Death of the Textbook

When given the ability to be creative and unique, students will often rise above and beyond the task given to them. One of the most rewarding parts of my role at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College is that I get to facilitate a teaching methods course, helping varying levels of instructors explore new and innovative methods of instruction. I am a big believer in modeling through my instruction how instructors can help their students become successful. Often, our instructors are asked to reflect on their weekly learning plan by answering several questions. When replying, we leave the reply format open - in that instructors can choose the vehicle in which they choose to respond (i.e. journal entry, power point, podcast, video reflection, etc.)

Giving your students the ability to choose their vehicle empowers them to be creative, unique, and problem solve all on their own. What follows is one of the best reflections I have ever read by one of NWTC's part-time instructors, Jenny Holtebeck. Jenny, and English Language Learners instructor, used her creativity to reply to the questions: what are the benefits of technology to help promote/maximize learning and what is one watch out about technology?

NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARY FOR THE TRADITIONAL TEXTBOOK, WRITTEN BY A REPORTER COVERING THE FUNERAL
By: Jenny Holtebeck

After more than 400 years of service to the educational community, the Traditional Textbook passed away recently due to disuse.  It is believed that the Textbook’s spouse, the Teacher Manual, has also gone to glory. 

Born in America in 1690 under the name The New England Primer, the Textbook has also been known to its loved ones by many other names:  The McGuffey Reader, Principles of Biology, Math Expressions, etc.  The Textbook was known for providing students with accurate information about a subject in a clear, concise format.  It was also passionate about being well organized, teaching generations of pupils how to use a table of contents, glossary, and index. 

The Textbook is survived by its children, various forms of educational technology.  These glamorous offspring have vowed to continue their parents’ goal of promoting and maximizing learning, they explained during their joint eulogy.  “It helps that there are so many of us,” explained one child, the Power Point Presentation.  “We can do so much more than our parents because we all have different purposes.  Like, I can present information like my parents did, but I like to do it in a more graphic way.  Charts, pictures, bullet points, ya know?  Some people really respond to that.” 

Power Point’s sibling, a Teacher Tube Video, put it another way.  “Those of us in the younger generation can appeal to more learning styles.  I address the needs of auditory and visual learners.  And my brother, the Math Manipulative, is very effective with somatic learners.” 

“I give people experience with the tools they will use in their jobs,” added Design Software.  “Some of my former students have kept in touch with me for years after graduation because they find me so useful.” 

His sister, the Government Database concluded by saying, “Our parents were great, but the information I have is always up-to-date.  We’ll miss our parents, but we really believe they would want us to continue their work.” 

Unfortunately, the funeral was interrupted at this point by a loss of wi-fi, which rendered Teacher Tube Video and Government Database unable to communicate with the mourners.  Shortly after, Power Point Presentation displayed the Blue Screen of Death, a medical condition it periodically suffers from.  The funeral officiant was unable to revive the Power Point Presentation, and had to resort to her back-up plan for the eulogy, which was to write the important points on a chalkboard.  The chalkboard was a surprise guest at the funeral, since it had not been seen for almost a decade and was presumed dead.  One can only reminisce about how the Traditional Textbook would have risen to the occasion.

Talk about owning a reflection and making it your own. Students, and instructors alike, want their work to shine. When given the ability to use their own skills and talents, they will give you something you never expected. Perhaps it's time to get out of their way and let them drive!

Reflections from Flexible Learning Conference

Madison College, part of the Wisconsin Technical College System, graciously hosted the 3rd Annual Flexible Learning Conference in Madison recently. I was afforded the opportunity to represent my college, NWTC, by attending and presenting at the conference. After a few days of mulling over my notes and pondering how to use this opportunity to grow, I thought what better way than to share my experience with those not able to attend. With that, I give you my big three take-aways.

1) SOCIAL MEDIA is having a huge impact on higher education - Keynote Speaker Tanya Joosten, nationally recognized for her work on Distance Education and Technological Advancement, highlighted several compelling reasons that social media needs to be harnessed by instructors across our nation. Perhaps the image below is the most compelling reason to think of alternative communication means:

2005 PEW Data results

"Email is for OLD people" the survey found! That must mean I'm pretty old! You see, students today view social media as much more than a vehicle to connect with their friends or family. Today's students get their news, alerts, weather, research, and so much more from a variety of social media outlets. Yet, many instructors and institutions demand that the best vehicle for communication is email.

