Questions about Designing Teaching for Inclusion and Diversity

I attended a workshop yesterday for IST faculty called “Inclusive ADDIE” and at one point, we were asked the following questions based on what we had learned so far.

  1. How would you design a student group project for one of your classes?
  2. How would you handle dividing students into groups?
  3. How would you revise the content, examples, resources?

I don’t feel like I had great answers based on what I had learned. I started with what I would do without particular thought to inclusion and diversity.

  1. How would you design a student group project for one of your classes? Start with learning outcomes, then decide upon an assessment and rubric if needed, develop directions that includes all the required references to relevant learning content, review my content for accessibility.
  2. How would you handle dividing students into groups? I don’t think I would change. I prefer to form groups based on the order that students made submissions to the first, low-stakes assignment of the course. Having said that, if this were a WC section I would also try to account for timezones.
  3. How would you revise the content, examples, resources? I would look to make sure that I am considering minority groups at least ⅓ of the time in all of my examples, content, and assessments. This one, I took directly from the content of the workshop.

After listening to some other participant’s responses, I copied or added the following:

  1. How would you design a student group project for one of your classes? Provide reminders to class guidelines related to etiquette and group work. We have or can find these guidelines, but I wonder how inclusive and diverse those guidelines already are?
  2. How would you handle dividing students into groups? I didn’t have anything new to add here. Teaching through the WC, I do not get to know the students enough to be able to assign groups in ways that account for inclusion and diversity. I don’t think that’s how groups are formed in the real world, so why should I try to make accommodations in my class? I believe that my role would be to try to address issues around inclusion and diversity if they present themselves. I realize that is a slippery slope because if I am not openly addressing inclusion and diversity through out the course, how will my students know that I will address those concerns when there is an issue in the class. How will students even know to be mindful of inclusion and diversity practices in my class? Perhaps I need to develop a resource for faculty to help us provide guidelines to students about working in groups in ways that are inclusive and diverse? Teaching from the WC course template for the class I teach, I’m not sure we have much information about best practices for students working in groups. Perhaps I need to start there and include universal best practices in that resource from the start.
  3. How would you revise the content, examples, resources? I believe Jon Hughes mentioned to create group assignments with roles to allow for individuals to have a voice. This reminded me of Col. Jake Graham (ret. USMC) group work assignments where he will assign students different analytical roles depending upon the scenario/exercise he’s provided them. Dr. Lynette Yarger reminded us of something Dr. Alison Murphy shared with faculty during her McMurtry Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award presentation: create something for an under-represented community and through doing so, you will learn more about that community.

Instructional Technology Presentation

Brian Daigle and I presented to almost 60 brand new LA’s, TA’s and IST faculty last night. We jointly presented on Canvas and various instructional technologies in two separate presentations. I also gave a presentation on the World Campus Undergraduate Student Population for those in the audience who are new to working with adult learners.

Previously, Amy Garbrick, our director, has been coordinating our office’s participation for these events. I was asked earlier this year to coordinate the IDs supporting this event. There are four of us and we’ve decided to split up and take different semesters. Brian and I covered this FA17 semester with Chris Gamrat providing backup if one of us got sick or was otherwise unable to present. Chris and Ronda Reid will cover the SP18 session and I’ll provide backup. After that it’s Brian and I again, but Ronda will be backup and then Chris and Ronda will present and Brian will provide backup. Then we’ll repeat the pattern.

I had some reflections on the presentation last night that I wanted to make sure I capture for the next time around. These thoughts are not necessarily listed in any particular order.

I will start off with saying that we should use our own devices for a couple of reasons. The first is familiarity. I’m good with Windows 10, but I do not use it every day. Under pressure, these podium machines threw me for a loop a few times. That’s the last thing I want to have to deal with during a presentation. The second reason is that we only have five minutes between sessions and it’s much better to have everything primed and ready to go so that we can do the presentation without wasting valuable time logging in to a new podium computer.

