My friend Alan Ferris is a dedicated professor of Psychology and our Director of Institutional Research. Alan and I have often enjoy lunch together as well as office banter. He has a quiet subtle way of inspiring me that I enjoy. So perhaps I can give back a little inspiration in this post.
John Breeding’s pod would make a great introduction for an introductory psychology course.
What I like about it is its challenge of what we consider to be normal behavior. It celebrates those behaviors which make us unique individuals and reinforces our feelings of well-being. It might also serve to signal that this course is not about judging oneself and others.
“Adult learners need to know why they need to learn something before undertaking to learn it.”
The investigator in this episode of The Twilight Zone needs to know something and we are compelled to follow the story. We all want to fill in the missing pieces of the mystery. We are compelled to solve the puzzle even though it doesn’t personally affect us. Why do we need to know?
Adult learners are more motivated to learn than traditional students because they tend to better understand their personal need to know. They need to know in order to better perform a job task. Some of them need to know in order to get a promotion. We all need to know so we can make a better life for ourselves or our families. Our need to know is tied to the survival instinct and that is a very powerful motivator.
Many non-traditional students come to campus with anxiety about having to compete with traditional students. They feel disadvantaged because they haven’t been in school for some time. They fear their study skills have waned and they might be right but they are not doomed. I find these non-traditional students skewing curves more often than fail. Why? Because they need to know.
Can this compelling need to know amongst non-traditional students be infused into the normal population? Perhaps it can to some dedree? Introducing each new topic with a brief explanation of how it is relevant to workers in the field can’t hurt. Try it!
It would be too mean to leave you hanging so here is the rest of the story.
Keep your students out of the twilight zone by telling them why they need to know what you are trying to teach them and how knowing will benefit them.
www.CollegeGrad.com’s Job Search Minute is a good example of using contrasting podcasts to teach through comparative analysis. Brian Krueger hosts this series dealing with the standard interview question “Tell me about yourself?” We will see the good, the bad, and the ugly responses. The good provides us with a positive role model. We may see a bit of ourselves in the latter responses. If so, we’ll know what we need to work on. So let’s get started!
THE SETUP
“Tell me about yourself?” isn’t a personal question.
THE GOOD
That doesn’t look too hard. All you need to do is a little reflection on you and the job before you go to the interview. That’s called preparation! Also notice the candidates posture and how she talks with her hands.
THE BAD
Do you think the candidate is going to get the job? I don’t. She is way too nervous and giggling isn’t appropriate to the situation. Interviewing is a serious activity. She hasn’t prepared for the interview and she has no idea of how she can contribute to the enterprise.
THE UGLY
The interviewer doesn’t care about your personal life, beliefs, or foot fungus! Keep on task!
Comparative analysis through divergent podcasts can be an effective learning strategy. Look for more examples or create you own.
I am an unapologetic technologist but I have been skeptical about the use of computer technology in education. Teachers have been telling me for decades how they were revolutionizing education with computers but never delivered on the promise. I left a career in computer engineering and entered a doctoral program in Adult and Higher Education Administration in 1999 and teaching had not evolved a bit since I graduated from Michigan State University in 1975. The teachers were still making empty promises about technologies ability to teach but now they added the challenge of geographic diversity.
I decided to focus my research on how professors used the World Wide Web to address the needs of distance learners. I found several shortcomings.
Distance courses relied on outdated modes of communication to present content.
Technology was a barrier between students and faculty.
Teaching was synchronous.
I remained skeptical.
Technology advanced in giant leaps since 1999 and I’ve grown from skeptic to enthusiast. Here’s why.
Course management has evolved to the point where any reasonably intelligent professor can make effective use of it. My school has been using Blackboard to good advantage for several years and it keeps getting better and easier. The best thing about online course management software is that it makes learning available anywhere and anytime. All a student needs is Internet access with is quickly becoming ubiquitous.