It's time to think outside the box and allow students to drive the vehicle. Ask them what platforms they use and devise a methodology to employ their strengths in your class. If your stuck in a rut, then consider backward design. Tanya facilitated a great pre-conference workshop on how vital backward design is in incorporating social media into your classes. While perhaps a daunting task, when framed in the proper order, social media can drive creativity and innovation.

Think about your course level outcomes and WHAT students must be able to do to meet them. Then, think about how you plan to assess those outcomes - what evidence do students need to show you. Finally, think about the content and interactivity that you can provide through a unique learning experience. What social media tools can you use, or encourage students to use, that will harness the power they have in their fingertips for good! Tanya provided a great definition for what is social media? "Social Media is a virtual place where people share; everybody and anybody can share anything anywhere anytime!" (Joosten, 2012, p. 6)

2) Passionate Educators Abound -  Through attending the #flexlearn2015 conference, I was quickly reminded of how passionate many educators are about meeting their students needs, going above and beyond was is outlined in their job description. Take Martha Schwer for example. An English instructor at Madison College, Martha teaches English Composition ONLINE to students that just have to 'take the class'! While a daunting class for in-person students, Martha has taken it upon herself to provide her students with a unique learning experience that engages them in a such a way that they don't even realize it's an online class.

Martha provided, shared, demonstrated, and beamed with positivity as she walked us through her course. Her liquid syllabus that incorporates videos, voice-overs, and explicit details and directions give her students the sense that she is a real human being, not some robot behind the computer in their online class. Her use of Voice Thread and Zaption to engage students in the learning process is nothing short of inspiring.

And then there's Trey Morales, psychology instructor at Madison College. His love for brain based learning and willingness to share engagement strategies that are tested and true was impeccable. Trey's presentation on the 4 rules that should drive instruction are spot on: Emotions Matter, Vision Matters, Movement Matters, and Novelty Matters.

Through a careful navigation and engaging presentation, Trey had us eating out of the palm of his hands as he incorporated all 4 of those rules. I couldn't help but think what Aristotle was thinking about Trey's words - after all "Educating the Mind without Educating the Heart is no Education at all!"

3) Teaching Is Not Easy -  Finally, among all the learning and innovation that was happening around me, I was reminded that teaching is not easy, nor is it for the faint of heart. Students are rapidly evolving, technology is busting at the seams, and educators feel the pressure of time and budgets suffocating their creativeness. And while many educators may feel doomed about their position, I was reminded that it is vital to connect with others. Making those new connections helps to harness the energy you feel may quickly fade.(Thanks Daniel, Sundi, and Trey.)

Teaching is the ultimate sacrifice. I am fortunate to work at an institution that believes in life-long learning and supports and my goals and aspirations. If we do not believe in life-long learning, how will our students ever believe that what we are teaching them is important? Enjoy the journey that teaching is and be daring to try new things. Model the creativity and innovation you wish to see in your students and you will be amazed at what they give you in return.

Do You Kahoot!?

Are you looking for a fun, interactive assessment tool to use with your students in your Flipped Classroom? Do you want to know if your students completed their pre-class assignment or reading? Would you like an item analysis for questions and topics your students are struggling with? If you've answered yes to any of these questions, then I have a great solution for you!

Welcome to KAHOOT! Create, play, and share fun learning games for any subject, for all ages, for FREE! Kahoot gives users the ability to create an interactive, game-based assessment. Similar to playing trivia at Buffalo Wild Wings, Kahoot asks participants to answer questions correctly in a timely manner. The quicker you know the answer, the more points you are awarded. Use pictures, videos, and generate your own questions and answers. Download game results to analyze your students' progress or how well a question was written.

Kahoot is redefining formative assessment in the 21st century classroom! Check out my video tutorial below for directions on how to create your first Kahoot, or use this attached file!

