<![CDATA[Dr. Linda Ralston's Electronic Portfolio - Blog: eLearning Best Practices]]>Thu, 20 Nov 2025 11:06:23 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Empowering Learners: Using Badges and ePortfolios to Navigate to Success]]>Fri, 31 Oct 2014 17:35:15 GMThttp://www.lindaralston.com/blog-elearning-best-practices/empowering-learners-using-badges-and-eportfolios-to-navigate-to-successComing Soon . . . 
October 31, 2014 - 9:40am
Track: Technology and Emerging Learning Environments
Areas of Special Interest:  Blended Learning; Online Learning and Community Colleges
Major Emphasis of Presentation: Practical Application
Institutional Level: Community Colleges; Universities and Four Year Institutions
Audience Level: All
Session Type: Information Session
Location: Northern Hemisphere E2
Session Duration: 35 Minutes
Session: Concurrent Session 11
Abstract: Join us for a learner-centered session reviewing the use of badges and eportfolios to motivate and guide students in their discovery and acquisition of skills.

Read the extended Abstract
Check back for a PDF of the Presentation and the Session Template for designing your own badge.
]]><![CDATA[Global Citizens Educating Future Global Citizens: Using Social Media for Environmental and Social Justice]]>Fri, 22 Nov 2013 04:01:27 GMThttp://www.lindaralston.com/blog-elearning-best-practices/global-citizens-educating-future-global-citizens-using-social-media-for-environmental-and-social-justicePicture
Education for global citizenship has received increased attention over the past decade but it is certainly not a new concept.  Andrzejewski (1996) defined global citizenship as knowledge and skills for social and environmental justice. This resonates with the “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights” adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948.  Article 1 of this declaration stated that "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." The globalization of the economy and the increasingly interconnected world has stressed the urgency for the education of students of all ages in preparation for a role in this new world. Study abroad programs have long embraced the concept by grounding education for global citizenship in a student’s personal experience in an international community setting.  Unfortunately, not all students can afford traveling aboard but this does not lessen the need for learning and engaging in activities that help forge an active global citizen. Core competencies in global citizenship have been adopted by educational institutions in United States, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Ireland, and Slovenia are a few of the leaders in this effort. Oxfam and the Asia Society are just two of the non-profit, non-governmental organizations that have become active in supporting academic organizations with the distribution of resources to educate our future leaders and global citizens.

The University of Utah has established the Upper Division International Course Requirement to ensure that each undergraduate student with a broad base of knowledge about global issues and about global perspectives in a comparative context. The purpose of the requirement is intended to introduce students to international frames of reference so that they may think critically about long-standing and newly emerging issues. Each course that is approved for the International designation must have as its primary focus an international, transnational, or comparative focus that includes a variety of perspectives. Further the courses must focus on cross-border phenomena (borders conceived in the broadest sense: language, cultural, economic, political, etc) and on contemporary issues, or show how historical approaches are relevant to contemporary issues.

This session will provide a case study as to how two courses fulfill these standards and incorporate the use of social media to empower the students to reach out to a broader community to educate others on these issues. The online Global Citizen course targets the general student body whereas the hybrid International Tourism course targets students studying in the parks, recreation and tourism industry. 

University of Utah International Course Content Criteria 
  • Course primarily has an international, transnational, or comparative focus that includes a variety of perspectives
  • Course focuses on cross-border phenomena (borders conceived in the broadest sense: language, cultural, economic, political, etc)
  • Course focuses principally on contemporary issues, or shows how historical approaches are relevant to contemporary issues.

The Global Citizen course serves as a guide for international travelers and those desiring a career in the global marketplace.  Students learn to make responsible choices when planning and engaging in travel experiences regardless of the purpose of the international trip.  The course fosters ongoing connections that build understanding and bridge culture differences, compassionate listening, conflict resolution and other skills necessary to promote cross-culture communication and responsible travel.

The International Tourism course investigates current trends and issues in international tourism. The course utilizes the case study method to examine issues from the perspective of the international tourist, the business manager, host community members, and government officials. Global tourism is a dynamic phenomenon influenced by global events and the demand for tourism, therefore the topics may vary from year to year.

