Do you ever have a class period where it feels like your students are asleep? You’re introducing an exciting new topic but no one seems to be interested. You throw out a question but no one volunteers an answer. How do you get your students to wake up and speak up during class?

Here are a few tips to help you inspire your students to volunteer their thoughts and answers, without making it terribly painful.

Engage your students. If you can do this, you’re golden. If you’re engaging your students in a conversation throughout class, they’ll be tuned in to what’s going on. They will be thinking about what you’re saying and putting thought into the ideas that you bring forward. When you ask a question, chances are someone will be able and willing to answer.

Teach with energy and excitement. Professors that get excited about the subjects they teach are far more fun and interesting to listen to than someone who drones on in a class he really didn’t want to teach in the first place. I speak from experience. I never honestly thought I would leave an econ lecture feeling happy that I came to class and like I learned something valuable…until I met Dr. Lee. She would get so excited about economics that not only did I enjoy class, I enjoyed learning about the concepts she introduced.

Use real world examples. Another of Dr. Lee’s many teaching talents was her ability to use real world examples. Real world examples of economic situations aren’t hard to come by, but no matter how simple, they help students to learn and apply concepts to what really matters – the real world. Plus, when a student can see how something applies directly to his or her life, it makes more sense and sticks a bit better in the brain.

Ask good questions. There is a difference between a good question and a bad one. Good questions are capable of sparking conversations, thoughts, and sometimes lead to even more questions. Ask questions that students want to answer, discuss and debate.

Give students an idea of what to expect. If you have a good syllabus, students should know what to expect during class before they arrive. Encourage them to read the chapter or look through assignments and practice questions before class starts so they are aware of what you’ll be talking about and have more confidence to share ideas and answer questions.

Respond well to wrong answers. Don’t embarrass a student if he volunteers a wrong answer. Maybe he misunderstood your question. Or, maybe he was just wrong. Either way, if you make him feel stupid, he’ll be much less likely to raise his hand the next time around.

Don’t catch your students off guard. If students know you randomly call on students throughout class, it may make them nervous. Instead of being truly engaged, they take unnecessary notes to refer to in case they are called on. The down fall? It’s likely that nervous students will only pay attention to what’s going on until they are called on. After that, they know they are off the hook (for the most part) and will tune the rest of the lecture out.

Walk amongst your students while lecturing. Instead of standing at the front of your classroom, connect with your students a bit more by walking up and down aisles or moving around by the front row. This makes you seem more down to earth and willing to interact on the same level with your students.

Poll your students. This is a great way to get your students to participate in class discussions without making anyone feel targeted. Plus, it’s a way to hear from everyone at once!

What are some other ways you get your students to speak up during class? Share with us in the comments!

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It’s the end of another great week! Here are some interesting reads we wanted to share. Have a fabulous weekend!

Despite problems, laptops boost student test scores
With all the hype about laptop programs in schools, do they really benefit the student? Do they cause more harm then good? Here’s a good article on how one school is making it work and seeing the payoffs.

Is It Cheating Or Is It Collaboration?
Students using technology and the knowledge of their peers to solve problems. Is it cheating or it is collaboration? No matter what you call it, is it something students can apply to the working world later in life? The answer may surprise you.

The Ten Worst Teaching Mistakes
Are you a teacher or instructor? Chances are, if you’re reading this blog, the answer to that question is “yes”. Here are ten things you should definitely not do.

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Here at SAGrader, we like entrepreneurs. Without them – or a certain one, I should say – we wouldn’t exist! But thanks to the passionate and innovative spirits of individuals like our founder, the world of education is able to incorporate today’s technology into the classroom and offer a modern, connected, and just plain cool approach to learning.

Alas, entrepreneurs in the world of education have earned the name “edupreneurs” for obvious reasons. But how do you define “edupreneur”? One source states that an edupreneur is someone “who has served as an educator prior to organizing a business related to education and has invested time, energy, and capital to create, develop, and market a program, product, service, or technology to enhance learning.” For the most part, we agree.

So, we know edupreneurs have a few things in common – chances are the currently are or once were educators, who started education-focused businesses that aim to improve learning for students on any level. Many, according to the source above, even leave “the system” in which they work in order to pursue their edupreneurial endeavors. But how exactly does one become an educational entrepreneur? Here are the first few steps.

Step 1: Have an idea. This step is a rather important one. Perhaps the most important one. Entrepreneurs create new products or services or improve on those that already exist. In an ever-changing world, there is always room for improvement. The same goes for the world of education. Where is there a need for an innovation? What do you use everyday that could really use some improvement? Thinking about things like this will help lead you to the perfect “idea” to pursue.