Podcasts are now enabling the free inclusion of multimedia content into online courses. Apple iTunes and YouTube have tons of great content. All one needs to do is surf to either of these sites and shop around. Apple is so engaged in education they started a new service this year called iTunes U where a host of colleges and universities are making rich multimedia content freely available. These “podcasts” can be supplemented by high quality online tutorials. Soon the textbook while be going the way of the dinosaur.
Students can be easily engaged into a dialog with professors and peers using Discussion Board Forums and a little academic controversy. The first step is to pick an interesting topic like the war in Iraq. I like to start things off by sharing some controversial multimedia like excerpts from a Michael Moore film. The last step is to create an area where students can post their comments, thoughts, reactions, or whatever else they may wish to contribute. See below.
Will this work? Yes. I had my doubts but I decided to test it in 2003. I taught several sections of a general education course that year. Students enrolled in these course were my test subjects. I had one controversial topic presented per week with an accompanying discussion forum. I motivated students to participate by awarding points for participation but I was skeptical so I only required participation in 3 of the 15 forums. I was shocked when I found the average number of forums participated in was over 13. These statistics have be consistent ever since.
Michael Moore has a gift for you to get your mental juices flowing.
Do you have students who are MIA (missing in action)? Have you ever wondered why some students prefer staying in their dorm rooms instead of coming to class? They just might be game addicts!
What is healthy play? Any game can be healthy as long as it doesn’t interfere with normal life. Its good to have fun as long as no one gets hurt. Some games are actually healthy because they involved exercise but computer gaming usually involves sitting on one’s behind for hours on end.
What is game addiction? Addiction occurs when any behavior beings to interfere with living a normal life. A student missing class because of computer gaming has an addition issue. Its usually a learned pattern of behavior. Too many relationships are suffering because of the time people spend playing games rather than interacting with family members. When children grow up in environments where this behavior is common they accept it as normal.
Is there a solution? Yes but it takes a healthy dose of self-discipline and must often be initiated by an intervention. However the addict must want to regain control of their life before the problem can be contained. Let’s listen to Dr. Shavaun Scott who specializes in the treatment of computer gaming addiction.
Why do game addicts get hooked? Dr. Scott suggests gaming fills some void in the gamer’s life. Something is missing in the gamer’s life. Some psychological need is unfulfilled. A student may turn to excessive gaming if they are having problems making friends on campus or if they feel insecure about academic performance. Family problems are a common root cause of addiction too.
Identifying game addicts. Repeated absence is reason enough for concern. Other things to look for are withdrawl from normal activities and hygiene issues. Any signs that the normal patterns of life have been interrupted should signal alarm.
How can we help? Reach out to your students. Ask about their hopes and dreams. Find out about their general happiness and if they are experiencing unmet needs. Try to help them realize their responsibilities but do not lift their burdens. To do so would only enable the behavior you want to eliminate. The important thing is that your students know you care. If the problem persists seek out professional help but don’t be judgmental as this will turn the student away from you,
Are some games more addictive than others? Yes but its important to remember any activity can be addictive. My college roommates and I played way too much euchre. It could easily have grown into a serious problem if we had let it. Some types of computer games are designed to be more addictive or engaging than others. Progressively more difficult levels, peer pressure, and reward systems are some of the features than make some games more enticing than others.
How does game addiction compare to other forms of addiction? All addictions damage lives. While computer game addiction may not in itself be fatal I would hate to have to talk to the parents of a student who committed suicide because they were looking at academic failure due to too much gaming. Comparing addictions doesn’t see to be a productive endeavor to me anyway.
Can happiness be found in a virtual life? No. Virtual life is not real and lasting happiness cannot be found there. People who seek happiness in a virtual world are trying to compensate for something missing in the real life. They take on personas to hide their personal flaws which only serves to make things worse. Gamers would be better served by helping them to be more successful in this world and the first step is to be grounded in reality.
Why are computer games so pleasurable? The virtual worlds they create allow an escape from the real world and its problems. There are also neurohormonal factors involved. Computer gaming causes the release of dopomene to the brain. So a “natural” high is experienced.