This session we will highlight the resources available to support the topics of climate change, world peace, human rights, endangered species, intercultural respect, fair trade, sustainable and responsible travel, among others. Each example will illustrate how the students achieved the learning outcome through a variety of learning activities, such as, blogging for clean water in South Africa, pinning images to increase awareness of endangered species, tweet-chats to promote human rights, and “infographics” to advocate for fair trade practices and human rights.  Participants will receive examples of assignment instructions, guidelines for student use of social media, and evaluation rubrics for the assignments. 

Learning Outcomes:
At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will able to: 
  • Define global citizenship.
  • Identify two new uses of social media for increasing awareness for global issues, such as, climate change, fair trade, and human rights. 
  • Identify 2 free online resources for designing infographics. (Piktochart and Easel.ly) 
  • Describe the effectiveness of social media to actively engage students in global citizenship. (Use a Pre-test & Post-Test to measure effectiveness in addition to improvement of scores on assignments.)

Resources for Presentation:
]]><![CDATA[Sloan-C Conference Presentation - Learning Outcomes as your Design GPS]]>Thu, 21 Nov 2013 02:39:36 GMThttp://www.lindaralston.com/blog-elearning-best-practices/sloan-c-conference-presentation-learning-outcomes-as-your-design-gpsPicture
Since the session is only 35 minutes and the session was originally designed as a 4 hour workshop, the F2F session will be an orientation with the balance of the session conducted as a asynchronous workshop. 


Session Description: 
Designing an effective online course begins with integrating learning outcomes throughout the course design. This workshop will provide a road map for seamlessly incorporating learning outcomes into the course design beginning with the design phase and continuing through the evaluation phase.  The GPS we will use in this workshop is a course design model that has four phases: (1) Design, (2) Build, (3) Teach, and (4) Revise.  The model aligns the learning outcomes with the course learning activities, facilitating the community of learners, technology assisted tools, and assessment. The model is a “backwards design” in the sense that it starts with identifying the desired learning outcomes first and then identifies the course components conducive to the attainment of these outcomes. This model also focuses on student-centered principles (Weimer, 2002) as well as integrative (Huber & Hutchings, 2004) and transformational learning (King, 2005).  After an introduction, participants will actively engage among their peers according to age groups or subjects taught to complete a sequence of learning activities designed to allow participants to experience each phase of the course design model.  The following learning outcomes will provide a framework for the workshop outline.

At the conclusion of the F2F & online workshop, participants will have:

  • Draft a minimum of one learning outcome to focus on a desired destination. 
  • Demonstrated the application of Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy incorporating active verbs to establish learning destinations.
  • Identified a new source for course design inspiration.
  • Identified two activities that can be adopted for their course to foster a community of learners.
  • Designed an evaluation rubric for a minimum of one learning activity associated with their learning outcome.
  • Identified how this process can be applied for a variety of learners and subjects.
  • Evaluated a peer’s learning outcome alignment/design matrix.
  •  Applied the backward course design model to a course they are developing or revitalizing.
Step 1 - Identifying a new destination: The workshop will begin by challenging the participants to consider how they might design or redesign their approach to curriculum development, course design, and delivery to center around the needs and learning styles of their students? How might we re-energize or re-imagine the learning destination to engage and sustain our students?  We begin with several brief illustrations from a variety of different subjects and level of learning to provide inspiration for the drafting of a learning outcome for a new or re-engineered destination.

Activity 1- Destination Targeting: Each member of the group will draft a new or revised learning outcome and share it with another member of their group.  The group will utilize a learning outcome rubric to determine the effectiveness of the outcome.
  • Learning Outcome Rubric  

Step 2 - Designing alternative routes: During this portion of the workshop we will challenge the participants to seek alternative learning activities. How might we deliver course content to focus on the needs of the students? We will propose strategies for design and development of learning activities/experiences (curriculum), learning communities (fostering collaboration), processes and tools (technology assisted strategies), and educational system strategies (accreditation or national standards). We will illustrate how these strategies might be realized and provide several resources for design inspiration. Before devising specific activities, we will challenge the participants to answer the following questions:

·       How much do you want your learner to actually learn? How complex do you want their comprehension to be?