Step 2: Believe in the idea. Ever heard the saying, “Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion”? This is certainly the case in the field of edupreneurship. Change is driven by people who believe in making the world around them a better place, by people who have passion and believe in their own ideas and the ideas of others. If you have a truly good idea, stand behind it, believe in it, and go to step three.

Step 3: Research and make a plan. Doing the research and making a plan for the future of your idea is vital. Most obviously, a little research is important if for no other reason than to see if anyone else has already started down the path you’re intending to follow. Beyond that, how will you know when to move forward or hold back? How will you know where you are going without having a map of how to get there? Plans can and do change – revise your plan as needed. Do what works best for you. Just try to stay away from the “fly by the seat of my pants” method.

Step 4: Find investors. While the bottom line for entrepreneurs is usually to make a buck, edupreneurs sometimes have a different goal in mind – to improve some aspect of education. In the world of business, an investor is someone who will hand over some of the funds necessary to get a business up and running. In edupreneurship, an investor could be anyone who is willing to put up some financial backing to someone who believes in your idea enough to volunteer time, energy and skills to help you accomplish your goal. Some things you just can’t do alone. If your idea is one of those things, find others who are willing to help out.

Step 5: Get other people on board. Similar to step four, finding people to stand behind and support your idea is vital to its growth. Education is a bureaucracy – the more people you have backing your idea, the better.

A few more general tips:

Hang out with other edupreneurs. Sharing ideas or just getting to know like-minded people who are passionate about similar things can be inspiring.

Take calculated risks. It’s a common misconception that entrepreneurs take wild and crazy risks. In fact, many successful entrepreneurs take very calculated risks and pursue ideas that have a lot of potential. Follow their lead and apply the “calculated risk” rule to your endeavors.

Network, Network, Network. It’s not what you know but who you know. Okay, so maybe “what you know” is important in education. But for entrepreneurs, “who you know” is just as, if not more, important. Being able to make connections with the right people can take your idea and turn it into a reality.

Are you an edupreneur? We’d love to hear your story. Shoot us an email or share your ideas in the comments. Or, tweet at us sometime.

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With the widespread use of Twitter and other social media tools, it’s no surprise that people in education are finding ways to incorporate microbloging and other like applications into the classroom.

We’d like to introduce you to Twiducate, a tool for teachers and students to communicate in an online classroom where ideas and thoughts can be shared and discussed and collaboration is encouraged. We had the chance to ask Twiducate’s Brian a few questions about the project.

Tell us about the people behind Twiducate. What made you decide to get together and start this social networking site for schools?
Twiducate started as a means to teach students the value and importance of online privacy. It is also meant to be a new medium for teachers to promote critical thinking, provide feedback and allow students to collaborate on their work – in a microblogging format. The value for teachers using Twiducate is that the content is private and students never have to enter an email address.

Twiducate seems like it’s a great tool for opening lines of communication between teachers and students. What are some other ways Twiducate can improve the overall learning experience?
First and foremost is student engagement. If kids are interested in the topic, they are more likely to write about it. All of our students are using Facebook already. Twiducate can improve learning experiences by allowing students to publish work, collaborate on work and provide feedback to each other, outside of the classroom in a private / secure manner. We have used Twiducate for story starters, open response questions, brainstorming sessions and general communication.

Okay, so we know it’s an awesome tool…but how exactly does Twiducate work? Just like Twitter? What additional tools does Twiducate have that are specific to teachers and students?
Twiducate is a micro-blogging tool. What makes it unique is the ability for teachers to create private networks. After signing up, teachers add students to their classrooms. A password is generated for students to login, thus never entering personal details, such as email. After all the accounts are created, students and teachers alike can begin posting messages. Twiducate also offers the ability for teachers to “pin” posts to keep them at the top of the timeline. Students and teachers alike can also comment on posts. Teachers can share links in the “bookmarks” section for their students.

Twiducate seems to be geared for middle and high schoolers. Can teachers and students in higher education use Twiducate?
Ironically, we are K-8 teachers and Twiducate was developed for this audience. After many suggestions, the ability to add multiple classes per teacher account was added – ideally for high school. Initially Twiducate was to be used in elementary schools where students must learn how to remain safe online and learn how to blog in simplest forms. It has had a huge following by high school and post secondary school teachers and students.

