If you have trouble finding hands oun application of technical subjects I would go to the nobel peace prize website, they have great interactive games for just about any technical subject, I also like the website howstuffworks.com for short informative videos, especially on life sciences.
Hi Brian,
This should also build some confidence in the students as they get more at ease in talking in front of other students. Out in the work world they are going to need good communication skills and the more you can help them develop those skills the more successful they are going to be.
Gary
Along with lecture, I like to get students involved by bringing them up in front of the class and having them participate in a demonstration.
I feel demonstrations are most important for my field, I also like to explain how I have used what we are making in a real reastaurant setting.
I keep it as short and simple as possible to overwhelm the student. I provide visual and listening content and try to provide something they can practice with.
I have my own material that I incorporate in my current classes, but it’s more beneficial to the overall level of instruction when my information is supplementary to the professionally pre-designed core content. Besides, having it all set up for me leaves me more time to work on feedback and discussions.
With new technologies and advancements in online course material delivery, the level of content will no doubt improve. Content delivery may even surpass what is available to students in traditional settings. I believe this may have already happened. However, I don’t believe that it is the technology or content that creates a suitable learning environment. It is up to the instructor to enhance the levels of learning and quality of education.
That is exactly the way I learn, by doing. Knowing all the "whys?" also helps me remember how.
I believe that it is important to always use a variety of teaching methods while presenting course content. This allows the instructor to meet each student where they are at with learning and in a method that assists them in best understanding the material. It is important to utilize lecture as well as a visual component and to give students an opportunity to work hands on if the content lends itself to this.
By implementing visual, hands on, and lecture material to use variety
Hi Claudiu,
Good point. Nothing distracts students more than being shown a video that is so outdated they spend more time looking at the hair styles and clothing than they do the content. Also, by using such material it indicates to the students that the instructor probably hasn't kept up with the field either.
Gary
One element in making course content relevant is by keeping things "modern". What I mean by that is examples, videos, data, polls, etc, should all be relatively current. This allows the learner to observe methodologies and examples that are relevant in todays demand for whatever course they are studying.
Hi Carolyn,
Great ideas for keeping students engaged in the learning process. Sounds like your class is one that I would like to take because of all of the practical applications you are making.
Gary
I normally include a combination of lecture that have a case study or two. This allows the students to interact with me. I will incorperate a group activity or paired activity with an assignment that is timed. If its a competency of sorts then I use demonstration along with the things I meantioned above.
The strategies I have implemented for making my course content relevant and applicable to the learning needs of my students is that I apply it to daily living activities. As example: to teach them about cells, I took an egg to class. I was able to show them the plasma membrane, nucleus and other organelles. I have used chicken bone to teach them about bone marrow. They sometimes can't wait for the next class to begin learning. They love getting extra credit and sharing their ideas.
I believe in varying the instructional strategies to accomadate different learning styles. I also take into consideration the generational differences that exist in our classrooms. We have representatives from the Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y and all have their own preferences that help them to learn. All aspects that makes up each individual student (or group of students) need to be understaood and addressed in the classroom to ensure all have the same opportunity to learn the content needed to be successful.
I will attempt to tailor my instruction to their various learning preferences by using different methods that, in my judgement, correlate well with them. I will speak to students on an individual basis, if necessary, to make these determinations.
I am constantly reminding myself that I need to change it up for every learning style. I catch myself getting stuck in a particular style that I may be comfortable with, but maybe someone else is not. I need to work on this. Example: Some students do not do well taking notes and listening to lecture.
Since I have extensive experience in the field I am able to bring in actual surgical instruments and demonstrate them on biodummies which really livens up the class. I often ask the students to guess what the surgical instrument is used for to get a feel for what they may already know.
I do my best to include something for everyone. We will have individual reading, group reading, discussion, powerpoints, trial and error... just to name a few. Not only does this help reach all learning styles but it also will prove to be extremely beneficial to those who have and can learn by more than one learning style.
Hi Ytevia,
Right you are. By offering a variety of instructional deliveries you are offering the students the opportunity to work in their learning preferences throughout the course.
Gary
