10 Secrets to Great Teaching (Part 2)

• 10 Secrets to Great Teaching (Part 1)
• Google Video version (Part 2)
• Presentation Slides (SlideShare)

PART 2

In part 2, I explore the remaining six (6) secrets (of the 10 discussed) to teaching, or ingredients to become a great teacher. The 10 keywords associated with the 10 secrets are highlighted in the graphic above. I will let the narrated presentation (below) do all the talking for now. Perhaps I will write a paper about the 10 secrets to great teaching in month or two, after more discussions and reflections with great people like you. In the meantime, have fun watching me babble and mumble about great teaching (Not sure about that!):

I tried to upload the video to TeacherTube, but without success until now (size issue?).
Anyway, as long as we have Google Video, why worry!

Hopefully, more people will join this discussion and scrutinize their own teaching to become better teachers. Teaching is a life time journey, but it would be nice to discover a bit of wisdom as early as possible. I suppose if we put our reflective minds together, we can do great things about our own teaching, and help for example others to facilitate more efficient and effective AHA moments (Synthesize and simplify content or learning so that students understand).

If you are looking for the slidecast version (2 parts-in-one) and presentation slides, you can find it right here:

view presentation (tags: learning teaching education creativity)

SELF-EVALUATION

In part 2, I actually wrote a script before recording (for testing purposes). For learning purposes, I found that writing a script got me to focus and think clearer about what I wanted to say. Writing a script is like rehearsing your presentation again and again. However, I am not sure if my arguments are more solid this time around. Anyway, I am not exactly defending a scientific paper, but instead I am having a conversation about great teaching with myself (You got to start somewhere!).

Did this narrated presentation take longer time to develop? Yes, a bit only! Actually, if you are producing a long video or can't type fast, I would recommend that you record on-the-fly without a script. However, if you have sufficient time allocated to create a script, it is actually not a bad idea. Perhaps a compromise would do, meaning you don't necessarily create a full-script, but a sufficient one to assist you to say what you want to say, the way you want it to be said. As for recording the audio, I used Audacity, which is simply a sensational free audio recording tool.

Overall, I am reasonable comfortable with writing and mashing-up slides, but I probably need a few more narrated videos under my belt, before I can feel good about my own voice. Though, hopefully the next learning videos I develop are shorter learning nuggets, which are less than 5 minutes a piece.

Oops, I forgot to mention the importance of having fun and a sense of humor while inspiring your students to learn. Yes, it is going to be a long learning process, and 'I AM STILL LEARNING' :)

10 Secrets to Great Teaching (Part 1)

• TeacherTube version
• YouTube
• Google Video

PART 1
In part 1, I explore 4 (of 10) secrets to great teaching, or ingredients to become a great teacher. What are the ingredients of a great teacher? Well, when I complete the 2-part series you will at least know my standpoint on this issue. My findings is basically based on what I have observed, read, experienced and learned over the last few years in Higher Education.

Yes, you are certainly free to agree or disagree with all my ideas and thoughts about great teaching. What really matters, is not being right or wrong, but taking this wonderful opportunity to be part of a messy global conversation (in audio format) about this issue.

Here, enjoy part 1 (not sure about that!), and hopefully part 2 will be out sometime next week:

ZAIDLEARN EXPLORES AUDIO & VIDEO
This is probably the first time most of you hear me speak. I have to admit that I speak much faster normally (I tried hard to slow down, and probably sounded a bit too slow this time around.). Also, I did not use any script, as I wanted it to be as natural as possible.

I used PowerPoint to create the slides, and interestingly (exploring!) used Adobe Presenter to record the audio (Recommendation: For audio recording, use Audacity, which is easy-to-use and has more features). Finally, I used Windows Movie Maker (first time using!) to integrate the PNG converted PowerPoint slides, and the audio (MP3) files from the published Adobe Presenter presentation. Although, Windows Movie Maker is quite limited in terms of features, I actually enjoyed using it.

To explore uploading possibilities, I uploaded my 10-minute presentation to YouTube, TeacherTube and Google Video. The Google Video output is not good, but the YouTube and TeacherTube outputs are alright. I suppose I will explore slidecasting on SlideShare later, after I have completed part 2.