·       How proficient should the learner be at the end of the course? (Design for how learners learn)



Activity 2 – Building the Experience: Each group will brainstorm different learning activities for each of the learning outcomes identified in Step 1.  The Alignment Matrix will be utilized as a roadmap for identifying the appropriate activities that are foster on 4 key characteristics:

·       student-centered learning

·       sound pedagogical practices

·       facilitate a community of learners where students collaborate and assume responsibility for their own learning incorporating emerging technology tools/enhancements

Step 3 - Evaluating Destination Arrival: Selecting Assessments/Rubrics

The participants will conclude by integrating the learning outcomes in the evaluation rubrics for the learning activities.  It is essential that the students are made aware of the learning outcomes for the course and how these learning outcomes will be assessed during the evaluation of the assignments and quizzes/tests.  Several sample rubrics will be provided to the appropriate groups, such as the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) Rubrics to Communicate Effective Assessment of General Education.

Activity 3: Participants will design an evaluation rubric for a learning activity identified in step 2.

Instructors typically evaluate learning outcomes through one or more graded items (i.e., assignments, discussions, projects, student presentations, papers, quizzes, exams, etc.). The use of a rubric allows the students to pre-evaluate their submissions and reinforce the learning outcomes.  Guidelines for the development of rubrics will be reviewed. The process related to this evaluation element looks for evidence of different types of formative and summative assessment measures, a thoughtful and continuous improvement approach to assessment, as well as student opportunities for identifying areas for course improvement (American Association for Higher Education, 1991; Anderson & Elloumi (Eds), 2009; Sewell, Frith & Colvin, 2010).

After the workshop concludes, participants will be encouraged to utilize the process reviewed in this workshop to design a minimum of one learning outcome for a course, identify learning activities targeting the desired learning outcome and complete the Alignment Matrix.  These will be posted on the Workshop Canvas Instructure course page where the session leaders and their peers will provide feedback and recommendations for improvement. This peer review exchange will be helpful to workshop participants to provide an alternative source of feedback to effectively measure the quality and organization of the course design, the engagement of the learning activities, and the sense of community.

I.                    Alternative Route: Fostering Learning Communities

II.                  Alternative Route: Technology Enhancements

No matter what stage or phase of course development you find yourself, this workshop can help you navigate the maze of tasks that are needed to design, build, teach, evaluate, and revise your course.  It begins and ends with your learning outcomes.  Learning outcomes have become the new banner cry for many learning institutions, yet many teachers lack the resources and training to effectively incorporate their learning outcomes across each phase of the essential elements of an online or hybrid course.

Presentation Materials:



 

]]><![CDATA[Fostering an Online Learning Environment for Student Success]]>Wed, 16 Oct 2013 20:24:06 GMThttp://www.lindaralston.com/blog-elearning-best-practices/fostering-an-online-learning-environment-for-student-successWelcome to the first of a series of presentations on how to design and foster an online learning environment for student success. In this first part, I will introduce the purpose of this series, identify the importance of Fostering a Positive Learning Environment and relate this to the Community of Inquiry Model. Part 2 will feature an examination of the 7 Principles of Good Practices in Undergraduate Education and Part 3 will feature an examination of Bloom's Digital Taxonomy as it relates to establishing a positive online learning environment. 
If you would prefer, please review the PDF version of the presentation entitled "Fostering an Online Learning Environment for Student Success"
References:
  • Chickering, A.W., and Gamson, Z.F. (1991). Applying the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. Number 47, Fall 1991. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.
  • Drouin, M. & L. R. Vartanian. (2010). Students’ feelings of and desire for sense of community in face-to-face and online courses. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education. Vol 11(3), pp. 147-149.
  • Gravells, A (2007) Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector – Level 3 Coursebook. Learning Matters ISBN 1844451173.
  • Rovai, A. P. (2007). Facilitating online discussions effectively. Internet & Higher Education, 10(1), 77-88. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ796865) Available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2006.10.001.
  • Rovai, A. P., & Baker, J. D. (2006). Community and gender in the virtual classroom. In E. M. Trauth (Ed.), Encyclopedia of gender and information technology (pp. 103-108). Hershey, PA: Idea Group Reference. ISBN: 978-1591408154.
  • Rovai, A. P., & Barnum, K. T. (2003). Online course effectiveness: An analysis of student interactions and perceptions of learning. Journal of Distance Education/Revue de l'Éducation à Distance, 18(1), 57-73.
  • Shea, P., Li, C. S., & Pickett, A. (2006). A study of teaching presence and student sense of learning community in fully online and web-enhanced college courses. Internet and Higher Education, 9(3), 175–190.
  • Swan, K. (2002). Building learning communities in online courses: The importance of interaction. Education, Communication and Information, 2(1), 23–49.
  • Tsai, I.-C., Kim, B., Liu, P.-J., Goggins, S. P., Kumalasari, C., & Laffey, J. M. (2008). Building a Model Explaining the Social Nature of Online Learning. Educational Technology & Society, 11(3), 198–215.