I’d like to see more coordination during the joint presentations if we continue to go that route. I’m not sure we’ll need to next time, but I did want to document this idea. Brian did a fantastic job, but I know we can do better next time as a team if we more clearly workout who’s covering what slides and how the other person can assist. I think we should seriously consider scripting presenter notes for each slide. I’m not suggesting that we read from them or memorize them, but having them in place will inherently lead to a more consistent and smoother presentation. We ask our faculty to do it and I should practice what I preach. Related to the recommendation above about using our own devices, it would be very important that both presenters are absolutely familiar with how all of the resources will be available on the computer being used before any joint presentations. If we decide to do more joint presentations, then I think I’ll recommend that we do a full “dress rehearsal” before the next presentation.

With regards to the presentations themselves, it’s time to have our graphic designers redesign the theme that we’re using. The aspect ratio of the background images are not scaled for 16:9 formats and the typography and other design elements need attention. I would also highly recommend that we move the presentations to Google so that we can collaboratively edit and comment on the work before and after the presentation. It’ll also make it easier to access during and after the presentation by the audience. Some slides are packed with text and we should definitely split that content up to make it more digestible. In general, I think we need to reconsider what we’re covering. There feels like there is too much content or we need to sharpen our focus.

We should consider handouts of the most salient aspects of our presentation. That way the audience has the links and email addresses they need. They can also use it to take additional notes if needed. Lisa mentioned that Amy created a sandbox space where all of the participants were added to that space so that they could actively do things during the presentation. We did create sandbox spaces, but used them for demonstration purposes only. We decided against adding people to our sandbox space partly for logistical reasons, but having gone through that now, I would recommend that we do add participants to the sandboxes and buildout the space to be more robust and follow the flow of the presentations more closely. It could be a mini-course that reflects our content. I think we could use one of the new Canvas Prides for this purpose.

I think we should consider a simple paper-based feedback form that people can fill out in a couple of minutes. It would help us to know what needs they have so that we can keep improving our presentations.

I always try to be as critical and honest with self-assessments as I can be. It doesn’t make sense to do anything else. I have been told that I can be brutal at times, but since this is about my performance, I see no reason to sugar coat things. Having said that, I was very happy to present with Brian. He is an excellent match for our office and last night was just more evidence that he does awesome work here. He was receptive, cool under pressure, and presented very well in front of a new audience.

How to Say Anything to Anyone – Shari Harley

Image result for shari harley

The College of IST was joined by a couple of other units around the University to hear Shari talk about her ideas on using candor more in the office.

I did not know what to think going into the event, but I was nicely surprised by the quality of her delivery and content of her presentation.

Initially, I thought we’d be given a lot of information on why and how we have to change who we are to be more effective in the office. It more about providing us with tools and a mindset to improve how we communicate with one another. It wasn’t just about how managers should talk with their reports. This was applicable for everyone.

I actually left with a plan to buy some of her materials so that I could use them here in the office and was very pleasantly surprised when Amy brought back a book and a couple boxes of questions from her afternoon, Directors/Managers-only session with Shari. The questions can be used to learn more and assume less about those we work with.

I hope to start using some of these techniques immediately. I am already meet with all of my direct reports monthly and we talk about many of these things, so I’m happy I have that precedent and know that I am on the right track. What I learned is that there is a lot more I can do to be a more effective supervisor and team member.

Office of Learning Design Nominated for IST Team Award

The award honors staff members in the College of IST whom, through exemplary team effort, have successfully completed a project of major impact within the college.

We just received a wonderful note congratulating us on being nominated for the IST Team Award. Again, it’s awesome to know that others value the hard work our team has put out this past year to help prepare the College for the transition to Canvas.

From: Andrew Sears
Subject: Congratuations
Date: May 3, 2016 at 8:43:34 PM EDT

I wanted to congratulate the group on being nominated for the Team Award. While only one team can receive the award, just being nominated is an honor in itself.

I look forward to seeing and hearing more about your achievements in the future. Keep up the good work.

Once again, congratulations.

