Social media summaries

H Group ITA Workshop

Summaries/Social Media

1. Social Media and the falling institution of Marriage

The article revolves around two studies done in the U.S. on the effect of social media on marriage and increasing rate of divorce and infidelity. The study is called “Social network sites, marriage well-being, and divorce: Survey and state-level evidence from the United States” and was published in Computers in Human Behavior. According to the study the amount of Facebook usage has a direct effect on a person’s married life and can significantly predict divorce rate. The study was conducted by the researchers of Boston University and Pontifical Catholic University of Chile’s School of Communication. The first study was an analysis of marriage and divorce rate from 43 states of the United States during 2008-2010, which was compared with Facebook penetration during the same period. There was a 20% increase in the number of Facebook users and a 2.1% increase in the divorce rates in these states during this period. Another study conducted by University of Austin’s researchers included 1,160 married couples between the age of 18 to 39, which was a mixed group of users and non-users of social media. They were asked to take a survey which revolved around their happiness in a relationship, sex life, if they had or thought of engaging in extra-marital sex or thought of getting a divorce. The results were kept confidential. Of the people who didn’t use social media 11.4% were happy with their marriage. On the other hand 32% of the social media users were about to get a divorce and about 16% were planning on leaving their partners.

In my opinion it’s not the fault of social media that people are growing apart. It is the people who are unable to prioritize between their social media life and real life. They are happy with the number of likes to their Facebook profile picture than they should be with their spouse coming home early on a Friday evening. They are too busy to look up from their ‘Chats’ and are missing on the charms of the life partner they chose. We need to prioritize and give more importance to 3 Dimensional people roaming around us than to the increasing number of ‘Friends’.

Reference

Sass, Eric. (2014, July 7). Social Media Linked to Infidelity and Divorce. Social Media and Marketing Daily: The Social Graf (Connecting through Chaos). http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/229441/social-media-linked-to-infidelity-divorce.html

(Patil)

2. Two Universities tell us how they’re using social media

This article explains how two prominent universities have used social media positively by building up their presence in virtual communities. The author has interviewed two representatives and briefed the readers on important findings. The representatives interviewed were Aaron Jaco, the digital media specialist with the Office of Marketing and Communications of Drake University, and Megan Troppito at the University Marketing and Communications, Loyola University.

Drake University: Their approach is to build relationships in a community to strengthen the reputation and image of school.  For this, they build wide networks across its departments, facilities, and student organizations; it oversees the school’s presence in all platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr) whilst abiding by all legal and best practice guidelines relating to social media (such as copyright laws, student privacy laws, etc.).

From a survey done for the incoming students in Fall 2013, they have found that their social media presence has helped one fifth of the students to make their enrollment decision. Students also use social media to gather information on admission, to meet more students, to find roommates, etc.

Loyola University, Chicago: Loyola uses social media to maintain transparency and maintain policies for use of social media at the university. They use Twitter for attending to student matters such as admission issues and for sharing and engaging in the Loyola community; Facebook for promoting campus events and sharing student profiles and YouTube and Flickr for producing professional visual content. The response from students for recruitments and events posted on social media has always been at a higher rate than previous years.

The author concludes the articles by saying that the approaches of using social media presence in their broader marketing and communication programs can be made a common best practice for any business.

My Opinion:

The article would be very comprehensive if it had presented information on both positive and negative aspects of social media presence in the university system.

Reference

Washenko, A. (2013, October 31). 2 Universities Tell Us How They’re Using Social Media, Sproutsocial Insights, Retrieved from http://sproutsocial.com/insights/universities-social-media on July 25, 2014.

(Chamila Kalpani Dissanayake)

3. Summary of Infographic: Impact of Social Media in Education by Jake New

This article basically describes the uses of social media in education, for example, inrecruitment, safety instructions and communication with students.

Also it shows the results from a survey with 8000 faculty participants, and the main point is that more than a half of the respondents state that SM “creates a better learning environment," while the other part says that is more distracting than helpful.

In my opinion I think we are on a starting point on realizing what social media have already done to all of our lives, in both personal and academic contexts, and I also think that social media are becoming a major tool in the classrooms so at one point eventually everybody is going to use them.

