Teaching

Increase Class Engagement in Via Random Name Picker

/ dosborn2013 / Leave a comment

As an instructor, I want to know that my students are engaged in the content. But, whether in an online zoom room or face-to-face, it’s impossible to tell if they are on task if I say “Take five minutes and go work on this yourself.” Some will, others won’t. The one’s who don’t often rely on the extraverts in the class to offer up what they’re working on, and there’s never enough time to see everyone’s examples, so they are let off the hook. One option, is to make them pair up and share what they’ve been doing, but even then, I’m not convinced that meaningful conversations are really going on as opposed to discussion of weekend plans. And that might be OK – we all need that kind of connection – but the problem comes when they have an actual assignment that requires the skills we just “practiced” and they do poorly on that, and I have to spend more time going back over the material.

Enter in a new tool I just found: https://miniwebtool.com/random-name-picker/

It’s not the prettiest thing -when you show it, it includes ads and all – but it is efficient and practical. You input the names of your students and then choose the # of names you want the randomizer to choose at once.

Click on pick a random name:

It then spins a pretty wheel that rotates through all the names, building the anticipation:

And then lists the winners like this:

The first time I did it, and called on the winners to share, there was the typical “Oh, I didn’t write anything down” reaction. But, as the group realized that it was truly random, and you might be called on multiple times, or not at all, and every time, it was random, it increased not only their engagement in the activity, but also after I had the 2 or 3 share, I had others wanting to share their examples, so left time for that. You can always remove a name from the list if they’ve been chosen a few times and you want to give others a chance, too. It was fun to hear their chatter as they watched the wheel spin, as well – brought an extra excitement to the room.

Happy to share this fun and practical tool. Hope it works for you!

Tech Twins offering a seminar this week!

/ dosborn2013 / Leave a comment

We are excited to be back in action this week for the Career Counselors Consortium Northeast.

Still time to register at https://careercounselorsne.org/event-4721372.

Hope many of you are able to join us. We love sharing what we know and learning what you know!

Collaborative & Individual Learning Via Zoom

/ dosborn2013 / Leave a comment

Problem: Students often limit the definition of a construct (e.g., vocational identity) by a measure (e.g., My Vocational Situation), and by doing so, have a very myopic view of the construct.

Goal: To have students learn how to expand upon a construct beyond what one instrument’s definition.

Challenge: Create an activity that requires active involvement from every student, engage higher order/critical thinking, AND, do it all in 10 minutes.

My solution: I chose a construct from an article that we are reviewing in class, and pasted the components of the operational definition of that construct on one side of the table. Then I told them to use whichever research-based database they preferred, and to find another article that offered a different definition, and to paste that into the table using the annotate function in Zoom. Below is a picture of the activity as they were working.

Next steps: When they were done, I asked them to point out differences between the article’s definition and these others, and we discussed being too narrow and too wide in our definitions. The next thing I had them do was work on defining their own construct on a shared document. I chose a shared document because some of them have similar topics/constructs, and I wanted to teach them that it’s OK to collaborate and help peers/colleagues problem solve. This meant that before class, I had to create the shared document, and paste their names, research questions and a table for them to work on in the document.

They had to choose one construct from a study they’ve been working on conceptualizing, and find at least 2 different definitions of the construct, and also list at least 2 different instruments they’ve seen in their searching of the literature that might measure the construct or a portion of the construct. Here’s a picture of 2 students’ work:

I gave them about 15 minutes to work on that. For their final activity, I had them then take 2 of the measure they had listed and conduct an instrument comparison. This took about 20-25 minutes. Here’s an example of one student’s work:

Reflection: Overall, I thought this process worked well. I demonstrated the technique using a shared article, challenging them to find alternative definitions. They then applied this skill to their own work. I shared my screen but told them they didn’t have to follow me. I worked with them, if someone was stuck, finding a definition or an instrument or details (like cost), and asked them to help each other. I did have some other modeling prepared, but didn’t think we’d have enough time to work through that and for them to work on their own stuff, and that the latter was likely more useful for them. I did achieve the goal of a ten minute activity with the annotation, but altogether these three activities took up an hour of class time, so there’s that to consider.