SELF-EVALUATION
My voice is a disaster and the PowerPoint slides need a face lift! Yes, perhaps I should include more music (to spice it up!), pictures, and flower it with a bit more animations. A video showing me babbling would be interesting, too (not really!).

Though, I really enjoyed exploring my voice, and hopefully I will create many more videos (learning nuggets of 10 minutes or less) sharing my ideas, thoughts and reflections about learning in the near future. Hopefully, someone out there will be listening and joining the conversation.

I suppose it is about time that ZaidLearn speaks out, besides rambling this and that with written words only.

I AM STILL LEARNING, and hopefully I will evolve. In the meantime, please be patient as I learn how to talk (on the Tube) :)

Spice Up Your Boring LMS with Google Lively?

• Link to Google Lively
• Google Lively Trailer (YouTube)
• Lively - Google's Contribution to the 3D Social Web?
• ZaidLearn's del.icio.us Virtual Worlds

GOOGLE LIVELY?
A free browser-based 3D virtual environment that enables easy integration to social networking tools such as MySpace, Facebook, OpenSocial, and Google gadgets like Picasa and Youtube. With Google Lively, users' friends lists, feeds, and logins are tied directly to the social network. In addition, virtual environments are embeddable on any Web page with a snippet of code that can then be viewed as a full 3D environment, based in part on Emergent's Gamebryo engine, after downloading a roughly 9 megabyte plugin (Source).

THINGS I LIKE...

Firstly, there is no need to create a new account to get started. With my Gmail account I can simply register using it.

Secondly, you only need to download a small plugin before you can explore Google Lively for real. One up on Second Life! However, comparing Second Life with Google Lively, is like comparing Nintendo Wii with Sony Playstation 3 (or Xbox). Different galaxies and wars, targeting different aliens! While Second Life brought us new 3D virtual learning possibilities, Google Lively will bring virtual worlds to the masses. At least that is what they are targeting with this easy-to-use tool. If we want to compare Google Lively to other virtual worlds, I suppose we could compare it with Vivaty and IMVU, which are more similar.

Thirdly, Google Lively is also really easy to learn and use. No user guide is needed, trust me! Within minutes of discovering it, I was able to create my own cool avatar and virtual room; without much hassle. Basically, you can create or assemble your own stuff from a huge catalog of available shells (rooms), furniture, clothes, etc. Actually, you don't really create new stuff, but instead mash-up yourself and environment from available virtual goods from the fast growing catalog. This catalog is being nurtured and expanded by Google's development team (led by Jeff Matsuda, formerly at Warner Bros.) and a 200+-person team of international contractors.

Fourthly, Google Lively can be easily integrated with existing social networking tools such as MySpace and Facebook. Also, users can add content from Google sites like YouTube and Picasa. I suppose Google Lively will eventually be integrated with Google Earth and the rest of the relevant Google gadgets. I can imagine transporting myself to Oxford University (England) in Google Earth and having a Google lively chat with Tim Berners Lee.

Fifthly, you can easily express yourself with a couple of clicks, whether orally or physically. For example, the available portfolio of animations enable you to puke, stick out your tongue, kick someone down, dance, jump, scream, be happy, and even get really angry. In short, I am sure you can evolve your emotional intelligence by exploring your true self with all these animations, which are just a few clicks away.

Sixthly, the virtual rooms operate kind of independently, meaning you can't build a huge wall or a naked statue in front of another person's virtual property to annoy or blackmail them. Instead, you can discover new spaces or virtual rooms searching the catalog of rooms. Actually, Google lively is not really a virtual world, but a fast growing bunch of separate virtual rooms.

Finally, it could be a great place to socialize, make friends and have some fun. Enough! let's move on!

THINGS I DON'T LIKE...
First, I am not going to encourage my young kids to socialize there (at least for now)! Although, we cannot create our own animations and stuff, we are of course allowed to use our imagination to explore the rest. Of course that is exciting, but then again not always appropriate for everyone. For example, one virtual room I found, was entitled "Free S.." (you can guess the rest!) with a metadata description saying, "Title says it all". I suppose sooner or later the community will self-regulate itself from such things (or encourage more!), or perhaps we could have different virtual worlds consisting of specific themes or areas of interest.

