing is that most college students DO NOT serve themselves well and often neglect all of these things!

1. exercise/movement
• improves focus, motivation and attention, actually makes learning easier
2. oxygen
• thankfully we breathe to stay alive and there's no getting around that, however, some nice deep breathes of fresh air before class is not a bad idea.
3. food
• a normal, stable, healthy diet is necessary (not beer, cheetos, soda and pizza)
4. water
• the brain must be hydrated in order for learning to occur. Most students are dehydrated. Drink lots and lots of water, especially before an exam
5. sleep
• you must have at least 7.5 hours of sleep for a healthy brain. During sleep your brain replays memories, taking a nap after learning something new will actually help you retain the info

What teaching relevance does brain research affirm to promote learning?

1. Tie personal relevance to the skill or information
2. content should be made to respond to survival needs (attaining career or move up for better paying job)
3. aim for teaching with multi-modal, experiential and multi-sensory activities
4. emphasize PRACTICE and necessary time on task to effectively learn
5. surround factual data around Meaningful context
6. Use various sensory channels at the same time for especially difficult content
7. the brain seeks and detects novelty. mix it up, try new methods for delivery
8. help students see patterns in learning
1. similarity and difference
2. cause and effect
3. compare and contrast
4. in student's own words

Definitely take a look at the full presentation at his website for additional points and explanation.

SlideRocket: an alternative to Adobe Presenter

Recently, I went out on a quest for a viable alternative to Adobe Presenter for narrating slide presentations and discovered SlideRocket.com.

SlideRocket enables students and educators to:

• Create vibrant presentations
• Work on the same presentation together
• Embed videos and YouTube clips on slides
• Post presentations to websites, blogs and social media
• Create and share a library of presentations, slides, images and videos
• Download to thumb drive or run your presentation offline using the SlideRocket Desktop Presenter
• With SlideRocket’s new iPad App you can log into your SlideRocket account and cache your presentations for later viewing, play presentations, view analytics information, send invites, and upload PowerPoint presentations - all from your iPad.
• Choose from creative themes and templates or import a PowerPoint into SlideRocket
• Add Audio to your slides
• Track how many people viewed your presentation and for how long
• Ask a quick poll question- did your viewers like the presentation? Did they find value in it? Did it help their understanding of a topic?

And here is the best part, get your FREE, full-featured SlideRocket EDU account simply complete the form using your school email address. http://www.sliderocket.com/launch/education.html

Evernote: It is more than just a note taking tool

Mobile App Review

Evernote: http://evernote.com/evernote/

Price: FREE

Devices it may be used on: Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows desktop, Mac, and a web-based version. Browser extensions available for Safari, Chrome, Firefox and IE

Brief summary of purpose and functionality of this app: Evernote is a robust note taking tool but can do so much more!. The best thing about Evernote is its flexibility in that no matter which place you use the app it all syncs up. So you can work on a notebook on your iPad today and then access it via the web-based app tomorrow, and then Thursday use the Windows desktop app in the office. Evernote is more than just text based notes, you can “clip” webpages or web articles, images, or audio. You can use Evernote for any kind of notebook “collection.” (recipes, research on a topic, or plan a trip) You can share and collaborate on notebooks too.

How might an instructor use this app? Aside from using Evernote for personal or productive notebooks they can: ask students to create a notebook to share with peers on particular topics.Instructors can create topic notebooks to share with students.
How might students use this app?Students can use it to take notes. They can keep a notebook for each course. Students can collaborate with other students on notebooks. There is an add-on called "evernote Peek for iPad" that can be used to to create study material, practice quizzes, and flash cards. Evernote could even be used as a journal tool.

Are there tutorials, help or support available? Yes there are tutorials, a knowledgebase and user guides.

Other comments: This app is fairly easy to use and is VERY versatile since it can be accessed via several devices and methods. 

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/get-creative-with-evernote-10-unique-uses-you-havent-thought-of/

http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/how-to-use-evernote-the-missing-manual

D2L Users Forum Was Good but.....

The first Colorado D2L Regional User Forum was this past Friday. Held at the Denver Downtown Sheraton, it reminded me more of a mini-Fusion than a meeting of D2L peers. The forum was complete with lanyarded name tags, programs, fancy signs, balloons, and full breakfast and lunch menus. There was even a keynote given by Barry Dahl, of late an employee of D2L responsible for communications.

