Insights Into Teaching and Learning, Spring 2019

Insights into Teaching and Learning Spring 2019

In this Issue: Flipping with iSpring: Converting PowerPoints to Interactive Online Lessons Using Embodied Learning to Facilitate Classroom Discussions Contemplative Practices in the Classroom

Flipping with iSpring: Converting PowerPoints to Interactive Online Lessons Mark Demarest

Teaching and Learning Conversations: A Peer Mentorship Program for Scientific Writing and Information Literacy

Instructor in the Department of Biology

In a way, a Texas ice storm helped me change the way I teach. I was set to wrap up the final topic of the Fall 2013 semester (on human environmental impacts and ecosystem management) when the ice storm struck, closing campus for several days heading into finals week. Not wanting to leave the topic hanging unfinished, I decided to adjust the PowerPoint presentation I had prepared so that it would work well as a standalone lesson and ask the students to work through it on their own. However I knew that PowerPoint files were not a very accessible format for a good portion of my students at the time. Thus, I did the obvious thing any of us would when confronted with such a problem: I asked Google what to do, and Google told me about iSpring Suite from iSpring Solutions.

Simply stated, iSpring Suite is a PowerPoint plugin that allows you to convert a PowerPoint presentation to a web presentation, seamlessly at the push of a button. You can convert just the base presentation, or add in such bells and whistles as embedded quizzes, narrations, or complex “if/then” presentation branching if you’re so inclined—all accessed from within the iSpring area of the PowerPoint toolbar ribbon. Naturally I was skeptical, but unlike so many of Google’s other software suggestions over the years it turned out that installing iSpring Suite did not indeed recruit my computer into a global spam enterprise, and instead actually did what it said it would do (and quite

Friday, February 1, 2019 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM Campus Store, Room 208 Register for this workshop. well): it converted my presentation to a web format with all transitions, animations, embedded videos, and other pizazz being faithfully preserved. My students were able to open the resulting lesson as a web page in whatever browser they preferred, and the semester was saved.

It was not the ability to produce a PowerPointy web page alone that ultimately proved transformative, however. It was the ability to do it so easily, with virtually no learning curve. The following semester I began to use the iSpring tool even under non-ice conditions, any time I wanted students to have the option of reviewing some sequence of slides we had gone over in class. I tend to heavily lean on visuals including animations in my presentations, and delivering the slides on the web allowed students to revisit and step through these on their own as needed. Soon I began to put presentations up not for review, but for preview—as pre-readings I assigned the students to complete prior to lecture, so that they would come to class having already picked up the basics and struggled a bit with the harder topics. In short, being able to deliver my lectures effectively outside of class paved the way to flipping my classroom.

For those who are unfamiliar with the flipped model of instruction, a flipped class is one in which students are tasked with learning basic content outside of class prior to lecture, so that lecture time can then be used to focus on mastery of the content—basically much of the students’ study time is pushed to before a given lecture rather than after it. In-class activities may involve such things as targeted mini-lectures, class discussion, concept checks, question and answer sessions, problem solving exercises, and other opportunities to practice applying knowledge.

The thought of moving from a traditional lecture to such a model is typically daunting, especially if it means giving up a strong body of traditional lectures that took years to hone in the process: not only do we lose all that effort, but we take on the additional work of finding adequate pre-readings and new in-class activities to replace them. Because my own body of lecture work happened to exist in the form of PowerPoint files, iSpring effectively turned this around on itself: my cherished lectures simply became highly tailored pre-readings. Two birds, one stone—and without any wholesale course redesign, at least not in the “all in one go, completely overhaul the syllabus” sense. The iSpring tool allowed me to start with the spots in my course that were the easiest and made the most sense to convert, and then go from there over a period of many semesters.

Practically, publishing a web lesson to the internet is as easy as converting the source PowerPoint file and then uploading it to the internet. Here at TCU the uploading is a simple matter of dragging the output folder to your TCU network drive (specifically into a folder named wwwpub) and giving it the name you want for the lesson. Students then access the lesson by navigating to http://personal.tcu. edu/yourusername/lessonname. Because publishing is so easy I have found maintenance to be easy as well: I don’t feel reticent to update the lessons, even just to fix typos or make cosmetic adjustments.

If you’d like to browse some examples of online lessons created using iSpring Suite, feel free to visit personal.tcu. edu/mdemarest for from my own courses. These are fairly basic as far as the iSpring Suite capabilities go, using mainly just the straight conversion function sometimes with quizzes added in, all with the same visual background and layout.

More highly polished demos showcasing other options and features are available at the vendor’s website. If you might find it useful to deliver dynamic content online, I highly recommend giving iSpring a try—icy weather or not.

Watch a brief video about the Fall 2018 TLC on this topic.

Conversion of a PowerPoint presentation to a web format by iSpring Suite (Select the images to view larger.):

Left image: The presentation to be converted, showing the iSpring Suite ribbon tab and toolbar within PowerPoint.

Right image: The final product, as viewed in the Microsoft Edge browser.