Andrew


Andrew Sears
Dean and Professor
College of Information Sciences and Technology
and
Interim Chief Information Security Officer
The Pennsylvania State University
332 Information Sciences and Technology Building
University Park, PA 16802

Instructional Ideas and Technology Tools for Online Success, Week 1

Reflections on Week 1 reading: “We’ll Leave the Light on for You: Keeping Learners Motivated in Online Courses”This article focuses on key strategies motivating student in an online learning environment. Elements of this article tie to discussions that we had…

Reflections on Week 1 reading: “We’ll Leave the Light on for You: Keeping Learners Motivated in Online Courses”

This article focuses on key strategies motivating student in an online learning environment. Elements of this article tie to discussions that we had in our last LD Community meeting. Jeff Swain was emphasizing the importance of being able to articulate our approach as designers. He shared an anecdote about walking away from a painting that he really liked because the artist couldn’t articulate the intentionality of their artwork. It’s a great point. If we cannot share what we hoped to express through our work, then what difference is that then a really lucky monkey pounding away at a keyboard?

How would I hope to express my work to faculty as we being to sit down on a new project? I think that would be a combination of my stated approach, an honest survey of my strengths and weaknesses, and lessons learned. I don’t know if this means developing three different lists or one well crafted statement.

Getting back to this article. I’ve been thinking that one very useful engaging question to start with faculty might be, “how (what are the strategies and techniques you use) do you motivate your students”? I think this kind of question would be very useful for identifying ways that we could structure their content to address engagement, meaningfulness, goals, interaction, feedback, tone, etc.

A reflection on the entire course… it’s difficult to find a path in all this openness. I know that’s kind of the idea, but I get lost in all of the content and areas to explore. It’s negatively motivating to feel like I’m missing a lot of what’s happening.

Webinar: Getting Prepared Before a Disaster Strikes

Workplace Options hosted a webinar on preparedness and while there were some decent over arching topics, I really felt like the entire presentation fell apart because those topics were poorly supported.I’m no disaster planning and response expert nor am I…

Workplace Options hosted a webinar on preparedness and while there were some decent over arching topics, I really felt like the entire presentation fell apart because those topics were poorly supported.

I’m no disaster planning and response expert nor am I an expert in risk assessment, but listening to this presentation taught me that people really need to carefully assess where they are going for information.

The presenter, Brande Newsome, laid out her presentation based on the following outline:

  1. justification
  2. planning
  3. preparation
  4. execution
  5. practice
  6. mish-mash

While I think she covered the critical topics, I would have organized the presentation more clearly. She did cover some good information on communication, preparing children and workplace contingency planning.

Some of her advice was conflicting or downright dangerous. When discussing non-perishable foods, she said “this isn’t a time to be healthy… indulge” and later said to eat “healthy” non-perishable foods. Which is it? It’s easy to find healthy non-perishable foods. Do that, plain and simple. You don’t have to sacrifice during a survival situation that you’ve planned for by eating only Dinty Moore and Jello powder (not that she was suggesting that). Then she said you could use a Britta filter to grab water out of a lake… sure if you don’t mind potentially being exposed to bacteria, viruses, and chemical contaminants. Using a Britta filter with an open water source like that is negligibly better than drinking directly out of the lake with your hands. For goodness sakes… a decent water filter costs under $75 and under $25 for an emergency one – get one of those! Or tell people to buy a lighter, learn how to build a fire and use a pot to boil water that has been filtered with a hanky.

I did want to share some resources from her slidedeck:
disasterplanningresources.PNG

I posted the following questions during the Q&A and chuckled when she responded to my second question about “zombies”.
disasterplanningresources2.PNG
She responded very seriously that there’s no research out there to show that we would be in this type of situation. I laughed to myself. But in all seriousness, I think there are two very tangible topics to discuss here. One is on the level of public perceptions and mass communications. Why are we as a society gravitating to this phenomenon now? The concept of zombies have been around for decades if not centuries. What is it about us now that makes this a popular topic in the media? For the most part, it isn’t because the quality of storytelling has improved. I’m not talking about “just” the movies and TV shows out there. I’m seeing what I think is a dangerous trend in the firearms industry, a branding of firearms, ammunition and accessories that are marketing to the “zombie slayer.” The legal ramifications are staggering in self-defense situations.

The second topic is that I think the concept of the “zombie” is a metaphor for realistic disasters. It could be an outbreak, military action against civilians, etc. What, if any, value can we derive from the “zombie” culture that is useful for real-world planning and preparation? Again, I think mixing discussions about “preparing for the zombie apocalypse” is a slippery slope for people who are in the security industry or concerned with real-world planning.

