“Enough with the Lecturing”

Enough with the Lecturing” is the title  of a May 12, 2014 press release from the National Science Foundation (NSF) which summarizes the results of a meta-analysis study testing the hypothesis that lecturing maximizes learning and course performance in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) classroom.  -U.S._Army_nurses_are_taking_notes_during_a_lectureThe study was conducted by members of the Department of Biology at the University of Washington and School of Biology and Ecology at the University of Maine.  A paper describing it entitled “Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering and mathematics” appears in the May 12 Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

So what is the problem to be solved?  In 2012 the PCAST (President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) STEM Undergraduate Working Group reported that less than 40% of U.S. students who enter universities with an interest in STEM programs earn a STEM degree.  This percentage drops to 20% for underrepresented minority students…not a pretty picture…

In their report, PCAST called for a 33% increase in the number of STEM bachelor’s degrees completed annually, and one of their recommendations to reach this goal was the adoption of empirically validated teaching practices in the first two years of the STEM undergraduate curriculum.  The report goes on to state:  “Classroom approaches that engage students in “active learning” improve retention of information and critical thinking skills, compared with a sole reliance on lecturing, and increase persistence of students in STEM majors.”

Those of us in academia have titles such as lecturer or professor (one who professes!)  These titles are in keeping with the traditional mode of instruction in universities which has utilized an instructor-focused “teaching by telling” philosophy. In contrast, in an active learning environment, teachers facilitate the process of students constructing their own understanding often through asking questions.  The main question Freeman et al. asks in this study is: “In the STEM classroom, should we ask or should we tell?”

The project involved the meta-analysis of the data from 225 published and unpublished studies which documented student performance in courses employing some active learning versus the traditional lecture methodology.   Meta-analysis is a technique commonly used in fields such as medicine for determining the effectiveness of a particular treatment based on studies with a variety of patient groups, providers and methods of administering the therapy or drugs.  Freeman et.al.’s analysis focused on two questions: (1) does active learning boost exam scores and (2) does active learning lower failure rates?

The study found that students in active learning environments showed an average increase in exam and other assessment scores of 6%.  What was even more interesting to me was the difference in failure rate between the two teaching approaches.  While no method can save every student, the authors  found a 21.8% failure rate in the active learning classroom versus 33.8% with the traditional lecture approach. failure_rate In other words, students were found to be 1.5 times more likely to fail in the lecture style classroom.  The study indicated that students in all sizes of classes benefitted from active learning.  There also were no significant differences in the effect of active learning between courses for STEM majors and nonmajors.

The authors conclude: “Although traditional lecturing has dominated undergraduate instruction for most of a millenium and continues to have strong advocates, current evidence suggests that a constructivist ‘ask, don’t tell’ approach may lead to strong increases in student performance — amplifying recent calls from policy makers and researchers to support faculty who are transforming their undergraduate STEM courses.”

I have been using a flipped classroom instructional approach in my organic chemistry course.  My students watch short video presentations outside of class (typically 15-25 minutes in length) on the topics that will be covered in the next class.  In the classroom, questions concerning the material are presented which the students answer using student response devices (clickers).  Most of the questions require the students to work out the answers by figuring out how the electrons flow; work through multistep syntheses; or apply what they know to systems different than what they have previously seen.  It does sometimes get a little loud as students debate and help each other come up with answers.  After everyone has selected an answer, we work our way as a group through the thought processes needed to arrive at the correct answer.   Although I do not have enough data to make any statistically valid conclusions, I have seen an improved retention across the three terms of the course since moving to the flipped classroom.  So far I can’t say that I am seeing more students earning A’s, but I have seen decreased numbers of D’s, F’s and dropouts.  Only time will tell if this trend is a permanent one.

Writing this post brought back memories of an all-but-forgotten educational experience I had many years ago.  As a new graduate student at Texas A&M University in 1975, I was offered the opportunity to increase my TA stipend by $25 a month (which then was a significant amount!) if I took a course offered by Dr. Glenn R. Johnson of the then Department of Educational Curriculum and Development.  Of course I, and a number of other Chemistry grad students, jumped at the opportunity. The Chemistry Department was hoping to make us better at our teaching duties, but we just wanted to eat better!   Dr. Johnson’s philosophy was that a significant amount of instruction in the classroom should be in the form of questioning.  As part of the course, we had to teach a number of short, videotaped lessons in our field of expertise using different types of questions.  Of course, we all jumped through the hoops to get through the class, but I doubt if any of us took the educational philosophy seriously.  After all, all of our role models had taught us using the lecture tradition, and we hadn’t turned out so badly had we?  I actually got an A in the class, received my $25/month increase, earned a Ph.D. and have spent 32 years as a professor.  It is amazing that while I had all but forgotten about that experience, I am doing exactly what Dr. Johnson tried to get us to do…teach by asking questions!

iThoughts …Get It While It’s Hot!

