Week 4: Integrating Technology

The NMC Horizon Report for Higher Ed discussed the role of students as shifting from consumers to creators.  Although the report itself is focused more on makerspaces and 'students as producers,' the driving idea behind the trend is the shifting the role of students from passive vessels to active participants.  The role of the teacher will need to change in order to support student creators.  Constructivist pedagogy emphasizes the importance of students as creating their own meaningful learning experiences, which teachers can support by connecting learning to their past experiences.

Technology can be applied in such a way to support student creators in the library classroom.  Just as cutting edge technology can still result in a disengaged, lecture-based format, older technologies can be used to create an engaging classroom.  I believe the trick is in how and why the teacher chooses to apply the technology in question.  I have some rather long wish-lists for what I would like technology to do for me in the classroom, so I will focus on one aspect to explore tech tools: assessment.  

To this day, we send out paper surveys to classes that have received bibliographic instruction.  The surveys are usually sent out weeks after instruction.  While the surveys do provide summative assessment data, I believe there are a number of other tools that can be used for formative assessment in the classroom during instruction.  Live polling grew in popularity a few years ago and I believe it is still a good tool for formative assessment because it is instantaneous and anonymous.  Live polling provides an opportunity for students to interact using their ubiquitous smartphones in class.  Additionally, the anonymity of live polling makes it safe to fail.  Any wayward or wrong answers can lead into review and instruction in much-needed areas.  My experience has been that students enjoy seeing their own responses.  Live polling is most definitely not the only tool that could be used for formative assessment.  Short response assignments, such as 'minute papers' (where the students write for one minute on a targeted question) can also provide a snapshot of learning, as could quizzes and other more traditional forms of formative assessment.

Live polling has definitely improved my instruction by providing me with an opportunity to address any gaps in instruction after the peer-to-peer teaching exercise, where I don't have as much control over the material as a standard lecture.  For my final project, I am tempted to fall into cutting edge trends.  I love technology and I'm always interested in using the next shiny, new tech tool in the classroom.  Instead, I'm going to focus on creating an active classroom using current technology in an innovative way.  I'll be posting my final project soon after some thinking and writing.  We'll see if I'm successful or not!

Week 3: Learning Theories and Motivation

Learning Scenario

The readings for this week reinforced what I have been trying to change in my one-shot classes.  Prior to attending ACRL Immersion, my one-shots were mostly lecture and demonstration, followed by student search time, during which they would then use the resource I had demonstrated to them.  I was dissatisfied by the outcome.  Many students were disengaged and did not use the time for searching.  Additionally, there was no time for them to collaborate.  I have created a group teaching activity which is much more successful.  I used Constructivist learning theory to help me build the exercise.  

Activity

I first randomly split the class up into groups of 3-4 students. I have divided the library resources they are expected to learn among the groups (one per group) and I have each group spend time getting to know a library resource very well in order to teach it to the rest of the class.  I give them a strict time constraint as well as guiding questions for them to answer.  The leading questions include asking them to describe a scenario when they would definitely use their resource and a contrasting scenario when their resource would not be an appropriate choice.

Motivation and Assessment

Presenting in front of their peers gives them an added motivation to know their resource.  The group work time gives them the ability to either collaborate, if they learn collaboratively, or to learn on their own with the support of the group when needed.  The presentation aspect allows the extroverted students to share and the introverted students to hang back if needed but still jump in with answers to questions.  Finally, the rest of the class is more attentive when their classmates are demonstrating a database. At the end, I do a live-poll assessment that leads into a review so I can hit any points that the groups may have missed.

Reflection

While, for the most part, the group teaching activity has been successful, I would like to take it further.  Ideally, I would like to draw more on the students' experiences to make learning more relevant and to align my one-shots further with Constructivist learning theory.  In this activity, I don't take the time to draw out their experience with researching on the internet.  I do have one group present on a resource of their choice that is not a library tool.  Most of the time, students pick Google Scholar or Wikipedia and this will lead us into a discussion on the difference between internet searching and library research.  I feel that I need to tap into their experience earlier in the session.  I have a colleague that starts from Google and then goes into the library databases, similar to what Cooperstein and Kocevar-Weidinger wrote about in their article.  I am open to any suggestions!  Please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email!