What else should we know about Twiducate?
Twiducate is still in beta mode and may contain bugs. We are constantly testing and editing the tool to meet the standards of different school board policies. We encourage ideas for functionality and tools. As is the purpose for the use of Twiducate, it in itself is a collaborative project by all teachers in all countries.

Want more information on Twiducate? Check out the website or sign up if you’re ready to use it in your classroom.

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It’s that time of the week again. Here are a few interesting posts and articles we found around the web. Any other good reads worth mentioning? Share with us in the comments.

Cheating: Does Deindividuation Encourage It?
Are people more likely to cheat in a setting where they can be anonymous or place blame on someone else? This post shares some interesting, though expected, results from a psychological study. Makes us wonder, in huge lecture style classes where students claim to feel like “just a number”, is cheating a given?

Apple in Talks with McGraw-Hill, Hachette over Tablet
Apple’s Tablet and text books – a natural fit? Read up on the options Apple, McGraw-Hill and Hachette are coming up with.

Cape Fear Academy class makes it OK to tweet at school
Being required to tweet, Facebook, and blog during class? Sounds like a dream a lot of students have. For some, it’s a reality. This high school has developed a class in which students learn all about social media and how it can relate to and be applied in the world of business.

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Some people say that with the emergence of microblogging (think Twitter), actual blogs and feed readers have become a thing of the past. And, while for some it is certainly true, I can’t help but feeling that blogs can still be useful (but then again, I am a little biased).

While you may write or follow a number of blogs for recreation, you can, believe it or not, use them in your college classrooms. Some believe that when students share their thoughts with others in the blogsophere, not only do the take the task more seriously than normal assignments, but are much more meticulous about their writing (and as you know, we’re all about writing in the classroom).

So, thinking about incorporating blogs into your classroom? Here are a few ideas to get you started.

First things first! There are tons of free blogging platforms out there. Find one that you like and have your students do the same. Some suggestions: Blogger, WordPress, Typepad, TextPattern, and Movable Type. Once you and your students have set up your own blogs, follow each other via an RSS feed or another feed reader (may favorite is Google Reader). Then, get to work!

Collect paperless assignments. Students write differently when they know a group of their peers, not just their professors, will be reading what they write. Instead of collecting written assignments during or at the end of class, have students post them on their personal blogs where both you and their peers can view them.

Have students keep class journals. They can reflect on the lecture, whether it be after every class period or once a week, to show how much they are actually taking in. Encourage students to read other students’ entries and leave comments pointing out holes or missed concepts, or explaining why they agree.

Do you offer extra credit? Try posting EC assignments on your blog, along with other bits of interesting information your students might like to read. Only the student who take the time to check out what you’re posting will get the points (though, it’s been my experience that the students that actually go the extra mile to find extra credit opportunities aren’t the ones who need it)!

Encourage interaction between students. Get your students to interact by having them read each others blog entries and leave comments. Sometimes it’s easier to discuss things with other students than it is to strike up a conversation with a professor. The nice thing about blogs when it comes to communicating? You can see everything that happens, if you take the time read what’s going on, and step in when students seem to be misunderstanding certain points.

Class supplements. If you’re always finding great stuff in the news and in the world around you that applies to your classes, post them on your blog. Not only will students in future semesters be able to access them, but any time your students want to read up on some interesting things or brush up on topics relating to class, they are just a few click away from doing just that.

Start (or end) conversations for class. Want to get students thinking before class starts? While they should be doing this anyway (reading up in the text, completing assignments, etc.), post something interesting, funny, or thought-provoking before class and tell them to be prepared to discuss it during your next meeting.

Student portfolios. Encourage students to use their blogs to show off what they are capable of. Suggest they make a simple page on which to post resume items (educational background, job experience, etc.) along with some examples of their best work.

What are some other ways you can use blogs in the college classroom? Share with us in the comments!

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In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day we’d like to share part of an article the incredible man wrote, “The Purpose of Education”, that was published in the Maroon Tiger, the Morehouse College school newspaper, in 1947. Enjoy.

As I engage in the so-called “bull sessions” around and about the school, I too often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education. Most of the “brethren” think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. Still others think that education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an end.

It seems to me that education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture. Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the ligitimate goals of his life.

Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one’s self is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda. At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths….

Read the rest at The Seattle Times, along with some other great speeches and articles from MLK.

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Happy Friday! We hope your week was fantastic! To wrap it up, here are some good things we found around the web this week.

10 Warning Signs of a Bad Professor
This article is dead on! Every college kid should take a look. It wouldn’t hurt for professors to take a gander, either – see if you show any of these signs!