Retrieved on July 29, 2014, from http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/infographic-impact-social-media-education/

(Victor)

4. Summary

In this article, the writer talks about six different ways parents can adapt to for keeping a safe check on their children while they navigate social media as suggested by Christine Wilson, who is a founder and CEO of MtoM Consulting. The first and the foremost thing to do is to create an account on Facebook or any other platform for the children yourself, and then to have high privacy settings. These two steps will maintain a secure check and balance. It’s equally important to check the friends kids are making on Facebook, as the writer suggests that it's good for the parents to make their kids have common friends so it’s easier to keep them on the safe side while using social media, and most importantly not let them get too much used to it, which could increase the indirect interaction over real life ones. She also suggests that parents use all sorts of social media that their kids are using and be a part of it, irrespective of their likes or dislikes. Obviously when they will be on a particular social media, they’ll be able to monitor the activities more and have more interaction with their children. This will ultimately make the parents know and learn more about the pros and cons of the social media and will be able to make kids have secure use of social media.

Reference:

Joyce, Amy. (2014, July 16). “6 Tips to keep your kids safe on social media.” Washington Post.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2014/07/16/6-tips-to-keep-your-kids-safe-on-social-media/

(Hira Farooq)

5. The World Cup's Top Moments on Social Media

The 2014 FIFA World Cup has extremely influenced the social media, not just by providing plenty of wonderful matches. Impressive moments during Brazil 2014 have been witnessed and diffused rapidly through social media by many football fans from all over the world. Interestingly, FIFA.com demonstrates some top famous moments which have been widely spread on social media platforms. Overall, there are over 600 million tweets sent during the World Cup period and more than 600,000 tweets per minute which were sent after Germany was announced to be the 2014 World Cup champion. A new Twitter record was created when Brazil was defeated by Germany with the score of 1-7 as nearly 30 million tweets were posted during the match. Another interesting moment is that Balotelli, an Italian soccer forward, requested a cheeky kiss from the UK Queen in Twitter if he helped the England team win the group matches. Additionally, Facebook is another platform for football fans to have a close interaction with the events during the World Cup. Almost three billion comments including likes and posts have been generated by more than 350 million people through this kind of social media. Some notable moments are also highly welcomed in Facebook, such as Tim Howard, the American goalkeeper, gained great praises from the worldwide football fans due to his excellent performance by making 16 saves versus Belgium. When it comes to the Final, more than 280 million interactions have been posted via Facebook by over 80 million people, breaking the records in the history of sports moments on social media.

Reference

FIFA.com (2014). The World Cup's top social moments. From http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2014/m=7/news=the-world-cup-s-top-social-moments-2406128.html

(Fuda Ning)

6. Social Media and its Effect on Student’s Writing

In this article, the author talks about the effects of social media and how it impacts students in their writing.  A large percentage of students use social media on a day to day basis. Hence, this has led to an increase in usage of text lingo which in turn affects a student’s capability to write effectively. This also prevents a student from being able to shift from an informal language of speech to a formal language when required to do so. They tend to be careless and misspell words and make a lot of grammatical errors. Nowadays, the use of abbreviations while conversing with another person has increased to such a level that few of these abbreviations and text lingos have even been included in the dictionary.  The author points out an experiment conducted by an English professor, Terry Thaxton, who said that sometimes students are unable to recollect a face to face conversation and rely on social media (phones, chat messages) to remember the conversation. This diminishes their thought processing and written communication skills. Another study showed that the quality of writing has gone down considerably, taking into fact that this generation has been more verbal compared to the previous generations. Employers who are on the lookout for an employee prefer to have someone who communicates well and is competent rather than a thoughtless person who would spoil the company’s reputation on social media. The author also discusses the positive impacts behind social media on writing. It helps students understand the different groups of people and opinions they have. They could also get immediate feedback on articles and essays which will help improve their writing skills. To conclude, the author feels that although there might be a positive side to social media on writing, students should know the balance between social media acronyms and real writing. (Twaritha Vijay)

7. “Seven ways teachers use social media in the classroom”

                  The article, written by Jess Fee on August 18, 2013, can be found on the web site Mashable with the following link http://mashable.com/2013/08/18/social-media-teachers/. The main point of author’s discussion is to expose the ways of successful usage of social media and encourage teachers to incorporate social media as very effective tools. Based on different examples, seven major methods were summarized for teachers in help to effectively work with their students. They are:

-                    Encourage students to share work socially.

-                    Use a hashtag to facilitate guest speaker discussions.

-                    Require students to keep a blog.

