This semester I am teaching an online masters level course for the Pacific School of Religion entitled “Gender, Sexuality and the Bible”. The course is held mostly on Moodle, with forays into other social networking sites and searches on the internet. This is the beginning of Week 3, and the students are thoughtful, fun, and engaged. It is a stellar group to engage in online education this semester.
In the absence of non-verbal body language, or spoken communication, I find that we (students and myself as the professor) communicate through a lot of emoticons (!) :) which turn out to be quite effective, as does bold words or CAPS or italics. A change of font indicates emphasis or a change of tone. So, communication happens, and it happens effectively. This is not to say that the communication is the same as a brick and mortar traditional classroom—indeed, it is different—and in some ways more precise. We are forced to type out our instructions (in my case), or insights (students) in a way that reflects precisely what we wish to communicate, and there may be a long lag between when we post and when someone can ask a question. So the communication is a bit slower. And, of course, sometime the internet connection does go down, and learning is delayed, but only for a little while.
In order to make sure we are visually engaged, students are combing the internet for art to illuminate the texts we read, as well as references in literature, pop culture, media, news, you name it. In one week we talked about Twilight and Buffy in terms of gender constructs—who could ask for more fun than that when reading the Bible? And learning all the while?
Yes, a new electronic way to keep attendance!! Attendance is so important for undergraduate students—it helps track their performance with their attendance, plus is preparatory for the professional world where it matters (a lot) whether you show up and if you’re on time. As a professor, it’s pesky. At least, it is for me. I have attendance charts at the front of my binder for a class. I take attendance at the beginning of the period, and then if someone walks in late, I have to mentally remember to mark them tardy later in the period, or flip back (noisily) through my papers to mark them present. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s just a pain.
Until now.
Thanks to a tip from a colleague at the (really great) meta-cognition workshop I attended last week, I shall now employ my iphone to take attendance with the handy app called “A
ttendance” (available in itunes). A few minutes after installing, I imported a csv file (took 5 minutes to figure it out) into the application. Now I can check each student in as present, absent, late, excused, or unknown, for each class period. And I can email students directly from the app to let them know that their absences are creeping up. AND I can take a picture of each student and have it appear next to her/his name. Awe-some.
$4.99 well spent. For those of you lucky enough to have an ipad, the same app will work on it! More reports to come.
I am a beginner meditator. If you know me, then you're reading this thinking, "there's no way that Katy meditates....on purpose....of her own free will..." This is exactly why I need to meditate! What is meditation? Rather than give a fancy definition here, I'll suffice it to say that meditation is a way to pray, to be in touch with one's interior self, and to experience the Divine (whatever name you choose) in a profoundly still way. I've been trying my hand at this for about a year now, and really, I still have no idea what I'm doing. But I do know that when I do it, consistently, life is all around much better. Or, more accurately, I'm more at peace and in touch with what's happening around me, which makes it seem better.
This semester I surveyed my students, with their hunched shoulders, overly caffeinated nerves, and anxious faces, especially around midterm. And I thought, "Why not meditate?" Meditation is non-confessional, so I thought it could be appealing in a classroom setting that is, after all, in a religious college. For those who are religious, it can be a form of prayer, and for those who are non-religious, it can be a form of self-reflection. I attend meditation weekly with the delightful Brother Camillus, he graciously agreed to visit my classrooms and lead the students in a 15 minute introduction to meditation. Brother Camillus gave an introduction to the benefits of meditation and what it can do for us cognitively with great humor and sensitivity. I read a short verse from Mark (the Gospel we were studying at the time), and students had the option of participating in a short, simple meditation that lasted just a minute or two. Feet flat on the floor, shoulders relaxed, inhale, hold the breath briefly, and exhale. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. That's it---as Brother Camillus says, to meditate all you have to do is breathe deeply and completely (believe me, I remember it often during the day).
The next class period the students had an exam. I gave students the option of doing the meditation again before the exam started, and nearly everyone participated. One student told me after the exam that the breathing was very helpful in centering. Cool.
Today was the last day of class, and I gave out (optional) anonymous sheets for students to fill out about what they liked most in the class, what was helpful for them, and what aided their learning the most. To my surprise (although it shouldn't be), many responded that the meditation was very helpful for them. Some also said that they weren't sure how it fit into the class, but that they liked it. (I trust that the connection to the class, their well-being, and their lives will become clearer later). Seriously, we've done two minutes of meditation in the entire semester. The fact that it was that meaningful makes me wonder other ways I can incorporate it into the class, and also continue to respect of the multiplicity of religious, spiritual, and non-religious students who are present. I also had equal number of students stress that they were relieved the class was non-credal and respected all faith traditions without pushing ideology, so it is important that any meditation not interfered with this critical value I hold in the classroom. I have a number of colleagues who begin many class periods with music---also a meditative exercise. More thoughts to come on this!