Please feel free to share your feedback on this presentation on the following comment page.
 
 


]]><![CDATA[Teacher Presence is Essential to Promote Quality Mental Engagement]]>Mon, 07 Oct 2013 22:24:26 GMThttp://www.lindaralston.com/blog-elearning-best-practices/the-quality-of-mental-process“Were all instructors to realize that the quality of mental process, not the production of correct answers, is the measure of educative growth something hardly less than a revolution in teaching would be worked.” 
― John Dewey, Democracy and Education


Today I was taking an online quiz in a MOOC (a massive open online course) and although I knew the correct responses, the quiz was marking my responses wrong.  After reviewing all the related lectures and the corresponding readings for a second time, I was really puzzled.  I was now 100% confident that the responses were correct.  


My next step was to review the Discussion Forums to see if anyone had a similar problem.  Yes, I discovered a few students expressing their angst over the inaccurate grading of the quiz.  You see, the question had not been framed correctly on the quiz and the students were indeed submitting a correct response.  Now students were really frustrated with the fact that we could not contact the instructor personally.  There is no option for emailing a private mail message or the staff managing the course.  So students resort to the Discussion Forums pleading for assistance with a problem such as the situation I had encountered.  


Consider for a moment, as a teacher in the traditional classroom, would you simply walk into the classroom and introduce a topic with a brief 10 minute talk, then post a question on the board.  After which you would then just walk away from the classroom.  Never! Then why is it that so many online instructors believe it is okay to disappear from the virtual classroom? In the case of several Coursera MOOCs, the instructor does not engage in any discussion or one-to-one communication. When there is a situation that requires the teacher to decide the answer, we may need to wait several days or even a week.  In the case of the quiz situation I shared above, the answer did not come until well into week 2. Unfortunately, the same thing happened with the Week 2 Quiz . . . which could have been avoided if the instructor had been aware of the situation with Week 1 Quiz. 


There is a clear absence of the teacher from the active conversation of the course.  I have been in several Coursera.com MOOCs and each seems to have the policy that the instructor posts the weekly lesson, a few recorded lectures, and posts a question in the discussion board (occasionally). In the case of one course, the weekly lesson related board is simply a one sentence . . . "Discuss your questions regarding this week's lesson here."  


Teacher presence stresses that the teacher is not only responsible for the design, facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes, but ensuring the students are comprehending the subject matter and progressing at an acceptable rate. My experience has shown that students prefer to have an exchange with the teacher rather than having to communicate through a staff member.


The teacher should be posting probing questions that require critical thinking rather than a generic discuss here mandate. Without this involvement, the discussion posts are equally generic.  The majority of comments are "I agree" and "Thank you for your response" type messages. 


Teacher presence requires the active engagement of the instructor as a role model and in order to measure the "pulse" of the class. Whereas, I understand that instructors cannot manage receiving 10,000 to 18,000 personal emails, but why can they not review the discussion posts.  I have been active on the boards and I typically review all new posts once a day.  It does not require more than an hour to comment on each of the discussion threads.   

