Introduction
The Art of Teaching online challenges you to move from pouring facts and figures into learners heads to pouring energy into what is right with each student in the form of attention. Teaching online is not about your course content. It’s about the interactions you have with your learners and the way you facilitate learning related to the course content. By the end of his learning opportunity you will be able to change your thinking from content delivery to connecting to the essence of who you are with the essence of who your learners are by; fostering student engagement, stimulating intellectual development, and building rapport.
How It Works
Each week you can earn a badge by organizing your thoughts and ideas in your own action/plan worksheet and then commenting, in our Google + community, on two other learners action/plan worksheets using Universal Intellectual Standards. Earn four badges and you qualify for a Letter of Completion. This letter is a valuable piece of evidence for Contract Renewal, Tenure, and Promotion.
The emphasis of this online workshop will be on actively developing your thinking. Everything we do in this workshop will be designed to help you become better and better at thinking within your subject area. You will be internalize information by using it actively each week to attempt to improve your thinking.
Therefore the primary purpose of each weekly worksheet is to help you develop your thinking or reasoning skills. Why is this important? The quality of every decision you make about teaching online will be directly determined by the quality of your reasoning abilities. In fact the quality of your life in general will be determined by how well you think in general.
Self Assessment
To earn a badge each week
- Review the weekly online content, click on a link provided to make copy of a UH Google document worksheet template, and insert your name in the upper left corner.
- Complete the weekly worksheet, change the setting on the worksheet to allow for comments, and post the worksheet to the Go0ogle + Community.
- To post to the Google+ community you need to copy the web address of your Google document worksheet.
- Click on the pencil, in the Google + Community, and paste the address of your completed worksheet.
- In the Google+ Community comment directly on two other participants worksheets using the universal intellectual standards format. To comment:
- Highlight the textyou want to comment on.
- In the toolbar, click Add comment.
- Type your comment.
- Click Comment.
- Complete and submit the self assessment form sent in the Wednesday newsletter after the week has been completed.
To Earn a Letter of Completion
- Earn all 4 badges
- Complete and submit the self assessment form sent in the Wednesday newsletter after the week the challenge has been completed.
How to Give Feedback
An important part of your active learning will be to read and give feedback on other learners worksheets. Please give feedback to different learners each week. This will ensure that all learners are getting feedback each week. Your feedback should fundamentally be focused on essential intellectual standards and should be constructive and respectful in nature.
Provide feedback on “intellectual moves”
- Format for commenting on other worksheets: I am questioning the (INSERT INTELLECTUAL STANDARD) of your statement ____________ because _______.
- Format for commenting on other worksheets when a standard was well met: it was very clear when you said……., or it was logical when you said…………
- Give and receive high quality feedback, based on the intellectual standard.
- Focus on a person’s reasoning, not the person him or herself.
- As you move through the workshop, work on improving your ability, over time.
- At first the process will be awkward and you will make considerable mistakes. This is to be expected, just as you would make many mistakes when first learning ANYTHING.
- Invite constructive critique of our thoughts and our work.
Examples:
- A sentence lacks clarity.
- An example, though good, doesn’t seem relevant to the main point being made
- the thinking fails to probe beneath the surface into the deeper issues.
- an important viewpoint is being excluded or distorted.
- more details (precision) are needed.
- There is a general lack of clarity, or breadth, etc..
This process of giving and receiving feedback can be used in most online learning situations and when deeply internalized, can lead to improved thinking and learning. As you learn the process, you should consider bringing this into your online course. An important part of this process is that you will want to work closely together and help one another grow and develop. One of the hallmarks of critical thinkers is their ability to assess their own reasoning accurately. Let’s work together to come closer to that goal as we move through the workshop.
As you comment on each other’s work, you will develop the ability to better critique your own thinking and work using intellectual standards. Please invite constructive critique of our thoughts and our work. This is an essential disposition of the critical thinker.
The Weekly Learning Process
Community Communication
Weekly community communication will be through a newsletter sent to your http://www.hawaii.edu/google/ email every Monday and Wednesday.
Mondays
- The Monday newsletter overviews the week and is sent to your hawaii.edu gmail. Two primary weekly tasks will be to review the weekly online content and make a copy, and insert your name in the upper left corner, and complete a UH Google document worksheet template that asks you to answer an essential question, the main ideas you are internalizing and how you will apply them to your instruction, and reflection on what went well and what you plan to do.
- The Wednesday newsletter is to remind you of the Thursday due date post your Google Doc worksheet our Google+ community by midnight Thursday, and to comment directly on two other participants worksheets, using the intellectual standards, by midnight Sunday. After week 1 the Wednesday newsletter will also have a link to a form to receive your badge from the previous week. To earn a badge you need to complete the worksheet, and comment directly on two other participants worksheets, using the intellectual standards.
Thursdays
- Complete your worksheet by the end of Thursday. IMPORTANT: You need to change your settings in your document to allow for commenting before you post your worksheet results in the Google+ Community. Please follow the directions on how to share on your worksheets. You click on Share in upper right corner. when the dialog box pop up click on down arrow and select can comment. Anyone with a Hawaii.edu email address will be able to comment on your worksheet. Post your completed shared for comments worksheet. A link will be provided each week to click on to post your completed shared for commenting worksheet to the Google+ Community. To post to the Google+ community you need to copy the web address of your Google document worksheet. Click on the pencil, in the Google + Community, and paste the address of your completed worksheet.
Sundays
- A third primary task each week is to comment directly on two other participants worksheets in the Google+ Community. Using the intellectual standards, comment directly on two other shared for commenting worksheets by the end of Sunday, If you find a worksheet where the setting has not been changed for commenting, please do not comment. Instead click on the view on button in the upper left corner to ask for the setting to be changed. When you comment directly on a worksheet the owner will have a record of all feedback received. Thank you!
- Format for commenting on other worksheets: I am questioning the (INSERT INTELLECTUAL STANDARD) of your statement ____________ because _______.
- Format for commenting on other worksheets when a standard was well met: it was very clear when you said……., or it was logical when you said…………
- To comment on a Google document:
- Highlight the textyou want to comment on.
- In the toolbar, click Add comment.
- Type your comment.
- Click Comment.
Challenge Setup-
Please complete the following steps before you begin the challenge. Thank you!
- Closely read The Art Of Teaching Online Challenge Getting Ready
- Turn on Google@UH Consumer Apps Consumer Apps
- Instructions to turn on the Consumer Apps are at http://www.hawaii.edu/askus/1649.
- Log out of all open email accounts.
- Login to your hawaii.edu gmail account at http://www.hawaii.edu/google/
- Join The Art Of Teaching Online Challenge Google + Community
- Please complete this short survey on Intellectual Virtues
- Please introduce yourself in The Art Of Teaching Online Challenge Google + Community
- Also reflect on your your results form the intellectual virtues survey.
- Complete The Challenge Understandings Form
Content for this workshop from:
- What the Best College Teachers Do– Dr. Ken Bain