June 25, 2007

Assigning Oral Presentations


Classroom presentations can be one of the most enriching assignments of the class if enough planning and preparation goes into the process. Below are 6 tips to help you assign an engaging oral presentation assignment.

1. Plan ahead. Give yourself time to communicate your expectations for the assignment and allow enough time for students to prepare. A well-prepared presentation takes time to plan!

2. Write a complete assignment so students understand the goals and aims of the presentation. Give the rubric you will be using to students ahead of time so they can plan accordingly.

3. Encourage creativity. Let students know that you don’t expect any two presentations to be formatted the same. This will ensure students enrich the learning experience by allowing their own personality and experiences to show through.

4. Prepare your students to be a willing and cooperative audience. Students need to be sufficiently engaged to learn from their peers. Consider what the audience will be doing during the presentations.

5. Have students complete a self-assessment. Let the student reflect on their strengths and weaknesses after the presentation.

6. Evaluate the presentations to help the students improve. Provide personalized information on the rubric to let the student know you care about their performance and how they can improve for next time.


Oral Presentation Assessment Tips at Carleton College
(This site is geared toward geosciences, but is applicable to other disciplines.)


What strategy for class presentations or the assessment rubric would like to share with the BGSU community?


Learning Community Opportunties for 2007-2008

Applications for the 2007-2008 CTLT Learning Communities are now available through the end of July. This year, faculty, staff, and graduate students have eleven communites to choose from, including three new opportunities:

Core Commitments Service-Learning
Co-sponsored with the Office for Service -Learning, members will develop knowledge of service-learning outcomes and assessment plans for a newly designed service-learning course to be taught during academic year 2008-2009, including the implementation of community partnership best practices into course design and delivery.

Schlolarship in Teaching and Learning
An interdisciplinary group of faculty who value, encourage, and engage in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The community and its members will research and discuss professional practices leading to the development of scholarly teaching and enriched and meaningful student learning.

Web 2.0 Pedagogy and Scholarship
University faculty, staff, and graduate students will explore the use of Web 2.0 tools for pedagogical transformation, community partnerships, scholarship of engagement, and new models of scholarly publishing.

Additional community opportunities include:
• Active Learning in the Natural Sciences
• Grant Writing for Teaching and Learning Initiatives
• The IF Learning Community at BGSU Firelands
• Life Science Scientific Teaching and Reform
• New Faculty
• Research in Science and Mathematics Education
• Transition to Digital


For more information or to download an application, visit the CTLT's Learning Community web page.

June 21, 2007

Ask AL- Tech Tip Creating Mailing Labels

How can I create mailing labels in my word processing software?

AL's answer for Mac using Appleworks 6
http://www.atomiclearning.com/almovie?key=4720

AL's answer for PC using Word 2003
http://www.atomiclearning.com/almovie?key=27397

AL's answer for PC using Word 2007
http://www.atomiclearning.com/almovie?key=29244

AL's answer for PC using OpenOffice.org 2
http://www.atomiclearning.com/almovie?key=28633

Would this tip improve your ability to send out notices? If you try this, tell us about your success or problems implementing this technique...Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!


June 14, 2007

The UC Second Life Wiki


The UC Second Life Wiki
provides a valuable resource for any educator or student who plans to utilize Second Life as a teaching and learning tool. Second Life is a popular persistent online virtual “world” where users from around the globe can explore digital environments and interact with other users. More and more institutions of higher education are using Second Life to create unique virtual learning experiences. The UC Wiki provides essays of experiences from others, FAQ's, tutorials and numerous other audio and video resources.


Do you have a Second Life Account? Have you used the program for teaching in any way? How? Any resources that you would like to share regarding Second Life?...Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!


June 6, 2007

Copyright in a Digital Era

With the proliferation of technology in the classroom, there is a rise in the use of available media for integrating new ideas. What started out as making copies of paper documents has now turned into duplicating software, video, and digital documents. Along with this shift in copying and exchanging digital media, the need for regulation must shift for protection of licensed media and information.

In a higher education environment instructors will likely need to copy various media for use in the classroom. For this purpose, we found a chart designated to inform school leaders of what is allowable under the law. This information would prove to be valuable when you have a question concerning copying, posting, digitizing, and sharing media for educational uses.

For a consice chart displaying current copyright regulations, visit:
http://www.techlearning.com/copyrightguide/index.php


What type of copyright issues occur in your courses? How well do students understand copyright of multimedia?...Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!


How NOT to use Powerpoint

Click play to view a brief comic sketch on how NOT to use PowerPoint. This video is great to show your class before assigning class presentations. It may encourage originality and make people think about how the audience will respond to a presentation.





How many "bad" presenations have you seen like this? Please share any other PowerPoint tips. If you show this in class, please share the students' responses. ...Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!


June 4, 2007

The New Blooms Taxonomy

For over half a century the work of Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues has played a major role in understanding substantive thinking about planning and evaluation in an educational atmosphere. Bloom's Taxonomy was originally designed for educators to think about objectives, communicate with one another, and formulate a curriculum. With advances in technology following the release of Bloom's Taxonomy, there now exists a New Bloom's Taxonomy.

This new approach to the classic taxonomy incorporates emphasis on contemporary research in learning and metacognition to evaluate learners' experience and how it has been enhanced through the use of technology. The table below shows the changes made to the classic taxonomy for technology-using educators. In all, using the elements of The New Bloom's Taxonomy could be beneficial when used in higher education because it serves a way for students to think deeply.


Reference:
Cochran, D., Conklin, J., & Modin, S. (2007). A New Bloom: Transforming Learning. Learning & Leading with Technology, (5), 22-25.


For more information about the original and New Blooms Taxonomy go to:
http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/bloomrev/index.htm


How can the the original and New Bloom's Taxonomy help you assess students knowledge in the classroom? How is either taxonomy useful when developing a new course? Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!