Ask a Tech Teacher

APRIL 28, 2025

Platforms like Zoom or Google Classroom enable real-time discussions, while forums foster ongoing dialogue beyond scheduled sessions. Today’s students demand more than just traditional lectures and textbooks; they’re looking for an engaging, flexible, and personalized learning experience.

Hybrid Learning 128

Hybrid Learning Learning Styles Study Critical Thinking 128

Teachers Pay Teachers

JULY 16, 2025

Conduct a casual formative assessment during a class discussion or group activity, and regularly check in with students who need more support. And if you can incorporate their phones and/or electronics into the lesson, you’ll get a lot more students paying attention!

High School 52

High School High School Beliefs Schools 52

Faculty Focus

JUNE 29, 2025

Without the constant need to defend or assert one’s ego (our preferences and aversions), the instructor’s attention can open to what is happening in the room or on the screen. Teaching through discussion as the exercise of disciplinary power. Taking this perspective, effective teaching is a generative, social process.

Teaching 70

Teaching Motivation Learning Outcomes Instructors 70

Faculty Focus

JUNE 29, 2025

Without the constant need to defend or assert one’s ego (our preferences and aversions), the instructor’s attention can open to what is happening in the room or on the screen. Teaching through discussion as the exercise of disciplinary power. Taking this perspective, effective teaching is a generative, social process.

Teaching 70

Teaching Motivation Learning Outcomes Instructors 70

Edsurge

MAY 25, 2020

What’s the Use of Lectures? Let’s start with one of education’s most hallowed traditions: the lecture. In his 1971 book “ What’s the Use of Lectures? The author’s work did not discount the fact that there are inspirational teachers whose lectures are so compelling they can hold student attention for hours.

Lecturing 206

Lecturing Questions Learning Attention 206

Edsurge

JANUARY 31, 2023

Teaching is about attention — getting students to pay attention to the material, and to engage with new ideas so they can develop new skills and abilities. But getting and holding the attention of students has become more difficult since the pandemic, according to many college instructors around the country.

Attention 194

Attention Lecturing Instructors Students 194

Faculty Focus

FEBRUARY 2, 2025

Despite debate and disagreement about how to define and measure attention spans, numerous studies have put student attention spans in approximately the 10-minute range (Bradbury, 2016). Attention is a so-called gateway between information and learning and is compared to a spotlight on a large stage (Keller et al.,

Lecturing 104

Lecturing Attention Students Discussions 104

Catlin Tucker

JUNE 21, 2021

lecture, discussion, written responses), there are myriad barriers that may make it hard for students to access information and share their learning effectively. What might make it hard for a student to process information presented verbally in a lecture or mini-lesson? Identify and Remove Barriers.

Blended Learning 518

Blended Learning Learning Lecturing Motivation 518

Faculty Focus

FEBRUARY 2, 2025

Despite debate and disagreement about how to define and measure attention spans, numerous studies have put student attention spans in approximately the 10-minute range (Bradbury, 2016). Attention is a so-called gateway between information and learning and is compared to a spotlight on a large stage (Keller et al.,

Lecturing 96

Lecturing Attention Students Discussions 96

Catlin Tucker

MAY 11, 2021

We can indeed cover more ground when we present information in a traditional lecture format, but that doesn’t mean students understand the information. The class may include students with a hearing impairment, auditory processing disorder, or attention deficit disorder.

Blended Learning 545

Blended Learning Learning Universal Design Disabilities 545

Catlin Tucker

JUNE 18, 2023

” Challenges with Traditional Live Instruction Traditionally, educators disseminate information in real-time, relying on lectures or mini-lessons. Students think about the answer individually, discuss it with a partner, and then share their responses with the class.

Lecturing 433

Lecturing Knowledge Assignments Writing 433

Catlin Tucker

DECEMBER 22, 2021

A teacher’s cognitive engagement is the degree of attention to and investment in their work (Klassen, Yerdelen & Durksen, 2013). Instead, teachers must strive to design student-centered learning experiences that challenge the students to think, discuss, problem-solve, collaborate, question, create, and reflect.

