Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Resource tool

I just had to post this as I am interested in doing a VR project for my class and was having trouble finding resources. A classmate had added this to the discussion forum and it looks awesome. Check out  Kathy Schrocks' Guide to Everything blog - Augmented and Virtual Reality in the Classroom
http://www.schrockguide.net/augmented-reality.html

Gamification, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality

Gamification  is the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts. It is used to improve user engagement, organizational productivity, flow, learning, crowdsourcing, employee recruitment and evaluation, ease of use and usefulness of systems, physical exercise, traffic violations, and voter apathy, among others (Wiki, 2017) Basically it makes learning fun and the students don't realize they have learned so much!!

Augmented Reality is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. Basically a view of reality is modified by a computer (Wiki, 2017). Think Pokemon Go!

Virtual Reality replaces the real world with a simulated one.  A person using virtual reality equipment is typically able to "look around" the artificial world, move about in it and interact with features or items that are depicted on a screen or in googles. (Wiki, 2017) This is where all the interest is right now. It will be in our classrooms and home soon, think Samsung G7 and PlayStation VR.

Image Retrieved October 24, 2016 from http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/gear-vr/



I bring this up because I feel alot of educators will not know the difference between the 3, like me and before we know it our students will be craving this new technology so we must keep up with it and embrace it!!

Author unknown,(n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2016 from the Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification

Author unknown,(n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2016 from the Wiki:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality

Author unknown,(n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2016 from the Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality

Socrative - Student Engagement

Socrative is a great tool to use some gamification in your student engagement and to include introverts in your classroom.  You can pay for the full application or use the free version . This app allows you to make quizzes using  a variety of question options. It also allows you to control the pace as a teacher or let it be student controlled. You can make a game of it and everyone can see how they do in a race but the contestants are nameless so no one knows who answers incorrectly. Feedback can also be attached to each question. I am using it for the first time in my positioning class this week as a review and a change of pace from the regular classroom activities. Wish  me luck!

Making the classroom a personality inclusive envrionment - 5 tips

"Extroverts and introverts depend on us to do great things!" I love this quote from the webpage commonsense. https://www.commonsense.org/education/blog/5-classroom-strategies-that-help-introverts-and-extroverts-do-their-best-work (Higgin, Tanner Feb.16,2016)

The article refers to Susan Cain's Ted talk and mentions 5 classroom strategies that help both types of personalities achieve their best work.

1. Make choice central - I have been trying to achieve this by letting students chose their topics for presentations/major products. I am going to check out 3D game lab as well which will go into the topic of Gamification in the classroom.

2. Redefine participation - this is something I have to do in my classes' that have a participation mark. A very valid point that this usually favors the extrovert. I had never looked at it like this before but seems quite clear now.

3. Play with space - In our program we are starting to use more of the space that is provided instead of just being in the classroom. I teach in the summer so am starting to be more comfortable with going outside on a nice day as this is a good break.

4. Embrace backchanneling - As a program all our courses have a discussion forum on the learning module desire 2 learn. I could try to use this more in the future.

5. Create flow between social and reflective activities - I need to do a better job of doing this but I find in the lab setting I take 2 students and we do verbal discussions while another 2 have an individual task where they are writing.
All and all great tips and things to remember to make the classroom a personality -inclusive environment. 

ENFJ - What is this and what does it have to do with teaching?

ENFJ – what does this mean and how does this affect my teaching style and my engagement activities?

E – xtravert

iN – tuitive

F – eeling

J-udging

Here is a brief summary of the characteristics of someone with this personality.

ENFJs are the benevolent 'pedagogues' of humanity. They have tremendous charisma by which many are drawn into their nurturant tutelage and/or grand schemes. Many ENFJs have tremendous power to manipulate others with their phenomenal interpersonal skills and unique salesmanship. But it's usually not meant as manipulation -- ENFJs generally believe in their dreams, and see themselves as helpers and enablers, which they usually are.

