There are several types of assignments organized around This I Believe theme, such as essay writing, discussion facilitation, reviews, group presentations, or semester papers. Instructors might have different ideas on what particular topics they want their students to think about such as family relationship, professional growth, learning philosophies, religion, war, art and many others. However, these instructors believe that these assignments will help students to develop important skills in order to be successful in their pursuit of achievements as they enter academic life and go further in their life discoveries.

The desired development of students’ skills are aligned with classes objectives and learning outcomes. Some of them are concentrated on simply enlarging students’ knowledge on societal issues, encouraging students to go deeper in their understanding of consequences of past actions. Others focus on helping their students master analytical skills, as they reflect on how the class discussions of various This I Believe topics changed their perspectives over the semester. Another group of instructors work on improving students’ creative and critical thinking as they invite them to write diagnostic essays on certain events mentioned in the book.   Additionally, there are instructors who attempt to develop better communication skills among their students as students are challenged to state and defend their positions, argue and reflect on others’ assertions and assumptions.

Michael Ginsburg, Associate Dean of Students, told us that he wants his students “to look into themselves and start to define who they are as a person in relation to others and the world around them.” Michael’s short statement helps us grasp the scale of the Common Reading’s impact on student’s general growth and development.

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/22302/

I wrote my This I Believe essay in the dead of winter, January 2006, sitting in my office one day prior to the start of the winter term. Over the years I’ve learned that this is a time of year when the warmth of a good heater and some student-free quiet moments often evoke a mood of reflection and meaning-making. My opportunity came in the form of being a parent whose only son, at age 22, had just made a momentous decision on his own to become a U.S. Marine. Part of me wanted to stand up and cheer. At least for now, following a string of dead-end factory jobs, apparently he had found a direction. This was his life and he was going to live it. Another part of me though was gripped by a sense of dread for his choice. Where would this lead him? What other choices would he have to make? Would he regret any of them? Would he come back whole?

This was a helpless feeling for me, a person accustomed to being in control, almost as if something or someone else was in charge of what was happening and I could only watch. That’s how the image of Abraham came to mind. This Patriarch of Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) was asked by Yaweh (God) to sacrifice his son, Jacob, as a sign of his faith. The scene described in Genesis 22 tells of Abraham, who built an altar on a prescribed mountaintop, and upon arranging wood for a fire, bound and laid his son to be a burnt offering. At the moment he reached for his knife to slay Jacob an angel cried out, “Abraham! Abraham! Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” I can’t fathom the confusion and terror in Abraham at that moment when ultimate trust placed him in these horrendous circumstances. I sometimes wonder whether he would have carried through on his command had the angel not intervened. The story ended well though (at least for Jacob) with the discovery of a ram caught in a bush, which Abraham then sacrificed instead. Regardless, surely Abraham knew that life at such a moment was beyond his control.

In some ways, so it was in the dark hours of morning the day I hugged, back-slapped (as only men do), gripped, and watched my son, Martin, board the bus heading to the Detroit airport in search of his new life as a marine. Someone else was in control and there was little I could do about it. Driving back along Wooster Street to an office full of unanswered emails, classes to be planned, and meetings to be attended, there was no ram to be had. It was time to let him go and trust that things would turn out okay. That day was my lesson. All parents learn, eventually, that they don’t get to choose what their children do in life, but only whether they support them. For me this was a sure moment of values in conflict. Let me explain more.