Opportunities For Growth

"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny!" ~ C.S. Lewis

Each and every one of us controls our destiny. We control our thoughts, our emotions, and our reactions to difficult times and situations. For many, when faced with adversity, dwelling on the negative comes naturally. We tend to find what's wrong with a situation and pick it apart. However, to change our habits means we must change our beliefs. Education and educators tend to be no different. If we are to grow as professionals, we must be willing to throw out the half-empty glass and exchange it for optimism and hope!

Opportunities For Growth, or OFG's as I like to call them, are all around us. We have the unique opportunity to change our mindset in every challenge and circumstance we face. Rather than pick apart a new initiative, we can choose to find the OFG built within the framework of that very initiative. For example, how many of us approach professional development as an opportunity to learn and grow? How many of us are willing to take risks to learn from our mistakes?

If we are to foster a growth mindset in our students, we must be willing to first foster a growth mindset within ourselves. My initial exploration into flipped learning was driven as an opportunity to better use the time I had with students. The opportunity for growth far outweighed any drawbacks I could think of or read about. Wouldn't you know that my students continued to find ways to grow with in my math classes and thrive using a new teaching concept. Oddly enough, my students started to turn in their assignments through photos, video, graphic organizers, and via email. They were willing to try something new because they saw the risk I took and felt comfortable enough to do the same.

Undoubtedly, education today is filled with obstacles to overcome. We are faced with increased class sizes, increased PD requirements, increased accountability, and so much more. However, if we take a moment to sit back and reflect, perhaps the increased demands are asking us to grow! We have an opportunity to change the face of education as we know it - to be a proactive culture that fosters creativity, innovation, and growth. The next time you are faced with adversity, find the OFG!

Is It Working?

For many teachers/instructors in education, change can be a daunting task. Students are evolving at a quick pace and instruction as we know it has been drastically changed. Gone are the days when lecturing for hours on end, or even a class period, is an effective mode of teaching. Teachers/instructors have been charged with finding ways to engage students on a continuous basis through student-centered, hands-on activities that give students the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and learning! Thus, plenty of teachers/instructors have turned to Flipped Learning and Flipped Classrooms!

Proven to be a highly effective instructional strategy, Flipped Learning has given teachers/instructors an edge in creating those authentic learning opportunities in their classes. As those opportunities continue to grow, teachers/instructors are now faced with evaluating their effectiveness to know if students truly obtained the skills necessary to show they've mastered a competency!

While many teachers/instructors can use their 'gut' feeling to measure their students level of engagement, the data will tell the story! Data is such an invaluable tool that many teachers/instructors struggle with. For most, data is an opportunity to PROVE that learning has occurred! But really, data needs to be used to drive IMPROVEMENT. Data does not give us the answers, rather it gives us the questions to drive students and our opportunities for growth and improvement.

The most important data a teacher/instructor can use comes from effective use of formative assessments. Whether we are facilitating small-group discussions, playing Kahoot, or giving a quick 'quiz', we are gathering data that will tell us what our students do and do not know about the pre-class work that was assigned. Only then can we accurately meet ALL of our students needs by adapting what we have to meet them where they are at. Similarly, when we construct activities that ask students to be creative and innovative, we are measuring how well they understand what was given to them prior to class! These opportunities for students to display what they learned and how they can apply that information are what 'traditional' classrooms often miss!

Inevitably, most students will ask "Why do I need to do this if it doesn't count?" Fortunately at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, we are not only charged with making sure students acquire a specific set of technical skills, but Employability Skills as well. The greater Green Bay, WI area expects that our graduates obtain both technical skills and Employability Skills to help foster collaborative working environments, While many teachers/instructors struggle with formally measure the Employability Skills, Flipped Learning and Flipped Classrooms present a great opportunity to foster and measure those Employability Skills.

Rather than building in weekly Employability Skills assessments and targets for students, Flipped Learning and Flipped Classrooms give teachers/instructors an opportunity to specifically identify what Employability Skills they are measuring with each activity. At NWTC, we encourage instructors to build in those skills into their rubrics so that students understand and value how important working collaboratively is. Or valuing differences among classmates and accepting personal accountability for being on time and coming prepared!

