As we move about, we are starting to see Halloween decorations being replaced with wreathes and glittering lights. That means it’s time to connect and be merry!
During this lead up to our holiday break, what better way to celebrate all that we’ve been able to accomplish in 2020 than by signing up to Lakehead University’s first 12 Techniques of the Holidays (#LU12tech2020) -- a series of micro-lessons that share a collection of techniques LU faculty are using to engage with learners online!
Micro-learning, a way to deliver learning units and activities in small bite-size chunks, is becoming increasingly popular and is an important support to lifelong learning. Most important to micro-learning is that the learner is in control of what and when they’re ready to learn.
Starting on December 1, a new lesson will be published each day. You'll see the 12 Techniques of the Holidays home page change each day as new lessons are revealed. Each lesson is a gift from one of your colleagues (and we’ve collected gifts from all faculties) in the form of a micro-lesson about an online teaching technique, with a suggestion for how it might work effectively for you in a teaching context.
If you’re teaching online this winter or just interested in what your peers have been up to, why not follow along? You don’t need to join in with all of them (unless you want to), simply choose the ones that interest you the most.
Let us know that you want to follow along with the 12 Techniques of the Holidays by registering. By registering, you will be kept posted on each day’s ‘reveal’. There will be a special gift from the Teaching Commons waiting for you at the end of the series, just in time for your holiday to begin!
A shout out to the Noun Project
Throughout the 12 Techniques of the Holidays experience, you're going to notice a series of icons used to visually communicate topic areas and to connect elements together. All icons utilized were retrieved, ready to use, from the Noun Project.
The Noun Project believes that visual language has the power to change the world, so it has built a space to share icons as visual language -- a language that allows quick and easy communication no matter who you are or where you are.
Check out their collection, built by a community of designers from 120+ countries. It is the most diverse and extensive collection of iconography ever created.
How might you use ready-made icons in your practice? You don't have to be an artist to create eye-catching and communicative
- concept maps
- learning cycle flow charts
- 'breadcrumbs' so learners can see paths they can take through your online course space, and
- 'callouts' that highlight quick tips, activities, quizzes, etc. to be completed by learners in your online course space.
Have other ideas you want to share for how we can enhance visual communication with iconography? Share your ideas using the hashtag #LU12tech2020IconIdeas!
Hashtags?!
Throughout the 12 Techniques of the Holidays 2020, you will see these [ # ].
If you are already in the Twitterverse, then you are aware of how to collect information using hashtags (#). If you have been interested in starting to use Twitter, consider starting the adventure now. We have provided you with a set of hashtags connected to each element of the site, along with questions we would love to know your answers to. It is completely up to you, but if you do share what you are learning in your micro-lessons, use the hashtags [#] provided, and we will share responses with each gift giver.
12 Techniques of the Holidays 2020 by Lakehead University Teaching Commons is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://etug.ca/2018/11/26/12-apps-of-christmas-the-12-apps-of-christmas/.