I spent my years as a college student (1965-1969), like many then, witnessing the horrors of war and violence on nightly news, as well as, in my case, through letters from a brother who served as a marine medic in Vietnam during the TET offensive. While in the classroom I was surveying the great accomplishments of humankind, in the streets I was learning to stand public in my growing opposition to the choices being made by my government and the destruction left in its wake. It was during this time that I made a fundamental choice to resist war and violence in all its forms. Taking up arms against another was something I would not do, but dying for someone was exactly what I understood I must do. Following graduation and a stint at teaching junior high school, I completed two years of volunteer alternative service to our country as a C.O. (conscientious objector), working in community organizing with a low income family and senior housing program, pursuing goals much like those of Habitat for Humanity today. My position since then has remained the same, if not more resolute, to oppose the use of war and violence as a means to solve disputes in this world. My commitment and experience as a professor has been to up-build the human community rather than destroy it. A correlate of this choice has been my lifelong general resistance to the military and its machinery. So you can imagine the heartbeats skipped when my son nervously announced one night that he had “joined the marines.” Imagine too his anxiousness in sharing with me his decision, having grown-up with a father who had been quite vocal in his thoughts about such issues.

My son’s choice had not been one that I had considered up until then. But values and commitments in life, it seems, are like that; they hardly ever come in neat packages; they almost always involve conflicts of some sort. Trade-offs are inevitable. This is where I found myself when faced with a new dilemma – my commitment to non-violence or my commitment to my son. As complicated as it can be, paradoxically, parenthood has a way of simplifying things. To me there was no choice other than to support my son in the decision he had made. Ultimately, in this case, relationships trumped ideals. With all the fatherly love I could muster, “Go be the best marine you can be!” were my parting words that January day. This was not unlike the experience I had, some thirty-five years earlier, with my oldest sister (ten years my senior) who, as a staunch believer in our country’s Vietnam involvement then, nevertheless wrote a moving letter in support of my application for conscientious objector status. I remember the late night hours at times of heated exchanges we shared across the kitchen table, usually on opposing sides of the debate, where it became clear to me that she and I were in different places on the matter. But mostly, in the end, it was her sibling connection to me that motivated her choice of affirming who I had become and attesting to the sincerity I had expressed in doing so. The generous effect of her response was immeasurable. I have tried very hard to pass that same gift on to my son.

Since writing my This I Believe comments, I have had some second thoughts about its intent and effect. Maybe the tone was more about me than about my son. Maybe it was just a little bit too self-serving. Was I looking for empathy or sympathy? I’m not sure. Would I have written it differently today? Perhaps. It was nonetheless genuine as I recall the moment. Ironically, I have never shared this essay with my son and we have never formally debated our respective choices. I’ve learned to listen much more carefully, though, gleaning from his experiences and stories just where he might be with all this. I have also been unwavering in my support of him and the challenges he has surmounted, making certain that I was there to send him off and there to welcome him back from each of his deployments. My exposure to all this, through his eyes, has not changed my commitment to non-violence, but neither has it changed my relationship to him, except to recognize that perhaps it has grown stronger in the realization that we are both living what calls us, albeit in different directions, at least for the moment.

For the past four years, through my parental eyes, I have been most grateful for the experience he has gained as a marine. In spite of my worries accompanying his two trips to Iraq, it has been comforting to watch him mature in powerful ways (including a little gray hair!) and taste the feeling of being successful for the first time in his life. The immediacy, structure, and physicality of the marines have lined-up well with his preferences for learning, a synergy that totally eluded him through his years of secondary schooling. Rising to the rank of corporal, he is now in charge of training and leading other men whom, I suppose, have faced similar choices. What better experience is there for a dad than to see his son find his own path? In the end, it seems, that is what really counts. Be safe, Martin; I’m with you all the way.

I have to say I was rooting for This I Believe to be chosen as the common reading for this year when I heard it was one of the candidates. As an avid National Public Radio (NPR) listener, I always looked forward to hearing the This I Believe essays read by their authors on one of the NPR shows such as Morning Edition or All Things Considered. As good as the essays were when I listened to them on the radio, I think I enjoy reading and re-reading many of these essays even more. They have been well chosen and edited. I am fascinated to ponder the underlying themes authors have described as their personal values and beliefs.

In fact, I have enjoyed and valued the This I Believe essays so much that in addition to reading and rereading the text myself, I have purchased a number of additional copies throughout the summer. I presented the first three copies as a Father’s Day present to each of my three grown children. I have made presents of several others to colleagues who expressed an interest in them.