Why do gamers continue after the games stops being fun? Those with the most severe addiction problems stopped enjoying the games that enslave them but continue to play because they feel helpless to resist. This may be due to hormonal addiction. Many long distances runners continue to run with injuries because of the “runner’s high” they experience. Gamers can have like experiences.
What are the dangers of gaming? To me the most hazardous risk is failure in the real world. Lost marriages. Failed relationships with children and loss of custody. Academic failure. Loss of jobs. Divorce. Even death. All of these are real risks suffered by people everyday.
Who are the real winners? The only big winners are those who profit from the sale of the games and their continuous stream of upgrades. These people have a vested interest in continuing the addiction. However, gaming is not necessarily a bad thing. There are many people who play computer games without being trapped by their addictive properties. So it is unfair to consider the purveyors of games to be criminals. They can’t help it some people have strong obsessive tendencies.
What can we do to help our students? Be a friend. Listen to them. Ask about their lives. Be aware of what resources are available for them on your campus and in your community. Offer friendly advice when its asked for but make students face their responsibilities. And when necessary intervene.
Dr. James Simmons is a gentleman and scholar of English at Mount Marty College and I risk much in attempting to apply my humble skills for his benefit. Yet he is of such good character that I’m compelled to try for I wish to give him a small token in recognition of the great gifts he has given his students, colleagues, and community. Simmons is a man of sharp wit and dry humor. You can also describe Jim as a rugged individualist and independent thinker. His acting and oratory skills are unmatched on campus. You ought to have seen his version of Satan last spring! He walks to work each day and invests his own money in extracurricular activities for his students. Yes, my friend is truly a man to be emulated.
What token can I offer a professional educator and pioneer of distance education?
I believe Jim’s use of technology in teaching has focused on synchronous television broadcasting. This scenario involves teaching students at multiple sites using expensive broadcasting gear. This is a problematic approach to my mind as it begs for lecture yet provides a space barrier which renders lecturer nearly helpless in applying methods of controlling a classroom full of student with short attention spans. This is especially difficult when teaching high school students in advanced placement courses because of the variety of schedules one must deal with. An asynchronous approach offers salvation from rough seas.
Mount Marty faculty have been using Blackboard for several years now to augment their courses but I haven’t seen much content being placed within its course management modules. This is not meant to be an indictment of my peers as we do not regularly offer distance courses. Our is a traditional learning environment populated in large part by first generation college students. We sail the waters of higher education on the longships of classrooms and lectures.
Still we can apply the new technologies in innovative ways. We can add podcasts to our Blackboard courses to benefits ourselves and our students. Once there we know how to easily access these podcasts and can show them in the classroom. Students can review them as the leisure, Absent students can view them online to catch up! All benefit and its as easy as cutting and pasting the embed code from YouTube.
So let me try to entice my friend with a few examples of the spoken work freely available on YouTube.
This first offering is a poetry reading by Donald Hall, U. S. Poet Laureate. Hall has published 15 books and earned many awards in his career. This podcast is a product of the University of Virginia and the Research Channel.
This podcast is about 30 minutes in length which may be a bit long for some students. Poems hit the viewer like the waves beat the shore offering little time for reflection. Yet it is good to listen to such an illustrious poet and to see how relevant poetry can be to life in the new millennium.
A single poem like a calm sea offers opportunity for reflection. Anne Sexton’s The Truth The Dead Know begs for such calm seas as it touches on a deeply personal subject. Offering in online gives the student the opportunity for secluded reflection on the poem such as is known by a solitary sailor in a skiff.
Students may be more engaged by poetry slams. They seem to be the bikinis on the beach of poetry. The next podcast is on the National Poetry Slam. It offers some of the best poetry of our time and describes the challenge of slamming.
