Ron Wade

For those of us who teach in design fields the idea of students working in groups should not come as a revelation. My faculty and I have been employing Group projects for over a decade; I have been teaching since ’97 and utilizing group work for pretty much that length of time. For that entire time I have also heard the unified groan that comes from students when they hear that they will be working in groups, and the inevitable pushback from some students for a variety of reasons. Group projects (and learning) is valuable in a number of ways… >>>

One thing that I have noticed is that there is a fine line that we straddle when we establish collaborative space in a classroom. Finding the balancing point between a static learning environment, where students are intimidated to speak, and a space that students feel TOO comfortable in. One way to get a feeling for what students relate to in a classroom is to pay attention to where they congregate to work and how they interact with each other and their environment. Since I teach computer based courses it is a challenge to see how students can interact when they… >>>

Reading this module was interesting because I have been teaching for a while now, 13 years. That can present a danger in a number of ways if the faculty member is not interested in growing in the classroom environment. Everybody has faced challenges that can be easily addressed by maintaining a personal status quo. Teach the same course for two consecutive terms and you can develop a good sense of flow and delivery. Continue to deliver that material the same way for another two terms and you run the risk of becoming stale. One of the things that has kept… >>>

Anybody who teaches for any period of time will encounter students who have documented, undocumented, and perceived learning disabilities. This module dealt well with students who have documented learning disorders, but the other two groups can be challenging. I have often heard instructors talking about students who they feel may have a learning disorder, or who have claimed to have a disability in some way. It is never a good idea assume a student has a disability or to try and accommodate an undocumented learning issue, especially in career tracked programs. In most cases we are not trained to correctly… >>>

Teaching core classes in animation, students often believe that their instructors might be lacking in some of the basic literacy skills as themselves. Students seek to identify with and in some ways imprint their own experiences onto the teachers they work with daily. Often students think that my math or writing skills are marginal because my degrees are in art. It is important that we capitalize on the desire to emulate instructors and help student’s develop traditional academic skills. One thing that I have tried to do is provide examples of those skills in my own work. Writing is especially… >>>

We have all seen it happen, whether we randomly create learning teams, or allow students to form their own groups; eventually “that group” will form. The group that will offer tremendous social interaction, get along well, and be completely off task. This group will look forward to the interaction they have with each other, and will make some headway on the project, but will in many cases provide the weakest outcomes when the project comes due. Or “that group” may take the full opposite approach and take no interaction on their own, and try to assemble a project from pieces… >>>

One thing I have noticed is that delivery styles often have to be tailored to the room and students that a class is held in. We often have instructors who have "favorite rooms" not only for technological reasons but also because we understand how to move within the space and that we have developed a comfort level within the space. I have found that when teaching in a new space if I can get accustomed to the room before delivery it helps me when I have to start teaching. I also try to gage factors like the time of day,… >>>

Reading this section I could relate to many of the guidelines based on negative experiences from tests I have taken. I think that almost every guideline the text provided I have seen broken, and it contributes to many of the myths that students carry with them into any testing session. I have heard students bemoan the “trick” question, or look for a pattern in true/false answers. We as educators should never try to throw our students curve balls in tests or worse reinforce these concepts. We should be fair and consistent in testing, something the guides provided are a key… >>>