ENFJs are global learners. They see the big picture. The ENFJs focus is expansive. Some can juggle an amazing number of responsibilities or projects simultaneously. Many ENFJs have tremendous entrepreneurial ability.

ENFJs are, by definition, Js, with whom we associate organization and decisiveness. But they don't resemble the SJs or even the NTJs in organization of the environment nor occasional recalcitrance. ENFJs are organized in the arena of interpersonal affairs. Their offices may or may not be cluttered, but their conclusions (reached through feelings) about people and motives are drawn much more quickly and are more resilient than those of their NFP counterparts.

ENFJs know and appreciate people. Like most NFs, (and Feelers in general), they are apt to neglect themselves and their own needs for the needs of others. They have thinner psychological boundaries than most, and are at risk for being hurt or even abused by less sensitive people. ENFJs often take on more of the burdens of others than they can bear. (Butt, J, n.d.)

If you are reading this blog I recommend you trying the Jung Typology test at http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp. This is a free personality test and is based on Carl Jung’s and Isabel Briggs Myers’ personality type theory. Many people have heard of the Myers Briggs Type indicator Test and this is a short 64 questioned test that can give you an idea of your personality type.

I was inspired to find out more about my personality type after watching the Ted talk: “The Power of Introverts” by Susan Cain (2012). It evoked a lot of questions on what I was doing in the classroom. Was I looking for the same response from students that I would have if I was the student doing this activity? And if I was, was I only looking for similar traits to myself as an indicator of student engagement?

If a student was vocal and energetic I consider this engagement but what about the introvert that requires time to ponder and come up with creative responses and potentially deeper connections to the material than someone who is just “blurting responses” out. Just because a student is not verbally engaging does not mean that they are not engaged. I have to remind myself of this as I need feedback as an instructor and sometimes verbal feedback is all I am looking for.  

I have learned the importance of knowing your audience and what assessment and engagement activities to include so all students can succeed. A variety might be best so as not to exclude anyone and to also allow an extrovert to have a chance to be an introvert and vice versa as we are normally not just an extrovert or introvert. Our personality tends to change with each situation.

 

References:

Butt, Joe (n.d.)  ENFJ – Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging  [article] Retrieved from http://www.humanmetrics.com/personality/enfj

“Susan Cain: The Power of Introverts.” Ted Talk, uploaded by Ted Talks, February 2012, https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts?language=en.

 

 

Making a change in the classroom - student centered approach

Yesterday I took my first real step towards trying to change my teaching approach more to a student centered approach versus a teacher centered approach. I changed my lesson plan minutes before lecture and figured I had to take a risk and see what the reward might be.
Instead of talking and showing my power point slides and having the students follow along I tasked each student with a specific goal - 4 students would learn the ankle projections together, 4 the foot, 4 the tibia/fibula, and 4 the toe projections. The 4 students would then go back to their lab groups and teach one of their lab partners their projection. The person receiving the information would then be in charge during the lab to teach the projections to the other 2 members of their lab set. This way if they were having difficulty they could lean on the classmate that originally taught them or the instructor.
The class went to work right away and I went from group to group and listened in. When I felt it was appropriate I would pose a question to the group and then this would evoke more conversation.
All and all this ended up being a great activity. For the last half of lecture I reviewed the projections with a classroom discussion. I found the students were more engaged as they had seen the material and worked with it. I find most of the students don't pre-read, so the conversation and discussions we had were a better quality and we were able to cover more material and in more detail.
I feel this worked because the first month of classes we have worked on building a positive community so the students were willing to put themselves out there and try something new.
One of the things I witnessed as an instructor when the student came back to the group and had to teach their fellow students everyone used a different technique to get their points across.
After the activity, I posed the question "what did you do to teach your projections to your fellow student?" to the class.  The responses were excellent and I felt this was almost more important than the material because the students learned what other peers are doing to remember the projections. Some students asked questions to the other student, some students just relayed the information, some students used diagrams, some used the skeletons, some their lab books and some their own body parts.  The point was they used a variety of resources and were all successful!
I finished the activity with a "WHIP around" strategy.    WHIP around strategy
 Each student came up with valuable information that I feel were the key components that would have been covered in the lecture and the "gold of the lesson" is they discovered it themselves!  I will definitely be trying this again!

