Who took my students? (And how do I get them back?)

1. Who took my students?(And how do I get them back?) The delicate balancing act of incorporating technology into your classroom without losing your students along the way Michelle Mallon The Ohio State University Computer Science & Engineering Department

2. A little about me… Or how do you know whether or not to take me seriously! • I have been teaching with the Ohio State University for 15 years, so I have been doing this teaching thing a little while. • Some of the courses I have been teaching consistently during this entire time span. • Among the classes I teach: Intro to technology (traditional class and distance learning); Intro to Computer Assisted Problem Solving; Spreadsheet and Database Modeling and Problem Solving; and Social, Ethical and Professional Issues in Computing. • Just like you- I am passionate about teaching! When I can’t reach a student, I need to find out why so I can try a different strategy.

3. It all started about 8 years ago, when I began to notice...... • The once strong correlation between student attendance and overall performance in the class was weakening at an alarming rate. YIKES! • Students I saw every day in lecture were coming to office hours asking questions about material I had covered in depth. How could this be? • Students who were struggling reported attending class, reading the book, working on practice problems, ect. They were doing all of the things successful students should do. All of the things previous successful students were doing. Was it me? The previous strategies that seemed to indicate student success had stopped working!

4. Then one day, I met the “black hole”…

5. Then I “got” it…. http://cupwire.ca/articles/42870 http://acreelman.blogspot.com/2012/09/multitasking-in-class.html http://illinois.edu http://www.laurel-hart.com/tag/blogs/ http://www.pbs.org

6. What did this mean? • My students may have been coming to class with the best of intentions, but the reality was that they were being inundated with extra stimuli. • Over the past few years, the “expectation” seems to be that distractions are all a part of the experience- that they are a given and that the more practice one gets with handling multiple distractions, the better they will get at it… But is this really the reality of how humans function? Are our students coming in with superhuman expectations for what they are physically able to do?

7. Are distractions really all that bad? • 40% of all American teens say they have been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a way that put people in danger. (Pew) • Texting while driving results in longer response times than even drunken driving (VTTI) • Text messaging creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted. (VTTI) • Sending or receiving a text takes a driver's eyes from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent-at 55 mph-of driving the length of an entire football field, blind. (VTTI) • Though 95 percent of drivers surveyed said texting behind the wheel was unacceptable and unsafe, at least 21 percent admit to doing it anyway. (VTTI) http://www.distraction.gov http://enc1101e3.wikispaces.com http://enc1101e3.wikispaces.com

8. What did I do? Once I realized what was happening, I thought: “If I just educate the students about what is going on, they can adjust their learning strategies” Seems simple, right?

9. Wrong! Why didn’t this strategy work? • Students don’t think it applies to them: many students believe they are in the 2% of effective multi-taskers. • Putting away the devices causes anxiety (in some cases severe). • The increasing intolerance for boring material in adding to an environment of acceptance of distractions. • People feel good when they multi-task- even if it isn’t making them more effective.

10. Psychologytoday.com http://cupwire.ca/articles/42870

11. Why? (continued) • Student being told that if material can’t be made interesting, it isn’t their fault for not wanting to learn it. (Interesting concept) • There are things we must teach them that they must learn that are anything but interesting! • Students feeling a connection with the devices they love. • The idea of having a brain that functions like a quad-core CPU is exciting, but far from reality. • People, unlike computers, require sleep. • Students already believe they are performing at their peak.

12. How can we combat this? • Educate our students about the realities of human physical limitations of multitasking. • And remind them- they need reminded. Use examples right in front of you to illustrate so they see it happening. • Integrate technology in a way that will enhance study learning.

13. What is Flipping the Classroom ? The traditional definition of a flipped class is:Where videos, reading and reviewing take the place of direct instruction • This then allows students to get individual time in class to work with their teacher on key learning activities. • It is called the flipped class because what used to be classwork (the "lecture" is done at home via teacher-created videos and what used to be homework (assigned problems) is now done in class. http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-flipped-class-conversation-689.php

14. What is Flipping the Classroom ? To be clear, in simplest terms, flipping the classroom refers to swapping classroom lecture time for hands-on practice time. So the lecture is done for homework usually via a video or audio file and the classroom time is spent clarifying and applying new knowledge gained. • This is not a new concept. However, it has recently gained a lot of recognition. carmenwiki.osu.edu/display/10081/Understanding+the+Flipped+Classroom

15. What is Flipping the Classroom ? The Flipped Classroom IS: • A means to INCREASE interaction and personalized contact time between students and teachers. • An environment where students take responsibility for their own learning. • A blending of direct instruction with constructivist learning. • A classroom where students who are absent due to illness or extra-curricular activities such as athletics or field-trips, don't get left behind. • A class where content is permanently archived for review or remediation. • A class where all students are engaged in their learning. • A place where all students can get a personalized education. http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-flipped-class-conversation-689.php

16. What is Flipping the Classroom ? The Flipped Classroom is NOT:A synonym for online videos. When most people hear about the flipped class all they think about are the videos. It is the the interaction and the meaningful learning activities that occur during the face-to-face time that is most important. • About replacing teachers with videos. • An online course. • Students working without structure. • Students spending the entire class staring at a computer screen. • Students working in isolation. http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-flipped-class-conversation-689.php

17. Critical Issues • Expectations must be outlined at the start of the term. • Outside work must be done or students will not benefit from classroom work. • Classroom time must be well thought out. Although it will ultimately be less structured and more student directed, it will require much planning on the part of the instructor to be able to react to student participation.

18. Critical Issues Continued • DO NOT RESORT to lecturing if students show up not prepared. This will require active planning and a strong awareness of avoiding falling back into the same old teaching patterns.

19. Additional Considerations • Not every component of the Flipped Classroom may not be appropriate for every course or class size. • Class size are a couple of variables that may affect the degree to which you can implement these strategies. • The idea of the flipped classroom exists along a spectrum where the extent to which a classroom is flipped dictates where on the spectrum of flipped a course can be found.

20. Additional Considerations (cont) • Assess what limitations you must work around that may impact which components of the flipped classroom may or may not be appropriate for your courses. • Don’t look at potential success of this new approach in terms of how individual pieces and parts you have tried before were successful. This time you are implementing an entire approach.

21. Challenge for us as educators… • Implementing an interactive, hands-on approach that ultimately puts the onus of responsibility of driving the depth of learning with the students. Flipping the classroom doesn’t mean letting the students decide what they need to know. • This means setting expectations the very first day. • And sticking to them! If students come in ill-prepared, pop quizzes early in the term help reinforce the need for them to be prepared. • Resist the urge to slow down the pace to give the slackers time to catch up. • Just as you would not do this for slacking students in your classes now.