First Day Workshop: Please post at this blog: http://websites.uta.edu/firstdayworkshop/

Hi! If you are looking for the blog to post for the First Day Workshop, it has been moved here:

http://websites.uta.edu/firstdayworkshop/


Please click on the above link to post in advance of the First Day Workshop! Thanks for your contributions!

Peggy and Lana

3 thoughts on “First Day Workshop: Please post at this blog: http://websites.uta.edu/firstdayworkshop/

  1. rings

    Sometimes I think I learn best alone; however, I know this is not entirely true. Early on in my college career, this was the case: learn and take notes in class, study at home alone, or in the library — and that was about it! However, later in graduate school, it was the conversations and excitement with others about the subject matter that also spurred my learning, as well as expert mentorship on the part of members of the professoriate. Now that conversation continues with colleagues, through reading, through conferencing, and until recently through publishing of one sort or another.

    Today, however, I’m being challenged to take my learning one step further as I learn ever more about the future embeddedness of technology in teaching, and I want to understand ever more how tech tools can serve students, as well as pedagogical and content knowledge goals.

    Challenges I have to learning: I can focus in on one single page of text and spend a long time on it. Intensive reading soars, but extensive reading diminishes. If I have to read a lot, that is onerous. I have to force myself to read and not reflect as much in those cases! Regarding additional questions in the prompt above: I do use technology to remind me – somewhat older technology like a to do list on Word, but also the Outlook calendar for all my meetings and for reminders. As for an interesting link, the website for the UT Arlington Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence is not yet ready (soon, I hope), so I’ll post the URL to a comparably awesome organization, the UTA Learning Innovation and Networked Knowledge (LINK) Lab, Division of Digital Teaching and Learning: https://www.uta.edu/linklab/.

  2. Marko Miletich

    I believe that I am somewhat of a slow learner. It may take a while to grasp new concepts, but once acquired they stick. I need a lot of silence when studying and/or reading. I often have music in the background (baroque music since it is believed that largo movements generate alpha waves that stimulate brain activity).

    Perhaps, the biggest roadblock is impatience, since it takes a while to learn, sometimes it is frustrating and it requires a lot of patience. When taking classes, I try to pay a lot of attention and take many notes to help me remember or to emphasize a particular point.

    I use technology all the time. I have learned to save things (electronically) and use other tools to remind me of tasks that need to be done. I set up alarms and put reminders in my electronic calendar.

    I try to emphasize with my students and make sure they understand not only the material, but also what is asked of them. I often have students do group work and explain the concepts learned in class to make sure they are understood.

  3. Jodi Tommerdahl

    It’s interesting to reflect upon what kind of learner I am, and honestly, I have a very difficult time putting myself into a specific category. I learn different things in different ways. For example, if I want to learn about something like a historical event, my preference would be to read books, articles and certain websites where authors have written about it. In these instances, I would most like to learn alone.

    On the other hand, something I am currently trying to learn more about is inferential statistics. Books and articles don’t work very well for me in this area, and believe me, I have tried. I am too advanced for the introductory books and too much of a beginner for the more advanced texts and I’m having a hard time finding things in between. What my dream learning situation would be here is to have an expert at my disposal who can clearly and succinctly answer questions when I have them. The thing is, that they would need to answer the questions “at my level”. It is absolutely vital that the person I’m asking can adapt to my explanations of what I do and don’t already know.

    My “learning nightmare” is sitting on a computer while someone at the front of the room is on a computer. They talk about what they’re doing while clicking keys and I’m supposed to be listening, finding the keys, clicking the keys and learning something. This is where I fail miserably.

    I would like to think (as I’m sure most of us would) that my study skills are excellent. I’m methodical and focused and somehow got through grad school.

    Regarding my use of tech, it seems that there’s not much I do without some element of tech in it. I’m using short online videos more and more often to learn computer skills such as how to make screencasts, how to write specific formulas in Excel, etc. This use of video learning is relatively new to me. Before, nearly everything was about the written word, and it still is for more academic pursuits. Journal articles are the way that I learn the most about my own field and this reading is almost completely online.

    Furthermore, I use online calendars, to-do lists and dozens of apps to organize my work and my life.

    Over the past year, I have begun to use a lot more technology in my teaching. What started off as a class day lost to an ice storm turned into my first screencast which then led to more. Within a few weeks, with the encouragement of a departmental colleague, I had started my own Youtube channel and am posting a wide variety of my own ‘office-made’ videos.

    What writing this post has helped me realize is that my own learning and therefore my teaching is moving away from a sole focus on the written text and is moving into new areas when appropriate. Technology is allowing me to learn in some new ways and to teach in still other new ways. I feel like this is the beginning and I’m excited about how easily and naturally these changes are coming about. I hardly noticed them until I was asked to write about it here. I’m very excited about UTA’s moves to integrate technology and education and am hoping to be very involved!

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