]]><![CDATA[Force Field Analysis - An Exercise in Critical Thinking]]>Sat, 31 Aug 2013 02:01:32 GMThttp://www.lindaralston.com/blog-elearning-best-practices/force-field-analysis-an-exercise-in-critical-thinkingForce Field AnalysisForce Field Analysis in business.
The Force Field Analysis was developed by Kurt Lewin in his work as a social psychologist in the 1940s.  Now it is used in business for identifying the pros and cons of a decision. If you are interested in this concept check out MindTools.com to download a form and learn more about it in this context.  

Recently while taking a MOOC, I discovered another format that I believe will help students to analyze a new concept and understand how that concept can be applied in a different context or how it might resolve a problem.  Basically, it becomes an opportunity for my students to engage their critical thinking skills.

First, an introduction to the concept of a force field. In Physics, "a force field is a vector field indicating the forces exerted by one object on another object" (Wikipedia definition). I am not sure if that is sufficiently clear, but basically an object in the physical universe may move or fail to move due to counteracting forces that force them back into status quo or moves them forward.  
Danar tests a force field.
Roga Danar, an Angosian prisoner tests the force field on a prison cell on board the Enterprise in "The Hunted" episode of Star Trek: The Next Enterprise.
I was unsuccessful in explaining this to a group of undergraduates until I resorted to a few images portrayed in science fiction.  The Starship Enterprise could move objects or reflect objects using force fields.  They could be used to invisibly detain prisoners in a cell or seal a damaged hull of the ship.  Now that is a clear vision.

In the context of a classroom or elearning activity, I interpret these forces as brakes and accelerators. A brake inhibits forward motion on a car and an accelerator propels the car forward or backwards.  One might use this to examine a concept and determine what type of impact it might have on a situation.  

I will illustrate the opposing forces of inhibitors (or restraining brakes) and accelerators (or driving forces). Let us examine the concept of social learning theory and eLearning.  Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist stressed that most important learning by a student occurs through social interaction with a more knowledgeable other (MKO) or, in other words, a teacher.  The force field analysis exercise provided me with an opportunity to reflect on the application of the social nature of learning using a contemporary framework, the Community of Inquiry Model.  The Community of Inquiry examines the influence of 3 types of social interaction called social, teaching, and cognitive presence. As a teacher, what can I do to focus on the accelerators while minimizing the inhibitors in their role as the more knowledgeable others as proposed by Vygotsky?

Check out my Force Field Analysis Chart

A teacher can minimize social presence inhibitors by ensuring the elearning students possess the skills to effectively utilize the content management system before beginning an online course and limit project group size to a smaller number to encourage interaction among members. Social presence should be nurtured by powering up accelerators, such as providing an icebreaker activity during the course orientation to ensure students know each other, fostering social interaction between members.

A teacher can minimize teaching presence inhibitors by ensuring the course design incorporates audio and/or video recorded lectures. Another inhibitor can be eliminated by utilizing Skype, a course management system, or other software that empowers the instructor and students to instant message or synchronously chat with each other. Teacher presence can be enacted by short messages acknowledging a student's contribution on discussion board with encouragement and/or suggestions for improvement.

A teacher can minimize cognitive presence inhibitors by ensuring the students adhere to basic netiquette and standard codes of behavior to minimize negative comments that dampen open communication between students.   Cognitive presence can be fostered by incorporating thinking routines with their lectures that encourage critical thinking and deepening the content within dialogue in discussions and group projects.

The Force Field Analysis was useful in identifying how an instructor can power up the influence of social learning theory to improve learning in an eLearning environment.


(Please note that a portion of this blog post was originally published by Linda Ralston as an assignment in the Coursera.org MOOC entitled Foundations of Teaching for Learning: Introduction.)
]]><![CDATA[Changing up the Lecture!]]>Thu, 22 Aug 2013 16:51:28 GMThttp://www.lindaralston.com/blog-elearning-best-practices/changing-up-the-lecturePictureSee a Think-Pair-Share Activity.
Lectures have long been the preferred method of information delivery in the college classroom.  The lecture format provides an opportunity to deliver a large portion of information to our students in the most succinct means.  


