Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Teaching Reflection / Midterm Evaluation (Week 8)


Here's the summary of the W200 mid-term evaluation. Students did a survey and showed their preference and opinions regarding the course and their instructor.



Class
                      Like/Meaningful
                      Dislike/Pointless
·     Digital story *4 - challenging, but learned different technology tools
·     Hands on activities & TIPs *4 (learned new tech. resources & how to use them)
·     Case analysis project *2 – how to look for different resources to solve problems in future classroom
·     Class prep *2
·     Group/Class discussion*2
·     Google *2 (thinking about using it in future classroom)
·     Spice You Up activity *2
·     Teacher website & e-porfolio
·     Diigo (started to use for different classes)
·     Webquest
·     Digital story *3 – time consuming, should have more instruction on how to make a video in class
·     Lecture/PPT *3 – too much information; rather do hands on activities
·     Too many assignments due at once *3
·     Class prep *2 – spend lots of time, but not talked a lot about it in class; spend too much time talking about CP in class
·     GoAnimate *2 – not suitable for higher grade level students
·     Inspiration – not meaningful
·     Teacher website – pointless
·     Class is too long
·     Class discussion
·     TIPs – helpful for understanding course content, but not useful
Instructor
                            Strength
              Weakness/Students’ needs
·     Helpful to solve problems *5
·     Explain clearly what to do and where to find resources *4
·     Funny *3
·     Keep students engaged *3 – ask questions
·     Make sure students understand *2
·     Knowledge - go through information in depth *2
·     Connection with students *2
·     Nice/friendly/approachable/positive
·     Give individualized feedback
·     Give time for questions
·     Give more time for the TIPs in class *3
·     Unclear about the due date and submission *2
·     Communication hard to understand my comments
·     Talk louder


Link to Evaluation Response PDF file

After looking at my evaluation results, in general, I think there's still a lot to be improved in my teaching. In terms of the course structure, content, and assignments, I don't think I can do much adjustment to satisfy every student. Looking at the results, it's obviously some students like a specific topic the most, yet some other students might dislike the same topic the most. Lots of other AIs told me it's not possible to make everyone happy, but I think what I can do is to try my best to at least explain clearly to student why we include such content and tasks for what purpose. I think it would actually be a good opportunity to take this as an example for students to think about what they would do in their future classroom if their students have wide range of interests or preference on their learning. A lot of students actually gave comments that they did learn a lot from this course. One student even started using Diigo as a public library for several other classes. I guess probably I told them almost every week that how Diigo helps me as a teacher and learner. I'm really glad that lots of students have really learned something from this class and this would definitely help me grow my confidence and motivation in teaching.

In terms of my teaching, I greatly appreciate that my students could really tell me "the truth" whether they understand what I was talking about and how they feel about they way I teach. I've tried hard to build a good relationship with my students and give them the image and impression that they can be very comfortable to ask any questions or talk to me about any issues they have. At the beginning of the class, I realize that a lot of my students in this class do not have proficient technology skills and some of them were even worried about they were not skillful enough to complete their projects. Although I spent a lot of time in class teaching them solving their technology problems when they were doing activities, I think it definitely worth the time doing that cause students would be more confident and motivated in their learning.

I think it's a good sign that students think I'm helpful to solve their problems. However, I am thinking probably I should change my strategy a bit and give them less detail guidance while helping them solve their problems. The reason is that they kind of get used to getting any kinds of help from me. Since we have already gone through half of the course, I feel the skill of looking for solutions is more important for them to learn. In order to let them be an independent problem solver, what I would do is to provide them different resources or telling them the right direct to go, and then let them explore different ways to solve their problems instead of giving step by step instruction. But of course if I know a student who really needs lots of help, I would still give a full guidance and explanation.

Regarding the time distribution for lecture and activities, I was aware that students need more time to do tasks in class, and I did leave more time for them to do hands on activities. However, it seemed they still need even more time. I think I sometime really spent too much time giving examples and having class discussion, but it is the way for me to make sure they really do understand the concepts I want them to learn. From the evaluation results, some students said that they learned the most from the class discussion and the examples from other students, whereas some other students think it's boring and unnecessary to spend time on discussion. This is a real dilemma. Probably I need to talk to other experienced AIs and figure out the best way to solve this problem.


Friday, October 18, 2013

FA13 - Dossier #2 Review Presentation Experience (2)


FA13-Dossier#2-Oct. 11th 


Last friday was the second part of the Fall 13' dossier #2 review presentation. After the second week of dossier#2, I realized that we have a wide range of research study topics in our field. For me, it was a good experience to know and see how senior IST students connecting their own research interests and expertise to IST field. However, sometimes I feel like once I have decided to focus on one main research topic and start digging deeper, it's not easy for me to have deep understanding in other areas and communicate with other students who have different focuses. For example, when Muruvvet was doing her presentation with me and Yahuei, she kept trying to explain what design judgement is and trying to tell us the big names in that field. Yet I know little about design judgement, so I could not give her helpful feedback and I would just take whatever she said instead.


