Reflecting on my own Teaching
I often ruminate on the effectiveness of my own teaching. Particularly at the end of a semester, I find it helpful to reflect on the successes and frustrations of the methods I used. In an effort toward teaching more openly, I decided to have that conversation with myself right here…
Background
My spring class was CIOS F258, Digital Photography and Image Correction. I taught in a classroom equipped as a lab, with a computer for each student.
Online Components
Although this is a face-to-face class, I require students to participate in online activities as well. After several years of teaching in this manner, this has become institutionalized practice for me. I’ve experimented with several variations of this:
- Class wiki
- Individual student blogs
- Class blog
- Blackboard course site
- Flickr
My strategy has been to limit online activity to just two of these during any given semester. In the past, I’ve used a combination of a class blog on blogger and a Flickr group—without Blackboard. This semester I used Blackboard (because I wanted students to have access to their individual grades) and a Flickr group. I eliminated the class blog and put announcements and assignment deadlines on Blackboard. I have to say, I missed the class blog this semester. Even though I’ve never done a great job with keeping the class blog fresh, I miss the aesthetic layout; Blackboard feels so sterile and compartmentalized.
Use of Class Time
In previous years I divided almost every class session into segments for 1) hands-on camera use and 2) photoshop. Based on feedback from a former student, I tried to be more focused this semester. Rather than having students take photos during each class, I consolidated the hands-on camera time into two intensive 3-hour studio sessions. During the other class sessions, I focused on either photography concepts or photoshop techniques—but not both in the same week. There were pros and cons to this approach. On the positive side, I think the studio sessions were very effective. On the negative side, by limiting the class time to either camera or photoshop (not both), I had more trouble filling the 3-hour timeframe. Particularly when we were working in Photoshop, three hours seemed too long. At the point I could see students were no longer absorbing anything new, I truncated the material and allowed time for them to practice (or to leave if they felt confident in the skills we’d covered). This resulted in several class sessions being shorter than usual. Next time I teach this course I’ll try something in between: more focused than my original method, but more integrated than what I did this semester.
Feedback to Students
Without exception, this always feels like my greatest weakness. I believe strongly in the importance of feedback, but I really dread grading! Best things I did this semester were the project and the print report. These both carried high-point value; I created grading rubrics to outline what I expected (and make it easier for me to “be tough” when grading). The thing I’m worst at: making students accountable. In short, I’m a pushover. As a prime example, I need to be firm about requiring students to tag their assignment photos properly on Flickr. I tried to be more consistent this semester in deducting points for late submission. My method for grading Flickr participation became overwhelming and I didn’t keep up well.
Conclusion
It was a good semester. As always, I feel regret for the pieces I didn’t do well, but I believe students learned—and, that’s the ultimate success. Primary changes for the next time I teach this class will be: re-instituting a class blog, finding a way to streamline Flickr grading, and integrating camera practice and photoshop skills during some of the class sessions.