What Are Some New Forms of Teaching We Haven't Seen In Years

As academic groups discuss ways to improve the current educational status the question of what are some new forms of teaching we haven't seen in years prior to upgrading the system? Teaching must change for the coming years. This is an unavoidable truth. Only by doing so, can providers encourage the youth that education is still the key in reaching for success. Academic institutions and supporters must be open to new resources and possibilities. The traditional manner of teaching is still the medium that is being used in the classrooms. Adding new assignments, projects and the need for more courses are among the concerns being shared among teachers.

Many believe that learning is not only dependent on the educator but also on the students' preferred teaching style. What are some new forms of teaching we haven't seen in years prior to addressing the problem of low acceptance ratings being received by students in licensure examinations? Faculty and higher academic groups must be able to determine tried and tested teaching practices. What are the implications of experimenting on new forms of teaching? Academic research is an important and contributes in the both the student's and teacher's learning experience. The honors program is something to learn about. The learners and educators must be familiar of the positive and negative effects of this program. As an effective form of teaching, educators must provide and support current interdisciplinary programs and also to give the right opportunities. Teachers on the other hand must also receive space, the proper environment, space and areas for growth and personality enhancement. Mutual learning is something that is not usually mentioned nowadays. One way to express new form of learning is by encouraging a student to take set of learning tools received from one class to another. This is useful in determining the efficiency of one leaning tool to another.

The following are just some among the many essential learning habits and practices: close reading, quantitative and scientific literacy, and research and information literacy. More addition to these is: Critical thinking and analysis, cross-cultural skills, ability to engage in self-reflection, creativity and innovation, writing, presentation skills, visual literacy and collaboration teamwork skills. It is somewhat challenging for the educator to develop the said habits and practices. To attain high levels of expertise in the said skills, effective classes, teaching style must be used. Maintaining an effective group of educators must be a concern.

What are some new forms of teaching we haven't seen in years prior increasing the population of effective learners? Nowadays a teacher doesn't use a singular teaching pattern. One form of teaching that a knowledge provider uses consists of different angles. A complex teaching pattern is used to be able to reach students at different levels of learning. Varied teaching strategies, learning level of students, and an assessment of which strategies are best for particular students can help teachers know which teaching forms will be effective for the group of learners. Efficient teaching methods are usually those types that perform well for a certain educator in a provided learning situation. Methods that work well for one teacher in one class scenario may not work as well for that same professor with another batch of students, or for another academic leader working with other groups of learners. This only shows that is difficult to determine what teaching methods one should use. Experimenting on using different teaching methods is advisable to decide on the best form of teaching that is best for you. You must bear in mind that effective teaching is being able to inculcate valuable information to your students. Whichever form of teaching you use the essence of conveying useful knowledge creates meaning and high level of understanding and respect among students.

Surveying Informal and Extreme Forms of Learning

By Curt Bonk, Indiana University, School of Education

I am sure you have heard of extreme sports and perhaps the extreme games. On the Web, you can find information about extreme music, extreme programming, extreme pizza, and even extreme couponing. But have you heard about extreme learning? Yes, extreme learning. It is the cousin or younger sibling of informal learning and grandchild of nontraditional education. Most certainly, you have heard of informal learning. And I am sure that you have engaged in it many times each hour of the day. In fact, my friend, Jay Cross, estimates that we rely on informal learning around 80 percent or more of the time that we learn.

Not convinced? Well, you likely have used Wikipedia to learn more about a particular event in history or some local or distant place your plan to travel to. Perhaps even today! A few minutes later, you might be watching a movie or the news and suddenly call up Wikipedia to answer a trivia question about a movie celebrity or politician. Later in the day, you might watch a YouTube video to learn how to fix a broken watch or take care of a mobile phone that got wet. And, after that, then you might share cooking recipes or professional writing ideas in a group in Ning, Google Groups, or Facebook. These are all informal learning pursuits that are enhanced by Web-based technology. Reading this particular blog post of mine in TeAchnology or the comments and responses to it is yet another common form of informal learning today.

In the twenty-first century, there are myriad new and emerging technologies to assist in informal learning. At times, such activities stretch to the far edges of the planet and possibilities for human learning. While all this is happening, education is increasingly becoming free and open. Unfortunately, most people still think that learning can only take place in a physical school or university building. Walled classroom spaces are deemed the only vehicles for learning. In the past, educators mainly relied on such place-based and time-based learning. Some call this eyeball-to-eyeball and earpan-to-earpan learning. Others simply refer to it as face-to-face learning. Whatever the term used, it does not encapsulate all the possibilities for human learning that are now possible.

Clearly, informal learning tools, resources, and networks are exploding online. Open educational resources and massive open online courses (MOOCs) with thousands of students have been making the headlines in CNN, the New York Times, and myriad other media outlets this past spring and now into the summer. Last summer I helped Ray Schroeder from the University of Illinois at Springfield with a course that enrolled 2,700 people who were interested in online learning today and tomorrow.

Building on that experience, in May 2012, I taught a course using CourseSites by Blackboard with over 4,000 enrolled participants from across the planet. Those who completed the course got a badge from Blackboard. That course, Instructional Strategies and Technology Tools for Online Success, was focused on how to teach online. While only 200 to 500 of the 4,000 enrolled came to my weekly synchronous sessions in the MOOC, many relied on asynchronous resources and self-paced forms of learning. I thoroughly enjoyed it. People came from all over the world to learn something. And even though it has officially ended, it remains freely available to anyone who wants to explore it and still get a badge. To find out more, you might read the interview I did with the director of CourseSites, Jarl Jonas, that I just posted in my TravelinEdMan blog.

Thousands of students in one course? Yes! This was a prime example of what my research team and I in the Instructional Systems Technology (IST) department at Indiana University are calling “Extreme Learning”. The Extreme Learning research project is documenting how people learn or teach online or with technology in nontraditional or unusual ways. We are interested in how education takes place in casual informal situations as well as how formal learning stretches beyond schools and universities to more extreme learning environments such as that taking place on trains, planes, mountain tops, boats, and war zones. Extreme learning is a new concept that stretches ideas or perspectives about when, how, where, and with whom learning takes place. As such, it is vital to begin to document and understand its potential.

The research project is titled, "Collecting Stories of Extreme or Informal Learning" As such, this study explores how people learn (and teach) with technology in unique and nontraditional ways. We want to uncover empowerment moments wherein one has had their life changed via some type of learning technology. There are six main areas or types of learning that we are exploring. For instance, we are studying online language learning like that found in Babbel, ChinesePod, and BBC Languages. As most Web natives are aware, the vehicles for online language learning are exploding. In addition, we are studying the use of shared online video like TED talks, Big Think, the Khan Academy, and TeacherTube, virtual education like the Florida Virtual School and the Idaho Digital Learning Academy, and global education and social change like ePals, iEARN, iCivics, and Seeds of Empowerment. We are also looking at adventure and environmental education such as Earthducation, the Nautilus Live, the Polar Husky project, and Impossible2Possible. Finally, we are interested in learning from learner portals and open educational resources such as MIT OpenCourseWare, the Encyclopedia of Life, the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Curriki, MERLOT, and, of course, TeAchnology.

Professor Curtis J. Bonk, Ph.D., Department of Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University

Higher Education Teaching Centers

1. Iowa State University
2. Kansas State University
3. Stanford University
4. University of Delaware
5. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
6. University of New Hampshire