-                    Require original expert sources.

-                    Use Google Hangouts.

-                    Create a social classroom on Edmodo.

-                    Hold a class in Second Life.

The author believes that knowing these tips may help teachers to be more successful with their students.

Fee, J. (2013, August 18). 7 Ways Teachers Use Social Media in the Classroom. Retrieved July 29, 2014, from Mashable.: http://mashable.com/2013/08/18/social-media-teachers/

(Natalia)

8. How professors are using Facebook to teach

The author suggests that perhaps professors should think about computers and Facebook in the classroom not as a problem, but as of another way to teach. One of the examples the author brings is that students are more likely to ask questions after they interact with the professor online, especially shy students. But the teaching capacity of Facebook may be overestimated because students prefer using Facebook for their personal needs rather than for “formal learning”, though it helps sharing the information about classes.

The reason teaching with social media is still a rarity, according to the author, is that both students and lecturers are “conscious of their digital footprint” (Prescott, 2014). 

Prescott, J. (July 10 2014). How professors are using Facebook to teach. Bolton, UK: The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/07/10/how-professors-are-using-facebook-to-teach/

(Alexandra)

9. Emerging technologies enhance nursing education

The authors mention a pilot project which attempts to investigate whether it is possible to educate nurses in a junior or community college setting. The school uses emerging technologies, such as social networks, to benefit nursing students. Instructors post lecture videos prior to each lecture so that students may come to class fully prepared with questions. Students interact with each other and the teacher via Facebook discussions, and Facebook chats are embedded in the course, so students can view old chats from previous years. Interactions within the physical classroom as well as those on Facebook “create a bond” between classmates (Barra, 2014).

Bararra, J. M. (2014, July 8). Emerging technologies enhance nursing education. Ogdon, Utah. http://www.standard.net/Guest-Commentary/2014/07/09/Emerging-technologies-enhance-nursing-education.html

(Alexandra)

10. Article Resume: Indonesia’s Surprising Love Affair With Social Media                 

                  The usage of social media in Indonesia, moreover in its largest city, Jakarta, has become surprisingly booming, despite the fact that only quarter of the population have access to the Internet. Jakarta is included as one of the cities with the top five social media markets in the world, and Indonesia is a Twitter-literate nation at this moment. If we look more closely we will see that its rapidly growing archipelago is the key to the social media development. Another key that can explain this phenomenon are the easy access to the Smartphone and undeniably, the real traffic congestion and working hours are times where people are wondering about being in another place.

                  Within this development, there are a couple advantages born from the social media usage; first is the diversity in news. Unlike in the past, media has it leash taken away, and major news companies have redirected their resources to Twitter and Facebook, which means that if you publish something in social media it will get around faster. The second advantage is that social media usage is boosting business in Indonesia; a company's publicity depends on its popularity in the social media. It is seen as a gauge of how much Indonesian customers interact and relate with their favorite brand; one way advertising is not working anymore for business. The third advantage is about 'Talking Democracy'; the third advantage will explain how Indonesians finally found a way to be interested in politics. The latest presidential election depended heavily on the social media; politicians, including the president-elect of 2014 (who also won the Jakarta gubernatorial election), use social media as campaign media to target young people, middle class and the educated.

Reference

Lake, Rebecca. (2014, February 24). Indonesia’s Surprising Love Affair With Social Media. Retrieved from http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/features/indonesias-surprising-love-affair-with-social-media/

(Eva)

11. Summary of the article “Teens use social media to build school spirit”, by Amanda Lewis, in The Des Moines Register:

This article deals with a new phenomenon: social media and its utility for high schools students and especially for the dynamism of their school. In The Des Moines Register, Amanda Lewis introduces the idea that social networks are the new technologies to spread out information faster. That is a reason teachers of Journalism often agree with the use of social media in class. She also conveys the idea that social media encourages high school students, studying Journalism, to promote some events organized in their own institution and pushes them to get more involved in the community of their school. One of the best examples is sport events held by high schools for which journalist students post on Twitter or Tumblr for instance, the two main highlights of the article. Thus, Amanda Lewis provides a lot of examples from Des Moines Public Schools in order to show us how students use either Facebook, You Tube, Twitter, blogs or Tumblr to gather an important community around their school (students, teachers, parents and alumni). However some rules have to be broken by the teachers: students are allowed to use their phones in class, or they can publish on Twitter - under the supervision of a teacher - whatever they feel or think. A lot of students in Des Moines high schools try to be followed as many times as possible. It is not only a matter of how to change the classes of Journalism, it is also a phenomenon in which students are involved in the success and the pride of their high school. The power of these new means of communication is a precious resource to gather a lot of people in one place. Social media can be seen as an open window on the school: the more students talk about it - either on Facebook or Twitter, via a blog or Tumblr - the better the school can expend its name. In a word, the use of social media empowers as well as enriches the school experience. To conclude, according to the author, using social media in high school seems to bring a triple advantage: to create a dynamic setting into the class, to involve students in the school life and finally to generate a good promotion for the educational institutions.