Question: How might you have approached this problem and goal?

Do you Kahoot?

/ dosborn2013 / Leave a comment

Maybe you’ve heard about Kahoot? Engaged in a game but always wondered about how to go about creating your own? Never heard of it but are curious? If you answered yes to any of these questions, stay tuned, as we dive into the fun world of Kahooting!

What is Kahoot? Kahoot is a “game-based learning platform.” meaning, that it facilitates teaching and learning through the use of an online, quick-paced game. Players log in to a game on their phone or computer, input a code to access the game assigned by their instructor, are shown questions and enter or choose a response. Speed adds points, which creates a competitive edge. The game can occur in real time during a class or presentation or can be accessed outside of class time for prep or review.

Why Kahoot? Kahoot is a very easy way to begin or break up a lecture or presentation, and get everyone involved with minimal risk of embarrassment. It also is a good gauge of what students know or believe, and can provide a way for me to correct misperceptions or clear up confusion.

What do I Kahoot? As an instructor, I create questions based on what my desired outcome is.

Is my goal simple engagement? Then I might ask some fun questions related to the topic or something relevant to what’s happening in our community, or a season, such as this question on Halloween (which also features a picture reveal):

If I want to see comprehension or content knowledge, my questions will reflect that:

As you can see, the “item stems” are not very long or complicated, which allows for quick play. Once the question is presented, students have 20 seconds (that can be adjusted) to choose their answer.

How do I create a Kahoot? It’s very easy to create a Kahoot game. Go to the site; https://create.kahoot.it and create an account. After that, you can start by clicking on the discover button and see popular games, but also search to see if there’s content already created for your topic that you can use. If you decide you want to create your own, click on the create button, and you’ll get this screen:

You can choose different options from all the drop down menus, and add as many questions as you like. Once you’re done, you’ll save it, and then it will be ready to play or invite others to play!

How long should my game be? It depends on the purpose. If it’s a stand-alone game, with the purpose of reviewing concepts, you can have more questions. I’ve found that the absolute max # of questions is 10. That gives newcomers time to learn how to play, and also allows for trends to develop and change-ups in the scoreboard to occur. Beyond that, and it loses its impact.

How do I invite users to my game? When you’re ready to play, you’ll click on “play,” and get the options on how you want the Kahoot to be played. In this case, I chose teach, which then opened another window with all sort of options. Once I’ve selected my options, I click on “play this Kahoot,” and the screen with the pin # emerges. You can either have students/participants open the game as an app, or go to the website (https://kahoot.it) and enter the pin #.

Any other tips?

Tip 1: I tend to use as many pictures as I can with my Kahoots, as can be seen with my group counseling theory Kahoot:

I find that it encourages more application/critical thinking that just plain regurgitation of content.

Tip 2: Also, I typically pause between questions to address the topic, learn what led to the different responses – even if there is just one wrong answer (a bar graph shows the distribution of answers).

Tip 3: Also, make sure they are prompted to only use “g-rated” nicknames.

Tip 4: Keep the sound on (it adds to the game-like feel) and don’t forget to stay for the end of the show so they can see who makes the podium – students get really frustrated when you exit out before that point!

Want to learn more? You can check it out at https://create.kahoot.it. And, here’s a quick overview:

Are You Engaging and Inspiring Your Online Learners?

/ Melissa A. Venable / Leave a comment

We were thrilled to present at the National Career Development Association conference this year! Our session? “Engage and Inspire! Tips and Tricks That Take Your Online Classes to the Next Level.”

#NCDA2021 was virtual again but did not disappoint. The program included a number of technology-related topics, as well as thought-provoking keynote sessions.

Feel free to browse our slides (below) and visit the companion Resource Guide for more information.

If you attended our session – Thank You for being there and for your participation in the conversation. 🙂