Teaching in Higher Ed

Managing email using the Inbox Zero approach. Podcast notes Getting to zero inbox Be strategic about what times you check email Use email like a real mailbox with physical mail Leverage a to do list / task manager Make use of snippets for commonly-asked questions ( TextExpander or Breevy ) Schedule meetings with doodle or the best day Create a hub for committees and other collaboration Merlin Mann...

Bonni and Dave Stachowiak talk calendar management. Podcast notes Guest: Dave Stachowiak Dave shared about his “Wayne’s World” moment, coming back as a guest on the show. Chart on Twitter about service hours invested by gender/race: hrs/wk assoc. profs spend on service by race/gender pic.twitter.com/vf4EA7xL6L — Tressie Mc (@tressiemcphd) June 28, 2015 Keep the calendar’s purpose...

Jonathan Malesic on finding meaning in our work. PODCAST NOTES Guest: Jonathan Malesic His blog Jon on Twitter What typically doesn’t show up on Jon’s bio:  The Parking Lot Movie I learned a lot working as a parking lot attendant. I think it’s made me a better worker and a better person. – Jonathan Malesic Don’t search for “purpose.” You will fail. by Jonathan Malesic in Th...

Peter Newbury joins me to talk about peer instruction and using clickers in the higher ed classroom. Early experiences with clickers The Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative Achieving the most effective, evidence-based science education (effective science education, backed by evidence) The Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI) is a multi-year project at The University of British Col...

Kevin Gannon shares ways how to respect our students in our teaching.   Podcast notes Guest: Kevin Gannon Kevin shares the “behind the scenes” backdrop of the photo with the alligator (above and on his blog-about page ). Book mocking college students that Kevin mentions has been retitled, it appears. Ignorance is Blitz: Mangled Moments of History from Actual College Students Kevin...

Sandie Morgan and Bonni Stachowiak talk about how vulnerability shows up in our teaching. A former guest on Teaching in Higher Ed , Josh Eyler , gets me thinking about vulnerability in our teaching… Podcast notes Guest: Sandie Morgan Luke bringing me a broken egg yesterday. What’s this, Mommy? What was inside, Mommy? With vulnerability comes a lot of poop. Josh Eyler talking about how...

Past guests and listeners celebrate significant learning from 50 episodes of Teaching in Higher Ed. Many also share their recommendations to the listening community, too. Episode 50 Podcast Notes *** Dr. David Yates, Director Southeastern University Center for Excellence and Creativity in Teaching A Department of the School of Extended Education Cameron Hunt-McNabb on episode #24 , shared how to c...

Bonni Stachowiak provides an update on some of the edtech tools she experimented with in Spring 2015. Podcast Notes Slack Team communication for the 21st century. Imagine all your team communication in one pace, instantly searchable, available wherever you go. Create channels, which include messages, files, and comments, inline images and video, rich line summaries, and integration with services y...

Scott Self and Bonni Stachowiak share how they each integrate Evernote into their classes and workflows. Even if you aren’t an Evernote user, you’re bound to pick up a few tips. Podcast notes Guest: Scott Self Director, University Access Programs, Abilene Christian University Productive Nerd Blog The landscape of options for notebook-type applications Microsoft OneNote Writing-specific...

Todd Zakrajsek speaks about developing metacognition skills in our students. Podcast notes Todd Zakrajsek , Ph. D. Todd speaks at TEDxUNC Metacognition Todd’s two unusually low grades in college Our brain as a smart phone Working out our brains Multitasking Music, sleep, and exercise Defining terms Tools Asleep app on iOS Android white noise app Logitech wireless presenter Help students draw...

Bonni Stachowiak suggests strategies for ending well. Podcast notes Ending well Guard against student fatigue Sleep deprived Focused on the short term Challenged by their context Thinking a lot about context, especially after speaking with Steve Wheeler on episode #038 ) Beware the temptation to vent Josh Eyler reminded us of this on episode #016 Research shows it doesn’t help There was that resea...

Aaron Daniel Annas and I converse about how we have calibrated our teaching over time. Podcast Notes Calibrating our Teaching Aaron Daniel Annas Assistant professor of cinema arts Faculty Director of the Vanguard Sundance Program Reflections on year one Bonni reflects on her first year Taking things personally (a good lesson on how to avoid this is to hear Cheating Lessons author, James Lang, on e...

