The Instructor’s Kit Bag

In this episode, we will discuss the different flavors of The Socratic Method and how to use them in the classroom. We will also examine the pros and cons of when and why we should use one of Socrates' most famous methods in examining our beliefs while engaging our students in critical thinking, empathy, and emotional intelligence.

In this episode, we discuss gamification within education. Gaming is now at everyone’s fingertips, especially with mobile devices, so the question is- what are video games doing well? We will discuss three specific elements used in video game design: scaffolded learning, immediate feedback, and engagement. These three elements combine to make a more dynamic and student centric classroom.

In this episode, we discuss not only the importance of identifying younger generations, but understanding what motivates, helps, and hinders their learning. This knowledge will help us, as educators, to develop more effective content to engage students in more efficient and relevant methods. In turn, this sets up students for success through more dynamic learning.

Have you ever wanted to learn a new subject but needed more time to sit through hours of training or learning? Well, good news! In this episode of "The Instructor's Kit Bag," we will discuss Microlearning and how we can use this practice to take the more challenging topics and break them down into smaller, bite-sized increments of study. With technology and distance learning driving education forward, microlearning has been helping to capture student engagement through various methods to keep learning at the forefront.

Many people may have been told about learning styles. Which usually means they’ve been told they are either a visual learner, an auditory learner, or a hands-on learner. But what if that isn’t quite right? What if we’re not thinking about learning styles in the best way possible? Listen in as we discuss what learning styles are, what variables help to drive learning, and how may be able to use the learning styles in a more productive way.

In this episode, we wrap up the Experiential Learning Model by covering the fifth and final phrase, Apply. We also review a lesson plan that utilizes all five phases of the ELM and how it creates a more dynamic and learner-centric experience. By discussing ELM, we hope to help all educators gain more understanding of how ELM is a fantastic tool, not just for the student, but for the educator as well.

Delivering content to your students may seem straightforward and dull, but with the Experiential Learning Model, it doesn’t have to be! Continuing with the five phases of ELM, two educators discuss how they use the Methods of Instruction in the Generalizing New Information and Develop phases to help implement a dynamic and engaging lesson plan for students.

The Experiential Learning Model is a great method and process that is used to make a more dynamic classroom. There are five phases that make up ELM and, in this episode, I sit down with two educators from Army Logistics University to discuss the first two phases: Concrete Experience and Publish and Process. If we don’t create good content with these phases, the rest of our student-centric lesson will fall apart. Listen in to see how we utilize CE and P&P to make sure we haven’t tripped ourselves at the starting line.

A great way to get more engagement from your students is by setting up lessons and courses to encourage a student-centric mindset. One of the great ways to do this is by developing an educational experience that enforces the learning process at all levels. One way to achieve this experience is by utilizing the Experiential Learning Model. In this episode, The Instructor’s Kit Bag presents an overview of what the Experiential Learning Model is and how the Army and other educational institutions have adapted it to make effective and rigorous learning within the classroom.

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the educational world has changed how it has viewed distance learning, blended learning, and its own responses to the pandemic. We wrap up the three-part series about how Army Logistics University and its educators learned and adapted because of this world event and the impact COVID-19 had on education at ALU.

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the world had to change the way it delivered education by adapting and implementing a myriad of changes. Listen in as five educators discuss how the pandemic negatively and positively affected their profession at Army Logistics University as we continue the conversation in Part 2, discussing the benefits and drawbacks of converting to a distance learning classroom.

It’s safe to say the global pandemic has forever changed education. While many educators can list numerous examples of how the pandemic negatively impacted educational practices, many others recognized the pandemic actually made us more well-rounded teachers and developers? Listen in as five educators discuss how the pandemic negatively and positively affected their profession at Army Logistics University.

In this episode of Instructor’s Kit Bag, we dive into the second part of discussing the value of assessments and how to better develop them for our students and ourselves. Listen in as we go over the best practices of writing multiple-choice questions, structuring a progressive assessment, and setting the assessment up to continue the learning process.

Tests only measure what a student know, right? What if we told you that tests can be dynamic, be part of the learning process, and be built to help, not hurt, students? In the first part of this topic, we are going to run down the many types of assessments that can be administered. We will discuss what categories the Scholastic Assessment Test, the Virginia Standards of Learning, and the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery fall under.

Having discussed Bloom’s taxonomy and the domains of learning in previous episodes, we arrive to the question: now what? In this episode of the Instructor’s Kit Bag, we have three perspectives to answer that question. Listen in as a teacher, a developer, and an instructor discuss how to use Bloom’s Taxonomy in building a lesson plan and how to adapt the Virginia Standards of Learning into utilizing the domains of learning.

Almost everyone recognizes Bloom's taxonomy and the use of the Cognitive Domain. But there are two other domains, the Affective and Psychomotor, which are extremely important in implementing in our lessons, courses, and assessments. Together, all three domains make up the head, the heart, and the hands of education. Listen in to review these two domains and their importance in learning development as a curriculum developer and teacher.

Most educators can recognize Dr. Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy as an important part of their field. But most may not know that there are varieties of this Taxonomy that include an old, a revised, a Cognitive, an Affective, and a Psychomotor version, only one of which was actually created by Bloom.

It is vitally important for teachers, schools, and education as a whole to get rid of two toxic phrases that build a mindset which ultimately squashes innovation and creativity. Unfortunately, too many people hide behind these crippling maxims- sometimes by choice and sometimes because they fall into it. Join Host Nate Ball of Army Logistics University as he discusses what all educators need to remove from their educational environment.

In this episode we go over one of the most important aspects of teaching: credibility. What makes us credible instructors and how do we make sure we maintain our credibility?

The Instructor's Kit Bag - Podcast Teaser