Lekelia (Kiki) Jenkins
Assistant Professor, School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, 91探花Seattle
Dr. Jenkins, an assistant professor in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at 91探花Seattle, uses a variety of technology tools, including the Canvas learning management system and portable response systems using 鈥榗lickers鈥� to enhance her introductory course 鈥淪ociety and the Oceans鈥� (SMEA/SIS/ENVIR 103).
Value of Canvas: Dr. Jenkins says she likes the Gradebook feature of Canvas because 鈥渋t鈥檚 not too complicated.鈥� Her students 鈥渒now all the time where they are, what their grade is at that point in the quarter. It is super helpful.鈥�
Clickers: 鈥淯sing clickers is a way of keeping students engaged and making class more active. You can see that when they use them it causes a bit of a reboot, and they get more energy. I also use the clickers for my midterm and final review and that helps students see where they stand with the rest of the class. Also I can see, okay, for this particular lecture, students really don鈥檛 have a strong understanding of this concept or that concept, and that tells me I need to dig in more here.鈥�
Flipping the classroom: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 do basic content delivery in my classes. I think that鈥檚 really a waste of students鈥� time. They can sit down and read about and understand definitions and all of those things. The next step is: so what, who cares, and how does this change the way you operate in the world? It鈥檚 really just about giving content to the students ahead of class in such a way that they can do higher-level Bloom鈥檚 type learning objectives with it and apply that synthesis when they come to class.鈥�
Advice: 鈥淕o to workshops! The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) hosts the at the beginning of each year. And what鈥檚 wonderful is you鈥檙e meeting other professors who are using these technologies at UW, and you鈥檙e hearing their pros and cons as opposed to the ideal. Because the reality and the ideal are different. People say if you do active learning then all of these fabulous things are going to happen 鈥� yes and no, you鈥檙e also going to hit roadblocks. So it is good to know in advance what the reality is, and to hear from someone else: how difficult was this, are you glad you did all of these things at the same time, what would you recommend? I think that鈥檚 invaluable for deciding which things you want to start with. And then go slowly.鈥�
Links: Dr. Jenkins鈥� faculty
More information on Bloom鈥檚 Taxonomy of Learning Objectives (origin, 1956; revised 2000): and
Dr. Jenkins has participated in this NSF-supported project, which seeks to reform and transform undergraduate biology education by training postdoctoral scholars in innovative and engaging active learning techniques
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Read the full Provost report on how 91探花faculty are enhancing teaching with technology.