Bibliography:

Lewis, A. (2014, June 26). Teens use social media to build school spirit. The Des Moines Register. Retrieved on July 25, 2014 from http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/des-moines/2014/06/27/east-high-journalism-socil-media/11392071/

(Emilie)

12. Social Media and Education - Summary

How will the digital revolution change the way teachers teach?

This article analyzes the effects that the social media have in students’ education. The author mentions that social media and especially Facebook have already changed the world of education. It is also claimed that the education field will become even more intimate through the use of social media. This means that students will have the chance to obtain a more positive and practical relationship with their teachers, they will be inspired and their motivation will be enhanced. Even though this move towards the digital world can be characterized as “scary”, it will result in optimistic changes within institutes of education.

Martin, J.K. (2013). “How will the digital revolution change the way teachers teach”, Uversity Connections Matter. Available:  http://www.uversity.com/blog/how-will-the-digital-revolution-change-the-way-teachers-teach/    [29/07/2014]

(Antonia)

13. The YouTube effect affects Music Education

This article explains how one of the social media sources such as YouTube has had an impact in how music students interact in today’s music world. It explains how mass production allows art to be accessible to the masses. This is an advantage for all of us since we are able to experience art. Since the digital revolution, the masses have been able to view or listen to digitalized artwork from a drive and on the internet, making it even easier for the consumption of art.

In the past, aural and performing arts such as the oratorio, symphony, and sacred mass had to be performed live. That media was eventually recorded by sound recorders and heard through phonograph cylinders, tapes, compact discs and even through ITunes now. Research has shown that the phonograph was the first technology that drastically changed the way people consume, create, and distribute music. The phonograph was a widespread mechanism that allowed for the recording and playback of music. This was called the “phonograph effect”. The emergence of the digital era and the invention of the internet brought about a new phonograph effect. This article explains how gradual media and technological change over the past hundred years has resulted in what is considered to be the post-performance world. It notes that recording and face-to-face live performance accounts for only a small percentage of one’s musical experience. The ideas of music, musician, and audience have been changed. It also encourages educators to continue to hold live performance in high regard; however, because of the transformation and availability of resources, educators should teach students about media and technologies that aid in the creating and consumption of music.

I believe YouTube can be a powerful and helpful resource for a musician if it is well used. One can expand one's repertoire by listening to new songs, symphonies, operas, and even watch the live broadcast of a master class. I have personally benefited from this since I have been able to watch online master classes from the celebrated and amazing American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and this is something I would not be able to do in real life because these type of events only take place in very influential schools such as Julliard. Another way I have benefited from it is through networking, I have been able to meet different musicians from all over the world and I have even been able to advertise myself as an opera singer through sharing my own singing videos. On the other hand, there is also a negative use of YouTube. For example I have met opera singers that learned entire roles by just watching the opera on YouTube several times, yet they still get paid the same amount of money to perform a role.  In my opinion these musicians are demeaning our craft. This is a very unethical way to make use of this resource, since musicians should be able and willing to learn an opera role by reading the music score and practicing. I believe social media like YouTube are great resources, especially in the music field, just as long as they are given an ethical use by the musician.

Citation

Macintyre Latta, Margaret, and Christine Marme Thompson. "The Youtube Effect." . International Journal of Education & the Arts, 8 July 2011. Web. 28 July 2014. <http://www.ijea.org/v12n6/v12n6.pdf>.