This fall I decided to begin each of my class sessions in KNS 3400, motor development across the lifespan, by reading one of the selected essays. The learning outcomes for the motor development course focus on students understanding how human movement changes over the lifespan and how practitioners should intervene differently in clients’ learning than is traditionally done. The This I Believe essays provide a remarkable cross section of values and beliefs that actually have many implications for the students in KNS 3400. For example, Gloria Steinem’s essay, “A balance between nature and nurture,” while focused on her own life experiences, addresses one of the central questions raised in the motor development course – why do we change. In several weeks when we study infancy and early childhood we will be reading the essay, “There is no job more important than parenting.” As I investigated how well the essays might relate to general topics as well as course-specific topics, I was indeed surprised to discover all the many obvious and subtle connections.

I do have to admit that I was originally intimidated at the prospect of composing my own “This I Believe” essay as proposed in the appendix for the book. Every time I heard one read on the radio, while I marveled at the author’s well expressed convictions, I had a sense that I didn’t really feel that strongly about anything enough to write a similar essay. Then, this summer, I tried my hand at composing several essays. I surprised myself. It turns out that I just had to start with something not particularly life shattering, but something to which I related, such as humor, and writing, and morning glory flowers. I encourage readers to consider writing your own essay.

Steve Langendorfer

First we have an excerpt from an essay by Michelle Gardner-Quinn, as read by celebrities. Though the author was murdered, her statement continues to impact others. This video could be used to discuss a number of topics from grief to legacy to sustainability.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zctmNe0t-wU

This slideshow with audio features individuals involved with Rhode Island WRNI’s This I Believe program and their associated program “Revealed.” This program highlights the personal backgrounds of those who read This I Believe essays. The producers note that the outcome is community: “Rhode Islanders are meeting Rhode Islanders.” if you want to discuss the broader aspects of the project, this is a great video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAWxz51DPEo

This page, from the This I Believe website, shares the history of the project. Simply click on the play button and allow the audio to load. As an introduction to the project, you could have student s both read and listen to the history.

http://thisibelieve.org/history

While we are including links to podcasts of various essays from the book in each of our postings, because today’s post features multimedia, we will include links to three podcasts of essays from the book. If you click on the link it will take you to the page with the essays in written an audio forms. The audio control is at the top of the page.

Josh Rittenberg, “Tomorrow Will Be a Better Day”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/4205/

Albert Einstein, “An Ideal of Service to Our Fellow Man”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/16465/

Norman Corwin, “Good Can Be as Communicable as Evil”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/12/

The guide is divided into four sections, one more general and three showing educators how to help students through the writing process. Focused primarily on writing, the guide leads instructors through teaching initial thought-gathering, good writing techniques, rewriting and peer evaluation. Moreover, sections of the guide encourage diverse methods of teaching This I Believe such as including audio from the show’s run on NPR and creative activities such as “The Credo Exercise” or the “I Believe in Music” discussion.

The curriculum guide is just that – a document that provides educators with ways to lead students through This I Believe in a productive and effective way. It is, however, a guide. Although you might create your own curriculum (and the website encourages you to share these ideas) the guide is written in such a way that educators who are less comfortable with the process can draw both directly and indirectly from the document.

For more specific information, you can find the curriculum guide here.

In this post, we bring you a link to the essay written by Warren Christopher titled “A Shared Moment of Trust.” The audio control is at the top of the page:

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/6894/

Started in the 1950s as part of a radio program by Edward R. Murrow, the This I Believe project was created with the idea of publishing stories about life. The book is a compilation of essays written by people from different walks of life expressing their philosophies and ideas about life. Some of the contributing authors of essays in the book include Bill Gates, Colin Powell and Isabel Allende. A sampling of titles in the book are: “Be Cool to the Pizza Dude,” written by an English professor, and “Finding Prosperity by Feeding Monkeys,” by an attorney. Dr. Carney Strange, a professor here at BGSU, is one of the many authors who has had his This I Believe essay used by NPR.