If someone were to ask me how I would give a presentation on disaster planning, this is the approach I would take:

  1. rationale
  2. expectations
  3. planning and preparation
  4. practice
  5. execution
  6. recovery

My rough thoughts on each topic, hardly an exhaustive list:
Rationale

  • define disaster on an individual basis
  • consequences for failing to prepare
  • balance planning with daily function

Expectations

  • you cannot rely on any one else (the government, police, fire department, schools, employers, even other family members) to save you when disaster strikes… they might, but don’t expect it
  • if you do not prepare, you are likely to lose family members, overall wellness, and/or valuables

Planning and Preparation

  • the only way to tackle a big problem is to break it down into small pieces
  • work together with others
  • do what you can, even if it’s only a little
  • the rule of 3’s: You can only survive approximately
    • 3 minutes without air
    • 3 hours without shelter
    • 3 days without water
    • 3 weeks without food
    • 3 months without hope
    • 3 years without goals
  • what are your priorities? how would you rank the following: physical (and spiritual) health, financial well being, home and vehicle maintenance, happiness, security, livelihood, community, etc.?
  • identify your threats: personal accidents/injuries, employment, crime, natural disasters, human-induced disasters, etc?
  • what is the likelihood or risk associated with those threats?
  • what strategies and methods/tactics/plans do you have to address each of those threats?
  • where can you go for planning resources?

Frankly, I think I could have given a much better presentation on the first three topics myself. I’m not even going to finish my list here.

Don’t leave the well being of yourself and your family to anyone else. It takes so little to start to plan.

Accessibility: Triage Web Remediation

Christian gave a great presentation about how the PSU community can triage (turn one huge problem into a queue of smaller, more manageable problems handled through an iterative process) our commitment to the NFB agreement.I’ve posted my initial notes online.I…

Christian gave a great presentation about how the PSU community can triage (turn one huge problem into a queue of smaller, more manageable problems handled through an iterative process) our commitment to the NFB agreement.

I’ve posted my initial notes online.

I had a number of questions, but the big one for us would be: Does triage apply to our course content? We would expect that the “long tail” of any of our given courses would look different from a “normal” website since every page should expect to see significant traffic. How do we even go about gathering data on web traffic? Should we be using Google Analytics?

NMC Webinar Presentations

http://catalyst.navigator.nmc.org/gallery/Future of Learning EnvironmentsJosephine Hofmann & Anna HobergWorkplace learning changing requirementslearning has to be a part of daily work (not rigid training)just-in-time learningLearning 2.0 – learning w/in working process, requires more from learners and from learning designFocus for Design GridManagement…

http://catalyst.navigator.nmc.org/gallery/

Future of Learning Environments
Josephine Hofmann & Anna Hoberg

  • Workplace learning changing requirements
    • learning has to be a part of daily work (not rigid training)
    • just-in-time learning
  • Learning 2.0 – learning w/in working process, requires more from learners and from learning design
    Capture.PNG
  • Focus for Design Grid
    Capture2.PNG
  • Management Audit Framework – looking at multiple aspects of a company before designing learning, conducts interviews, the create a complex graphic to summarize their findings
    learning environment audit.PNG
  • Learning 2.0 wrap-up: “assure future innovation, offers approaches for the demographic change, prepare employees for a dynamic, permanent changing environment”
  • big challenge: cultural change

Hands-on Info Tech Virtual Lab Powered by Cloud Computing
Peng Li, East Carolina University

  • HP catalyst project team
  • large DE student population (about 100 students)
  • abstract: secure, scalable, remote lab learning environment allows for learning anytime and anywhere
  • installed HP servers, virtual labs, application image library
    virtual labs cloud computing diagram.PNG
  • physical labs are too difficult to maintain
  • 1 server can replace multiple hardware computers
  • decentralized – students install their own, need powerful computers and instructors cannot monitor work/provide help
  • centralized approach – using multiple cloud systems, on-demand, highly scalable
    virtual lab project status.PNG
  • visualization is not simulation (SL = virtual world simulator), real IT applications
  • reservation system on Blade Server
  • setting up and maintaining a cloud computing system is not easy
  • assessment: most like virtual labs, helped to understand topics, develop hands-on skills, easy to monitor, easy to seek help, collect resource data
  • spread due dates… reduces load, use in evening
  • high speed internet and firefox required
  • space and memory is required to support more students

