Happy New Year: Enjoy Yourself. It's Later Than You Think.

 As we move into another year I wonder how much of the past will be repeated. How many of those resolutions made last year will be repeated this year? How many mistakes made last year will be repeated this year? We promised ourselves last year that the year will be different. Was it? Lost of positive changes in 2023 for you? We need to make those positive changes and enjoy life because, as the song goes, we are closer to the end than we know. 

So, looking back 100 years, what was it like in 1924? Calvin Coolidge (R) became President when sworn in in February.  International Business Machines (IBM) was established. In 1924 they made typewriters and stenograph equipment. Today IBM is more complex working on the Cloud, in aerospace and the Defense industries, as well as cybersecurity. Prohibition begins. It became illegal to make, transport, and sell alcohol. It was never illegal to drink booze, however.   

The fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt was born in 1924. In the 70s and 80s she came out with a very famous pair of jeans. The astronaut Deke Slayton was also born in 1924. So too was the future youngest Naval fighter pilot of WWII and President of the United States, George H.W. Bush as well as future President Jimmy Carter (who is 99 as of this writing), and future Dallas Cowboys head coach, Tom Landry.

Eggs were 32 cents an ounce (and falling) and a movie ticket was a quarter. And the Cleveland Bulldogs were the NFL champs. Ever wonder why Cleveland Browns fans wear bulldog masks today? That's why. The Rose Bowl was interesting, or boring. Washington Husking tied Navy 0-0. There was no overtime rule at that time. 

Finally, Chicago was the first city in the US to have a recognized Gay Rights organization – the Society for Human Rights, established one hundred years ago.

Do you have any resolutions? I do. I want to lose weight (but that's an annual resolution). I'm trying the Galveston Diet and doubling my exercise regime. My second resolution is to make my classes more relative and interesting to my students. Finally, I resolve to play more Dungeons and Dragons!

 

Autonomy-Supportive Teaching

So there's this thing I've been doing called Autonomy-Supportive Teaching. I thought I invented it. I didn't name it. I'm not that bright or with it. Well, there is nothing new under the sun I guess. 

Here is what I've been doing. 

1. I've asked students to realize something or things in History that interest them. But something broad like gender, war, or pop culture. 

2. I ask them how they plan on demonstrating to me that they've learned about that aspect or those aspects of History.

3. I help them come up with readings. We have an OER textbook as an anchor. To give them context. But, I have a collection of 11 OER textbooks from which they may choose. 

Here's why I have been doing this. First, I like choice. I believe that people like choice and if people are allowed the freedom or room to make choices they are more likely to succeed. If they can create "their class" they are more likely to stick to that type of class.  

Second, I support ungrading, and therefore students will occasionally draft short essays reflecting, in a holistic manner and demonstrating metacognition, to give themselves their earned grade. Students should be the subjects, not the objects and thus I hand over control of grading to them. 

Finally, I enjoy a variety of ways to bring information to students (instead of lecturing) and so in a class that affords such wide choices, I am able to experiment.

The whole course is about experimentation. I experiment with the basic framework of the class. Students experiment with how they will demonstrate understanding of History. I am there to support their work. And together we create a space of mutual understanding and respect for our goals.  

Ultimately, I do not want to take my students by hand to the Promised Land. Nor do I want to even lead them there. First, their Promised Land might be different than mine. Second, their path or journey is theirs, not mine. They need to chart their own path. They need to figure things out themselves. And when real trust is there, they will come to me when they are stuck. 

Well, this is called Autonomy-Supportive Teaching. I did not know it was a thing. It is. And I guess I am an adherent of AST. I like it. Students like it. Like Jon Stolk says: Tools. Choices. Trust. Here he is:

The New Traditional Student

It's time to reevaluate what is a "traditional" student. 

I was an undergraduate and a grad student during the Clinton administration (most of the 1990s) at the University of Washington. The economy was good. Jobs were plentiful. Tuition was affordable. My favorite wife, Jennifer, attended the University of Arizona. Tuition was so affordable that her parents, who were both retail workers, were able to pay for her tuition. She worked to pay for her books.

Books were so affordable that when I went to the University of Washington's bookstore to buy my required books, I routinely wandered into the area of other disciplines and picked out a book or two. Because I could. The GI Bill and Pell Grants also had roles to play, but that's another story. 

