Teaching skills: How to develop and keep the momentum going

Using technologies for authentic learning

Daniela Gachago, Educational Technology Unit, FundaniVeronica Barnes, Industrial Design, Faculty of Informatics and DesignCape Peninsula University of Technology

What is your biggest challenge when it comes to your students’ learning?

-> discuss with the person next to you (BUZZ)

Word cloud of participants responses

New generation of students…• My computer is the nucleus of my workspace • When I need information I go online • Besides IM or email my cell phone is my primary method of

communication • I’m usually juggling five things at once• My attention span is very small• I want instant gratification• I get bored very easily

Oblinger 2008

Under-preparedness

Lack of class participation

Lack of student engagement

How to make learning relevant?????

Graduate attributes / 21st century skills?

Linking theory and practice

Trends Horizon Report 2012

Johnson et al. 2012

What staff are using…

What are students using?

How do we bridge the gap?

Flipped classroom

http://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra/solving-linear-equations/v/variables-expressions-and-equations

Anton Thiart, Civil Engineering

Link to video

Clickers

Mazur Sequence

“You can forget facts but you cannot forget understanding” Prof. Eric Mazur, Harvard

First year Business students: Intercultural communication class

First year Business students: Intercultural communication class

VERONICA BARNES PRESENTATION

Authentic learning

• Main authors: Jan and Anthony Herrington, Christopher Reeves

• Origins: University of Wollongong, Australia

• Critique for current HE– prevalence of academic, de-

contextualised exercises, that make it difficult for students to transfer the knowledge from formal education into their future workplace

Authentic learning

• Learning where students are situated in authentic learning contexts and where they are exposed to learning activities that are as close as possible to problems they will encounter in their real world professional context

• ‘centred on rich, real-world, immersive and engaging tasks’ (Herrington & Herrington, 2006: x)

Authentic learning dimensions

1. Authentic contexts2. Authentic activities3. Access to expert performances4. Multiple roles and perspectives5. Collaboration6. Opportunities for reflection7. Opportunities for articulation – authentic audience8. Coaching and scaffolding9. Authentic assessment

Herrington and Herrington 2006

Lecturer: “The best thing a film where two students had gone to Newlands Forest: they literally walked until they found the burr to film. Previously you would get a diagram and later you could show students a burr and ask them what that is and they wouldn’t know…because the disconnect between the diagram and the actual thing was huge... but for this project they actually went out into a forest and found one on a tree ... they will never forget what that is.”

Student B: “Actually researching it ourselves and then almost going through the process physically you learn a lot better sometimes especially the way people learn differently - sometimes you learn better like that and actually physically understanding what a season is for example as opposed to you writing up an essay about that. ”

Student A : “The whole time in the production of the movie you will have the idea that the whole class is going to see it so it’s from a different perspective than say you’re writing an essay just for one lecture… so you’re much more involved and intrigued and I think that's what makes it fun and to have the response of the class afterwards.” Student B: “I just wanted to say is something that I think you have the audience in mind throughout the production which made it a little bit different than your essay”

Development of portable skills

• The judgment to distinguish reliable from unreliable information

• The patience to follow longer arguments • The synthetic ability to recognize relevant

patterns in unfamiliar contexts• The flexibility to work across disciplinary and

cultural boundaries to generate innovative solutions

Lombardi and Oblinger 2007

2011 CPUT graduate attributes

• Our students should be1. Technologically adept both in the ability to use technology

and in the capacity to apply knowledge in real life issues2. Eminently employable because they have a solid

disciplinary knowledge base and the capabilities to apply this knowledge

3. Socially responsive in the sense that they should be aware of the important social issues in SA and be able to apply their knowledge and skills to address social needs

4. Innovative in their thinking and actions5. Environmentally conscious.

• Educational researchers have found that students involved in authentic learning are motivated to persevere despite initial disorientation or frustration, as long as the exercise simulates what really counts—the social structure and culture that gives the discipline its meaning and relevance. The learning event essentially encourages students to compare their personal interests with those of a working disciplinary community: “Can I see myself becoming a member of this culture? What would motivate me? What would concern me? How would I work with the people around me? How would I make a difference?”

Lombardi and Oblinger 2007, 4

http://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra/solving-linear-equations/v/variables-expressions-and-equations

How authentic is the current CISCO curriculum?Buzz

http://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra/solving-linear-equations/v/variables-expressions-and-equations

Questions?

Acknowledgements: Colleagues at Fundani, CPUT lecturers and students

For more information visit our blog at www.edutechcput.wordpress.com

References• Herrington, T., & Herrington, J. (2006). Authentic learning

environments in Higher Education. Hershey PA: Information Science Publishing.

• Johnson, L. (2012). NMC Horizon Project Preview 2012 Higher Education Edition. Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.nmc.org/publications/horizon-report-2012-higher-ed-edition

• Lombardi, M. M., & Oblinger, D. G. (2007). Authentic Learning for the 21st Century: An Overview. EducauseLearningInitiative. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3009.pdf

• Oblinger, D. G. (2008). Emerging technologies for learning: Growing up with Google, What it means to education. I Can (Vol. 3). Retrieved from http://hcvs.wikispaces.com/file/view/Growing+Up+With+Google.pdf