Using Embodied Learning to Facilitate Classroom Discussions Dave Aftandilian

Associate Professor of Anthropology & Director of Human-Animal Relationships Minor

Have you ever noticed that when someone gets very excited about something they’re talking about, they will often gesture with their hands and arms to drive home their point? For this Pedagogy in Practice workshop, we partnered with two experienced members of the nonprofit organization Dance Exchange to help TCU faculty learn how to “listen” better for this sort of nonverbal communication in our classes, and help our students do the same. Our guest presenters were Matthew Cumbie, Dance’s Exchange’s Associate Artistic Director, and Dr. Bimbola Akinbola, a Dance Exchange collaborator who is currently doing a postdoc at Northwestern. Susan Douglas Roberts from TCU’s School of Classical and Contemporary Dance (SCCD), Marvin Gaye Jimu from Refugee Services of Texas, Fort Worth, and I from TCU’s Anthropology & HumanAnimal Relationships assisted with the workshop, which I organized.

According to the Dance Exchange website, “The mission of Dance Exchange is to ignite inquiry, inspire change, and connect people of all ages more deeply to the questions at the heart of our lives through dancemaking and creative practices.” At the start of this workshop, Matthew Cumbie shared that Dance Exchange (DX) also sees itself as a research lab on how to use dance and creative movement in general to learn more about our world and our local communities, and to activate that research to work toward positive social change.

DX’s engagement with TCU began last fall, when they led multiple events as part of a mini-conference sponsored by the Office for Community Engagement on “Creative Expression for Social Justice.” Since then, DX has returned to Fort Worth several times, leading movement-focused activities in classes and off campus, in a partnership catalyzed by Susan Douglas Roberts of SCCD. Their work here will culminate in late March 2019 with a performance of Liz Lerman’s Still Crossing by TCU students, faculty, locally resettled refugees, and other community members.

I wanted to invite DX to lead a pedagogy workshop for TCU faculty because I have witnessed firsthand how powerful their movement “listening” and expression methods can be. I got the chance to experience them myself in several workshops, and to see them work with two of my classes in Spring 2018, “Food Justice” and “Little Animals in Art, Culture, and Museums” (the latter co-taught with Nick Bontrager in Studio Art). To me there is real magic in what DX does, and I still feel that way after having had a chance to peek behind the curtain at their methods.

For this workshop, DX demonstrated two kinds of movement activities they lead most often with their audiences: “Build a Phrase” and “Moving Q&A.” Build a Phrase begins with asking a question of the audience; for our workshop,

Designing and Supporting Effective Writing Assignments in WEM Classes Thursday, February 7, 2019 from 2:00 PM – 3:20 PM Register for this workshop.

the question was, “When you think about cultivating a collaborative community of learning, what support do you need to do that, and how do you do that?” The facilitators attend to how participants respond to the question with both their words and their bodies. They then select particularly evocative responses, and build a simple movement—a dance phrase—out of each response.

Next they link the phrases in a series, a choreography cocomposed with the participants that expresses some of the deeper meaning within and behind the words that were said. Matthew and Bimbola explained that they look especially for spontaneous and idiosyncratic gestures— how our bodies show up as we express ideas—and then they look for movement metaphors, the action embedded in the language that can bring the ideas to life in a way that all the participants can both see and feel. I see Build a Phrase as a powerful way to build a more collaborative and cohesive classroom community, one that is open to supporting individuals as they take risks in expressing themselves, and listening in a way that empowers the speaker.

Teaching and Learning Conversation: Pronoun Fluency Workshop: Creating Safer Spaces Through Inclusive Language Monday, February 25, 2019 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Campus Store, Room 208 Register for this workshop.

Toward the end of the workshop, DX demonstrated a trio variant of Build a Phrase, in which three participants take turns serving as storyteller, interviewer, and collector/ reflector/ choreographer. For our workshop, the storyteller responded to the prompt, “Tell Me about Your Favorite Place.” The storyteller and interviewer work together for two minutes, and then the choreographer takes a minute to build a series of movements that express the story. Then all three participants perform the work together. I found this to be a very powerful way to build community among the participants, as well as to bring hidden ideas and emotions to light so that they can be observed and reflected upon.

The other movement activity that DX performed and unpacked with us was the “Moving Q&A.” For this activity, wordless music is played over speakers; obviously a teacher could select slower or faster music, or music attuned to particular cultural and generational contexts. Participants are given a question to mull over while they walk; one we reflected on was, “What was a challenging moment in your work with students, and how did you move through that?” After several minutes of movement, with participants interweaving their paths, the facilitator calls a halt, and participants find a partner with whom to share their answers to the question. In our workshop, one faculty member summed it up for all of us when she explained that moving to music helps loosen us up, get us out of our brains and fossilized thought patterns; she also said that when she was already moving, it felt more natural to pay attention to movement itself as a mode of expression, and of listening.

By the end of this two-hour workshop, participants went away not just with new teaching tools, but also a new set of contemplative practices. Some comments expressed by attendees included, “I noticed I don’t notice how I move;” “I sensed, physically, an emotion from a story someone was telling;” and “I started to notice how much dance is in everyday interactions, not just in a studio.” We talked about different ways we might incorporate these movement

tools into pedagogy in our classes, and I know at least one of the participants has already done so to good effect.

