Educational Pedagogy

Self-directed learning has many positives, but it's important to learn about the drawbacks too. Find out about 5 self-directed learning problems and how to fix them.

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

My professional career centers around helping educators create engaging learning environments for their students. Often, that entails uncovering how best to use the available educational technologies. Over the course of that experience, I’ve learned something that more educators (not to mention more technology developers) should take to heart: the best tools aren’t always the newest ones.

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

Most curricula found in education systems or training programs are designed in a linear fashion. They are unnatural. Teachers and trainers, like other humans, want to order ‘stuff’ in such a way that it apparently makes sense: this leads to this leads to that thinking. Most curricula, despite sometimes referring to higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy in the objectives, is at the competence level of describing, explaining, and demonstrating. This leads to rather stilted forms of didactic teaching, the ubiquitous slide show, the passive learner. All of which is unnatural and we wonder why learners have problems in motivation and learning.

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

few months after I received my university’s undergraduate teaching award in 2009, my classroom anxiety dreams went from merely hairy to absolutely hair-raising. For years, I’d dreamed about my classes erupting in chaos: rebellious students flipping over desks, watching inappropriate content while I lectured, or—most frighteningly—ignoring me completely, choosing loud conversations with peers over listening for whatever wisdom I might impart.

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

"With some schools already announcing they will not reopen normally in the fall, and many others considering their options, educators are hoping to take advantage of the summer to improve on this spring’s sink-or-swim plunge into distance learning. Much of this reflection is likely to take place within the often siloed communities of practice in K-12 and higher education."

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

The sector enrolls an outsized share of remote students, who in focus groups said they were frustrated by a lack of resources, a new Brookings report found.

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

"When designing and developing an eLearning course, it's easy to stuff it with all of the required content and push it to your learners. However, a critical part of being a good instructional designer is not only considering what content you include in your eLearning course but also how you communicate it."

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

While my recent exhaustive exploration of the experimental literature showed little evidence that teaching to any learning “style” matters, one thing that came through was the value of pictures to learning and remembering, often said to be worth a thousand words.

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

Best content around microlearning Company Blog selected by the eLearning Learning community.

Via Ana Cristina Pratas, EDTECH@UTRGV

How do you increase learner engagement? And what is it anyway?

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

We have a concept we want the class to understand, so we stand and explain it to them. We give them background. Offer details. Anticipate and pre-empt common misconceptions. Illuminate the more entertaining bits. Emphasize the nuance.

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

When students prepare to teach a subject, they learn it more effectively. A new study provides a blueprint for incorporating the benefits of student teaching without taking up class time.

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

"Ten years is a long time. Longer still when that decade welcomes the most noticeable technological change of most of our lifetimes. So, what effect has that had on learning content and what it looks like in 2020?"

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

An unusual approach to office hours has improved students’ performance — and helped them make friends.

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

"We like new ideas in L&D. Even organizations that have been stuck in their ways for decades can fall victim to SOS—Shiny Object Syndrome. Given the prevalence of marketing and “thought leadership” in our industry, this isn’t very surprising. A “new thing” arises every few years with the promise of solving all of our learning problems."

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

Learners prefer bite-sized eLearning modules to eLearning courses that run to 30 minutes and more. Here's why.

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

Get to know the global trends bring about transformation in the corporate training world.

Via EDTECH@UTRGV