At any rate, Flipped Learning and Flipped Classrooms have several options to measure if students are learning. As with many options, the accountability falls back on teachers/instructors to make sure they are using those tools to measure effectiveness and evaluate student learning. The power is in your hands - how will you use it?

Setting the Bar Too High???

"Set a goal SO BIG that you can't achieve until you GROW into the person who can." ~Unknown

Education holds a rather unique position in the development and growth of students. Educators are responsible for delivering content and competencies while simultaneously fostering critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, innovation, and analyzing skills. While educators at many levels have ventured into flipped learning to varying degrees, the greatest truth from all educators is the desire to spend more time with students. As flipped learning provides this desired time, educators are then faced with evaluating the use of the time, student engagement, and the expectations of student learning.

When asked "how do I know if the bar is set to high in my flipped class", I had to chuckle a little at the notion of students not being pushed too hard. Can an educator really push students to hard? While it might be easy to simply say YES, the really answer lies within the approach instructors take in getting students to do what they think may be impossible. As educators, we must realize that what students believe about themselves as learners matters. We must be willing to push them beyond what they think they are capable of and helping them understand that not every challenge they face will be easy,

Likewise, we must also be willing to teach them that it's okay to fail at something in school. To fail (First Attempt In Learning) is part of the learning process - to learn from their mistakes and make changes is how we foster critical thinking, problem solving, and analyzing skills in our students. Let's think about this notion for a moment - imagine you are going to get blood drawn from a hospital. Would you be excited to know that the nurse drawing your blood is doing so for the first time? Or what about the sub-contractor building your house - would it put you at ease to know he's learning how to frame the house for the first time?

You see, education is suppose to be about learning - making mistakes in practice to be able to perform in the crunch. If we are expecting students to be perfect on the first attempt, then why aren't they already out in industry, putting their skills to use. As educators, we must be willing to allow our students to make mistakes at appropriate times, and teach them how to become creative and innovative in fixing their mistakes. We want our students to grow into people that can make changes based on evidence they've witnessed or mistakes they've made.

Ironically, many of our educational systems are too focused on grades, rather than the content to be learned. How do I know? I am reminded of my days as a high school math teacher in Lomira, WI where it was decided that the minimum percentage to pass a class was going to move from 60% to 70%. You can imagine the uproar that ensued from students and parents alike that raising the bar was nor fair for anyone involved. Low and behold, one year after implementation, the number of students failing classes was actually less than prior years. You see, students knew they needed to work just a little harder to meet the bare minimum to pass a class! Students know where the bar is set and will do what they need to get there.

Don't ever be afraid to set your bar high! As we are preparing students to meet the demands of tomorrow's work force, we prepare them for jobs that may not even exist yet. Through fostering opportunities to be creative, innovative, problem solvers, critical thinkers, and analyzers, we give them opportunities to be successful in an arena that is always changing!

Individualized Professional Development

"Change is difficult, not changing is Fatal!"

Much of 21st century education philosophy urges instructors/teachers to meet the needs of their students by creating authentic learning experiences. To do so, one must take the time to understand their students, their needs, learning styles, and talents. As many instructors/teachers have become excellent at adapting their content and lessons, institutions and educational systems as a whole are lagging behind in providing a similar experience for their instructors/teachers. 

I can only imagine how many hands would be raised if asked, "How many of you recently sat through a school-wide training, that offered very little practical use to your professional development needs?" Institutions across America feel the need to prescribe 'canned' professional development to all instructors/teachers to ensure the same content and message are delivered. What if that message isn't needed by EVERYONE? What happened to the exact message we are preaching to instructors/teachers about creating unique learning experiences? Shouldn't the same apply to adults?

Clearly, the answer is yes - we must do a better job of meeting our instructors/teachers needs. While the answer is easy to see, the solution is a greater challenge that all learning institutions must be willing to tackle. Individualized Professional Development requires a great deal of collaboration, brainstorming, communication, planning, knowledge of instructor/teacher needs, and TRUST! As learning institutions begin to explore and implement Individualized Professional Development, students will begin to see and feel the impact on their educational success.