Again, one faculty member spoke for many of us when she said, “a workshop like this should be mandatory on all Friday afternoons; I’m leaving feeling so much joy, so much connection.” I couldn’t agree more! For more information about upcoming events and collaborations with DX, visit the TCU Dance Department’s website.

Watch a brief video about the Fall 2018 TLC on this topic.

Contemplative Practices in the Classroom Mark Dennis

Associate Professor of Religion

Andy Fort

Professor of Religion

The emerging discipline of Contemplative Studies and practice of “contemplative pedagogy” are increasingly being discussed at TCU and in academia more broadly.

Our presentation introduced Contemplative Studies (CS) and how one practices such pedagogy in the classroom (both actual exercises and practical teaching tips). We are aware that we need to be able to intellectually justify contemplative pedagogy to our colleagues—and demonstrate that it fits into, and even enhances, liberal arts education. Contemplative pedagogy is also a response to student interest in multiple ways of learning and increased self-knowledge, as well as widespread concerns about

alleviating stress and promoting wellness in a culture of digital domination.

We began with a short two-part meditation exercise to both center ourselves and demonstrate a possible classroom practice. The first part was the 4-7-8 breathing exercise wherein one inhales deeply while counting to 4, holds the breath for a count of 7, and exhales for a count of 8. This can be done with eyes closed while sitting up straight in a chair and feet flat on the floor, as is the case with the second part of the exercise that was a five-minute “followthe-breath” meditation. This is a common exercise of sitting silently and counting to 10 while following the breath. One counts 1 while inhaling, 2 while exhaling, and so on up to 10. One then begins again with 1. A number of professors, here and elsewhere, use such a practice to begin class (two minutes is also sufficient!).

Andy then introduced the emerging discipline of CS. He offered definitions of terms like “contemplation” (a broad array of ways of reflection and focusing attention, sometimes, but certainly not always, part of a religious tradition) and “mindfulness” (the present-centered and nonjudgmental observation of one’s thoughts and feelings).

He also described a variety of contemplative practices (from sitting and walking meditation to yoga and guided imagery exercises) and where mindfulness fits in this array of practices. Andy then discussed different ways of learning in terms used by CS: first (“subjective” or “experiential”), second (intersubjective or dialogical “deep listening”), and third person (“objective” information sharing) methods of learning, and showed that these approaches work together to enrich classic liberal arts objectives such as critical thinking, reflective self-awareness, and value clarification.

He noted that first-person exercises demonstrate the value of students being present to their own experience (mind and body) and encourage an increased understanding

of both their own experience and others’ perspectives through direct self-reflexive thought and writing. The learning which arises through the above practices can be demonstrated by measurable artifacts such as journaling, short reaction papers, presentations, creative exercises, and summative semester-end writing.

We then looked at how CS has entered the health care world as “integrative medicine,” as seen in such institutions as the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin and the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Jane Torgerson MD, the director of TCU’s student health services, is board certified in integrative medicine, and the Dean and other administrators at the new Fort Worth Medical School are also very interested in integrating contemplative practices into their curriculum.

We then turned to evidence that contemplative practices also offer positive results for goals of individual and social well-being, such as increased capacity for focused attention, emotional regulation, mental and physical health, empathy, and resilience. These are especially important given the speed of change, stress, and (over) stimulation found among students (and American society) today. Contemplative exercises can raise awareness of our everyday distractedness, illustrating the limits of the overpraised (and largely false) notion of multitasking.

Mark then illustrated these points with clips from Dan Harris’s best-selling book 10% Happier, which he uses in his classes, and clips of neuroscientist Richard Davidson, Founder and Director of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Healthy Minds, discussing happiness and compassion meditation.

After a group practice of the well-known guided “metta” or “loving kindness” meditation (wishing well-being to oneself and others, nearby and globally), Mark then described

the development of the Contemplative Studies initiative at TCU, which was started by Andy in 2012. We next went over a handout containing useful books and introductory practices which teachers could use in a wide variety of classrooms.

We ended with a practice called the “circle of reflection,” which Mark has used successfully in various classes, in which each participant sits in a circle, considers an important feeling or value like gratitude (or courage, fear, authenticity, freedom, anxiety, etc.) while holding a stone.

The stone is passed around the group and each person expresses (in this case) gratitude to an important figure in their lives. This can be a powerful relationship-building exercise in smaller seminar classes. We closed by spending some time with Q&A. For additional information on becoming involved with TCU’s Contemplative Studies group, please contact Mark Dennis at: m.dennis@tcu.edu. Please email Andy Fort at a.fort@ tcu.edu for copies of the materials we presented at the workshop. You can also visit our website at https://contemplativefrogs.com.

Watch a brief video about the Fall 2018 TLC on this topic.

Teaching and Learning Conversation: Special Collections as a Laboratory for the Humanities Monday, March 25, 2019 from 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM Campus Store, Room 208 Register for this workshop.