I have been playing around with mind mapping tools lately and found out that an app I really like has been updated and is on sale. iThoughts-iPad iThoughts HD, a great iPad mind mapping tool, has been totally rewritten from the ground up and was released May 13 with a new name, iThoughts for iOS 7 which is universal for both the iPhone and iPad.  Since this release is essentially a new app, if you already own iThoughts HD, you will need to purchase it again.  However, for a limited time it is available for $1.99 in the iOS App Store which is 80% off the regular price.

In addition to the mobile app, there is a companion application for the Mac called iThoughtsX.  iThoughtsXYou can move your maps easily between your i-devices and Mac via iCloud, Dropbox, etc. allowing you to brainstorm anywhere.  When your mind map is complete, you can export it in a variety of ways including OPML, PDF and HTML for sharing or for use with other applications.  To celebrate the launching of iThoughts for iOS 7, the Mac version is also on sale for $48 which is 20% off the normal price.  Although this might seem to be a bit expensive, computer mind mapping tools often range in price from $100-$300.

You can purchase iThoughtsX either from the developer’s (Toketaware) website or from the Mac App Store.  Want to try before you buy?  You can download a free 14 day trial for iThoughtsX from Toketaware.  iThoughtsX licensing allows the software to be installed on multiple computers as long as only one person is using it at any one time.  The developer’s website indicates that educational discounts are available upon request.   Both the mobile and Mac versions are great pieces of software although I really like the convenience of the iPad version for use anywhere an idea strikes me.

Is there a Way to Run iOS Apps on an Android Device?

One problem with mobile devices is that they are limited to running apps coded for either the Apple XNU kernel or Android Linux kernel.  You cannot download an app from the Apple App Store and run it on an Android device and vice-versa…or is there a way?

A group of Columbia University PhD. students have developed a software solution called Cider that allows Android devices to run both Android and iOS apps on the same device without invoking a virtual machine.  Here is a video showing a demonstration of the application:

This is pretty cool!  At this point the software is only a research project and isn’t able to use things like the device’s camera, GPS signal, cellular radio, etc so some applications do not have full functionality.  The students are continuing to work on the project so maybe a more full featured version will become publicly available some time in the future.  This would be totally awesome for those of us in education  because it would allow us to be freed from reliance on a single platform.

Snakable – a Solution to Broken Charging Cables?

Does this look familiar?  All of our mobile electronic devices come with USB charging cables which inevitably break just below the connector due to the strain often resulting broken_cablefrom plugging them into awkward-to-reach electrical plugs and by rolling them up for transport.  You can add electrical tape to cover the bare wires as a short term solution, but eventually the wires will break with use, and you will need to buy a new cable.  There are lots of cheap cables on the market, but if you have an Apple lightning cable you really need to make sure it is certified (MFI) if you want to ensure that it works properly and that can cost you $15 or more.  Ideally, what we need are cables that don’t break in the first place.

The Snakable cable may be the solution to this problem.  snakableIntegrated into this cable are several free-moving, ball bearing-like joints on both sides of the cable at each connector that restrict the cable from bending beyond its safe bending radius relieving strain where the cable enters the connector.   Snakable is a Kickstarter project so it is not yet available for purchase but has reached its $28.0000 goal and is due to be funded May 28, 2014 with expected product delivery in August.  The Snakable will be available in both lightning for iOS devices and micro USB for all other devices.  The snakable21.2 m cable is advertised as being constructed of a heavy-duty cable with an anti-tangling coating.  The cable will sell for $30, which while not inexpensive, is less than buying multiple replacement cables for your devices.  You can still get in on the backer deal until May 24 at $20 per cable.  The cable will come in black, white, red, orange and green.  Do remember that when you pledge to a Kickerstarter project, you are providing seed development money with the possibility that the product may never make it through the production stage.

I’ve never backed a Kickstarter project, but I might just give this one a shot going for a red cable since I travel a lot and have to replace cables all too often.

 

 

Computer Screen Capture Made Easy…. and FREE!