Unfortunately, research  indicates that adult learners can only effectively listen for 15 to 20 minutes before nodding off or becoming otherwise inattentive.  Unfortunately, the typical college class meets for 50 minutes to 3 hours. Therefore, teachers should plan to incorporate "mental breaks" or otherwise change up the lecture every 15 minutes at minimum. 

An instructor should provide time for students to process information particularly if the content is new to the students.  One of the strategies that I utilized was having the students share with the person next to them or behind them.  The key is to ensure that the student has time to apply the new information to existing knowledge, learning is accomplished by this type of activity. 


Professor David Perkins recommends that a teacher should provide time for students to think particularly if the content is new to the students. The Connect-Extend-Challenge thinking routine is one strategy that provides a process whereby a student can connect new ideas to prior knowledge, extend that knowledge to consider a new direction or application, and even challenge the students to resolve a more complicated problem. The Connect-Extend-Challenge model suggests 3 simple questions that can be used with any subject and any age of student.

  • Connect: How are the ideas and information presented connected to what you already knew prior to today’s lesson?
  • Extend: What new ideas and information did you learn that pushed your thinking in a new direction, which extended what you knew previously to better understand and extend your knowledge?
  • Challenge: What is still unclear/confusing you regarding this topic?  What aspect of what we have covered in today’s lesson is still challenging to you?

My challenge is to design several Connect-Extend-Challenge activities to be incorporated in my future lectures.  Each of these strategies will be helpful in ensuring that my students are encouraged to stop, think and apply the new information to prior knowledge. 

A version of Think-Pair-Share Activity:  Before beginning class, I distribute a 3x5 card to each student.  After covering the lecture for a period of time, I pause and ask the students to individually respond to a question or define a term or consider a problem.  I allow only a short 3 to 5 minutes to consider the request and write down their response.  Then I ask each student to pair up with another student to exchange their ideas.  After another 5 minutes, I have the students return to their seats. Another 15 minutes of the lecture is covered moving to a more advanced concept related to the task on the card.  Now the challenge is resumed with the students forming groups of 4 to reconsider the original problem and given the additional information, determine a response to share with the class.  The Think-Pair-Share activity is designed to help students move to higher order thinking and comprehending the concept. One of the reasons that I like using this activity is that it increases the involvement of quiet and shy students. Additionally, the types of questions or problems can vary according to the subject and knowledge/skill of the students.

The One Minute Essay:  Another activity that can be utilized during a lecture is the one minute essay.  Students are given just 60 seconds to write a response to a question.  For example, the instructor pauses after a 15 minute segment of the lecture and asks the students to produce a written response to a specific question from the most recent topic.  There are several permutations of this type of question: 
  • What was the most important thing you learned during this lesson?
  • What question do you have regarding this lesson?
  • What was the most difficult aspect of the lesson?  or
  • What was the muddiest point that remains unclear in your mind regarding topic X? 

Exam Question:  Many times I like to learn what students think might be worthy of an exam question so I utilize this activity.  It is just what is implies, the students are asked to draft a question for the next exam over the material related to the topic you just covered. Now it seems easy to write the exam question, but I always have the students turn the paper over and respond to their own question on the reverse.  Of course, another version of this activity is to have the students write the question then they are instructed to pass it to the next student who must answer the question.  This can be very revealing in highlighting what students think is important to retain but also it indicates how students are able to answer the question.


The Think-Pair-Share, One Minute Essay, and Exam Question activities are adaptations of the Connect-Extend-Challenge strategy that will be useful in helping students to think, discuss with their peers, and process new knowledge in “digestible chunks.” I hope these strategies will help me design a positive learning environment for my classroom. My next challenge will be to adapt these strategies to the online learning environment.


Please feel free to share your own insight and recommendations.  I welcome all feedback. 
]]><![CDATA[CTLE Teaching Symposium]]>Tue, 20 Aug 2013 05:15:04 GMThttp://www.lindaralston.com/blog-elearning-best-practices/ctle-teaching-symposiumPicture
The University of Utah Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence is hosting the Teaching Symposium at the Marriott Library on Monday, August 19th.  I will be presenting two sessions.  In an effort to save paper, all handouts will be provided right here for the symposium participants.