Also, if we strip Google Lively down, it is not much we can do in terms of constructive learning (Then again that is not its main agenda either, as far as I know!). Currently, it is basically avatars, rooms, chat and a growing catalog of all sorts of virtual goods to decorate our virtual spaces. It is basically a chat system that you can visually spice up. Though, being Google I am sure they will increasingly add or integrate more features (e.g. forum, virtual classroom, whiteboard, puzzles, games) and provide more flexibility to users in terms of constructing content and learning possibilities. In short, it is quite limited for synchronous and asynchronous learning. I suppose Second Life is still miles ahead here! Yes, I would like to have my virtual lab enabling me to visualize, demonstrate and collaborate on experiments with my students.

Also, it would be nice if we were provided with more features to protect ourselves from cyber bullies out there. As I was wondering in one of the rooms, I saw with my naked eyes a Russian mafia looking avatar slamming a beautiful young lady several times to the floor. Then he went on to beat up a 3-foot white teddy bear. Although, they were probably having fun exploring all the cool animations we can do, I am not sure a Professor would appreciate such treatment during a visit to the student's virtual lounge.

I can imagine how a lively lecture or tutorial might turn out in such an environment. When a student gets bored with the Professor's lecture, he goes over and kicks him to the ground, and then pukes all over him. Then the rest joins in! At least the Professor might get the point that his lecture probably needs improvement. But then again, the Professor was kind of distracted by the beautiful avatar girl in bikini.

You might also get frustrated with a new pop-up for every virtual room you visit (and a request to login again every time). Interestingly, I was in three different rooms at once, using three different avatars. Yes, I can imagine the lecturer being happy with a full class of virtual students, and then later finding out that all the students cloned themselves away to another room.

Oh, I forgot to mention that my Firefox browser slowed down and simply crushed during my Google Lively adventure. This could be due to several reasons, so I will not dwell upon it here.

LMS + LIVELY = LEARNING + JOY
Let's take off our negative hat, and look at the possibilities a browser-based 3D virtual environment can bring to our online learning environment. I can imagine integrating Google Lively (Student Lounge) with Moodle. Alright, with the existing features it might not be the right place to conduct lectures, tutorials, lab experiments, etc. However, most LMS that I have explored do not have an exciting online space for students to simply to hangout, connect, socialize and make friends. Using a LMS can often be a lonely experience, but tools like Google Lively could spice that up (at least for the students).

But then again some lecturers might get a shock of their life when they visit the virtual student lounge for the first time (Imagine! Perhaps they should be banned from there!). I suppose if some of the avatar animations could be excluded, or educators were given some super powers that would help. At least they might avoid a potential virtual physical or sexual harassment.

Hmm, by the time we establish all the rules of virtual engagement, students would have vanished to other virtual rooms were they can be their virtual self. In other words, perhaps students should set up their own rooms independently from their educational institution and LMS.

Anyway, since Google is behind this Lively 3D virtual world, we can expect a lot of interesting new enhancements and features in the near future. It wouldn't surprise me if we soon are provided with an easy-to-use virtual learning toolbox, with all sorts of interesting features and tools, empowering us with dynamic possibilities to facilitate engaging learning.

However, I couldn't help noticing while searching the catalog that every virtual item had a 'Price' tag hanging over it. Although, all the virtual goods are free for now, would that remain when things get more juicy? :)

Show Up to Throw Up! 21st Century Thinking? (Part 5)

• Coaching Critical Thinking to Think Creatively!

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."- Albert Einstein
 

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."-Bill Gates 

"Education is the process in which we discover that learning adds quality to our lives.
Learning must be experienced."- William Glasser

In this 5-part learning series, we have already looked at several teaching habits that could inspire students out of learning, which I am not going to repeat here (read and synthesize the other parts, if you want to know!). In this last part or episode (for sure!), we will explore one of the greatest challenges in teaching today, which is assessing the potential and ability of the student. This time around, I will zoom back to my secondary and high-school days in Norway to share with you some nutty, but useful stories to reflect and draw lessons from.