In the Flow tips

"In the flow" follow up:
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/eight_tips_for_fostering_flow_in_the_classroom
Check out this quick check list. A great reminder to do a quick reflection after a lesson to see if none, some or all these tips where used to foster flow in the classroom. .

"In the flow"

I have just completed my 2nd reflective writing piece for PIDP 3250 and find myself looking at the material from an instructor and a student perspective. The piece that specifically caught my attention is on page 27 - "learning must be sufficiently difficult to pose a challenge but not so difficult as to destroy the willingness to try." (Barkley, 2010, p.27). This is referred to as "in the flow". Right now I do not feel in the flow with my PIDP course and I'm trying to figure out why? Is the task too difficult? Are the time constraints not working for me? Are the instructions clear? Am I not motivated? Do I need face to face interaction? These are all questions that I will have to spend more time pondering and hopefully this will help me out in the future as I take on more courses.
I find it all very interesting as I feel this as a student and am now relating it to the course I am teaching. Our my students "in the flow" and how do I tell?  Last week I did a pre/post quiz to see what the students knew before the material was presented and what they knew after the lecture. The comparisons showed great improvement of new knowledge. I feel this helped me realize that the material given was in the correct zone and the students were able to pick up on the key concepts. At the end of the week a quiz was given on the same concepts and a number of students answered questions incorrectly that they got correct 2 days before. Does this mean they are not in the "flow" now? or was it the way that they were tested? Are they more nervous when they take tests and this is why the results changed? I still have many questions!
I guess in general this is what the PIDP courses are supposed to do, make you think!!! Maybe I am "in the flow!"

Barkley, E.F., (2010). Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty. San Francisco, CA:Jossey-Bass.

New Activities in lab

Tried something new again in lab today to get the students to interact with the material in different ways instead of just memorizing. I asked the students to write down a specific body projection ie. right posteroanterior (PA) wrist. The other student would then ask questions trying to narrow down the projections they have learned until getting the correct answer.
It was very interesting to compare how each student attacked the challenge.
Some students asked right away if it was a hand projection, or if it was the right side others asked if there was rotation in the image.

I mentioned this activity to a fellow instructor and he looked at it from an anatomy perspective. Ie does this projection have a short bone in it? (carpals) . Then followed it up with is the projection distal to the wrist joint?

The lesson I learned form this is the questions you have are based on your experience with the subject. If I played this game in a year I think the students would ask different higher level questions to narrow down their options.

Best part about this activity was everyone had played 20 questions before so I did not have to spend class time explain the rules.
All and all the students enjoyed the activity and I learned from it as well.

Activities=Student Enagement Try something new!

This week in lecture I challenged myself to try something different in my classes. I feel my classes are fairly interactive but since I have only taught this class once before I was looking to expand on my activities at the end to tie in the learning. I ended up making a game like rock, paper, scissors but instead of the original symbols the students had to pick out the x-ray positions they had just learned and relate them to the traditional rock(fist = PA wrist projection), paper (PA hand projection) and scissors (fan lateral hand). They played the game the same way but in order to get the point at the end for the win they had to state one thing about that projection. All and all I found the energy of the room increased, and the students were looking at the material in a different way and using what they had just learned in class. I also at the end had groups of 4  come up to the board and make a top 5 list for each of the body parts they had just learned projections for (like David Letterman's' top 10 list). I wanted to give them an opportunity to discuss with their classmates what they felt the most important parts were in the lecture for them and to see if they came up with the same answers as me. Did they mention the points that I emphasized in lecture or did they pick something else up? This gave me feedback on what I thought I emphasized in lecture and what the lecture outcomes were. All and all a great class! I'm glad I tried something different.