When I was an undergrad, I was considered a "non-traditional student." I was 29, an Army veteran with a disability, divorced, and had no idea what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I was surrounded by traditional students: 18-year-olds who has just graduated high school.  That was in 1994.

Now nearly 30 years later I find myslf on the other end of the class, but seeing more of me in the students then I do of my classmates of the 1990s. 

Today, more and more, my students are the veteran, the 32 yo trying college for the second time, the divorced person starting a new life, the retiree taking classes for personal enrichment, or the adult who is married with children looking for a better career -all participating in their household income. More and more those are our traditional students.

It's time to reevaluate what is a "non-tradtional" student. 

"Hot Town, summer in the city . . . "

I had both on-campus and online classes this summer. Having Summer on-campus students were much to my amazement and pleasure. There was a big push of enrollment in the last few weeks. So now I have a good way to compare and contrast things such as ungrading, peer review, and group work. 

It took a bit for these Summer students to get the hang of ungrading. More prompting, leading, and pushing than students in the long semesters. Not sure if it's because students have more time over a 15-week semester vs these five-week semesters or if it's because the students have different characteristics. I had more younger students and returning university students in the Summer than in the Fall and Spring. Not sure how that would translate into taking longer to get the hang of ungrading. But I have my ideas. 

Anyhow, by the second ungrading essay online students were on board and heading in the right direction, thinking holistically, and writing metacognitively. They were performing solid research with minimal assistance (such as help with providing a primary source document or a JSTOR article). Interestingly enough, on-campus students were behind. Normally that is reversed. Was it a question of preparation? Higher level of expectations? A rigor question? Maybe maturity had something to do with it. Some discipline issues. Falling behind. Not reaching out for help -not recognizing the need for help even when help was offered.

I spent lecture time holding office hours to give them time to work on their research essays, allowing them to see me if they needed help. Not one student took me up on my offer. I did that twice. 

The final ungrading essay asked all students to take a holistic look at what they learned this semester and how they would take that into their future studies. The online students got it. The on-campus students overwhelmingly did not succeed at the same level as the online students, even though they had more access to me and spent more time writing and evaluating drafts. This raises more questions than it answers. 

So, anyhow, about AI

Overall, AI is evil. At least in my little world. This semester I caught numerous students who used ChatGPT to create their essays. I found it really easy to spot these examples of plagiarism. Very little detail. General statements. Not many specifics. No analysis. Just dull, linear narratives. 

I may be gruff, but I am lovable, so I gave my students the opportunity to fall on their swords. If they did, if they confessed their sins to me, I gave them an opportunity to do the assignment the correct way. Interestingly everyone I identified as using AI to do their work acknowledged doing so. Which included a profession of disappointment in themselves and a promise to never turn to the dark side again (at least in my class).

We had to take three professional development classes this semester. I took one on AI and how to use it successfully. We were shown how AI in various fields or disciplines but in the Liberal Arts and Humanities, AI can be easily abused.

So many of my colleagues reported students plagiarizing their work this semester by using ChatGPT. Some came down hard by reporting them for their deviance, while others gave students the opportunity to redo the work. What we had in common was the need to stop our students from using AI. We were introduced to AI programs that can tell us if the work was written by ChatGPT, or some other AI. Those are remarkably accurate, such as GPTZero. This article covers various detection software.

Well, ChatGPT might not be here to stay but harder-to-detect AI is on the horizon and those will indeed write more thoughtful, meaningful, and insightful papers. At that point, we are in deep kimchi.

However, I think what we cannot do with AI is ignore it, sweep it under the rug, police it into a SuperMax, or exile it to Guantanamo Bay. There are ways to bring AI into the classroom without degrading the academic integrity of the course or its rigor. 

Students are using AI to cheat. So why not bring the Trojan Horse within our classroom walls, this time knowing what to expect? AI is not necessarily the enemy unless we treat it as one and when we do, we look upon students' use of AI as something "criminal." 

Let us identify the positive or beneficial aspects of AI and put those to the test. Inevitably, we will have to live by the words of Rodney King who in 1992 asked "Can't we all get along?" 