The first discussion between students and BGeX faculty is Sunday, August 23rd. Please listen to a podcast, by Azar Nafisi, from This I Believe (audio control panel is near top of page). We invite people to post their reactions to the book, podcast and/or discussion.

According to Cummings, detractors of Wikipedia’s use in higher education assignments have reasons to be concerned. Wikipedia, indeed, is an open source where essentially anyone can edit or create information concerning almost any subject. With this in mind, people who use the website do expose themselves to getting inaccurate information or are subject to relying on information that is unfounded.

On the other hand, Cummings believes that Wikipedia offers several advantages for students. He believes the major advantage to helping student essay writing with the use of Wikipedia is that students have audiences that are real and can provide plenty of immediate feedback to their writing. In his classes Cummings literally has his students post their work to the website for people all over the Internet to provide them with comments concerning their work.  More importantly for the students, Cummings believes that students are writing and having more exposure to having having to write formally.  According to Cummings,

“Composition assignments in Wikipedia frame writing as a collaborative practice hosted within a network. This arrangement seems much more predictive of the environment our students will find themselves writing in after they leave the composition classroom, both in later college courses (as they collaborate across networks with fellow students in coursework) or in the workplace (as they collaborate with co-workers to prepare reports, proposals, or Web pages).”

We invite you to read Cummings’ article and see if what he has to say can be beneficial in any of your classes.

With all the encouragement to integrate active learning techniques into your teaching, it’s easy to get confused about what to use when. Specifically, deciding which technological tools to use can seem overwhelming. Three of the most common tools instructors use in their classes are blogs, wikis, and dicussion boards. To guide you in the process of choosing which tool to use, we have collected information and dveloped a chart.

• What is the purpose of using the tools?
• What features are most important for you?
• What level of privacy do you need?

The answers to these questions and others can be found by looking at the chart. Make sure to use the left-most colomn labeled “Topic” to guide your selection.

You can download the document here.

And don’t forget that you can always schedule a consultation at the Center for help on how to use your tool in class by calling the Center at 372-6898 or emailing the Center at ctl@bgsu.edu.

In a paper titled Student Learning Styles and Their Implications for Teaching, authors Susan Montgomery and Linda Groat discuss the importance of recognizing learning styles and offered several different ways to assess these styles.  Among the learning style models that they covered are the Myers-Briggs Model and the Kolb/McCarthy Learning Cycle. The authors also provide useful tips to engage students with different types of learning styles in your classes. These tips include using both group and independent work, requiring in-class presentations and providing less direction to students.

To read the rest of the article please click here.

How do you engage students in your classes that have different learning styles?

In an effort to provide an overview or guide of assessment practices, the National Institute for Learning Outcomes and the Alliance for New Leadership for Student Learning and Accountability are being developed, the former being led by Stanley Ikenberry and George Kuh.

The president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, Judith Eaton, is noted as supporting the work of these institutes, claiming that (from IHE) “better knowledge of assessment would improve the relationship between accreditors and institutions, and that a sustained commitment by higher education to accountability would preserve the principles of self-regulation for higher education.” Eaton hopes that the new effort will “strengthen the academic leadership of our colleges and universities.”

Some detractors of the higher education assessment movement have called it an oversimplified and potentially harmful mission due to concerns over using a single test to demonstrate student learning outcomes. According to one faculty member, what’s lacking is “any evidence of validity” for these single measures. Members of the NILO and ANLSLA, however, state that the intent is not to establish a single standardized test for colleges, but to offer a more comprehensive method for accountability, which Ikenberry states will most likely incorporate multiple measures.

To read the full Assessing Assessment article click here: Inside Higher Ed

Where do you stand on these assessment and accountability movements?