Bonni Stachowiak explores how to care for grieving students. PODCAST NOTES How to care for grieving students Respect confidentiality… to a point Point them toward their resources Avoid assumptions… if you can Be human Don’t lower course requirements; let them earn their degree, not receive it through pity Recognize the pain of the neutral zone (coined by Bridges in his book: Transitions: Making se...

Aaron Daniel Annas joins me to talk storytelling on this episode of Teaching in Higher Ed. Podcast Notes Aaron Daniel Annas Assistant professor of cinema arts Faculty Director of the Vanguard Sundance Program Storytelling Who are stories for? How do you distinguish between entertaining our students and educating them? What makes for a good story? What do we do if we aren’t good at telling st...

Bonni Stachowiak shares some ideas about mixing it up in our teaching. Podcast notes Teaching classes repeatedly Advantage of knowing where students typically get stuck Dr. Chrissy Spencer spoke about this when describing her broken-up cases in episode 25 , when she just “happens” to have a slide that clarifies a student’s question Reinforcing a difficult concept Advertising response function in m...

Bonni and Dave Stachowiak discuss what to do before you act on all you’ve captured. PODCAST NOTES: Episode #32 talked about capture. All the places where we capture what it is we need to do (either because of others’ demands, or freeing up our mind of the “clutter” of stuff that needs doing). Clarify and organize Before we do any of it… we need to: Clarify – process what it means Organize &#...

Bonni and Dave Stachowiak discuss what to do before you act on all you’ve captured. PODCAST NOTES: Episode #32 talked about capture. All the places where we capture what it is we need to do (either because of others’ demands, or freeing up our mind of the “clutter” of stuff that needs doing). Clarify and organize Before we do any of it… we need to: Clarify – process what it means Organize &#...

Five faculty members share how they are spending their breaks and what recommendations they have for how to take a break… Podcast notes Ten things to do instead of checking email , by Natalie Houston  (guest on episode #034 ) How to take a break David Pecoraro from the Student Caring podcast Heading to Fresno for son’s swim meet Reading: Building social business, by Mohammed Yunus Chri...

Bonni Stachowiak shares about a few things she’s doing over Spring break to recharge. Spoiler alert: It is mostly all about getting caught up and staying caught up for me. Podcast notes Differing perspectives on Spring break a) give assignments for students to work on over the break b) grade student work c) recharge/refresh for the rest of the semester Efficiency Sign ups Doodle The Best Day...

Steve Wheeler joins me to share about Learning with ‘e’s … PODCAST NOTES Steve Wheeler Bio Learning with ‘e’s Origins of Learning with ‘e’s 2007 started blogging Learning using digital technologies… Incorporates comments from people into the book  eLearning 3.0 If Web 1.0 was the ‘Write Web’ and Web 2.0 is the ‘Read/Write Web’, then Web 3.0 wil...

Tine Reimers helps us define the term critical thinking and truly start developing our students’ skills. PODCAST NOTES [GUEST ] Tine Reimers Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Specialist Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning Vancouver Island University Critical Thinking Defining critical thinking (and the inherent challenges when we want to improve critical thinking in our students...

Ken Bain describes What the Best College Teachers Do… PODCAST NOTES Guest: Ken Bain President, Best Teachers Institute , Ken Bain (Twitter: @kenbain1) “Internationally recognized for his insights into teaching and learning and for a fifteen-year study of what the best educators do” “His now classic book What the Best College Teachers Do . (Harvard University Press, 2004) wo...

Doug McKee  talks about eliciting and using feedback from students. PODCAST NOTES Guest: Dr. Doug McKee [ CV  ] [ BLOG ] WORKING OUT LOUD John Stepper’s book about Working Out Loud Studied his own teaching and determined that those who came to class and those who watched via video did equally well in the class I feel like I’m just breaking through now. I remember what it was like at the begi...

Natalie Houston  discusses practical productivity in academia. Podcast Notes Guest: Dr. Natalie Houston Twitter Blog ProfHacker posts Opposition to the term productivity Productivity defined Productivity, to me, is not about doing more things faster. It is about doing the things that are most important to me and creating the kind of life I want to have… To do something with ease is to bring...

Bonni and Dave Stachowiak talk about how to make your PowerPoint (or other) slides more effective. Podcast notes 2010 headlines: “ US Army makes the world’s worst PowerPoint slide ” “ We have met the enemy and he is PowerPoint .” Conflict in Afghanistan: Why developing a clear strategy was challenging. PPT in the crosshairs Edward Tufte (2006 publication) The cognitiv...