100 Apps for Teachers
We’re always a fan of tech tools for teachers…so here’s a list of 100 good ones! We’d like to add SAGrader to the list, too.

Scholars Test Emotion-Sensitive Tutoring Software
Emotional support systems built into intelligent-tutoring systems? That’s the future of some “computer tutors”. Human tutors seem to be the most effective – can we mimic the same experience with a computer? This article provides an interesting look into the research and development behind making computer tutoring more like the real thing.

10 New Years Resolutions for College Students
Since we just did a post on the top ten New Years resolutions for teachers, I was delighted to find this top ten list for students.

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The New Year is always a good time to reflect, but it is also a good time to look forward.

Taking time to carefully choose goals and objectives for the next year can help guide and shape your next 365 days.

So without further ado, here are five new things the SAGrader team is looking forward to exploring and implementing in 2010.

1. Course Libraries: Course Libraries will make it easier for you to identify the lessons and assignments you use in your class. It eliminates the process of building SAGrader content exclusively for your class. We already have libraries built for Psychology, Sociology, Social Deviance, Social Psychology and Research Methods. If you don’t see a course that fits your needs, don’t worry because our next new feature will help you out.
2. Partnerships/Authors: We are going to start actively seeking professors and teachers for content area courses to help build additional libraries. If you are interested in seeing a library built to fit your course, let us know and we’ll see what we can do to start partnering with you.
3. More robust grading engine: We’re exploring the possibility of adding some general writing style metrics to our grading engine. While maintaining our focus on assessing content, these new metrics could help us critique things like spelling, grammar and word choice.
4. Similarity Detection: Our revamped similarity detector is currently being tested to make sure it’s ready for prime time. The similarity detector identifies students who may be reusing work from other students, even across semesters!
5. New and Improved Website: We’re working to make our website more helpful by reworking the copy, and providing more resources like customer testimonials and links to our academic research.

So there you have it. The five big new things we plan on bringing to SAGrader in the new year. If you have any thoughts, suggestions or other ideas for us, please let us know in the comments.

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“Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.”
–Mark Twain

I think Sam Clemens knew a thing or two about education, or at least the world around him. He may have ended his formal education after the 5th grade, but to receive honorary degrees from Yale, the University of Missouri, and Oxford has to mean something, right? Though he so strongly believed in education, he also believed in learning outside of the classroom, which is evident in all his accomplishments.

Even for today’s students, school can get in the way of education. Instead of learning, students come to class, space out while their professors lecture, then leave having learned nothing and retained very little if anything at all.

So what exactly causes school to get in the way of education? Here are some of our thoughts.

• Asking students to memorize instead of learn. You might not outright ask your students to memorize a sheet of notes, but you imply it when you give them specific notes and test only on those notes. Students know they only have to remember that information for a week and then quickly let it escape their brains.
• Along the lines of number one, teaching to your tests alone limits the amount of learning your students do.  When they realized all they have to learn is 1 + 1 = 2 to get the right answer on the exam, they don’t care to learn the reasons why or how 1 + 1 = 2.
• Emotionless teaching can have quite the impact on students.  When you seem to strongly dislike the subject you’re teaching, your students follow suit.  Why should they care if you don’t?
• Not interacting or engaging with students during class time only hurts them in the end.  Many teachers fall into the slump of coming to work, saying what they’ve prepared to say, then leaving.  For many students, this is what school is.  But, this classroom is hardly beneficial for students.

The good news? You have the power to help school not only be a place to learn, but to inspire your students to learn outside of the classroom and become life long learners.  But how?  Here are a few of our favorite ideas.

• Take classroom learning outside of the classroom.  Go on mini field trips, show students how to find the best resources at the library, or simply have class in a place that relates to what you’re teaching.  Mix things up and show your students that learning can take place anywhere and it doesn’t have to be boring.
• Let students add their own personal touches.  Some students are better with pen an paper, others feel more comfortable typing their notes on their laptops.  Offer some freedom like this during class time.  Also allow your students a bit of freedom, if possible, when it comes to writing or studying topics that interest them.  Writing a paper on something you’re passionate about (or at least somewhat interested in) is much less painful than writing one on a topic you care very little for.
• Encourage your students to discover their passions.  You might be surprised how their passion for something in one area will increase their interest in other areas.
• Encourage your students to learn something – anything – outside of the classroom.  The excitement of learning something new and interesting can carry over to learning other things that your students might not always find as exciting.

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