Has anyone used similar exercises in the classroom in a diverse setting? Thoughts and suggestions very welcome!
Many of you have been interested in the "polls" I began using in the classroom earlier this week, which uses students' everyday technology and transforms it into teaching tools. Yesterday in class, I utilized some more polls powered by Poll Everywhere to kick start off our conversation in class. The technology lets students answer polls through their cell phones or computers to see "live" results on the screen in the classroom. It is the tail end of the semester, and students are pretty exhausted (so are professors!). In addition to serving some pedagogical needs, using technology in class livened up the students so that they relaxed and were able to further engage in the conversation. We were talking about the Gospel of John, so my questions were geared towards their reading on this Gospel.
My first question yesterday: "Do you like taking polls in class?" (It let everyone practice using text message feature of their phones for the polls). Overwhelming answer: Yes.
Second question: "How long did Jesus preach and teach?" This was multiple choice, so students could answer "1 year", "3 years" or "no idea". Of course, the very alert students asked "in which Gospel?" Excellent---after the answers rolled in, we got the chance to talk about how the chronology in the Gospel of John is different than the Synoptics. I followed this up with the verbal question "How old was Jesus when he died"? Nearly everyone said "33", so that gave us the opportunity to talk about how our cultural view of Jesus very much looks to this Gospel. I felt that this question was important because there was no right or wrong---I simply asked students to answer what they thought from their experience of knowing about the Bible in culture, or from their reading.
Third question: "What is missing in the Gospel of John compared to the Synoptics?" This was multiple choice, so students could answer "Baptism", "Last Supper/Communion", "Parables" or "All of the Above". Students answered in a range (there was no majority answer), and the good news is that they were all correct. I have structured these questions so that they enable students to learn, not to fail. We talked about each answer and compared the Gospel of John to the Synoptics.
The final question: "What is the inaugural story of Jesus in the Gospel of John?" This question related directly to their reading of the Gospel and of their textbook (which uses the language "inaugural story"), and 80% of students got it right. Their choices were "thrown (almost) off of a cliff", "water into wine", or "Sermon on the Mount". The correct answer is "water into wine" which gave us the opportunity to talk about their textbook's interpretation of the story. The other answers were all ones we had talked about in class, so we went over the answers and reinforced what the students had learned in previous weeks.
Did students learn more in this method? While I'm not sure they learned more, they did learn differently. Most of all, they connected their learning (and reviewing) with an everyday activity that they enjoy. This gave us the opportunity to review material, connect an overall portrait of the Gospels and their relationship (or non-relationship) to one another, and explore how Jesus in the Gospel of John is a little bit different than the other Gospels.
I do believe that it is valuable for students to unplug once in a while; I envision using such technology for pointed lessons, perhaps several times a month in a deliberate way. Will students begin texting their friends? Possibly, and that is an element of using technology like this in the classroom in which the professor cannot maintain control. (Gulp!) But I am confident that students learn anyway! Excessive texting, of course, needs to be addressed. I keep my classes moving forward so that students are in dialogue, answering questions, working in groups, and taking notes, so really, there is not a lot of time for texting.
What do you think? Have you used technology like this in the classroom? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Again, many thanks to Dr. Erica Martin for introducing this concept to me!
Last week I attended the national SBL/AAR meeting in San Francisco, and went to two excellent sessions on pedagogy in undergraduate education. One particularly great paper by my colleague and friend, Dr. Erica Martin, was about the use of technology in the brick and mortar classroom. I have struggled with student distraction in the use of cell phones in the classroom, and am frustrated with requesting students to put their cell phones away constantly. After listening to Erica’s session, I have a new philosophy: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Erica spoke about using technology, such as cell phones, in the classroom as a learning tool. Per her suggestions, yesterday I incorporated the technology Poll Everywhere in my undergraduate course The Bible and Its Interpretation at St. Mary’s College.
