Eclectic Technology

This post includes the inforgraphic (shown above) as well as additional information on pros and cons of flipping a class.

The sections in the post are:

* Flipped Learning for a Flipped World

* Flipping the Numbers

* Flipping to Engage Active Learning

* Flipping from Passive to Active

* In a Nutshell

You may find new ideas in this post that will allow your learners to be be more engaged

Perhaps with school starting up again, I am more aware of the number of posts that look at metacognition, and how our brains learn. This post from SH!FT provides the acronym B.R.A.I.N. B.A.S.E.D to help you remember key components of designing a course. Although the post is designed for eLearning the same concepts are also important in a face-2-face environment.

Let's look at the B in brain. It stands for the "brain's time clock." How long can students engage in active learning vs. passive learning? How long can a student online stay engaged (or a student in your classroom)? For each letter there is an explanation and in most cases links to additional resources.

What are the best methods of keeping our students engaged in the lessons we teach? This post explores this issue, and provides 15 suggestions at the end of techniques you may want to incorporate into your class. But first, it explores what science has to say on this issue.

They begin by looking at what is known about the attention span of students, and suggest that this is disagreement on this issue. Is it 4- 5 minutes, 10 - 15 minutes...they note that there is not clarity on this issue.

The next section looks at attention and active learning. It may come as no surprise that during active learning, such as demonstrations and questions, as opposed to lecturing.

The post also looks at how technology impacts learning (click through to learn more) and then there are 15 tricks. Four are below.

* Use props or visuals.

* Write a challenging question on the board.

* Divide target skills into manageable subskills.

* Stress relevance and concreteness.

This infographic provides four key points about e-learning. When you click through to the post you will find detailed descriptions for each of the four ways technology is changing how people learn.

* What does it mean to move from individual to collaborative learning?

* What is this shift from passive to active or brain based learning?
* Technology and differentiated instruction - how does technology assist with this?  (Please note one paragraph is duplicated in this section.)

* Multitasking - Does it work?

The infographic is very simple and it worth reading the text (which is above the inforgraphic when you click through).

This infographic includes information from an outside organization that looked at several classes at North Carolina State University that were redesigned for active learning.

What is an active learner? This video provides one look at what a learner might look like today. In additon to the video there is also a SlideShare that would allow you to show the "video" at a pace that allows discussion, and a number of visual images that also explore the active learner. The visuals include Engaging an Active Learner that shares ways students learn (and do not learn), Open Your Laptop to Page 3, Learning Goes Digital: Electronic Education Moves to Head of the Class and many others.

These materials were created by an Agency working for Blackboard (a content management system). Using either the video or a number of the visuals would provide a opportunity for teachers, parents, or other small groups to discuss why education is undergoing a seismic change in many areas.

What are the engaging techniques? Below are five. More are in the post and many have links to specific tools (many of which are free) that will help you.

* Interactive Collaboration

* Active Learning

* Student Created Presentations

* Embedding Questions in Videos

* Digital Maker Spaces

Learn much more by clicking though to the post.

Research tells us that visuals are an important element of learning, and that when visuals are used in classrooms, yet many classrooms are based on text. This post looks at three areas:

* Bringing Active Learning Back to the Classroom - How much of the time are the learners in your class actively participating as compared to passively listening?

* Embracing Visual - Visuals help many learners understand complex subjects. Experts in many fields can look at images and quickly learn complex information. Are you teaching your learners visual skills?

* Retrieving Practice - "By combining visual training with active learning, students can go from novice to expert in far less time than with traditional study methods."

As many of us prepare to return to school embracing visuals and teaching our students how to interpret visuals has the potential to promote better understanding. This post provides some great pointers and you will find a link to the original research.

Course design, whether online or in a classroom, requires good learning design and this post provides a great visualization of seven key principles. Along with the visual there is also a description for each of which have at least one link to additional information. If you planning a new course or revising one soon this graphic may assist you in the process.

This post is geared to courses being offered through iTunes U  but many of the ideas and tools may be helpful for any online class. The list includes:

* Describe clear learning outcomes

* Articulate an active learning pathway

* Incorporate diverse learning materials

* Make it interactive

* Leverage mobility and built-in tools

* Leave the classroom

* Start from scratch

* Apply the SAMR model to your class tasks

Although the apps provided are geared to the iPad the SAMR model provides ideas that you might use with other tablets or computers.