I've been wanting to learn more about the D2L lecture capture solution called simply D2L Capture, and my wish was granted in the first session. Capture can be hardware-based, software-based, or limited functionality when hosted in the cloud. Best of all, it supports both Flash and HTML5 playback. A basic editor is included for removing those embarrassing sneezes or lapses in content. The hardware version allows  for scheduling of sessions. Features being rolled out in the soon-to-be-released new version include chat windows, instant publishing, and more granular access management rather than public availability.

Karen Kaemmerling discussed CCCOnline's venture into digital textbooks. Overall, they have had great success based on student feedback. One of the difficulties is in dealing with publisher support. Issues still abound, from inconsistent electronic resources, to student access codes, to ensuring ADA compliance. Karen recommends that those considering the use of electronic media meet regularly with the course development team, ensure that ADA compliance is maintained throughout, to train faculty on the use of materials, and have a support plan.

Nate Wadman discussed using D2L for administrative tasks. Pikes Peak Community College has created a D2L shell for a repository of documents related to courses. They created a single course and enrolled all instructors. The instructors then upload grade books, syllabi, and other course-specific documents. Administrators can then download the documents as needed. Slick idea. Nate mentioned that instructor training is an issue, as well as the adding of late hires and instructor removals.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the Forum was the networking opportunities. It's always a pleasure talking with Kristin Rivedal of Front Range CC, and this meeting was no different. Regis has been having significant issues with D2L, including the test server housing the new version 10. We were able to share issues and possible solutions. Very beneficial.

Which brings me to my big concern about the User Forum. I'm certainly not complaining about the quality of the show: the food was great; presentations, particularly those provided by my colleagues, were exceptional; and the event was pulled off without a hitch. But there was a glaring omission in that there was little time to interact with fellow users of D2L save for the brief 10 minute breaks between formal sessions. When I think of user forum I envision an informal forum where like-minded people can gather to discuss issues, problems, and ideas for solutions and work-arounds.  This is where round-table discussions are perfect. Yes, the formal sessions are informative and provide a sharing of ideas. But what is more beneficial on a regional level is the ad hoc discussion of specific issues. You might describe this as an in-person listserv, with one person describing a problem or issue and others sharing possible solutions. Hopefully next year's User Forum can include such forum.

eLcc November Meeting

The presentation for the eLcc meeting this month was by Jeff Luftig of CU Boulder, College of Engineering and Applied Science. Jeff teaches and leads the department with their distance program. Now when you read the last sentence that describes the program as “distance” you might think you would interpret that as simply online courses. Jeff explained that the courses they offer are not simply online courses. Basically the program follows a true HyFlex model design of a program. With a hyflex model students have a choice, on a daily basis, to go to the face to face classroom, to attend live synchronously from a distance, or to watch an archive of the class session. They are very careful to include student interactions and questions that come up during the live session, including students who are at a distance. This will get captured in the recording as well.

The department has a state of the art media equipped classroom. I was really surprised at how small the room was. We were in it for our meeting and presentation. It was big enough for about 20 students. But they said they had one very large room that would fit about 100 students as well. It would depend of the class that was being offered as they have a few courses that overlap and are shared with other programs on campus. So on a typical class day, the instructor would come in to the media classroom, fire up GoToMeeting to accommodate any participants that are at a distance. Next the instructor would start Tegrity, a lecture capture system. They mentioned that although they have Echo 360 to use as a backup they have been using Tegrity for several years and it has been very dependable. They hire student workers to run the cameras and audio etc. Each course has a shell in eCollege. All students, no matter how they registered are enrolled in the one course. Jeff mentioned sometimes they have ‘extra’ people in the course as well such as student auditors and students who register but take the course for free as a continuing education deal. The distance program has been very successful and the student evaluations are rated quite high for satisfaction. They said that 80% of the students will choose to attend as “distance” rather than face to face but it depends of the class. They might have on average 75 students enrolled in a course. The whole thing was really quite impressive!