Spicing Up Your Lecture
Linda Ralston, Associate Professor, Parks Recreation and Tourism

Cut the blah blah and actually get your students excited about your lectures! Sometimes only a lecture will do to cover a large amount of content, but it does not have to be boring. We will explore the barriers to exciting lectures, examine how we can eliminate those barriers, and create an environment that supports engaged learners. We will review how to use the 4 P’s and 5 E’s to design a dynamic and fun teaching style that is suitable for small or large classes. 

Facebook, Google Hangouts, & Tweets, Oh My! Social Media in the Classroom
Linda Ralston, Associate Professor, Parks Recreation and Tourism

Students are more than acquainted with many social media networking tools, so why not incorporate these tools into your classroom to ignite interactions and foster engagements with the broader community. Learn how you too can utilize the cost effectiveness of using free social networks and the value of incorporating “real-world experiences into your classroom,” as well as the ability to encourage collaboration between students. You are welcome to bring your iPad, SmartPhone, or tablet as you will be invited to engage in several activities during the session.
]]><![CDATA[TED Talks: Sir Ken Robinson asks "Do Schools kill Creativity?"]]>Mon, 05 Aug 2013 15:04:27 GMThttp://www.lindaralston.com/blog-elearning-best-practices/ted-talks-sir-ken-robinson-asks-do-schools-kill-creativityPicture
Have you checked out the wealth of recorded talks from TED Talks? (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as education, business, science, politics and the arts.  


I really enjoyed the thought provoking question and the ideas shared by Sir Ken Robinson in his talk on "Do schools kill creativity?" What you have not heard of him? He is a creativity expert who challenges educators to cultivate creativity and teach to the multiple types of intelligence. Check out his talk below:
As I reflect on this talk I am reminded of one of the most creative people, Pablo Picasso who once stated “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up”  When I was in high school my art teacher was very supportive even if I lacked much creative talent with my sketches or paintings.  She always commended me on my efforts even if they were not as attractive as some of my classmates.  Later I took a class in college and was told that I would never earn a living as an artist.  Ouch!  I was not even trying for a career in art but rather looking for an opportunity to enjoy "playing with different artistic materials."



According to the Chinese philosopher, Confucius, schools are supposed to teach students in accordance with their aptitude. In my opinion, each student is unique and talented in different areas and they learn in different ways.  A teacher should learn who their students are, how they learn and what motivates them.  An inspiring teacher inspires their students from within! As I begin the new academic year, I pledge to foster creativity and motivate my students by first learning who they are and designing a learning environment that supports their learning.

Interested in listening to more?  Check out these TED Talks on Education.

Now I would like to hear from you.  What will you do to foster creativity among your students?
]]><![CDATA[Twitter for Education]]>Sun, 02 Jun 2013 04:22:53 GMThttp://www.lindaralston.com/blog-elearning-best-practices/twitter-for-educationPicture
Monday, June 3rd I am presenting a session for the faculty at the University of Utah on "Fostering a Learning Community Online."  In preparation for the presentation I wanted to reflect on the benefits of using Twitter to foster communication among the students in my classes.  The beauty of Twitter is the accessibility since most students can access Twitter from their SmartPhones, a laptop, tablet, or desktop computer.   

Benefits of using Twitter in Education

  • Twitter allows only brief responses (140 characters) so it allows quick and brief feedback. One student cannot monopolize the conversation.
  • Students for whom English is a second language or who struggle with communication can participate using short phrases & typically worry less about their language skills. Even students who rarely raise their hand during class will often contribute using Twitter.
  • Students can connect with other students and the instructor outside of class to ask questions, answer questions, and share current news & research sources. 
  • Mobile Twitter Applications allow students to connect using iPad, tablets, and Smartphones enabling communications during class and outside of the classroom. 
  • Twitter can be used to quickly connect with any web based resource including multimedia (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, or Vine). 
  • Twitter provides new opportunities to connect with a global learning community at no or little cost.  This allows the involvement of different cultural perspectives, expertise is specific topic areas, and a variety of new educational perspectives.

Check out our Learning Activity which we will conduct using Twitter and the hashtag #UofUCTLE.
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