 

Ungrading, according to ChatGPT.

 ChatGPT wrote the following on 24 Jan 2023 at approximately 10:40AM:

Ungrading is a growing movement in education that advocates for a shift away from traditional grading systems in favor of more holistic and student-centered approaches to assessment. The basic premise of ungrading is that traditional grading systems, which rely on letters or numbers to indicate a student’s performance, do not accurately reflect a student’s understanding or progress. Instead, ungrading advocates for using a variety of assessment methods such as self-reflection, peer evaluations, and portfolio assessments to evaluate student learning.

One of the main criticisms of traditional grading systems is that they can be overly punitive, encouraging students to focus on getting a good grade rather than on learning and understanding the material. Additionally, traditional grading systems can be divisive, creating a competitive atmosphere where students are pitted against one another. With ungrading, the focus is on learning and growth, rather than on a final grade. Instead of a single letter or number, students receive feedback and guidance on their progress and areas for improvement.

Another benefit of ungrading is that it allows for a more individualized approach to assessment. Students have different learning styles and abilities, and traditional grading systems do not take this into account. With ungrading, students are able to demonstrate their understanding and progress in a way that is meaningful to them, rather than being limited by a one-size-fits-all grading system. This can lead to increased motivation and engagement in the learning process.

While ungrading is not without its challenges, it is clear that it has the potential to revolutionize the way we think about and approach assessment in education. By shifting the focus from grades to learning and growth, ungrading has the potential to create a more inclusive and student-centered learning environment.

Fall 2022: This is the End . . .

Whoa! What happened to this semester? 15 weeks of fun and love and good times just flew right by. I had so many things I wanted to say. So much I needed to cover. Oh well, I guess it's better to remain quiet and be thought of as an idiot than to speak up and prove yourself so. Or, something along those lines by Mark Twain.    

First, ungrading has been a rousing success this semester. I was much more clear about the expectations. Much more focused on what I needed the students to address. The results were ungrading essays that were around 750 words each (3x throughout the semester). They were holistic. They demonstrated metacognition. And the students used specific and detailed evidence to support their positions regarding their earned grades.    

Second, students thoroughly enjoyed OER classes. One student said offering OER demonstrates I have an understanding of their economic realities. Another student remarked that she felt stronger ties to her professors when they use OER because doing so shows "they are thinking about us." 

They said the OER textbook, Our Story, was equally rigorous as any for-profit textbook they've used. They felt the OER textbook we used was written with them in mind. Sounded like someone speaking to them (this is a comment I've heard many times before). 

Students said they particularly liked the use of student content. Some said the student content raised the bar -made them become better writers. Some said the student content made them "happy" to read because it was a goal of theirs to be added to the student voices. There were many comments about the student content. Much of this concluded with the excellence of their past colleagues, especially when the content came from groups. Students were not excited about having to do group work, but some noted when they read student content was created by groups, then made them pause to think about how groups might work well together.    

Third, except for the self-reflections (those ungrading essays), everything else was completed in groups. There was much disappointment across the rooms when I noted this on Day 1. But then I introduced my strategy of group-building: playing Dungeons and Dragons. 

I created the groups upon the students completing a short thinking and writing exercise:

1. What is your superpower and why is that your superpower?

2. What is your most prized possession and why is that so?

Then I build groups based on the results of their responses to those two questions. While I'm going over their responses, students are reviewing some of the rules for D&D. 

Those groups start off by playing a single character. We will do that for a week or two. They learn about each other, learn how to work together, learn about each other's strengths and weaknesses, how to solve problems, and how to make decisions, all as a group. Then, the class begins and the groups start working on their first assignments.

Only 1 student dropped. One. Uno. Eines. I have never had so few students (well, a student) drop. 

I am going to call this semester a success in the classroom. One comment I got from a student is that the student would like a Glossary for the book. I don't know if the student meant "glossary," which is a list and definition of unusual, rare, or obscure terms, or if the student meant an index. A glossary is unnecessary, however, an index would be a good idea. It could not be a traditional index with page numbers because the book is edited/changed routinely. However, an index with chapter numbers might work. Maybe I will work on that over the break. Maybe I will just go skiing. I'll let you know in the next installment, in January.