Photo: Juniette Fiore
ing education and the importance of teaching students abductive reasoning—finding the simplest most likely explanation for an observation—as a creative, intuitive, and revolutionary alternative to deductive and inductive reasoning.
“Education should be collaborative and creative.”
Flipping the Classroom
-Jennifer Ferriss-Hill
the classroom in his introductory physics class. Rather
AUGMENTING REALITY A team of University of Miami faculty is collaborating with Plantation-based Magic Leap to explore how augmented reality (AR) technology, which superimposes computer-generated imagery over a user’s view of the real world, may be incorporated into future student learning experiences. Last fall, University of Miami President Julio Frenk and Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz discussed the partnership they call “Project Alexandria.” Abovitz says he hopes faculty members will be inspired to create AR applications that use Magic Leap devices to turn the campus into a global digital hub. In turn, President Frenk says, “I think of Miami as the Alexandria of the 21st century. Through the importance of place, we can eliminate the friction of space and bring people together.” Mathews is excited about the potential for AR to add another layer of depth to learning about art history. “Both VR and AR are extraordinary technologies for student education,” she says. “Along with different visual perspectives, AR would allow students to look at a painting and compare it with others by the same artist. You could also add voice-over commentary or notes about a work’s historical context.” Mathews noted that the Faculty Learning Community for this year and next, sponsored by Academic Technologies, will address pedagogical applications for the Magic Leap platform. This emphasis highlights the potential of AR as a powerful learning tool in other fields of the humanities, from history to classic literature to religious studies. “The UM faculty will be looking at Magic Leap’s innovative technology over the next year,” she says. “The potential for collaboration is enormous. We have only begun to scratch the surface.” n
For the past four years, Joshua Cohn, professor and chair in the Department of Physics, has been flipping than have students listen to a lecture, he assigns reading in advance and uses classroom and laboratory time for interactive group problem-solving activities based on the SCALE-UP (Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Upside-down Pedagogies) model. “This is a cultural change for our students,” Cohn says. “We have a studio-style learning environment, with groups of three students sitting together at large round tables with laboratory instruments. The idea is that the group is the learning core, and its members help each other solve problems in class.” The teams have access to a laptop, conduct laboratory experiments, and solve group exercises on whiteboards, regularly presenting their findings to the larger group. During these activities, they assume roles that include a group manager, a skeptic who asks questions, and a recorder who writes down the data. To make things more challenging, the professor might not provide all the information needed to solve a problem, simulating a real-world research environment. “It’s very different from sitting in class while the professor lectures or gives a PowerPoint presentation,” Cohn says. While the response is generally positive, Cohn says the flipped classroom approach takes some students out of their comfort zone–especially if they are used to memorizing material in advance of a test. “After we do a 20-minute activity, I will ask someone from the group what we have learned and why we took this approach,” Cohn says. “Their comments allow us to continue to tweak the flipped learning concept to enhance student engagement and outcomes.”
ARTS | SCIENCES
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