1. This worked for me in classes of nearly 100, N=75.  I used small groups extensively in the course. So, after forming the groups on the first day of class, I took a Polaroid picture of each group and as it “came up”, they wrote their names by their individual picture. I then posted these pictures by my desk in my office and worked on learning the names within each group.  After learning the names in the first group, I would learn a new group and review the names in the previous groups, and so on.. I took a week or two to get them all done, but I eventually did.  What seemed to work for me was: it was a lot easier to memorize 12 groups of 6 students, than it was to memorize 72 students. And students really appreciated it.

2. A math professor I knew had a very large class, over 100, and knew it would be valuable to learn their names.  So he used assigned seating, made a chart, and then each day of class, worked on memorizing a block of 6 students (3 in front and 3 behind).  Then each day when he came to class, he made a point of visiting with students in each new block and in the ones he had already learned -in addition to the class in general.

In took awhile, but again by working continuously at it, he eventually got their names all down so that even if he met them while walking across campus, he would recognize them and be able to address them by name.

The point seems to be:  You have to commit to doing this because you know it makes a difference in how students respond.  If you commit to doing it, you can do it even if it takes some time. To read more about L. Dee Fink’s book, please click here.

Here are some more ideas from the listserv and other faculty suggestions:

• Index card w/ name/contact info and 2-5 questions about them; review these early & often, especially during class discussions (call name and associate w/ their face
• Students create/use name tents each class session; some faculty have students take/bring these each class, while others collect them and use this as an attendance check (but this requires space to lay out the cards, usually alphabetical or clustered, and time to collect/organize them at the end of class). If the name tent IS collected, combine with the index card suggestion, having students answer questions on the inside for you to review.
• When handing back papers, call their name and personally hand it to each student
• Mandatory brief office visits (2-5 min.) are requested by some instructors during the first 1-3 weeks of class (which may be unmanageable for very large classes)
• Just “good ol’ memorization” of the roll sheets and then associate with faces during first classes
• Take pictures of groups of students and write their names out (be careful of the legalities of this at your school); study these groups with names/faces frequently; helps if they sit near each other in class

Do you have any creative ideas to learn the names of your students?

Google Books allows you to search through a wide variety of books and even provides access to the content of those books.  This means that you can read whole books online, although some authors and publishers only allow a few pages to be read.  Google books categorizes books into subject matter, has a great searching capacity and even allows you to create your own library where you can recommend books and write reviews.

The topics that can be found within the archives of Google Books are vast. A simple search of books on teaching pulled up 131,582 results.  This could be a tool that may help in your research and something that may help your students in your classes as well.

What do you think about Google Books?

AL’s answer for Mac using Firefox
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/almovie?key=26667

AL’s answer for Mac using Safari
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/almovie?key=4658

AL’s answer for PC using Firefox
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/almovie?key=23349

AL’s answer for PC using Internet Explorer 7
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/almovie?key=26553

Did these tips help you to organize your bookmarks? Do you have any organizational techniques to share, that may help others?…Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!

Well luckily ITS has provided all of us with a nice easily to use grid to determine where we should look to find the proper file storage…

Click here to check out the webpage.

What file storage services do you use? Do you utilize any other file storage service other then the services that ITS provides? If so, which ones?…Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!

I’ve been seeing a lot of references to Web 2.0. What is it?

AL’s answer
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/almovie?key=32612

Now that we know what Web 2.0 is, here is a Tip on Google Docs…

Question 2

How do you check spelling in a document when using Google Docs & Spreadsheets?

AL’s answer
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/almovie?key=32471

Do you currently use any Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom? If so, how? Do you have experience or any other questions relating to Google Docs?…Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!

This workshop and series of related “open lab” times are presented by the Center as a means of introducing attendees to the possibilities of Second Life as they pertain to the classroom.

The workshop will consist of two distinct phases – the “official” workshop, presented by guest speaker Anthony Fontana, and the “open lab” times, where Center staff will be available to assist you in more personal and direct explorations of the environment of Second Life.

Attendees will be introduced to various pedagogical tools and resources as related to Second Life – as well as guided through the practical steps of creating a free account, using the interface, and finally exploring resources located entirely within Second Life.

