TLT Symposium reflection: is teaching essentially real life Inception?

Apologies for the bizarre title, but one line from the movie Inception (2010, directed by Christopher Nolan) that impressed me the most, was "You need the simplest version of the idea, one that will grow naturally in the subject's mind."

The keynote talk of the symposium was focusing on how to instill an idea and make it last in someone else's mind, defined as SUCCES, or Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories. The part of the talk that impressed me the most, was his demonstration of how to make your papers, ideas, talks, presentations and other communications "stick" with the audience. As a PhD candidate I have too many occasions where I had to give an "elevator speech" when asked what my research focus is, as well as other occasions such as teaching, seminars and writing manuscripts for submission. I have been unconsciously some of the SUCCES idea, but hearing the idea demonstrated in such a easy to understand and relate manner (essentially, the talk itself was a fine example for SUCCES), was beyond inspiring.

After the keynote talk, I went to three seminars focusing on introducing new technologies (VR, shared educational resource, and remote education). Variability, as a characteristic of successful teaching, has been on my mind for a while and I found the idea of implementing new technologies very refreshing, but also challenging, and in some cases limiting.

Reflecting on the experience, I found myself wondering how to incorporate SUCCES into the discipline of plant science. This field of study calls for a lot of hands-on experiences and some form of autonomy to convey and digest the knowledge better. Bite-sized information may be more effective when it comes to more theoretical classes, but taking notes in a lecture in plant science is only half way done. Traditionally the course design in plant science includes lab sessions, and field trips. But after taking some inspirations from the new technology seminars, ideas such as incorporating VR or AR into teaching plant science, such as displaying a time lapse video of plant growth in virtual reality, could be a good variation from conventional lectures, provide a "story" like context, and still convey credible information.

I was very excited to have the chance to learn about ideas and participate in discussions with other educators. The take-away from this experience will provide me with some inspirations, if I get to design a class in the future.

TLT Symposium Reflection

The symposium was a show of great ideas and technological innovations for use in teaching, all very good, some very bold, some easy to apply, others not so much... But yet, in the middle of those talks, in between trying hard to follow the speakers fast English - sometimes loosing track of it - and trying to picture all that being applied, I felt like "wow, that's so much... why again are people trying so hard to incorporate all that in the classrooms?". 

This sounds like a very stupid question I guess. But I think at that moment I was relating this to what I experienced from the education system in which I grew up in Brazil, where in a big number of colleges and schools, specially the public ones, there is a noticeable lack of infra-structure, transportation, textbooks, and preparedness of teachers. It just sounds like too much when there is a need for the basic things first, kind of like putting modern racing tires in a 1940 VW beetle that won't go past 50 mph.

That is why I think for me the most marking moment of the event was Dan Heath's talk. It was... eyeopening when he made everyone realize the reason why many don't achieve their course dream. When he reasoned about the importance of the syllabus and the appropriate way to make it. When he gave a lesson on how to make ideas stick, how to catch students attention and make them want to learn... The more conceptual tone of his presentation, showing the role of the professor's skills and understanding of their students learning process on their actual learning, independent of how many technological devices you have at your disposition, was something that I could see yielding more results at the moment. At least from my perspective.

Is there a cost? A critical reflection of TLT Symposium

As I continue to turn over the ideas and technology presented at the Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) symposium, I always have some point of concern. The keynote speaker gave the traits of "sticky" ideas, among them being simple, unexpected and concrete(sensory). My concern is rooted in technology magnifying the two latter, potentially at the detriment of the first. In other words, it seems that technology main be applied and cause shock and ah without bringing the learner to question. The questioning or huh moment as the keynote phrased it, is why unexpected is listed as a trait. Also, in trying to make an idea concrete by not only using sensory language but engaging multiple senses with multimedia or virtual reality(a favorite in the innovation challenge) is there not a risk of loosing the learner to sensory overload? In a sense, taking in all the details of the trees while missing the forest which is that learning goal we should be focused on helping our students achieve.

To clarify, I am not against integration of technology into teaching environments. I am merely cautioning that, as with all things, it can be mis- or over-applied producing unwanted effects. Most of the ideas presented in the innovation challenge as given in 5 min showed great potential to fall into the pitfalls mentioned above. This may be due merely to the brevity of the presentations not allowing for the full rational design to be articulated. There were technologies showed cased that touched on this idea of being careful and intentional in technology application. The first which comes to mind is the presentation on teaching design with addictive manufacturing (3-D printing). During the discussion of the learning goals for the 3-D printing courses at different levels (freshmen, upperclassmen and graduate students), the speaker made it clear that he needs to help students to see a 3-D printer as a manufacturing tool and active research area, not just a novel piece of tech. for printing figurines. Thus, he recognizes the ah and glitz of 3-D printing, but works to guide his students past that to learn its practical applicability in design as well as its limitations. This example speaks to the awareness of pitfalls mentioned above and intentionally structuring the course to avoid them.    

How robots and artificial intelligence are taking over the classroom! (Professional Development Reflection - Isamar)

How robots and artificial intelligence are taking over the classroom

Past Saturday I arrived at the Penn Stater Conference Center expecting to develop my teaching skills through a series of presentations by experts in the field. I had not seen the agenda before arriving. Good thing I didn't have any idea on what to expect because the first talk by the keynote speaker discussed everything from turkeys, chickens and why washing your hands is important! I couldn't stop laughing but at the same time, it made me think about the reason behind every study and how to use data to teach and impact people. Also, it gave me a new podcast to listen to on my morning commute!

Some standard topics I thought would be included in a teaching and learning symposium would be making lesson plans, effective teaching and classroom management. To my surprise, the topics were full of tech-savvy teachers using innovative techniques in their classrooms to enhance the learning experience. Robots and artificial intelligence were a hot topic throughout the day. Two out of the three proposals in the open innovative challenge included these topics.

One particular proposal in the challenge that caught my attention was "Faulknerbot", a chatbot modeled after the writer William Faulkner. In this case Aaron Mauro, an English professor at PSU, developed a chatbot with the purpose of applying conversation based content discovery. Instead of going to the library or searching the web for Faulkner content, you can just chat with an online version of him! Imagine how fun and engaging this could be for students. The chatbot was programmed with not only Faulkner's written works but also many of his interviews. There was a suggestion from the audience to create a "Syllabus chatbot" that could answer questions regarding office hours, assignments and other syllabus topics quickly instead of having to e-mail the professor. 


Another interesting proposal from an Economics Professor, introduced the idea of using robots as learning devices for students. However, this was the second time during the symposium that the robot topic was introduced. One of the talks I attended was from Dr. Ronald Arkin from Georgia Tech. His research focuses on human-robot interacton and how this could help early stage parkinson patients. This technology could also be applied in the classroom for students with disabilities or even as an ethical mediator between graduate students and advisors. 

Needless to say, my day was full of surprises (in a great way!). My mind was exposed to innovative and out-of-the-box ideas on how to engage students in learning. As a Mechanical Engineer, I had never looked at robots or A.I. in the teaching and learning environment. Usually these technologies are introduced in engineering or computer science courses. However, now I can see how they could be applied to everyday teaching on all subjects. Robots or A.I. shouldn't be seen in any way as a replacement of the teacher but as a tool for the teacher. I wouldn't call this is a robot takeover, but a teaching and learning takeover!

Written by Isamar Amador a graduate student in Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Penn State