Individualized Professional Development may look at feel different across learning institutions, however, the main goal should always be to identify opportunities for growth, while supporting instructors/teachers in a growth mindset. In order to identify and support a growth mindset, learning institutions must create a culture of reflection, evaluation, and growth. Too often, institutions of learning and instructors/teachers are too concerned about looking 'good' in the eyes of the stakeholders (i.e. Administrators, principals, parents, students, accrediting bodies, etc.) We must make a dramatic shift in looking at deficiencies as opportunities for growth!

One of the greatest examples of a growth mindset can come from sports. How many top-notch athletes do you see that don't look at how to improve? Most athletes identify their areas of weakness and build them into strengths. Instructors/teachers ought to have the same mindset - what am I not good at and how can I improve? Only then can instructors/teachers begin to create a unique, Individualized Professional Development plan.

Perhaps one of the greatest tools to instructors/teachers in improvement will be through instructional coaches. Instructional Coaching fosters a rapport between coach and instructor/teacher, creating a safe learning environment, and opening the door for opportunities of growth. The instructional coach becomes and outside eye and ear in the classroom to aid the instructor/teacher in identify strengths and opportunities for growth in a collaborative nature. Provided the instructional coach remains unbiased - a non-evaluative observer - an Individualized Professional Development plan will begin to unfold over time.

So what's the dilemma? Time and resources continue to be stretched. Yet, Individualized Professional Development will only foster instructors/teachers to become reflective practitioners. If it's good for our students, then it needs to be good for our instructors/teachers. I fear this is only going to become of greater need as funding and state laws alter whom is deemed eligible to be an instructor/teacher (sorry, I'm from Wisconsin!) Just as Ghandi once said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."  

Students Don't Do Optional?

At many colleges across the nation, much discussion is being had regarding student responsibility and self-motivation in achieving the highest 'grade' possible in any given course. As the majority of students in higher ed are adults (by age only!), many instructors believe the responsibility for learning falls squarely on the shoulders of the student. While one can argue that not many employers would hire an unmotivated student, the purpose of this blog will take a different spin by looking at what instructors can do to promote learning in their courses.

As you are reading this, there is inevitably an instructor somewhere on the globe assigning a massive reading assignment to his or her students, "Please read pages 45 - 110 by Monday!" Many students will skim through the reading, trying to grasp at what main highlights, while some students will read the entire selection and take copious notes to be well prepared for class. And of course, there any many that will never pick up the book or even go and buy it, know all too well the instructor will fail in checking whether students read the text or not.

Many of the struggles regarding 'optional' for students comes in the form of lack of engagement with 'optional' assignment by the instructor. We've all encountered the above instructor, only to come to class to either hear our instructor lecture about what we just read, or never assess what we learned from the material we read - not just simply giving us a quiz to 'prove' we learned. Even an elephant can tell you how to climb a tree!

Therefore, the challenge falls solely on the instructor to find and create unique opportunities for using the optional assignment to show students how valuable and important the information was. For instance, using any number of text protocols in small group discussions provides students an opportunity to reflect in a wide variety of ways; assumptions author made, arguments against the author's words, agreements with the author, and aspirations on how the information can be used in students' lives. That's a small sample of questions that engage students in their reading. Providing case studies or hands-on application of material learned prior to class will ensure that students WANT TO do optional to be prepared for class and the 'FUN' activities that are designed.

While it's often easy to point the finger of blame at someone else -  in this case students - we must often take a long, hard look at what we are doing to help students progress in their learning. Are we providing the best learning environment for students and modeling the expectations we have set forth? The challenge is to push students to ask the difficult questions, to be willing to wrestle with the difficult task, and to face adversity head on, overcoming anything thrown at them. We must teach our students to problem solve, think critically, analyze, and evaluate more frequently to prepare them for what the world has to offer!

Flipping in Higher Ed (Part 2)

In my previous post, I discussed how instructors were beginning to feel a time crunch in assessing student skills and use of class time. As some colleges redesign academic calendars to fit more in, instructors are feeling the pinch in adaquately preparing students for the work place. The flipped classroom seems to be a reasonable solution for allowing more class time to be spent on assessing and teaching said skills.

