Ask-Dr-Kirk

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

 

Didn't we just celebrate Halloween?!

We Are Digital Immigrants Teaching Digital Natives

Here's a fascinating article by Marc Prensky who discusses the challenges faced by college faculty who are "digital immigrants," having learned technology slowly and sometimes painfully...versus our students who are "digital natives" that grew up with email, cell phones, Internet access, computer games, etc. As he notes, our students' thinking patterns are different because of this life-long exposure to technology and we need to rethink how we teach them.

You can download the article here:  Download Digital immigrants

Tips On Getting Published

This article by Dr. Daniel Feldman (University of Georgia) addresses the issue faced by many faculty. We may have been taught how to conduct research but struggle with how to take these research projects and get them published.  

Tips include:

• Make sure your title accurately reflects the paper topic and isn't too long.
• Grab your reader's attention in the abstract.
• Keep introduction to no more than 3-4 pages and provide a framework here as to what the issue is you are investigating and how your paper addresses this issue.
• Discussion section: Here is where you help "the reviewers see the forest for the trees. What do we know now we didn't know beforehand?"
• Follow submission guidelines closely: length of paper, no typos or formatting errors, accurate citations, etc.

Dr. Feldman ends his suggestions by stating, "Help yourself by helping the reviewer follow why you did the study, who you studied, what you found, and how it matters."

You can read the article here: Download Feldman_writing-research

Understanding Today's College Students

This article discusses today's "new college students," that may include traditional age Millennials who use text messaging rather than emails; Gen Xers who have different expectations from those students either older or younger; and Baby Boomers who are coming back to school while balancing jobs and families. Diana Oblinger discusses the implications of these different learning styles for college faculty in designing their courses.

How To Use Twitter And Facebook To Get Class Participation

Here's an interesting article on how Purdue University is adding Twitter and Facebook to get more class participation in case you were wondering how that could be done.

Got this via @mashable on Twitter.

Tips For Students In Making A Good Impression On Professor

Professors Lynn Jacobs and Jeremy Hyman posted recently on “13 ways to make your professor love you.” I’m thinking this might be good to put in a syllabus for undergraduates.

Among their suggestions: Look interested during class; ask questions, especially those related to reading assignments; bring in relevant newspaper or internet articles; and thank your professor when he/she does you a favor.

Road Trip To Georgia

I'm off to Savannah, Georgia, to teach a faculty development workshop at Savannah State University on Friday. The university's website states its goal is "a 'value added' education, resulting from classroom interactions, co-curricular activities, quality instruction, internships, practicum, research, and the infusing of technology into the curriculum...Thus, in addition to topics of teaching effectiveness and classroom management, I'll discuss using educational technology such as blogs, wikis, and Twitter in the classroom.

I'm looking forward to it.

Accent The Positive

Tom Vander Well writes on quality assurance and recently gave the following advice to call center employees:

If you're working the phones today, I'd encourage you to keep a note pad or sticky-note on your desk. Each time you have a pleasant, friendly customer - jot down a hash mark or write the customer's name on your sheet. When one of those negative customers comes along, look down at your sheet and refresh your memory of all the pleasant customers you've talked with.

Sometimes it takes a conscious effort to see the glass half full.

I'm thinking this is excellent advice for us as teachers also...

The Teaching Professor Has A Blog

Check this out: The Teaching Professor has a blog with lots of free information on teaching and learning here.