EduCause 2012

Now THIS was a conference! Taking up the entire downtown Denver Convention Center complex, the 2012 EduCause proved it's worth among the places to be for technology events. Day One (actually the second day since I was unable to attend on Wednesday) was spent almost exclusively at the vendor fair. By the end of the day I had scored a working light saber, dancing robot, lighted pen, three t-shirts, and six bags of vanilla yogurt snack mix. Oh, and I also found solutions to several learning technology issues. Next year's conference is being held in Anaheim, home of the original Disneyland and the LA Angels.

Products

Laptops Anytime kiosk

Laptops Anytime offers a custom-built, self service kiosk for laptops and tablets. Students needing a laptop slide their ID card and select the type of device, whether PC or Mac. The laptop pops out of the kiosk, fully charged and installed with all software. When finished, the student returns the laptop by sliding it back into the kiosk. The kiosk also charges and reimages for the next user. This has definite possibilities for our student laptop project.

One of the neatest technologies was a product called weejot, a web-based application for easy development of mobile apps. Weejot offers several templates where you can drag and drop items with no app development experience needed. There is also an app development tool for those with development experience. This may fit in nicely with an initiative for expanding our presence in the mobile world.

TechSmith has really expanded their product line over the years. I'm a long-time and devoted Jing/Camtasia user. And their Camtasia Relay appears to be a possible solution to our lecture capture needs. They recently came out with a mobile app called Coaches Eye, a $4.99 tool for evaluating motion activities. For example, a physical therapist might fire up their iPhone or iPad (it's available for Android as well) and video the movements of a patient. The therapist reviews the video, using lines for annotating correct and incorrect postures and movements. The therapist then plays the video back to the patient for instant visual feedback. A similar product for motion analysis is Dartfish.

Sessions

Susan Grajek, VP for research and analytics at EduCause, featured a session on the top ten IT issues for 2012. IT directors chose the number one issue as being how to keep current with new skills and roles, and finding time for career development. Other issues mentioned included:

• Supporting a BYOD (bring your own device) strategy; 
• Developing an institutional cloud computing strategy;
• Analytics and its role in decision making.

The complete article, Top Ten IT Issues, 2012, is available on the EduCause website. 

Julian Allen and Joe Horne from Georgia State discussed their iPad initiative and what they learned. GSU purchased iPads for a freshman learning community. Student assistants were used for much of the grunt work while IT focused on the inventory and storage systems. Computer carts were used for transport, storage, charging and reimaging. Interestingly, most of GSU's costs were associated with increasing network capacity rather than iPad costs. Old iPad 1's continue being used during registration, workshops and similar group activities not dependent on a robust device. They mentioned that getting faculty buy-in on such a project is key.

Edward Ayers, University of Richmond president, provided the closing keynote. He spoke of the need for using technology to it's fullest to understand the footprint that humans leave throughout history. I was a bit bored by the presentation until he displays data from Valley of the Shadow, a research project comparing Civil War from the viewpoints of Confederate and Union soldiers from specific cities. Ayers was one of two project leads during his tenure at the University of Virginia. The project provides a visual representation of big data, where the researcher can peel back layer upon layer and examine the most minute details of a project, or scale back for the big picture. He stated that humanists must continue examining technology to ensure it is being used at its full potential for the examination of the human record. The problem isn't technology but rather that researchers use too few of its capabilities.

Poster Sessions

Top Ten Things Students Do with Their Cell Phones
(excerpt from Beyond E-Textbooks: Writing Mobile Web Apps for the Liberal Arts)
Lisa B. Lewis, Ian MacInnes, Albion College

Converting Adobe Captivate Projects to Interactive Learning Units for iOS Devices
Taeyeol Park, Georgetown University

Pedagogical Benefits of Video-recorded Assessment
Rachel Drummond Sardell, University of Oregon

Nicole Ellison's Sloan C Conference Summary

Nicole Ellison's Sloan C Conference Summary

http://sloanconsortium.org/conference/2012/aln/program
 

In October I attended and presented at the Sloan C Conference on Online Learning. This was my first time attending a Sloan C conference. Overall it was a good experience and I was able to collect a variety of tips, strategies and information regarding both online and blended learning. I will summarize each of the sessions that I attended and the vendor products that I think are exciting and have potential for Regis.

