Does Synchronous Teaching Really Encourage More Active Learning and Engagement?

When I heard the team said that research found out that online learning encouraged more active learning and engagement, I was skeptical toward that statement. For me, it was a bit of over-generalized and idealistic. Despite of this, I benefited a lot from last week's tech talk about synchronous teaching.

I was fascinated by the creative idea of using Second Life as a teaching tool. For a long time, I viewed Second Life as a pure virtual video game. It was against the reality and allured people to lead an imagined life which could be a waste of time.  Yet after listening to the team tech talk, I changed my attitude toward this kind of social video game. This is actually a game that can help a instructor construct a visual classroom online. With avatars and instant interaction between instructor and classmates, Second life becomes a very funny teaching and learning platform. It is especially suitable for visual person who mainly learns through viewing and pictures (I am that type of person and that's why I like Second Life more than those two-way audio web-based synchronous teaching tools).

Therefore, in the future, I would consider to integrate Second Life in my online courses.  But I still have several concerns here. First of all, how to prevent distraction? To use this video game to teach, all my students have to create an individual account for it. Then is it possible that I actively lead my students into temptation that can discourage their learning by consuming lots of their time? Second, how about those students who are auditory and have difficulties to learn in virtual world? Is it possible that this kind of virtual teaching environment can adversely affect their learning process...?

Flipping the Classroom

Ah....... I don't know what it means....I even need to look up the dictionary to understand the word "flip"...

Well, maybe it's about changing the relationship between the students and the lecturer...????

Okay, I got the idea after the Tech Talk, and I think I am an "expert" on flipping the class. I create lots of Group Project Work Days for students to do their group assignments in class. Both students and I like this class management strategy very much. For example, they developed more interest to the research after having hands-on experiences and I have more time to relax. >.<

 But the challenge is that most of the students didn't read the material before coming to the class. Yet that's a possiblity that I have already expected. For example, I wanted my students to know how to conduct a focus group so I gave them three group project work days for doing it. Yet students didn't put enough effort on reading the example of moderator's guide before attending the class to create questions with their group members. I knew that it would adversely affect their conducting the focus group research later but I was not worried about it. Why? because students would take the lesson later after they finished conducting the focus group research. Without a well-prepared moderator's guide, they came up with many unexpected problems: no enough probes; conversation always went off the track... Timing problem.... etc. In such way, students would finally learn the disadvantages of treating the Moderator's guide too casual. Then I achieved my teaching goal at the end.

Using Delicious or Pinterest in Class

In the last class, we brainstormed ideas for how to use social bookmarking tools in class. Among those ideas, one of them was about how students can use the Group Boards on Pinterest to share sources about a specific topic. I think this thought can be applied to my class and help students achieve class objectives. Here is a brief description of the Research class that I teach:


COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course is designed to introduce you to sound and effective social science research methods that are commonly used in advertising industry. By the end of the semester, you will:

(1) understand the role and importance of research in advertising; the ethics and politics of advertising research.
(2) learn a general research process, different research designs and research methods, both quantitative and qualitative, commonly used by advertising researchers and practitioners.
(3) learn basic statistical procedures to analyze data.
(4) gain "hands-on" experience by conducting a research project which will allow you to apply the principles learned in class.

 Obviously, the first two courrse objectives have high potential to be a discussional topic. I strongly think that, by using Pinterest, I can promote lots of disccussion around these two objectives. For example, at the very beginning of the class, I can ask students to think about the reason why they have to learn doing research before going into the industry. Later, I can ask them to search online and find articles or webpages that can support their ideas, and then share it with other classmates on Pinterest. Through implementing this sort of activity, it is expected that students might be able to relate the Research class to their future career actively.

Yet the challenge I might face is probably the normal one: students may treat this activity as a homework with a deadline rather than an opportunity for active discussion. If so, it might miss the point behind the implementation of social bookmarking tools in class....

When I think about teaching with technology....

       What does teaching with technology mean? Different people may have different answers for it. It can be blackboard and chalks being replaced by PowerPoint and projector, or face-to-face discussion happening online. No matter how, new communication technology changes those traditional manners of teaching in a profound way.

       However, change does not always trigger absolute improvement. History has already taught all of us the lesson that every step that we human beings made had both pros and cons. Therefore, when thinking about technology, we should not be too optimistic for technology is also a two-side sword. To see more clear about the pros and cons of teaching with technology, we probably need to start with a clear understanding of the ultimate purpose of teaching----learning.

       What is learning? From my point of view, learning is a cumulative process. And at the bottom line, it is a process that takes time and requires concentration. Nowadays, our learning environment has been changed tremendously by the industrialization process in which tons of different things compete with each other for our time and attention. While technology changes the way we communicate, it also changes the way we kill our time. Or to be more frank, it directly kill our time almost in an unconscious way. Therefore, teaching going online is an inevitable trend not due to the fact that technology has become a more helpful tool for both teaching and learning. Instead, the main reason is that our audience, or students, have already been attracted by technology and are being caught online. They spend most of their time in front of their laptop or their smartphone. They pay most of their attention on browsing Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and different websites. Whatsoever, they use technology for all reasons other than studying and they spend their time with technology for all reasons other than learning. It just becomes part of their life, consumes most of their time and mental capacity, and leaves a very tiny space for learning.

          If it is the case, as a teacher who wants to integrate technology, especially those online stuffs, into teaching, he/she has to aware the conflict between learning and the use of technology among the tech-savvy generation.

When I know "who I am"

Nothing can be more important than personally knowing the answer for the question "who I am". Who am I? I am a Chinese came to America three years ago; I am a Phd student studying in mass communication who is still struggling between different research paradigms. I am a typical chinese person who rarely had a chance to explore "who I am"........

I still can remember how nervous I was when I first knew that I was assigned to teach last semester. Without any previous experience in teaching as an international student, it is anything but an exciting news. However, last semester was a milestone in my life. Why? Because it provided me with a chance to know "who I am". At least, my last semester teaching experience really helped me personally know that I am a chinese girl who likes and enjoy teaching! Therefore, I am considering maybe I can be a teacher in the future.....

I take this class because it is one of the requirement of the teaching certificate program which I think can help build up my teaching career. Besides that, as a teacher, I think I definitely need to have the capacity to integrate those new technology into my teaching process so as to facilitate effective learning among the youth. As a mass media scholar, I clearly know how significant the role is that those new communication technologies are playing in our life. Especially among young people, new media is not only a tool but also part of their daily life. To creatively engage these tech-savvy students into a class requires an advanced understanding of how those new tech. can be used for a teaching purpose.

I definitely believe that this course is gonna blow my mind because I am a conservative teacher who only know how to use PPT!! What a shame.... >.<