THE WHITE PAPER!
In secondary school or 7th grade (Norwegian style!), we had a music teacher who was a failed singer. Her voice was simply horrible, but that did not stop her from singing in every class. She would always scold me when I did not sing along, and when I did sing along she would scold me even more for not following the tune. Until today, I still hate singing. Although, I don't blame her fully, she certainly had some impact on my fear for singing.

In general, I believe sincerely that she hated my guts, and fully deserved to as I was no cup of tea either. She always reminded me how much better my big brother was. As I had a reputation to keep (at that time!) that was fine by me.

However, what struck me until today was not really her singing (or mine for that sake!), but the way she would test our knowledge level on music and instruments. For example, she would hand out to us a piece of paper with definitions of several instruments and then ask us to memorize it for the next class. In the next class, she would give us a blank piece of paper and ask us to basically rewrite the whole paper again without referring to it. Then she would mark us based on how much we had memorized.

No doubt memory and memorization is important today too, but perhaps if we were asked to play and learn an instrument, or be able to discuss our feelings, preferences and experiences with instruments, we might have learned more. Coming to think of it, such exams are not much different from what we often get today. The only major difference is that we have a few hundred pages and a few dozen questions to digest before the exam.

Hmm, let's move on to the next story before we close this learning series adventure for good.

BRAVO!

The second learning reflection journey takes me back to my French language classes in high school. Now, my French teacher was a person that could outshine Mr. Bean any day. I really felt sorry for this old dude. Not only did he have extremely poor eye-sight and hearing, he was also a real nerve rack. You get kind of stressed out by just looking at him.

In many ways, he was a legend in the making. The rumor has it that he once mistook a sandwich for a blackboard eraser (a student prank!), and then tried to clean the blackboard with it. Students used to always pull pranks on him, such as putting a lot of mayonnaise on the door knob. He would fall for it every time. But he was a good sport, and would continue class as if nothing had happened, every time.

Though, it did not stop there! Since he had poor eyesight, he would map out the students in the classroom on a piece of paper, enabling him to know where who sat. By doing so, he could easily keep track of the students in the class. Or perhaps not! Students being students would always change their positions and he would simply go nuts, reminding us to sit in the same place every class. Some students would also sneak out during class while he was teaching. If he asked questions to missing students, other students would quickly answer on the students' behalf.

The most memorable funny incident was even posted in the students' yearbook that year. Since I witnessed it with my bear eyes, I can testify that it really happened. What happened?

During one class while the French teacher was lecturing, one student decided to sneak out. However, this time around the student was really creative. He put his chair (upside down) on the table and then covered it with his thick winter jacket, and sneaked out quietly. Later during the class, the French teacher decided to ask the missing student a question. Oh man, we thought he was busted this time around! The French teacher asked the question, but no one answered. Then he went closer to the missing student's desk ( probably about 3 meters from it) and asked again, but still no one answered. Alright, now he is busted! But then the teacher said (in Norwegian), "Oh Christian has decided to be quiet today. Usually, he is so talkative. Alright, can anyone else answer the question?".

We all looked stunned at one another in disbelief. Is this teacher for real? I suppose he discovered what really happened in the students' yearbook (Hmm, not sure teachers read such books). Or perhaps he always knew, but acted as if nothing had happened (as usual!). Nope, I doubt it!

But then again, nothing could beat his class test or exams. In general, you usually find a few students cheating when there are exams. However, in his class I would argue that 90%+ of the students cheated on his exams. In other words, it is difficult to find students that don't cheat on his exams.

The French language book we used for the course, also had an accompanying 'Teacher Guide'. The 'Teacher Guide' included sample test questions and answers. Interestingly, our amazing French teacher would basically copy/paste questions for our exams from this guide. Students being book wise knew that the' Teacher Guide' is also sold in the bookstore without hassle. Need I say any more!