Terry Buxton and I actually did our presentation right at the start of the conference. Our information session was titled “Student Reflection Blogs to Communicate Lessons Learned in the Complex World of Service Learning.” Here is a link to our handout: http://rhchp.regis.edu/LearningTechnologies/SloanC/Buxton_Ellison_Oct2012_handout.pdf
Terry and I plan on scheduling a day soon where we can present to the Regis Community what we are doing with reflection blogs and the Ignatian Pedagogy Model. It is exciting!

Getting it to Click: Teaching Critical Thinking Online
University of Florida

The folks at U of Florida recently did a comparison between face-to-face and online delivery when it comes to critical thinking. No doubt we all know the importance of incorporating CT into all instruction no matter what delivery mode, however, one challenge may come for instructors when evaluating CT and knowing when it is happening. The presenters suggested trying the University of Florida Critical Thinking Instrument (UFCTI) to start.

They offered these quick tips:

• Be intentional in your CT instruction
• Use Discussion Boards to encourage perspective taking
• Use problem based learning activities
• Get students to move beyond computer
• Have students work together



Don’t be afraid to challenge your current pedagogy

Faculty Support and “realizable” course improvement in a rapidly changing online environment 
Colin Marlaire National University

The Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching and Technology streamlined faculty development into one online central “foundations” development course. The course is required by all faculty to take but it is self-paced and asynchronous. It is comprised of videos, captivate presentations and “recipes for success.” The recipe for success model has been a key focus for the faculty community. Instructors can write up a process from start to finish about how they incorporate a technology or technique into their course. Colin also discussed some thoughts and ideas about a cycle for course improvement. It was interesting as he talked about the Master course model briefly and mentioned some of the same challenges that we have experienced here in our college.

Social Media to Enhance Online Learning
Tanya Joosten University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Tanya has a book “Social Media for Educators: Strategies and Best Practices”

Here are just a few advantages for incorporating social media into online learning:

• Increased communication
• Build professional networks
• Develop a richer learning experience
• Avenue for creativity

Tanya talked about how we can use Twitter as a backchannel with a course. She had a video of an instructor who explained how she uses Facebook with her course. She sets up a fan page for the course itself.

I found out about www.schooltube.com similar to YouTube and TeacherTube, It is focused on education. There is a YouTube for education as well. http://www.youtube.com/educationI’ll be looking into those two.

They also suggested a few twitter feeds worth following:

#edusocmedia, #edtech, #highered, #socmedia, #sechat, #edchat, and #lrnchat

Keynote speaker Sebastian Thrun, from Stanford University and Google

Democratizing Higher Education

I highly recommend that you watch the recorded video of this keynote by going to http://sloanconsortium.org/conference/2012/aln/programand on the left side of the page you will find the link.

Sebastian talked about a MOOC(Massive Open Online Course) that he developed and was a part of Udacity (www.udacity.com). It was amazing to listen to his experience of teaching one of the first courses that was made available through Udacity. It was an Artificial Intelligence course where he had 160K students! No that was not a typo!   He talked about how he had students from all over the world, some were actually taking a course during activity duty and overseas. He was blown away by the feedback from his students who thanked him for the opportunity to take the course and feel “empowered to learn.” They collected lots of data and feedback after the first course and used it to improve the course.

MOOC success is generally due to:

• Adaptive learning
• Self-paced learning
• Personalized learning path
• Multi-dimensional assessments
• Affordable because it is FREE.
• And the fact that students willingly take the classes because they have a desire to learn.

I think generally MOOC’s can be a scary topic for Universities to approach because it is so OUTSIDE and across the street from the box. MOOC’s are 100% free. It is not necessarily a revenue builder. The bottom-line is educating people and supporting the idea of “life-long learners” and it is as simple and as wonderful as that.

Streamline Online & Hybrid course development without sacrificing quality

Renee Cicchino, Seton Hall University

This session was especially of interest to me since we are building an RN-BSN hybrid program right now. Renee mentioned that they always start with the Quality Matters standards rubric for a solid foundation for course creation. They also create templates for instructors to build courses with. The templates provide consistent design and therefore a consistent experience for students. They provide an example to faculty of an exemplar course. Come of the challenges that can hinder quality design:

• Lack of quality assurance
• Lack of policies
• Lack of tech competencies (she has a checklist for instructors to fill out and indicate which areas they need help on.)
• Release time is inadequate or absent

Renee shared her templates with me, if you are interested in seeing or using them let me know.