21
Mar 16

AEE 530 Assignment 5: Attend the annual Teaching and Learning with Technology symposium!

I was blown away by what a positive experience this was! The TLT Symposium is an annual event put on by Penn State to assist instructors in implementing technology in their classrooms. The goal is to use technology most effectively to improve the learning experience for students as well as the teaching experience.

From 8am to 5pm, I heard excellent keynotes, attended useful workshops, and ate lots of delicious food. I consider myself somewhat of a “late adopter” to technology usage. I stubbornly resisted smartphones when they first came out and only created a Twitter account last week.

Recently, I have had an increasing number of experiences where I have seen a very positive side to technology and wished I were better equipped to get the most out of it. I am excited to have had the opportunity to attend the TLT symposium, as well as to earn the Teaching with Technology certificate through taking AEE 530.

I chose my workshops based on what my personal interests were. I attended a Yammer and VoiceThread tutorial since I will be giving a workshop on the benefits of using social media in classrooms in a couple of weeks. I figured it’d be useful to learn about different platforms that my partner and I hadn’t considered yet. The option within VoiceThread to generate audible discussion about topics from class instead of just written comments seemed great! Although writing is an important skill and I see the value of its use in assignments, I don’t think enough attention is given to expressing one’s self out loud in a coherent manner.

In a second workshop, I learned about other technological tools such as Doceri and CATME. Doceri allows the recording of lectures, as well as the ability to control a classroom podium using an iPad. This would provide a useful reference material for students. I had a Physics class as an undergrad that used video recording of lectures and I remember finding them beneficial for studying. CATME provides a useful framework for students to conduct peer evaluations following group projects.

In the afternoon, I discovered SALG, which is an app to measure student assessment of their own learning. In my assignments for AEE 530 so far, I have struggled to come up with effective ways to measure learner success and satisfaction, despite being well convinced of their importance. I was excited to learn about programs for gathering data and better analyzing learning success that would make incorporating SoTL into classrooms much easier.

After a day of learning about new (to me) apps and getting excited about designing future classes, I got to dip my feet into “live-tweeting” during the afternoon keynote. Mimi Ito spoke on improving connections between students and resources to enhance their learning experience. It was very visual and interactive – we even had a group quiz via Twitter – which left me feeling completely re-charged following a previous mid-afternoon energy slump. The attendees of the conference were full of great ideas and the energetic enthusiasm surrounding the conference was contagious.


21
Mar 16

AEE 530 Assignment 3: Microteaching

Our third AEE assignment was to choose a 10 minute segment of our lesson plan  and teach it to the class. I found it hard to choose a section to teach knowing that many of my classmates would have different backgrounds and be unfamiliar with the subject matter I chose. I had structure my 50 minute lesson plan using a combination of 10 and 5 minute segments, so I thought it’d be easy to just choose a 10 minute segment. I second-guessed my segmentation when I went to choose one, however. I ended up scrapping my original time frame and choosing 10 minutes from the middle of the lecture in order to find a topic I thought I could effectively cover in 10 minutes.

Needing to choose a ten minute lesson that could be cohesive was helpful for me since it forced me to think about what I truly wanted students to get out of that ten minute segment and ensure I was conveying that information in my lesson. Once I chose a topic, needing to stay within 10 minutes didn’t seem very intimidating. Many of the professional conferences for Entomology are structure as a 10 minute talk with 2 minutes for questions, so this was a time frame I had experience with.

I opted to introduce the concept of an economic injury level, which is a term used for in-season pest management decisions. I included an activity at the end to avoid over-lecturing but still ended up using Powerpoint to present. I briefly considered abandoning Powerpoint altogether and doing my entire lesson using a chalkboard or white board, but wanted the students to interpret a graph for their activity, so I decided not to have my drawings up in front of them. I wanted the activity stimulate their memory of what they had just learned and help them to problem solve. This seemed like a good way to test whether they had learned the material I had just taught.

I was impressed with my classmate’s answers when we reviewed answers from the activity. When looking over the feedback forms they gave me, I received positive reviews of my knowledge sharing and the organization of the talk. Areas they suggested for improvement included reducing my nervousness and designing the presentation to engage students throughout instead of waiting until the end. If I included an activity every 10 minutes through a 50 minute talk, that would result in more engagement than many of my classes as a student. When I put together my full lesson plan, I was pleased with the number of activities I inserted. That intention was not evident in just 10 minutes, however.

Some of my peers were much better at stimulating active engagement throughout their lesson. Despite the relatively low amount of time they spent on sharing knowledge, I don’t think I actually left with any less knowledge than they would have left mine with. This definitely gave me food for thought. If I could change anything about the experience, I would have liked to see all of my classmates present and to receive feedback from each of them. As a scientist used to working with sample sizes, having only 3 classmates to compare with seems rather limited. Despite this, I am definitely grateful for their feedback and examples!

The overall experience made me realize that I should do a little more “reaching for the stars” when planning my lessons. Instead of simply making them better than what I have had before, I should aim for really great lessons and not be afraid of trying things I’ve never experienced as a student. There is no reason to settle for good enough if I am capable of putting together great lessons and I look forward to more opportunities to design great lessons in the future.


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