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Explore different types of connect activities, such as ponder activities, questioning activities, stories by learners, job aids, and research activities, to link learning to existing knowledge and promote application. Discover when and how to use these activities effectively.
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Chapter 4 Connect-type activities
Connect-type activities • The purpose of connect activity is to link the learning to something already known or prompt application of learning.
Types of connect activities • Ponder activities • Questioning activities • Stories by learners • Job aids • Research activities • Original work
When to use connect activities • Application is crucial • Application is not adequate • You teach a general subject • Learners doubt applicability of material • Learners cannot make connections by themselves
Types Ponder Activities • Rhetorical questions (doesn’t have a specific answer just makes them think) • Meditations (involves a relaxed consideration of a subject or a concept with a mind open to insights. Delving into students’ emotional meanings , values and attitudes) • Cite-examples (find existing examples) • Evaluation activities (evaluate or rate the importance of what they’re learning) • Summary activities (summarize what they have learned)
Best practices in Rhetorical questions • Ask stop-and-think questions • Make questions personal (how will you…) • Relate the question to the learner’s life (in your job..) • Require some action if necessary • Trigger thought about when, where, how, and why before they apply learning
Examples of meditation activities • Coloring (choose a color for a symbol and justify the implications of your choice) • Symbolizing (search clip-art gallery for different ways to represent a group, concept, value, or principle) • Chanting (repeatedly say the name of a concept or organization to sense its hidden association) • Deep watching (slow motion- without sound, frame by frame) • Meaning quest (Search for different definitions of a term) • Deja viewing (identify ancient analogies to modern technologies and recent historical events)
When to use meditation • Relax tense leaners • Broaden the focus and emphasize context (see the big picture) • Involve other sensory modalities and “intelligences” • Prepare for work requiring openness and creativity • Encourage holistic thinking (help learners resolve conflicts between what the believe and what they’re learning)
Cite-example activities This activity requires learners to identify existing examples, not to create original examples.
When to have learners identify examples • Rounding out the definition of a term or category (learning a concept through examples) • Making a concept more concrete and more specific • Verifying that students can correctly apply terms and categories • Proving the applicability of learning
Evaluation activities Require learners to evaluate or rate the importance of items of learning
Best practices for evaluation activities • Personalize ratings (to you, your opinion) • Set a context for evaluation ( evaluate a tool for teaching or for personal use) • Require precision (avoid good, excellent, poor…) • Require criteria (use a rubric or a rating scale, strongly agree-…)
Summary activities • Prepares learners to apply learning by having them rehearse recalling needed information • Prepares them to teach or inform others • Triggers systematic, personal review of an area of learning
Why use questioning? • Many teachers and instructional designers don’t have questioning as a explicit activity. They just assume students will ask the right questions after the lecture or presentation. • Plan a formal question-and-answer session or simply let students ask GOOD questions
Encourage learners to ask the right people Fellow learners, teachers, subject-matter experts, panel of experts, Help desk, social networks, search engines. Zebrazapps (where did you ask for help?)
What are good questions? • Original and non-trivial (the answer cannot be found in the textbook, instructional materials- not already been asked) • Simply structured (don’t mix multiple questions) • Sincere (not self-promotion I’m smart, putting words in expert’s mouth) • Detailed and specific enough • Helpful to the learning and other learners • Open-ended (not a simple factual yes/no questions) • Answerable by the target (in the area of expertise)
Stories by Learners Encourage learners to share their own stories that connect the subject they are learning to their own experience (Problems you have had in online discussions)
Evaluate storytelling • Is the story relevant to the topic? • Is the story complete? • Does the moral follow from the events? • Do not penalize awkwardness.
Best practices in storytelling • Make storytelling optional • Make telling stories easier for learners • Suggest a simple structure (setting, characters, conflicts, resolution, moral) • Model storytelling • Simplify submitting stories
Job Aids Are tools that can help learners to apply their learning on their job or on tasks similar to what they will do for their future jobs. • Use Excel to create a grade book • Using Google forms to create online quiz
When to use job aids • The subject is too complex for learners to recall all the important details. • Tasks are critical or have negative side effects if not performed exactly as specified. • Rote memorization would distract from learning more important principles and concepts. • A job aid can replace unnecessary training and education.
Types of job aids • Checklists • Reference summaries (Crib sheet, cheat sheet) • Glossaries • Calculators (no need to memorize formulas) • E-consultants (expert systems- interactive diagnosis/advising)
Research Activities Although it is a Do activity but it is classified under Connect activities because the most valuable effect of research is to connect learners with the universe of knowledge (literature review)
Types of research activities • Scavenger hunts (identify or locate reliable resources) • Guided research ( analyze or summarize their findings)
Examples of guided research • Personal perspectives (not all students do the same research- they research different aspects of the same issue) • Scrapbook (cutting and pasting not linking) • Day in the life (of a character) • Self-derived best practices (ask students to find best practices) • Ongoing research (require learners to submit logs of their research)
When to use • Verify that learners can apply what you are teaching • Ensure integration and synthesis of separate areas of learning • To serve as a final exam or final project or practicum
Types of original-work activities • Decision activities (require learners to submit decisions made at critical junctures in real project) – Research proposal (decide on methodology) • Work-document activities (filling a form, making a slide presentation, video, writing specification) Examples • Journal activities (collect decisions into an ongoing (log file) document) – • John boos e-portfolio
Best practices for original works • Specify criteria for critiques. • Offer helpful comments. • Use (track change) feature to evaluate collaborative works. • Clarify what learners must submit.