(Jessica Rosas)

14. How professors are using Facebook to teach

Students use social media in classes and teachers are frustrated in a competition with tablets and laptops to get students' attention. But the article states that Facebook has educational potential and teachers should consider it as a tool to teach or communicate with students to make announcements, bring up discussions and share resources. Even a research study in South Africa found out that lecturers consider Facebook a more convenient way to contact students. Students also felt that in this way they can approach their teachers much more easily. The article clarifies that Facebook is a good platform for informal learning. Students can support each other through networking in this medium to get information about university life, same as other networks that foster communication and any sort of collaboration between classmates. Meanwhile, the study highlights the importance of the professional use of these social media to prevent any kind of sacking. The writer explains that there are more teachers that have desire to use social media for educational intentions, and the teachers that experience this practice found it more useful, while this practice is still rare. At the end, the writer encourages the use of these media for learning purposes and engaging a more interactive collaboration between students and teachers.

(Saman)

15. The World Cup through the eyes of Social Media

According to this article, Germany finally came out as the champions for the 2014 World Cup after being able to score a goal against Argentina in extra time. The German squad could also be considered the true winner in the realm of social media after their annihilation of the hometown squad became the most tweeted sporting event in history. One interesting research result from the knockout stages of the World Cup showed that while watching penalty shootouts, fans displayed a specific pattern of tweeting. This pattern was then analyzed in contrast with other forms of television, such as reality shows and dramas. The World Cup also showed how football has been getting the attention of Americans and Australians. In spite of their national teams getting eliminated, video streaming records were set in the U.S. and Australia, and generic twitter World Cup hashtags were led by Americans, followed in a  distant second by Brazilians. The World Cup was not exempt from the standard comic relief and sarcasm found in social media outlets with pictures and videos becoming viral in a matter of minutes. In Europe, where football is one of the most popular sports, World Cup fever was also in full swing, as evidenced by various forms of World Cup branding, even from countries that didn’t qualify, such as posters, tarpaulins, and all the forms of decorations that one can imagine.

Woodford, D., & Prowd, K. (2014, July 15). The World Cup that was: A look back through social media. The Conversation. Retrieved July 25, 2014, from http://theconversation.com/the-world-cup-that-was-a-look-back-through-social-media-27706

(Miguel Gavino)

16. The summary of an article

The guide to Using Social Media for Marketing

If one has a small business to run, one should use social media marketing, which can help to look for new customers and brings remarkable success to the business.

Social media marketing is the Internet marketing that involves social media. A social media campaign needs to have your business goals set first. This could help you to find out the percent of your revenue.

There are several points that can help you to use social media for your business. Create a variety of content and use a brand image that people could easily recognize. It is also useful to link your original content to other articles as well. Other advice: track your competitors. This can help you to know all the news and provide valuable information in the sphere of your business.

Each social media platform has its own specifics. Facebook is famous for its visual component. Google+ has an advantage of circles and Pinterest’s image content is perfect for retail business. Twitter could be very useful for posting discounts, news and specials that your business has and YouTube is number one place for creating video.

Using social media for marketing is very helpful for gaining more customers for your business and having a better understanding of your target audience.

Reference

Kim, Larry. (2012, May 8). The guide to Using Social Media for Marketing.  Wordstream, Web, Retrieved 28 July 2014. <http://www.wordstream.com/social-media-marketing>.

(Masha)

17. Check Out That Selfie: How to Use Social Media in the Classroom

Summary
Many teachers believe social media could benefit students but there could be certain issues regarding using social media. So in a survey in Phoenix College of Education about 47 percent said social media could be beneficial and about 4 out of 5 use social media for personal use. But about 80 percent believe it is difficult to separate their private and professional lives.

Kathy Cook, the university's director for educational technology, has mixed reactions and says it's popular but uncharted territory and certain rules need to be followed when social media is used. So she suggests that there should be proper training for teachers There are doubts about whether it could be grounds for termination. There are examples where people were fired for posting controversial photos or posts.

Eighty percent teachers who use social media personally said that they face problems when parents and students try to interact with them online and very few of the teachers use social media in class. Hence greater emphasis needs to be placed on which social media are suitable for educating students and which are not. Certain web tools like YouTube, podcasts or laptops and tablets are still preferred over social media websites.

According to Cook, social media like Twitter can help students improve on concise writing especially when they post or repost about classroom activities, or using hashtags to follow certain topics, or receive feedback in a classroom blog from other professionals. She also says that it could be helpful to connect with experts who can address the classroom via Skype, giving a broader and global outlook to students.