Second Life is a popular persistent online virtual “world” where users from around the globe can explore digital environments and interact with other users. More and more institutions of higher education are using Second Life to create unique virtual learning experiences. The technologies powering Second Life are similar to those that power various popular computer games, but are directed to a purpose more in line with so-called “Web 2.0” applications – essentially focusing on communities of users and user-generated content within the virtual spaces. Second Life has currently surpassed six million registered users, and has in excess of forty thousand users logged in at any given time.

Workshop times include:

* Anthony Fontana – Presentation on Second Life, Thursday, May 24th, 3 p.m. – 5 p.m.
* Open Lab, Thursday, May 24th, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
* Open Lab, Friday, May 25th, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
* Open Lab, Friday, May 25th, 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.

To register for these workshops visit our CTLT Workshop page and sign-up.

Have you ever used Second Life before? If so, how? What positive possibilities could online interactive classes create in the future?
Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!

MyFiles is a network-based, file storage system. It can be accessed at MyFiles.BGSU.edu, simply login using your BGNet Username and password. MyFiles provides 1 Gigabyte of disk space per person and allows an individual to store copies of important documents such as homework, notes, papers, and graphics on a system that is accessible from anywhere on the Internet.

What is MyFiles?

Files stored on MyFiles can be accessed from any computer connected to the Internet through a web browser such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Safari.

Files stored on MyFiles can be shared with friends, colleagues, collaborators, project team members, and others, both on and off campus. File owners are able to provide access that can be read-only or read-write, allowing for controlled access and collaborative editing.

Files stored on MyFiles can be tracked to see who has read the file and who has made changes to the file. MyFiles can even store multiple versions of a file to keep a history of revisions.

Files stored on MyFiles are secured by BGSU authentication username and password, and can be accessed by others only if the account owner gives permission. Access can be assigned based on BGSU usernames and passwords, or by electronic ticket that allows individuals not associated with BGSU to gain read-only or read-write access.

Files stored on MyFiles can be accessed by clicking on a designated web URL. Each file has a specific web URL that can be sent to others through email instead of sending entire files as attachments.

What MyFiles is NOT:

Not a place for instructors to store class notes, Blackboard should be used for this.

Not a place to share the latest ripped version of your favorite CD. Please remember that all use of BGSU’s network and systems must comply with all BGSU network usage policies and all copyright laws. Violations may result in your MyFiles privileges being suspended, and you may be referred to appropriate authorities.

How could you as a faculty member utilize MyFiles? How could your students use the service? Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!

Terence Armentano is an Instructional Designer and Multimedia Specialist for IDEAL (Interactive Distance Education for All Learners) at Bowling Green State University. His blog entails his weekly elearning spotlights as well as feeds from many of his favorite resources. These resources could be integrated into online or face-to-face courses — or anywhere in between.

Check out the videos, live chat and many other numerous features of the blog. Also, if you have questions about Blackboard or online pedogy techniques feel free to ask him questions…

Share your opinion and experiences by leaving a comment below:
What do you think of TerenceOnline? What information on his site did you find useful?

As the winner of our first Gift-Away Avalyn will receive a 128mb USB Flash Drive. “Thank You” to all who contributed. Your comments are what keeps this site alive. We appreciate the contributions that you make and hope that you will keep checking the site often. We will be having another Gift-Away sometime next semester so keep posting.

Have a Happy Holiday Break,
CTLT

To show our holiday spirit and to celebrate our new interactive site, the Center is gifting a USB Flash Drive. From now until December 8th, everyone who contributes to the “Interact at the Center” discussion site will be entered in a gift drawing for a USB Flash Drive. In order to be in the drawing, you must make a contributing comment and include your name and email address in the signature.

The Center will draw the name of the lucky gift winner on December 12th and contact you if you win.

Gift–Kingston Data Traveler USB Flash Drive 128mb

Good Luck!