Based on faculty's questions in the first week dossier, I recognized the importance of having comprehensive and deep understanding about the field I am studying in. But, currently I am still a bit confused whether it is better for young scholars to have understanding of different research areas or just keep focusing and digging into one specific area and be an expert of that area.


Here are the questions generated from the first week dossier:

1. In your focused research area, who are the authors you're drawing from? 
2. Why is your research/teaching/service related to our field? 
3. How do you characterize yourself as a researcher? 
4. So what? Why is it important? Why should others be interested to your topic? 
5. How do the authors you cited influence in your research and teaching?

This week, I think some faculty members still asked the same questions to dossier #2 participants. However, participants were also asked some other important questions as follows:

6. Are you trying to generalized your findings? 
7. Can you talk more about your data collection and data analysis? 
8. Can you give us examples from your teaching, service, and/or research experiences to support 
    what you said? 
9. How do you define ____? 
10. How is your minor sharing your research studies?

After the two weeks dossier review presentation, II came up with some plans and strategies for my dossier#2:

[Research]

  - Always keep in touch with my advisors and constantly update the status and progress of my research studies, especially the first author studies. Make sure my advisors agree with what I do and the ways i do it.

  - Establish a framework for my central topic first and then make teaching, research, and service experiences fit into the big framework.

  - While doing the first author study, always keep in mind the dossier#2 questions above. Ask myself these questions at any points in the process of my first author study and see whether I can have a strong answers for those questions.

  - Mix-method is the "approach"/"research design" for your study. It's not a type of method.

  - Try to make connection and comprehend big names' main arguments and viewpoints in the literature review.

  - Every step in research study is important, including "Why this topic? Why is it important?", deep understanding of literature review, and rigorous research design.

  - Make sure every academic event I participate can be connected to my main research focus.

  - Don’t say you’re researching a context! (e.g. I’m interested in social studies research) - Dr. Glazewski, R690

  - You should be asking questions about implication of the systems, instruction, learning, instructional systems, learning experiences. - Dr. Glazewski, R690

  - Be specifically careful about distinguishing Qualitative Research (interpretive framework) and Descriptive Research (evaluative or prescriptive framework). Most of research studies we do in the IST field are descriptive research, using qualitative data collection and analysis. - Dr. Glazewski, R690

  - Make an appropriate qualitative judgment. - Dr. Glazewski, R690


[In General]

  - Like what Dr. Glazewski always says - "Keep reading."

  - Be very careful of the word choice in dossier #2 PPT and presentation.


**And I think I will keep adding the plans and strategies after I attend more dossier #2 review presentations next year.**

Overall, I learned a lot from the Fall 2013 dossier#2, and feel good about knowing all these important dossier#2 questions. I think all I need to do is to start everything early and keep working on it. :)

Friday, October 04, 2013

FA13 - Dossier #2 Review Presentation Experience (1)

FA13-Dossier#2-Oct. 4th


Today is a big day for IST folks. 12 IST seniors had their Dossier #2 review presentation and were asked some questions about their research, teaching and service experiences and future goals. My dossier #1 review will be Spring 2014, and my dossier #2 review will be Spring 2015. After participating in 6 IST doctoral students' dossier #2 review today, the following are my takeaways from this presentation.

Questions asked by faculty members that I think are important and will be asked again and again in future dossier #2 reviews.:

1. In your focused research area, who are the authors you're drawing from?
2. Why is your research/teaching/service related to our field?
3. How do you characterize yourself as a researcher?
4. So what? Why is it important? Why should others be interested to your topic?
5. How do the authors you cited influence in your research and teaching?

I think I've learned a lot from today's dossier #2 review. First, I think a fully comprehensive understanding of what I am doing in my research study and the conversations among authors in literature review is a must. It would make myself look more professional and like a real scholar if I could define different important terms with examples and let audience understand my focused area. I'm not sure whether it's because some presenters were too nervous, sometimes they could not clearly explain the fundamental terms or concepts in their research areas. This is something that I will need to keep reminding myself not to forget about the basics. Also, I felt that it would be the best situation if a main research area was decided at the very beginning stage and then have most of the teaching and service experiences built around the main focused area. This way, all the evidence of knowledge and skills would be a lot stronger and tie with research profession.

Question about dossier #2 presentation skill: Is it better to quickly go through all related research projects and studies I've involved in to show that I have rich knowledge and experiences in a certain area or to focus on only one or two main studies and explaining specifically about research questions, methods, results, and implications?