adjuncts: support and development

One recurring theme of this blog is the support of adjunct instructors. Several times I've supported myself and others exclusively through adjunct work at multiple locations, logging as many as 700 miles a week. That's what got me hooked on audio books. Here , in the fall of 2007, as many as 43.7% of classes were taught by adjunct faculty who aren't otherwise employed on campus.

When you consider that adjuncts teach fewer classes - that's a lot of people who work out of their cars, make due with limited, communal, office spaces and spread their commitments across several schools or businesses. Several sources note that the price of gas has already steered startling numbers of students toward online classes, and experts predict these classes will be taught predominantly by adjuncts. These aren't the only challenges facing adjuncts.

Support for adjunct faculty development.
We have significant resources for adjunct faculty, that many don't know about. The Faculty- Staff Development (FSD) site is a great place to find resources. From there, and additionally:

• adjuncts can present symposia and there is a stipend (200$?).
• Funds (up to 375$) are available to attend conferences. (note: be willing to share what you learn. Perhaps write for this blog or interviewing for the audio podcast)
• the FSD adjunct page has the adjunct handbook and several newsletters from different adjunct support organizations.
• FSD sponsors Dine & Design and TechTALK presentations where we share strategies, activies (we don't like the term "lesson plans" but you get the idea), and theory.
  
• you can download Softchalk Software for creating cool interactive online quizzes and instructional material (it's in Angel Support materials). We will have to discuss the benefits of Angel in a future post.
  

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What do you need to know and / or want to talk about? How can we better support adjunct faculty? Post to the comments section of this article.

The importance of humor in teaching

Several unrelated events conspired to inspire the topic today: humor and teaching. A math instructor remarked on the role jokes play in keeping students engaged, and an article on challenges facing adjuncts inadvertently got me thinking about the importance of a sense of humor for teachers.

There are many sources for cartoons for educational purposes online. Cartoons on the web can often be embedded without violating copyright – since 1) it doesn’t technically exist on our site 2) we don't sell it and 3) it's for educational purposes. Images may look better on wiki pages, but... for example from http://xkcd.com/:

Taylor Mali, a teacher turned Slam Poet, has great teaching material on YouTube. Experiencing his poetry (more stand up/ spoken word with a hip hop feel) is hilarious, and he treats math, history and of course language arts. See a collection of links . He’s featured in the video to your right. I particularly like his piece on “The Impotence of Proofreading,” but his rant on “what a teacher really makes” lifts your spirits and provides perspective.

The Faculty Staff Development Library has humorous resources for teaching: books by Al Franken and Bill Cosby, books on topics such as games for instruction, and videos like “what’s so funny about work,” and more.

Victor Borge’s a phonetic punctuation system can lighten up a grammar discussion and teach mechanics. And for me it's practical; living in multilingual environments, I sometimes speak out punctuation to clarify meaning.

additional links:

• How can I use humor effectively in class?
  
• Mali video on rhetoric and the loss of voice in contemporary culture (great video quality)
  
• A list of math cartoons
  
• A list of geography cartoons
  

SMARTboards continued: philosophy

This post has been informed by discussions with several master teachers at KCKCC. SMARTboards are a type of Interactive White Board (IWB) technology. It's more accurate and useful in research to use the term IWB, like it can be more useful to say "cola" instead of Coke, though in practice...

The more I read/ watch/discuss and learn about Interactive White Board (IWB) technology, I notice several tacit assumptions that long confused me . Educause, an online scholarly journal, notes that administration and faculty come from different cultures and the assumptions of one culture can lead to miscommunication with representative from others.

When discussing IWB's we must consider how we conceptualize both the technology and the nature of instruction.

• Are we talking about it as software or hardware?
• Are we thinking in the context of a) online/hybrid (web-assisted) classes or b) on-ground (without an Angel class or “shell” created)?
• Is it a tool to produce lessons, to illustrate specific concepts, or to record them for distribution?

All of the above possibilities are valid, BUT, generally speaking, instructors focus their use based on their personal teaching style, the demands of their subject matter, and the needs of their students.

We all think of content, and content delivery, differently. “Concrete” disciplines (math, sciences, nursing) rely more on pre-planning and may rely on the use of Powerpoint or the related “Notebook” software. Social Sciences and the Humanities, where the subject matter is more abstract, tend to use the technology on the run – to augment the experience in the classroom. In fact, one can still get graduate degrees in several fields without seeing a Powerpoint presentation – so equating Powerpoint with instruction draws blank stares from some faculty, just as instruction without Powerpoint mystifies others.

Susie Meyers also notes the need to tease IWB's apart from "Online" instruction. These are distinct and specific issues, but they are not mutually exclusive. Dr. Hasan Naima thinks of SMARTboards not as web-enhancement, but as communication enhancement. This tool facilitates instruction.

Advantages of IWB's (SMARTboards)

1. Save notes – share via online / email.
2. Clear instantly – saves time over erasing boards
3. No chalk dust.
4. Notebook software offers many possibilities not available through Powerpoint.
5. SMARTboards facilitate collaboration.

Questions voiced separately that need exploration – known issues

1. If we visualize SMART tech as a way to prepare lesson, and if these teachers prepare lessons from their home computers, can/ should they have the software on laptops or their home computers to create lessons?
   
2. Adjuncts have problems logging into tech enhanced classrooms.

3)

I’ve recently collected new instructional videos for IWB's or SMARTboards at http://del.icio.us/gdixon/smartboard

Web resources with a Math/ Science / Technology (MST) focus.

The web has a wealth of material to support teaching of the sciences. Youtube offers many, but the problem with youtube is that it isn’t easy to find relevant, quality, content. Luckily Open Culture has done that recently. You can also find resources through our social bookmarking site and at http://del.icio.us/gdixon/math.

Primarily MST resources

• A basic skills math podcast that connects everyday life to math concepts. This has potential for learning communities http://www.mathgrad.com/shownotes.html
• Pedagogy in Action, a site by the Science Education Research Center of Carlton College, has a wealth of resources for teachers, particularly science teachers. http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/index.html
• For Chemistry videos, check out http://www.kentchemistry.com/KentsDemos.htm
• MIT provides a great number of resources through its open courseware initiative.
• The Indian Institute of Technology and The Indian Institute of Science provide solid content.
• xkcd, a webcomic, posts comics related to math.
  
• 
  

Wide variety of subject interests - Sciences and Humanities

Many universities and an increasing number of community colleges are making course content available free online. Generally, these schools consider sharing content to be a community service.

• The University of Pennsylvania has a 60 second lecture series on a wide variety of topics including chemistry, physics, history, psychology, women’s studies and more. They have some big names. . I stumbled upon it through the presentation by Labov – a giant in linguistics. Because the format is around a minute long – it requires subject experts to summarize, which is an invaluable tool for effective teaching.
• Uchannel, associated with Princeton, aggregates (collects) feeds from many quality institutions.
• UC Berkeley has pioneered the use of YouTube to deliver content.

If you have resources you've found that you like, please share them by commenting to this post.