Motivation

It is funny that I am writing about motivation this week because I am late with my assignments and the first 2 chapters in the course involve motivation. It made me ask why am I late with my assignments? Every time I start a new course I usually take a few weeks to get started and by that time I am already behind the eight ball. Why do I keep repeating this action? I obviously must love having the pressure of completing the assignment under limited time and being in the office on a Sunday? Well the answer to that question is a resounding no. What I have found out about myself recently is that when I do get started and engaged in the course I love it but when I am not attempting the online material every night I disengage. Does anyone else find this? If so what do you do ? I definitely have difficulty with online courses. Here is a link I found with 5 tips to stay motivated. http://distancelearn.about.com/od/managingyourwork/a/motivation.htm

 

"Student engagement is a product of motivation and active learning."(Barkley, p.6)

Barkley, E.F., (2010). Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty. San Francisco, CA:Jossey-Bass.

Chapter 9 Tips and Strategies for Building Community

Classes have started these last 2 weeks and I just happened to be starting the PIDP 3250 course and noticed Chapter 9 Tips and Strategies for Building Community (Barkley, 2010). What a great way to start off the first weeks by building a community in your class room.

What do you do to build community in your classroom?

Who here uses the first class to read the outline and introduce themselves as the instructor?

If you are not an instructor yet, who has been a student recently and one of the first things you do is go over the outline?

How was this experience? Did the instructor read the outline aloud? If you were the instructor how was the energy in the room?

 

I noticed in my first year that I read the outline and the class energy was low and to be honest it wasn't fun for me as an instructor either.

I was hoping this chapter would give me some great ideas and it did.

 

Here are a few of the ideas for creating community that I liked that you might want to try in the future.

 

To learn student's names quickly try using name tents, and playing the name game. What's the name game you say? "Students and teachers form a circle and introduce themselves and then recall and repeat names of those who have already introduced themselves." (Barkley, p.114) I usually get the students to say their name and their favorite movie/musician/hobby. I find this allows me to learn a little bit more about them and might show their personality. I usually ask before the game who likes a challenge and I place those individuals at the end so they have to repeat all the student names. It is actually quite funny and very engaging.

Has anyone used any other versions of name games? Please post.

As far as the outline goes,  I learned when taking PIDP 3230,  Evaluation of Learning,  Doug suggested to get the students to read the outline and identify what they feel is most important for success in the class. I did this for the first time this year and felt it went well. Students went into groups and after 15 minutes came back with their top 5 most important things. My observations were each group had different lists but usually with a few commonalities amongst them. Usually their lists opened up to more questions and overall classroom discussion which made the classroom more engaging than my previous year.  In Chapter 9 there is a syllabus review suggestion on page 119 and this is a modification of it.

What do you do in your first class to review the outline?

These are 2 of the strategies/tips I have used this term to help build community in my classroom. Hopefully this gives fellow instructors the push to explore and try different things the first week as we only get once chance to make an initial impression in the classroom.

 

Barkley, E.F., (2010). Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty. San Francisco, CA:Jossey-Bass.

 

 

 

About Me:

Hello everyone! First time blogger, long time internet user! My name is Brent McMillen and I am an Instructor at Camosun College and I am taking courses in the Post Instructional Diploma Program at Vancouver Community College. I am an instructor in the Medical Radiography Program and have been teaching for 2 years now.
I am a Medical Radiation Technologist  or simply an X-ray Technologist and still actively work in the hospitals to keep my skills up as well as instructing full time.
I have titled this blog the ABC's of Medical Radiation TechnoloG  because it encompasses that I am an instructor but a student at the same time. I hope you enjoy and I look forward to hearing from you.