In an ideal world, my courses would unfold like a long, interesting and sometimes intense conversation. But maintaining a conversational feel in a class of 100 is tough.
In an ideal world, students would practice communicating to each other and give each other thoughtful, substantive feedback — also a tall order in a large class full of busy students.
And in an ideal world, students would read science news, think about what it got right and where it went wrong, and then share their thoughts with their peers — not just for grades, but because this type of critical thinking is more important than ever.
Teaching is fun, and challenging. All of my courses are “communication intensive,” which means students write, talk, debate and even draw about science. I want them to be creative and collaborative. I also want them to think critically about how journalists, politicians and other groups with loud voices sometimes misrepresent science
In nine weeks, I’ll have finished my first term of teaching with a full course load. I came to McMaster University in January to teach Science Communication. Before that, I was a science journalist based in Brooklyn.
For the next nine weeks, I’ll be experimenting with three technology tools that I hope will each promote the type of communication, collaboration and critical thinking I want my students to master.
My colleague and co-author on this blog, Christa, is going to help me tailor each technology tool to my content, activities, assessments and learning objectives. She’s a Digital Pedagogy Specialist at McMaster with a background in Science Journalism. In the end, our blog will serve as a reflection on our shared journey. We hope it will also be a roadmap for considering the integration of technology tools into your course.
Since we only have nine weeks to cover how three tools can each address three challenges, we’re going to dive right in!
The first tool is Flipgrid. It’s an app that lets students upload short videos to a “grid” for a particular topic. Let’s say I want students to explain the term “evolution” in a conversational tone that anyone can follow: What better way to assess this than by having them record themselves talking about evolution?
Flipgrid allows you to set a time limit for videos so students have to get straight to the point. They can use their phones or laptops to record the video straight to the grid. Students can see their video among those of their 99 classmates. This means they can see how other students tackled the assignment differently, and hopefully see some strategies they want to try themselves.
I love how easy and fun Flipgrid is to use. Asking students to explain evolution in 90 seconds on camera is undoubtedly going to generate a more creative, conversational piece of communication than asking them to write a short paper.
If students are writing their explainers and them reading them aloud, they can immediately hear parts that sound too academic for a general audience. Flipgrid encourages students to be succinct and engaging, which is exactly what I want.
If communication is a skill you want to foster in your course, I recommend you to try Flipgrid. Students are comfortable with it — they actually seem to love it. They also know each other’s names because of it, and I know their names. It’s a fun solution to the challenge of encouraging a large number of students to communicate their ideas in an accessible and engaging way.