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Today’s Educators – Get Connected

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Instructors need solid pre-service and ongoing training, professional development and mentoring opportunities to help teach their classes at any institution.

Over the years, I’ve taught at six institutions of higher learning:

  • three large, public 4-year universities
  • one medium-sized public 4-year university
  • one private 4-year liberal arts college
  • one community college

Pre-service training varied from a very basic, one-day orientation to an in-depth and thorough three-week orientation. Orientation activities included small and large group presentations about institutional & departmental services and policies, collaborative lesson planning, shadowing of experienced instructors, recorded micro-teaching lessons with accompanying reflection essays and personalized feedback by directors.

As educators, we are now living in an educational world that offers a wide variety of instructional modalities beyond that of the traditional brick-and-mortar classroom. Are our pre-service and ongoing training programs preparing educators enough for the teaching methodologies that change according to each variable on the technology-intensive instructional spectrum?

technology-enhanced > blended > distance/online

Today’s Employers (Part 2 of 2)

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Please share in the comments area the most important skill that has helped you succeed.
_______
Part 1: Today’s Student and Learning Preferences
Part 2: Today’s Employers and What They Need
_______
PART 2

In Part 1, a snapshot was provided of today’s student and their learning preferences. In this post, the focus will be what skills students need based on information provided by today’s employers. After these two parts, I’ll be writing about what language educators can do to foster learning environments that will help students succeed beyond graduation.

This post’s research was started in September 2013 and is ongoing as of April 2014. Resources were pulled mainly from internet sources using the social media tools Twitter and Yammer. The research was initiated due to a desire to

  • communicate the value and relevancy of a liberal arts education
  • build in activities in distance education courses that apply the skills students need in their personal, academic and professional lives

Continue reading Today’s Employers (Part 2 of 2) →

Today’s Student (Part 1 of 2)

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If you are a student, please share in the comments area the most important educational activity that helped you learn the most.
_______
Part 1: Today’s Student and Learning Preferences
Part 2: Today’s Employers and What They Need
_______
PART 1
Update: 04/12/14 – I realize that my use of “digital native” will cause a stir with some (many?), and may involve “Bingos!” to resound for those playing buzzword bingo, but let’s face it, most of the world is more connected to devices and the internet than ever before. Each individual has different access & uses the internet & devices in a variety of ways, which as educators, we need to realize. The more technology-intensive a course, the increased need to build in appropriate orientation exercises and links to available resources and services. The internet, personal computers, and mobile devices have changed how we interact with information and people, and have affected how we learn, live and work. On the subject of how we learn, I’m currently reading Make It Stick: The Science Behind Successful Learning (Brown et al. 2014), thanks to Mary Bart’s @facultyfocus tweet on April 10, 2014 . My next blog post (Today’s Employers) digs a little deeper into the skills we, as educators and employers, want students to carry away with them after our courses and graduation. But even getting more at the core of how we learn best is crucial as we continue to explore best design practices to offer high-quality distance education courses, something that greatly interests me on many levels. Specifically, what to include in pre-course readiness quizzes and activities for students.
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PART 1
How can educators better reach students and still teach them what they need? To answer this, let’s take a closer look at today’s students and how they prefer to learn, with a special focus on technology. In part two (next blog post), the focus will be what skills students need based on information provided by today’s employers.
Today’s Student.
Today’s students are…
  • digital natives that prefer …
    • anytime, anywhere learning opportunities
    • personalized instruction
    • doing real and relevant work
      • where they…
        • can participate in social and collaborative activities
        • have a choice
        • can explore
        • are able to work with interactive technologies

(Helsper, 2010; Lombardi, 2007; New Media Consortium, 2011; Brown, 1999; Barnes et al. 2007; Stansbury, 2011).

Continue reading Today’s Student (Part 1 of 2) →

Student Demand for Online Offerings & The Need for Orientation

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One of the driving forces behind the rise in hybrid and online courses is student demand. The numbers do not lie: there has been a steady increase in the numbers of students preferring to take online courses year after year and using technology in their own ways (Allen & Seaman, 2014; Educause, 2013). Why are more students taking blended and online courses? Continue reading Student Demand for Online Offerings & The Need for Orientation →

Keys to Technology Implementation

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The Map of the Internet - Opte Project - opte.org

Making Connections
The Map of the Internet (2005)
Opte Project www.opte.org

In higher education, there is a big push to promote technology-enhanced teaching and learning, especially in regard to the implementation of video technology and webconferencing. With video technology people can connect not just with information and content, but with each other via video or webconferencing.

Institutions of higher learning need to provide students a well-rounded education to best prepare them for life beyond college. No doubt, institutions with appealing, valuable course offerings and services attract students, and video technology will, in part, fill this demand. However, it cannot just be a matter of offering technology-rich courses and services, but providing quality teaching and learning opportunities. Continue reading Keys to Technology Implementation →

The Adventure Continues

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After 18 years in higher education, my teaching adventure continues and on many different paths. With each step I’ve taken over the years as a Spanish language educator to adopt technology tools in my classes I’ve discovered that students need good guides on their trips as online learners and with their educational GPSes. These are exciting times for teaching and learning, but it’s easy to get lost along the way.

The internet, personal computers, and mobile devices have changed how we interact with information and people. Something to remember, however, is that even though the ways in which students and instructors interact are changing, the principles behind good teaching and learning haven’t changed. Continue reading The Adventure Continues →