Computation Chemistry Infrastructure
Isaac K’Owino

  • audio problems – great opening video
  • virtual chemistry tools VLab 1.6.4 and ChemLab 2.0
  • http://www.modelscience.com/products.html?ref=home&link=chemlab
  • grad, undergrad, and HS students work together
  • encourages hands-on experience
  • students don’t need real labs if they have these virtual labs to learn
  • awesome collaboration and opportunities to make huge impacts
  • http://irydium.chem.cmu.edu/find.php

Reflections
I logged on today to specifically tune into the presentation on virtual labs powered by cloud computing. It was a very interesting presentation and I wonder if there are aspects of this project that we could benefit from here at IST or elsewhere around PSU. We’re already using virtual labs at IST, but I’ve heard that scalability is an issue and concerns that we’re starting to use demonstrations over visualization.

The project that really grabbed my attention was the last presentation from Isaac in Kenya. Although there were audio problems to begin with, I was impressed with the work Isaac has been doing with collaboration from around the world and the awesome impact they appear to be having with HS, undergrad and graduate-level students.

2012 TLT Symposium and Crowd Sourcing Projects

This past weekend was the TLT Symposium. I was disappointed that I missed most of the event. My daughter’s second birthday party fell on the same day. I’m going to have to check out Jane’s keynote. I was looking forward…

This past weekend was the TLT Symposium. I was disappointed that I missed most of the event. My daughter’s second birthday party fell on the same day. I’m going to have to check out Jane’s keynote. I was looking forward to that event more than any other this year.

I missed a lot more than Jane’s presentation however. I had the privilege of working on two of the planning committees: the Program Team and the Gamification Team.

I was able to make one of the sessions that I had volunteered for. I spent the last session in the Arcade (room 218) talking with faculty and staff about getting traction with their ideas. While I was there I spoke with:

  • Larry Ragan & Drew
  • Lori Shontz
  • Susana Garcia Prudencio
  • Shivaani Aruna Selvaraj and Chris Stubbs

I definitely want to check back with Lori and Susana about some of their ideas and help them with their next steps. Lori was talking about lower levels of participation in her blended offering of COMM 260W course. Susana was interested in games that would help strengthen vocabulary games for SPAN 001-003.

There’s a lot happening and I can imagine that the Educational Gaming Commons is keeping pretty busy these days. I was talking with Ravi and we came up with some great ideas around creating a crowd-sourcing resource that would help people with ideas get their projects implemented. This web-based resource would match people with certain skills to specific needs of different projects. For example, I might indicated that I had certain competencies with instructional design, project management, and intermediate multimedia development. The website would send me emails when certain projects needed certain forms of support at specific stages. I could choose to pitch in for as much or as little as I was able to. After the project was finished, Ravi had a great idea that everyone involved in the project could get together and reflect. I was just thinking it would be a great time to celebrate as well! We don’t celebrate completed projects enough around PSU it seems… so busy with what’s next 🙂

Object Oriented Programming

A few weeks ago, I started looking into iOS app development again. It’s a professional development exercise to better understand some of the educational tools that are available on this platform. Ravi Patel and I even joked about working on…

A few weeks ago, I started looking into iOS app development again. It’s a professional development exercise to better understand some of the educational tools that are available on this platform. Ravi Patel and I even joked about working on an app together, but nothing is in the works.

I started using Xcode about a year ago and didn’t get to far. I’m currently using Xcode 4.0.1. I can’t upgrade to the newest version without upgrading to Lion. I’m not ready to do that.

This time around, I’m spending more time researching and learning about the core concepts of Object Oriented Programming and that’s been very useful. I’ve used this new body of information to create a growing list best practices and glossary items.

It’ll be a long time before I can create something on my own. I’m still having a difficult time coding with the proper syntax and getting around the basics of the language and the Xcode interface. Things are definitely starting to click however.

I don’t even have an idea of a project to work on, but I’ll start brainstorming useful, fun ideas this spring.