Since this amazing teacher could hardly see or hear, students would bring the 'Teacher Guide' to the exam, and answer the questions with flying colors. You might be thinking, 'Did you also cheat?'. I am sad to say... Not only did students bring the guide, but they also placed it on the table as if it was an open book exam. Of course, the French teacher never saw or heard any unusual sounds during the photocopying session. Some bright students would deliberately write a few mistakes, or customize things that were easy to change. At least it did not look too obvious.

I once got a 'BRAVO' comment in my exam, and he was really impressed with my answers. I was thinking that the only one that should be getting 'Bravo' is the teacher's ability (or ignorance) to figure out what was going on.

Looking back, I had wished I would have focused more on learning French than just thinking about scoring for the exam. Today, I probably remember less than 10 French words or phrases. And that is after 2 semesters of learning French. What a disaster! But then again after watching Father Guido Sarducci's Five Minute University it begins to make sense.
In the final analysis, we educators should do more to construct assessment approaches and measures to minimize the possibility for such things from happening. Indirectly, some of our assessment methods might actually encourage students to cheat.
 
THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE?

If you ask me, infusing 21st century thinking into the teaching and learning environment is NOT the ultimate learning challenge. These things can be learned and embedded reasonably fast. However, infusing more constructive and relevant assessment methods might actually be the thing that stops many educators from making the necessary changes to nurture 21st century thinking and inspire students to reach their potentials.

The old assessment paradigm of only one correct answer (whether tick or essay!) is more efficient to implement and requires less thinking on the educator's behalf to administer.

But, how do you measure:

• Creativity in an objective manner?
• Critical thinking in an objective manner?
• The quality and potential of an idea?
• An open ended question?
• An opinion?
• Potential?
• Ability?
• LEARNING?

Today there are several alternative assessment methods we can use to minimize our own subjectivity in evaluating our students creative and innovative work. The fuzzy maps below, provide several assessment and thinking activities to explore, and I will leave it to your 'Googling' to find good materials related to them.

Until now, I have been pumping you with tons of learning resources in this 5-part learning series, but now I will only share two excellent resources to inspire you further:

• Teaching Tips Blog
  
  An excellent venue for inspiration and resources to spark your imagination with new ideas to engage and facilitate effective learning.
• Michael Wesch and the Future of Education
  
  In this presentation, Michael Wesch breaks down his attempts to integrate Facebook, Netvibes, Diigo, Google Apps, Jott, Twitter, and other emerging technologies to create an education portal of the future. Michael Wesch Course Portal (using Netvibes): Mediated Cultures: Digital Ethnography. In addition, you might and should explore his famous "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Using Us" video, which explores the evolution of knowledge creation, management and sharing in creative and stimulating way.

I suppose I have come to the end of this learning psycho therapy, and I am looking forward now to focus more on the future of learning again. I hope that some of the stories shared can inspire us to reflect our own teaching (although they might be extreme!), and hopefully enable us to weed out things that might inspire students out of learning.

The more I learn, the dumber I realize I am. It is amazing, humbling and refreshing :)

“Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave.”
- Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

5-PART SERIES

• Part 1 - Whiteboard And I Are One! 
• Part 2 - I Have Bragging Rights, Because I Am … 
• Part 3 - Is PowerPoint Evil? 
• Part 4 - No Stupid Questions! I am Serious! 
• Part 5 - Show Up to Throw Up! 21st Century Thinking?

Infusing 21st Century Thinking Skills Into the T&L Environment

• Link to Slideshare Version
• Flash/PDF Version
• Coaching Critical Thinking to Think Creatively!

THE SECRET

Now, I know 'The Secret', and by believing and practicing the 'LAW OF ATTRACTION', I will one day become the Einstein of the East (Hmm, I am kind of mixed, so that might be a problem)! I watched 'The Secret', and I have to admit that it is the most disappointing secret I have ever discovered. The opening was exciting, but the rest could have been summed up in a minute or two. I am not revealing the secret, but I can tell you that if you believe in it, it might come true.

Perhaps, if the movie had really discussed some of the great minds of the past, I would have appreciated it more. Instead, we are listening to a bunch of successful people sharing with us how the secret has changed their life (the Law of Attraction!).