Some waters are welcoming to sportsmen. So are poetry slams! This program show students how they can be involved in poetry. The slam is hosted only 30 miles to the east of our campus at the Coffee Shop Art Gallery. This brief program tells the prospective slammer just how the contest works and offers examples of student poetry. If you look very close you may even see my photo credit in this podcast.
So there it is, my tech tip for a friend and colleague. Jim, I hope this is worthwhile to you and your students. Drop by anytime and I’ll show you how to put a podcast in your Blackboard class.
I have been teaching people how to use computers since 1978 and repetition is one of my best friends. Experts might say this is because of attention deficits but in reality normal attention spans aren’t very long and its easy to miss a step here and there while trying to watch a demonstration and attempt to perform it on your computer. There are just too many places for the eye’s attention in the classroom.
Fortunately, there are many good tutorials on the web. In fact, I stopped using a text in my Microsoft Office class many years ago because of the high quality material freely available to learners. I just select what seems to be the best of web’s offerings and give my students links to it.
I’m starting to see a lot of good educational content being offered by iTunes and YouTube. Their offering are usually podcasts with rich graphics. Using these tutorials in place of a textbook is more engaging for learners and can be reviewed at will.
View the podcast below and see what you think!
I’m planning on using this series next semester and searching for similar materials for Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Exchange, and Access.
I started this blog in hope of motivating people to make more and better use of technology in their teaching. There are many ways to do this. One is to simply show them what is available. Next I can show them how easily it can be used in their courses. A third way is to put together a special entry targeted for a specific individual and published it as a gift and a challenge. That’s what I’m doing here.
James Foster is the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Mount Marty College and a professor of history. His title is too big for his stature or my typing skills so I’ll just call him Jim. FYI he’s an inch or two taller than I am. Jim’s a likable fellow with a passion for the American Labor Movement. He spends part of each summer teaching the history of the American labor movement for the AFL-CIO. We love to share old labor songs, he and I, and the best source of them is the Little Red Songbook published by the IWW. By the way Jim knows more of these songs that anyone I’ve ever met.
Jim thinks he’s mastered technology but he has a way to go yet. He does his research but I’ll risk he hasn’t seen this series yet. My challenge to him is to go to YouTube and other sites and incorporate the good quality vods he finds there into Blackboard for his History of the American Labor Movement course.
The Center for Educational Productions and The National Endowment for the Humanities presents this nine part series on the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) entitled The Wobblies. This film was created as a feature film. An unknown party disassembled it into these nine parts. Most parts are about ten minutes long.
I found them on YouTube and simply copied the embed code here as I would if I wanted to add them my a Blackboard course. Its very easy and I’d be glad to show anyone who cares enough to come by my office.
Part 1 of 9
A union is born. Its a union like no other. Its goal was to organize all of labor within specific industries without regard to gender, skill, race, education, heritage, religion, language, nationality, or any other factor by which men will sometimes seek to separate themselves. This was an inclusive group whose sole goal was to achieve fair wages and working hours for its members.
The IWW and the whole labor movement was a response to the accumulation of wealth by a small number of individuals and the exploitation of working men and women. Jim could have his students search for modern evidence of labor exploitation to share with one another in the course’s discussion forums. Or they could find information on specific cases of labor exploitation in the United States at the dawn of the industrial revolution to either verify or debunk the claims of the film. The IWW formed in the city of Chicago in 1905 so that date could mark the end of the search.
Part 2 of 9
The struggle begins! Big Bill Haywood and other labor organizers join forces in Chicago and begin recruiting and organizing unskilled workers. Jim’s students could research and report on the lives of these organizers to learn more about who they were. Or they could look into how the Wobblies tried to recruit members and evaluate the effectiveness of their methods. Craft unions and segregation are other topics of interest.
Part 3 of 9
“All for one and one for all!” We know what this meant to the Musketeers but what did it mean to the Wobblies? How far did it go? Would one wobbly die for another? This may be a good discussion question for Jim’s students.