Blended Learning 535

Blended Learning Teachers Learning Grades 535

Catlin Tucker

NOVEMBER 12, 2023

Instead of spending precious class time transferring information live for the whole group in the form of a lecture or mini-lesson, which presents myriad barriers (e.g., auditory processing, attention deficit, lack of background knowledge or vocabulary, absences), teachers record video instruction and assign those videos for homework.

Blended Learning 469

Blended Learning Students Assignments Lecturing 469

Faculty Focus

OCTOBER 17, 2023

Capturing students’ attention throughout the entire class is crucial for any teacher, but the challenge lies in the fact that, despite teachers’ expertise in their subject matter, it can be challenging to hold students’ attention for an extended period. Discuss practical applications. Can you find it?

Attention 122

Attention Teaching Instructors Minute Papers 122

eSchool News

DECEMBER 5, 2023

But TikTok, and social media more broadly, continues to capture curiosity and attention, and it’s not all just dance videos–Indiana science teacher @ChemteacherPhil commands an audience of more than 3 million followers on the app. Is there a lesson in that? Or, if you’re Maynard Kereke (Hip Hop M.D.),

Teaching Methods 309

Teaching Methods Lecturing Schools Beliefs 309

Faculty Focus

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

It turns out that with each passing year, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to capture and hold a student’s attention and focus during my lessons. Our cognitive resources do, however, have a limit; therefore, we must always choose from the available resources that we can pay attention to.

Attention 123

Attention Students Quizzes Interdisciplinary 123

Edsurge

OCTOBER 27, 2020

But Lang admits that holding students’ attention is now harder than it’s been in the past, and he offers some practical suggestions on how to respond. We talked about his tips for holding attention during online classes, his thoughts on banning devices in the classroom and how he got into writing about teaching in the first place.

Instructors 218

Instructors Attention Education Lecturing 218

Faculty Focus

OCTOBER 17, 2023

Capturing students’ attention throughout the entire class is crucial for any teacher, but the challenge lies in the fact that, despite teachers’ expertise in their subject matter, it can be challenging to hold students’ attention for an extended period. Discuss practical applications. Can you find it?

Attention 100

Attention Teaching Instructors Minute Papers 100

Faculty Focus

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

It turns out that with each passing year, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to capture and hold a student’s attention and focus during my lessons. Our cognitive resources do, however, have a limit; therefore, we must always choose from the available resources that we can pay attention to.

Attention 111

Attention Students Quizzes Interdisciplinary 111

eSchool News

JULY 30, 2024

This is tantamount to a lecture series on anything from space exploration, artificial intelligence, or even telephone scams. All the great teachers I had growing up found ways to involve the topic they were discussing, even tangentially, into current events. Chemistry teachers demonstrated why solar power was difficult to harness.

Skills 290

Skills Gamification Learning Intelligence 290

eSchool News

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

Summarized transcription: What and why Summarized transcription, a form of “speech-to-text services,” provides “meaning-for-meaning” transcriptions by summarizing the essence of a discussion or other spoken content. They offer real-time summarized transcripts for lectures, meetings, and live events, either remotely or in the classroom.

Disabilities 275

Disabilities Accessibility Lecturing Learning Styles 275

Catlin Tucker

MAY 30, 2023

Teachers can incorporate collaborative activities, discussions, and cooperative learning strategies, like reciprocal teaching , that promote speaking and listening skills. Participating in a whole group, teacher-led discussions can also be intimidating for ELs.

English 274

English Blended Learning Languages Language 274

Edsurge

JANUARY 10, 2023

SAN MARCOS, Texas — Live lecture classes are back at most colleges after COVID-19 disruptions, but student engagement often hasn’t returned to normal. To see what teaching is like on campus these days, I visited Texas State University in October and sat in on three large lecture classes in different subjects.

Instructors 213

Instructors Lecturing Students Textbooks 213

eSchool News

DECEMBER 19, 2023

To fix the problem, I planned amazing lessons that would flop because the kids would either stare at me without paying attention or refuse to turn in assignments. Someone who values conformity might emphasize strict due dates, teacher-enforced rules and consequences, and lecture-style learning.

Teachers 322

Teachers Middle School Middle School Failure 322

Edsurge

JANUARY 16, 2023

The pandemic brought even more attention to this issue. Teachers can divide students into discussion groups. Teachers can also send students into breakout rooms and monitor them through a feature that recognizes whether or not students are engaged in discussions. There's a lecture mode in UNIVERSE.