Isn't it obvious (self-fulfilling prophecy?) that if you are positive, believe in yourself, have passion, visualize your dreams, go for it, etc., you are more likely to succeed (perhaps I come from Mars!). If you ask me, there was nothing new to discover in 'The Secret', except clever branding and promotion. It is probably the most exciting, clever and exotic branding since 'Blue Ocean'. The power of 'The Secret' is not in the law of attraction, but in the word: "SECRET". Everyone wants to know a secret. In short, every single motivational guru since I don't know when has indirectly promoted the so called secret, but has labeled it in a less exotic and mysterious way.

However, if it can help some of the millions of people that have watched it to achieve their dreams, then I suppose it has some value :)

THE LECTURE
Actually, the real reason I am writing now is not because of the secret, but because I want to share with you my presentation slides for a lecture that was never conducted. Roughly, a month ago I was invited to be a guest speaker at a major workshop (250 participants!) to conduct a lecture about 'Critical Thinking'. Due to some financial reasons, the workshop was postponed. And since then, I have never conducted this particular lecture. I suppose because no one else knew that I had prepared it. Or perhaps, because I am.... (Use the force! I mean the 'Law of Attraction')

Anyway, here are the presentation slides:

View

This lecture (or presentation slides) explores 21st century challenges and possibilities in infusing learning, thinking, creativity and innovation into the teaching and learning environment.

If the presentation slides do not make any sense, perhaps you can invite me to conduct the lecture wherever it may be (The first lecture most be conducted face-to-face. Why? I don't know!). Since I am in Malaysia, it might be costly if you want me to conduct the lecture in United States or Alaska. However, if you are Oprah Winfrey or Jay Leno I might consider doing it for free. Sorry David Letterman, for you I will not do it for free.

Now, you are perhaps thinking that I have gone POTTY! Nope, I am simply being positive and realistic about my prospects and practicing the law of attraction :)

On a serious note, after I conduct the first live lecture (if ever! Be positive!), I will record an e-lecture using Adobe Presenter to enlighten (who ever reads my blog!) what I am trying to reveal in the presentation slides.

Until the first live lecture, it will remain a secret. Just exploring the power of 'The Secret' :)

ZaidLearn's New Learning Space = Netvibes?

• Link to ZaidLearn's New Learning Space
• Netvibes

NO TIME!
I have been kind of busy the last two weeks implementing a lot of work related e-learning crap, and sadly have found no time to sit down, reflect and write something that is even more crap :)

Hopefully, I can complete my 5-part learning series next week.

EXPLORING NETVIBES
Though, I did manage to find an hour or two during this week to explore Netvibes, and to my surprise it was really fun. In short, Netvibes is a personal news aggregator with RSS and Atom support (That is how Google summarized it, or intelligently extracted it out).

If you ask me, Netvibes is user-friendly, useful, fast, feature-rich, flexible, cool, and you don't need any user guide to get some results (at least I didn't!). Now, that is the kind of tool I like!

However, I am still working on it, and hopefully next week I will add some more interesting content (Or RSS feeds) to my new learning space (and spice it up!). Just need to find the time!

CLICK HERE to view what I am babbling about, and find tons of interesting (free) learning content, tools, edugames and blogs in a stimualting manner. Information overload? It depends!

NEXT PAGEFLAKES?
Hmm, I suppose I will also explore Pageflakes before I decide whether Netvibes is one of the right tools to manage my online learning adventure. I like Pageflakes's short description: "Social personalized homepage - the easiest way to read, see, discover and share your favorite things on the Web (another Google extract)."

Whether it is really the easiest tool enabling us to read, see, discover and share our favorite things on the Web, I really don't know. I suppose, we will have to explore it to find out! Google, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook (hmm, Bloglines and the rest of the RSS collection dudes are also in the game!) have their own tools to shout about. In short, we are kind of spoilt for choice. The question is not "Whether there is...", but "Which one should we...". So, we still have a headache :)

I suppose I will give you some updates regarding Pageflakes after completing the 5-part learning series.

Until then, have fun exploring ZaidLearn's New Learning Space :)

P.S. I had a few problems using Netvibes with Internet Explorer (IE), but it worked like a bull with Mozilla Firefox. Another reason for dumping IE!