Part 4 of 9
“… and then the cops would come.” How did the government officials treat the Wobbiles? Was it fair and right? How did the Wobblies respond? How might you have responded differently? These may be good discussion questions for Jim’s students after viewing this segment.
This would make a good time for Jim to talk about the life and death of Joe Hill! He might even invite a friend in to play a few songs. Hint. Hint.
Part 5 of 9
I grew up in a suburb of Chicago just inside of the State of Michigan. So Chicago and Detroit were focal points for my education and I believed the labor movement was a response to industrialism but as we just saw the Wobblies were organizing agricultural workers in northwest. What is a chain gang? What other examples of unionism in agriculture can be found? What are the working conditions of agricultural workers today?
Part 6 of 9
This segment brings forth a wealth of questions. What is sabotage? How did the Wobblies use sabotage as a bargaining tool? Do you believe sabotage is a fair tool of negotiation? How is it different from striking? What is a scab? What is the relationship between the wobblies and bums? Some famous people road the rails too. Who were they? What did they contribute to society?
Part 7 of 9
Was World War I the people’s war? Was it labor’s war? Who benefited? Who suffered? How many captains of American industry fought on the lines? Can you name even one? What is striking on the job? How might you or your parents practice it on the job today? I’m certain Jim can think of many more questions for his students but this gives him a start.
Part 8 of 9
What is strike breaking? How is it done? What examples of strike breaking are documented on the World Wide Web? Does it occur today? Is it a sin to negotiate for better wages and working conditions? Is collective bargaining anti-American? Aren’t all men created equal?
Part 9 of 9
Are the Wobblies dead and gone? What about other unions? What has happened to union membership since the end of World War II? Would American labor benefit from labor organization today?
The Little Red Songbook is a living document. New songs are added all the time and the Wobblies republish it every few years. The one thing its missing is music. There are no guitar chords. Just lyrics. The original idea was to put lyrics to hymns and popular tunes but many of these are lost to today’s common culture. I’d like to see Jim’s students collect podcasts of people performing as many of these songs as possible. Why? I could say because the culture needs to be preserved but my reason is more personal and selfish. I want to learn them!
Putting material like this with accompanying research and discussion questions on Blackboard has distinct advantages over the traditional approach of showing a film in the classroom. The students can view the film when they wish and review it as often as they like. The can research questions on the World Wide Web and share the resources they find with the rest of the class. They can reflect on questions before responding thereby raising the general quality of discussion. Yes, it is nice to see their smiling faces in the classroom but we must weigh the advantages and disadvantages.
Thanks Jim for your friendship and sense of humor. I hope you got one or two good ideas from this blog entry.
They say “a picture is worth a thousand words” but I think it depends on the picture. Sometimes they are worth a lot more!
A good vodcast can convey so much more than all of the words you can sling together in an entire lecture series. This vodcast is a good example. It combines historical photography, speeches, news reports, and classic rock to express its point. What’s even more amazing is its available free to any educator who cares to look for it.
I admit I didn’t like history much when I was a student. Reading about times past was too abstract for me and the lectures didn’t help. The problem was I couldn’t ground the facts and dates with my personal life. I had no connections to it and the lessons were hidden. I wonder if those history teachers even knew what those lessons were.
Perhaps VODs (videos on demand) offer us a way of making history more real for students.
Its a powerful 7 minutes. You can almost feel the betrayal and desperation of the times. You see the tragedy with your own eyes. You hear the President of the United States speak and the report of the guns. You receive the news of the American invasion of Cambodia. You cannot deny what happened because you have become a witness to history. How can mere words compete?
Can anyone name those American Universities President Nixon said were systematically destroyed?
The next vod provides 3 minutes of the Vietnam war from the soldiers perspective. The video is accompanied by Credence Clearwater Revival’s Run Through the Jungle. The song is not only appropriate for the age but written for the purpose of conveying the feelings of American soldiers in Nam. Remember these soldiers were mostly young men and they were asked to put their lives on the line for a war the United States Congress didn’t care enough about to declare an official war.