The idea is simple. I create a question (multiple choice or open ended) and students text in their answers on their cell phones. Their answers appear live on the screen. The result: students loved it. LOVED it. Yesterday I tried out just a very simple question: Read Luke 4:16-21 and give an adjective that describes Jesus. Some of the answers students generated included “powerful”, “confident”, “spirit filled”, “cocky”, “naive” (nice one!), “arrogant”, “man in charge”, “sassy” and “sexy” (no idea, but I’ll run with it). Students were able to see all the answers of their peers on the screens, and students without cell phones were still able to participate. Of course, I encouraged the old fashioned “raise your hand” approach for additional answers!
The major advantage was that students who don’t normally participate verbally did participate via their phones. Score! Did students learn more through this pedagogical tool? I’m not sure—time will tell as I incorporate it more into the classroom. Did students engage more in the class overall as a result of using this technology in the class? Absolutely, 100%. It put students in a great mood and they were more eager to look at the text to determine their answers.
Tomorrow I’m planning on incorporating more of Poll Everywhere to discuss Asian American hermeneutics and the Gospel of John. Stay tuned!
Lastly, what technology have you incorporated successfully in your classroom?
I have now completed my first teaching online experience in the TEL program at PSR. What an exciting week! The TEL program is brand new and takes place completely online as part of theological education and training for a variety of leaders. The one-week course I taught was Biblical Interpretation to a wonderful group of people who quickly formed community. I was moved by how they responded to one another’s prayer concerns and supported one another in their learning.
Lesson #1: Learning online does not have to mean a lack of community. It means a different kind of community, and one where people reach out to each other at all hours. Every time I logged onto our course site (through the Moodle platform), ping! there was an update from someone, a voice of concern, and a hope for an answered prayer.
Lesson #2: Objectives for online learning are the same as a traditional classroom, but the mechanism for learning them is different. The goals for this course were to explore and apply the historical and literary approaches to the Bible, understand how our social location affects our interpretation, and to learn how to utilize particular resources in biblical interpretation. In a traditional classroom, I might organize a class period around verbal discussion about a particular reading and practicing an approach on a biblical text, and perhaps looking at multi-media as it relates to the biblical text. Online, I organized “modules” to be completed at the student’s own pace by a certain time/date (usually over 48 hours). This involved some discussion of the reading in “forums” where students were asked to engage specific question about the reading—similar to a traditional classroom. The difference: students had time to read slowly and think in depth about the material before posting. The pressure was “off” in a way that sometimes paralyzes students in a traditional classroom, no matter how a teacher has created an inviting atmosphere. I believe that some students may engage the written material more deeply with this format, because they have serious time to consider the material. The interactive component is still there, because students are discussing and participating together. Student interaction is different, though, than the traditional classroom. In some ways, I as the teacher have a bit less control–gulp—in this format, because students may comment and make conclusions with each other when I am not online. There is always the possibility that students will come to different conclusions than I anticipated. And, that’s OK.
Maybe that’s lesson #3—take a deep breath, teacher, because your students are great and they’re going to learn.
Lesson #4: Lots and lots of setup. LOTS of preparation. In a traditional classroom I can have the “skeleton” of a course designed, with readings mapped out and major goals and assignments at the beginning of the course. Then I can wait for the daily/weekly preparation, mapping out particular class periods in consideration of the personality of the class, and specific time constraints–how far we’re behind or ahead in the course material. When teaching online, the entire course needs to be thought out ahead of time. I gave students specific modules to complete with suggested time to spend on each exercise. The TEL course is mindful of students’ time (which I greatly appreciate), and I had a total of 8 contact hours on the Moodle site for teaching and learning, so I constructed the course with this in mind. This means that every element of the course design focused on the specific learning goals and students viewed the entire course at once. This was beneficial to everyone, myself included. In fully developing and designing the entire course, I was able to construct much more specific and meaningful learning experiences for the students.
Lesson #5: Online learning is fun. I can’t wait for the next round!
Next week, I’ll begin my first venture in teaching an exclusively online class. The course is part of the new TEL program at PSR. The program is dynamic, and designed for a variety of people to gain theological training. The context is a certificate program, or continuing education (not a formal MDiv or MTS degree). I love teaching adult learners, and the online format will be new to me.
My thoughts so far: teaching online is still teaching! As I design the course, I find that the learning objectives are still the same, but the format by which they will be achieved will be different. This format of teaching also requires me to be very precise, and exact; whereas I might rely on a traditional Questions and Answers to clarify expectations or assignments, I have to be sure that I not only explain directions thoroughly, I also need to anticipate questions and answer those in advance as well. This is good—it encourages me to practice clarity and precision.
The syllabus is made, the online format is ready, so all we need now are students, who will show up online on Tuesday. I can’t wait to virtually meet everyone!