Teaching 212

Teaching Lecturing Education Learning 212

Edsurge

FEBRUARY 5, 2019

Listen to the discussion on this week’s EdSurge On Air podcast. I know from my discussions with faculty that there’s this very real phenomenon of initiative fatigue and fatigue over these fads that I think can distract from the more productive conversations that we could have about, “Okay, what do we know works? Do I need this?

Art 167

Art Science Teaching Failure 167

eSchool News

JANUARY 3, 2023

To fix the problem, I planned amazing lessons that would flop because the kids would either stare at me without paying attention or refuse to turn in assignments. Someone who values conformity might emphasize strict due dates, teacher-enforced rules and consequences, and lecture-style learning.

Teachers 283

Teachers Middle School Middle School Failure 283

Edsurge

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

The paper’s authors say they hope their work can become a starting point for discussion, rather than a rigid template. In part, this adopts a model some MIT professors already use, called a Small Private Online Course, or SPOC —a customized adaption of the Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, that sparked wide attention a decade ago.

Lecturing 218

Lecturing Art Internet Ethics 218

Edsurge

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

Most of us know what to expect in a face-to-face classroom: Students sitting in rows, facing instructors and listening to lectures, watching videos displayed on screens up front, or, in smaller classes, participating in lively discussion. But are colleges paying attention to what online students want most?

Mobile Devices 211

Mobile Devices Lecturing Quizzes Participation 211

eSchool News

MARCH 20, 2025

Some students prefer the energy of large lecture halls, while others thrive in small, discussion-based classes. Personalized attention can make a significant difference in academic success, so consider whether a schools class sizes and faculty engagement align with your learning style.

Questions 276

Questions Students Study Textbooks 276

Edsurge

OCTOBER 17, 2023

In fact he had been pursuing research to improve physics teaching for years, as a parallel area of work that people hadn’t paid much attention to. You’ve famously compared lecturing to bloodletting. This was my soundbite, but it was effective, that lectures are the pedagogical equivalent to bloodletting.

Teaching 200

Teaching Lecturing Evaluation Teaching Evaluations 200

Edsurge

JUNE 6, 2024

It’s a game-changing shift,” says Marc Watkins, a lecturer of writing and rhetoric at the University of Mississippi and director of the university’s AI Summer Institute for Teachers of Writing. New AI tools can make audio recordings of lectures and automatically create summaries and flashcards of the material.

Lecturing 216

Lecturing Education Assignments Syllabus 216

Edsurge

APRIL 12, 2018

Lecture + Digital Formative Assessment I recently attended a local conference and the keynote was delivered by Aaron Polansky , superintendent from Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School in Rochester, Mass. Within his talk he exclaimed, “Lectures are only terrible if you are a terrible lecturer!”

Essay 167

Essay Teaching Lecturing Coaching 167

Catlin Tucker

MAY 20, 2024

Just as our fixed-menu dining scenario highlights the limitations of a one-size-fits-all approach, traditional classroom settings often mimic this model with lectures or mini-lessons where a teacher presents information in a uniform way to all students.

Lecturing 195

Lecturing Reading Knowledge Attention 195

Edsurge

JANUARY 20, 2020

I never see this discussed in resources for effective teaching, but it has been a big challenge for me for many years. The students were so engaged in discussions, I had no authority. In the book What the Best College Teachers Do , Ken Bain describes how sustaining students’ attention helps to facilitate learning. And awesome.

Lecturing 185

Lecturing Attention Questions Study 185

Edsurge

OCTOBER 19, 2016

Static visuals, long blocks of text and discussion boards were the staples of much of the first generation of online classes. Most MOOCs, despite the claims of innovation and disruption, consisted of video lectures and text-based assignments. The online environment is more likely to give all students a voice. considered inferior.

Technology 160

Technology Lecturing Instructors Beliefs 160

Edsurge

OCTOBER 26, 2021

He’s even written a book about an approach called “ Flipped Learning ,” where professors ask students to watch lecture videos before they come to class so that class time can focus more on experiences and other forms of learning. And so I posted to the discussion board and nobody responded. But there was no email.

Teaching 189

Teaching Attention Feedback Lecturing 189