I’m sorry for the graphic scenes of wounded American soldiers but this is the truth. The American government asked these men to make the ultimate personal sacrifice. The least we can do is recognize them and their deeds. These young people believed they were defending their country. Despite the political truth these are true American heros. They deserve to be honored. Such is the horror of war.
Here’s another by Tim O’Brien with a more personal perspective. The music is more current too. It speaks less of the combat and more of the G.I.’s emotional pain. But it also shows a bit from the enemy’s perspective too! The Vietnamese suffered a great deal more than the Americans in this undeclared war.
If you aren’t feeling a bit of the desperation of war after this last vod your heart must have stopped beating at least 3 minutes ago. The ending just leaves you in a funky state wondering what’s next? When will the bombs hit? When will the enemy shoot? Will they charge us in our sleep? Will I ever be able to sleep? How can I numb this pain?
There were glimpses of political light in the 1960’s. To ignore it, even here, would be a disservice. I am speaking of course of Bobby Kennedy. He was not alone but he represented the best of the progressively minded leaders of the time. The following vod presents a brief summary of his ideas and convictions.
RFK spoke for a new generation. One who was fighting and dying in Vietnam. He also encouraged them to speak out against the war just as he had worked to promote the efforts of the civil rights movement. He gave us hope and challenged us to made the United States a better nation. Here’s what happened.
But did we learn from our mistakes? Does history have to repeat itself or can we break the cycle with reason? Can we learn from our own past? What is the point of studying history if not to learn from our mistakes so we can do better? These are the questions we should be asking ourselves. Let’s make the lessons come alive!
This last vod asks us if we will ever learn to stop waging war? It cycles on history reinforcing the cycle of armed aggression so prevalent in our history. It reminds me of an old gospel song…
Gonna lay down my sword and shield
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Gonna lay down my sword and shield
Down by the riverside
Ain’t gonna study war no more.
refrain
I ain’t gonna study war no more,
I ain’t gonna study war no more,
Study war no more.
I ain’t gonna study war no more,
I ain’t gonna study war no more,
Study war no more.
Each of these short programs is a lens on American history. The people are real. We see them. We hear them. The events are real and we can bear witness to them more easily than ever. We may have seen some of the news reports. We may know people who were there. It’s easier to make connections with the history because it involves more of our senses and our hearts. Once we start to witness we can help but ask questions. We seek out our memories and those who were there.
I hope someday we’ll all teach this way. How about it Rich Lofthus? You are a professor of history. What do you think?
What are we really doing inside the classroom? Are we regurgitating facts or are we teaching students to face the unknown challenges of their lives? Are we boring them to tears or engaging them in conversation and research? How many empty seats are there at 8:00? Isn’t it time to give some serious thought to what and how we teach?
A vision of students today should make you think about your work and its affect.
I believe its time for a radical change in how we work before the ivory towers disappear. Its time to reach students with rich content where they live and work. Why does learning have to occur inside a specific space? Why must it happen only on arbitrarily determined day? In limited time blocks? For a specific range of time?
The personal computer was Time Magazine’s Man of the Year for 1982. There were only about 100,000 of them in use then. There were over 168 million PCs in the United States at the end of the last millennium. To what use are we putting this intellectual tool?
How many of your students own an MP3 player? What is the potential of this tool to teach?
The World Wide Web is a vast information jungle rich with information and knowledge waiting to be gleaned. Do your students know how to effectively use it? Do you?
Technology is advancing at an incredible rate but teaching practice remains much the same as it was hundreds of years ago. Why? Society looks to us to lead the way. We are expected to introduce the future to the populace. Instead we are being dragged kicking into the 20th century. Yes, I meant 20th.
Yes, much of what we do works so let’s not discard it. Rather let’s make it better by making it available in new ways. Let’s think about how technology can help us improve learning. Let’s once again practice thinking outside of the box. That’s what I’m doing. Please join me!
