By giving students choices can improve attitude and involvement in the course.
Being an adult educator, the personal responsibilities of the students (work, children, spouses) definitely are increased to those of a young student. Providing choice and alternate methods of receiving marks inside and outside of the classroom is incredibly important for their success.
Giving students choices can create greater involvement.
Even though I know it's true. Our students are attached to technology and it's a great to put that to use in the classroom as a learning tool!
In this part of the module, I was fascinated with 2 of the topics - flipped classroom & the different ways of providing students with a sense of control. With regards to flipped classroom - this means more work for the instructor to prepare the content & email to students ahead of time. However, the great benefit is that there can be time for students to read & think about the content; which in turn will foster further synthesis, analysis & group discussion during classroom session. With regards to providing students a sense of control - this will promote their buy in and increase their motivation to attend class.
It's important to give students choices so that they feel a sense of control.
Students need a clear understanding of what will be expected of them as well as knowing exactly how they will be accessed. Technology in the classroom is a must have.
I like the idea of using the flipped classroom technique more often. Also the use of discussion boards within our LMS on current subjects related to the course objectives might be of use. Connecting with the Net Generation when you are a Baby Boomer can sometimes be challenging for the instructor but it helps a lot to have children in that generation :)
Incorporating technology in the classroom is vital because as these students graduate and hit their careers they will want/need to be well diverse in new technologies.
Understanding the differences in the generations is a fascinating concept. It reminds me of a story my sister (who is a missionary in Uganda) told of a game of charades with some Ugandan children. One boy had to get the others to guess the word "phone". While those in my generation would probably do something like hold their hand to their face with their thumb and pinky out, mimicking talking on a telephone, this Ugandan boy held out his open palm and with the index finger on the other hand began making swiping gestures! Quite a contrast, and it illustrates the differences in the Net generation and previous generations.
Comment on Mel Henderson's post: I'm right there with you! Figuring out how to teach those who grew up with this stuff will be interesting.
Students will be more motivated to learn when they have a voice and are given choices in regard to how they are evaluated on their learning. For example, providing students with choices on the kind of assignments they will need to do, whether quizzes should be open or closed book, or how many short answer questions the quiz should have will allow students to feel more empowered as it is tailored to the needs and wants of the student.
This course has made me more aware of how to use technology and to strucure the classroom to students who, solely, rely on technology.
Due to my situation, a prison school, none of the students can have access to the internet. So, the only real technology I can use is PowerPoints and videos. I do have access to a school web (intranet) that has thousands of videos but it would take some planning to figure out how to incorporate those into my sessions.
Clear expectation and appropriate positive and negative consequences develops a positive learning environment.
I appreciated that you mentioned the socioeconomic factor in that some students may not have had the same kind of advantages as others with respect to using technology and therefore, these students may not be as "techie" as I might think they are! Always best to not assume ;)
Agree that the use of technology is vital in the classroom for the current generation.
Flipped classroom was very interesting to me. I will challenge my self to see how I can implemet this with labs. Another topic that was interesting was students like control of choices. I now see how this can be beneficial to students getting more accomplished and higher grades
I would like to learn more about web quest and I like the idea of rewarding students for being on time and on task for class. The idea of a flipped classroom seems interesting but I wonder would the students consider the outside work as homework.
I have learned that giving the students the ability to make many choices is actually beneficial to them. Going forward I will look for ways to incorporate choices for the students so that they are able to feel empowered to be in charge of their learning.
