Over this past summer, a couple books that focus on the role of recall in learning came to my attention. Make it stick (Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel (2014)) and Small Teaching by James Lang (2016) both claim that retrieval practice is essential for durable learning. The authors argue that practicing recall builds strong connections in…Continue Reading Providing the opportunity to forget…and remember
“That is how innovation happens; chance favors the connected mind” -Steven Johnson What’s the most important thing an undergraduate should be doing at college? The answer, I’ve come to believe, is the simple act of drawing connections between classes. Students walk off with a diploma after taking some forty separate courses. A major forms one…Continue Reading Students as Bridge Builders: Encouraging Connection Across Courses
If you’ve been keeping your ear to the ground in the world of education technology, you’ve likely heard of VoiceThread. It’s a widely-known tool that’s used in everything from online graduate courses to kindergarten classrooms. At UP we’ve added VoiceThread to our toolbox, so now you, too, can discover what VoiceThread is all about. The…Continue Reading Engaged Learning with VoiceThread
As instructors, at some point we were taught to “put away childish things.” But if this included play, then we’re missing out on a powerful resource for the classroom. The latest book by the popular science writer Steven Johnson demonstrates the productivity of play. As Johnson mentioned at a recent visit to Powell’s, his…Continue Reading Play in Your Classroom
Presentations are a valuable learning activity – giving students the opportunity to practice speech and communication skills, to collaborate with others, and to develop digital, design, or storytelling literacies. However, when attempting to cycle through many individual or group presentations in limited class time, there can often be unneccesary stress and frustration as students take…Continue Reading TlC Toolkit: Managing Digital Files for Student Presentations