Another huge benefit of the flipped classroom is allowing instructors to assess the soft skills that industry claims to be as important, if not more, than technical skills. I'm talking abou interdepence, collaboration, communication, personal responsibility, valuing othes, and ethics. While these skills are vitally important to a student's success in the work place, they are often difficult to assess and obtain in a classroom setting. Throw into the mix a traditional lecture based class, and instructors have very little means to measure those characteristics.

Through the use of a flipped classroom, instructors can not only build activities to obtain technical skills, but soft skills as well. Just as we urge instructors to design lessons backwards, with their learning objectives in mind, we also must ask them to plan with the end in mind for the soft skills. While it can be easy for an instructor to 'just know' if a student demonstrates certain soft skills, employers and students want to know the specifics. What does being personally responsible look like in a welding lab, or a nursing class? What OBSERVABLE and MEASUREABLE behaviors will a students exhibit that deems them to have excellent ethics or collaboration?

Only after we have clearly identified those observable and measureable behaviors can instructors then plan activities that allow students to demonstrate they possess those skills, while working to achieve a technical skill simultaneously. What a perfect blend? And although identifying those behaviors can be a bit daunting and cumbersome, industry will soon realize the stamp your institution in placing on its graduates. It won't be long before word catches on that graduates of your institution possess not only the technical skills needed, but more importantly the soft skills needed to help their prospective employer thrive in a new and improving world.

Yet, if you are stuck teaching in a lecture-based, teacher-centered classroom, how can you possibly begin to design activities for students so that you can witness these soft skills in action? Shouldn't your time with students be more valuable than standing in front of them, spoon feeding them information? Give flipping a try and reap the benefits that so many others are already noticing. Help prepare your students for the future by building an environment that thrives off of creativity, innovation, problem-solving, interdepence, collaboration, and personal accountability!

Flipping in Higher Ed (Part I)

As the demand for a skilled work force intensifies, the time instructors are able ti spend with students continues to shrink. Given copious budget constraints, academic calendar redesigns, and increased responsibilities, instructors are forced to carefully plan and implement each lesson to meet the needs of every student they encounter. How can instructors be sure that their students are learning? How does he/she know if the students have the skill set ready for the work force? Enter the flipped classroom in higher education.

As K-12 has adopted to changes regarding curriculum, budget, and time with students, higher ed. is slowly following suit. Many instructors at the college I work at (Northeast Wisconsin Technical College) have been eager to learn how they might be able to flip their lecture and utilize their class time with students in a more meaningful and productive manner. Gone are the days of a straight 1-hour lecture. Welcome the days of collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking, and interdependence. Instructors are utilizing the little time they have students to assess whether learning has taken place and if students are ready to be tested on a given set of skills/competencies.

Take one of our Medical Assistant instructors for example. Students are required to learn the billing and information system utilized by industry in the Green Bay Area. Students need hands-on, practical use of this system in order to understand its functions. Instead of spreading hours in class teaching the system, our instructor has flipped her lessons to provide students the pertinent details. Thus, she is providing class time to work in small groups so that students can practice the skills necessary to show they understand how to use the system and overcome glitches that may occur. All the while being present to help students if and when they struggle.

We also have a physics instructor that utilizes the flipped classroom exclusively to give students the lecture component of her class outside of lecture time. By nature, this course is designed to have a lecture component and lab component. Traditional instructors would use lecture time to give students the necessary notes and formulas, and ask them to complete practice problems and scenarios outside of class time as homework. For our instructor, she found students coming to lab with plenty of questions and misconceptions about the topic that was to be learned.

Through flipping, she found that students struggled less with writing down and obtaining the material, and more with applying their knowledge to practical problems. She was now able to work more closely with students on applying the knowledge to problems, clear any misconceptions, thus preparing them for the lab exercises at a more successful rate. This instructor has valued the time she has with students to make sure she is available when they are present in her class. In doing so, she has seen her course success rates increase dramatically.

While these are only a few of the many examples of flipping at the collegiate level, instructors would be hard pressed not to think about applying flipping to their classes. Helping students understand the practical applications and skills necessary for a given set of learning requirements will help them be more successful in industry. And we've only touched the surface in the benefits. Next time we will look at the employ ability/soft skills that can be learned through flipped learning.