A while ago, I posted about Clarify, a great application in which you make screen capture images and incorporate them with written instructions to generate tutorials.  jing_logoHowever, sometimes you just want to capture an image from your computer screen to use in a webpage or a slide show.  If you are using a Windows PC, you can capture the entire screen using the “Print Screen” utility (PrtScn key) or a specific window using the Alt+PrtScn key combination which copies the image to your clipboard.  If you only want to make an image of a portion of the screen, you will need to edit the screen shot using some graphics editing application.  If you are using a Mac, you can capture the entire screen using the key combo Command+Shift+3.  This will save the screenshot as a .png graphic file on your desktop.  You do have the ability to capture only a portion of your screen using the key combo Command+Shift+4.  When you use this combination, you will be able to draw a rectangle around the area you wish to capture and save the image to your desktop.  If you don’t want your image saved as a file but would rather be able to paste it directly into another application, you can place the capture on the clipboard using a four key combo by adding the Control key to either of the combinations above.  All of this works, but if you want to capture items on a screen frequently and add annotations as I do, you will want something with more capabilities.  TechSmith provides the perfect tool, Jing, and it’s free!

Jing is a utility that allows you to screen capture images, animations and video to either use in other applications or share on the web.  When running Jing in the background, a small unobtrusive sun is placed at the edge of the screen either at the top in Windows or on the upper side on the Mac.  free-jing-sunWhen you want to capture something on the screen, you drag your mouse over the sun, and three little sunbeams appear. The cross-hair icon is the one you select for screen capturing.  The middle beam (history) takes you to your list of past screen captures, and the beam with the gears allows you to modify your settings. Clicking on the capture beam brings up cross-hairs that you use to select the area of the screen you wish to capture.  Clicking on the image capture button in the menu that appears grabs the information that you want and places it in a window where you can modify it by adding text, arrows, highlighting, etc if you wish and then either copy the resulting image to the clipboard or save it as a .png file. jing_capture

You can also screen capture video up to 5 minutes long.  My very first how-to videos showing my students simple lab data collection via computer apps were done using this feature of Jing.   All you have to do is attach a microphone to your computer; select the region of the screen you wish to record; click the video capture button; and add your voice-over and computer actions.  You can upload your video to screencast.com for on-line viewing.  If you want to move around the screen during your screencast, Jing is not an appropriate tool, but it works great for very simple recording tasks.  If you need something more advanced for making video, TechSmith makes a very full featured screen capturing/video editing product called Camtasia which I use for recording the Powerpoint lectures I use in my flipped and online classes.  TechSmith also sells a more robust relative of Jing called Snagit ($49.95; $29.95 academic) that gives you more annotation tools and other advanced features.  Head on over to TechSmith and download a free copy of Jing

 

Nifty, Inexpensive Solution for File Transfer and Storage Capacity Expansion for Phones and Tablets

It doesn’t take long to fill up a 16 GB mobile phone or tablet with photos, video and other media-rich materials.  This really can be a problem if you are using your phone or tablet to shoot photos and/ or video for projects.  Another issue is how to easily get those photos and videos off your phone for backup purposes or how to get photos from a camera to an iPad for better viewing.

Kingston Technology makes a nifty and inexpensive device that fits in a pocket which can solve these issues and more called the MobileLite Wireless (MLW).  It allows you to stream audio content, photos and videos to a mobile device.  The MLW does not have built-in storage but rather serves as a wireless card reader allowing transfer of files between an SD card, USB thumb drive, portable hard drive or even a computer via USB and your iOS or Android device.mobilelite-iphone

So how does it work?  The battery powered MLW is the hub of a wireless network and connects to your mobile device via a free companion app.  Once connected, you can either transfer files or stream media to up to three wireless devices simultaneously.

Here are some examples of use cases for the device.  (1) You or your students have shot video or still photos on a cell phone and need to get them off the phone.   You can wirelessly transfer the data to either an SD card or USB drive to free up storage space or for editing.   (2) You have taken a group of photos that you want to view on a larger screen.  You can stream them to your iPad or other tablet while in the field to look at them.  (3) Less academically, you are traveling and want to watch movies on the trip without using up all the storage on your phone or tablet.  Just save them on a USB drive, portable hard drive or SD card to stream to your tablet or phone, and in fact, different members of your family can all be watching different movies simultaneously!  The manufacturer advertises a 5 hour battery life so you might almost be able to cover a coast to coast flight.

This is a great little device.  Kingston does make a similar product with on-board storage, but I like the idea of being able to take the appropriate media size I need for a given application with me.  If this is something that you could use,  I’d grab one now.  I bought mine from Amazon for $41.99, but it is currently listed at $36.