Overall Cook stressed on both the need to be updated about the technological developments in academics.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/01/17/check-out-that-selfie-how-to-use-social-media-in-the-classroom

(Belinda)

Teaching Philosophies

H Group 2014

Teaching Philosophies

1. Teaching Philosophy

Most people wonder why students need teachers to learn a something, but in my opinion teachers are influential in the lives of students to help them learn in a more efficient way. A good teacher should be well versed with the basics of the subject and should be able to explain them in a way everyone understands. They should be prepared to answer questions well without giving wrong information and should also build certain skills that a student would require outside of academics.

In biology it's a common misunderstanding that almost everyone can read and understand without the help of a teacher. But that is not the case; there is a lot to learn in biology, as it is a very complex and wide field, and it is also a field which is growing and changing every day. When I begin I generally start with basics. I like to use a lot of pictures and videos, especially to explain processes to make it more fun. I like to give occasional quizzes but they are fun group quizzes. During this time I like to gauge how different students pick up different topics so I can alter the way I explain a topic so everyone can understand better.

Apart from theory I would also like to concentrate on lab work, which is very important in order to work in this field. And for labwork it's important to read up before starting work. So I would give them a basic questionnaire to complete as homework before they start with any experiment. This will also build their skills as researchers. There is a lot of research going on in this field, so it's difficult to keep in check with significant developments in different sub fields in biology. So for this purpose it is necessary to be able to read, understand, summarize, present, compare and discuss various papers in a subject. This session is more interactive and is a group activities , and helps to build important skills and build confidence.   (Belinda Dcosta)

2. Teaching Philosophy

In my experience the teaching practice has always been about learning, to learn different ways in which your students acquire knowledge and new skills. As a music teacher you always have to struggle with different styles of learning, as every one of your students is a unique individual and one of the main challenges is to figure out the best way to teach them.

Secondly, I think a teacher should master the field of expertise that he/she is involved in and moreover stay updated in new techniques and developments, especially nowadays, when we can appreciate that technology is advancing in every direction at a very fast rate. Musical instruments and accessories are proof of this; today we must learn how to play instruments that have more precision and better response than twenty years ago. So I think, as a teacher, you have a commitment to all of this.

Music learning is all about self-awareness; students should always been monitoring their body, both physically and mentally. For instance, what movements are they doing? What do they feel? What are they doing while they are performing? And finally, make them realize that making music has nothing to do with an instrument, but is with their bodies. I always encourage my students to think, and to discover the answers by themselves, so they really absorb the lessons you are giving.

I think you have an enormous and direct responsibility working with a music student. If you ask me about my purpose of doing all of this, the answer is very simple; I do what I do because I want to contribute to the lives of my students, to make their lives easier at the same time that I make them challenge themselves, and the only way to make this happen is by working very hard and guiding them in all of the possible steps, always keeping in mind that wisdom and patience is your best tool for doing all of this. -Victor Coba

3. How to Become a Competent Teacher in Class

Teaching is an imperative way to enhance students themselves, and has played a significant role in education. From my perspective, teaching philosophy should cover three basic aspects including why to become a teacher, what a teacher teaches and how to convey information to students. To begin with, one should clearly know the motivations of being a teacher; for example, teaching makes great contributions to intellectual growth of students and provides various requisite skills for shaping them. Teachers should recognize that it is highly worthwhile to devote themselves to this kind of valuable job. Additionally, the specific content in the class should focus on what students could obtain and whether or not the objectives of courses are beneficial for them. As a result of this, teachers should get well prepared to illustrate the most useful knowledge in limited class time. Also, there is a wide range of efficient methods for teachers to apply in the class, like making complete planning for lessons, communicating with students effectively, maintaining a warm relationship with them and so forth. Meanwhile, any other various ideas and voices of students should be taken into consideration by teachers. Moreover, teachers are also required to expand their knowledge by engaging in the frontier educational activities or lectures. Thus, to some extent they are able to keep in touch with the latest technology in the world. Most importantly, teachers should encourage students to make full use of available resources to explore the unknown world. In that case, students are able to acquire knowledge independently, which will be an indispensable part of their future study lives. (Fuda Ning)

4. Teaching Philosophy - Music

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent (Victor Hugo).  As a music teacher one cannot only strive for meeting academic goals but one should also inspire students to be the ambassadors that will make our craft prevail in today’s world. Music is one of the most beautiful and personal ways to express ourselves, whether you are a performer or the person composing the piece.

I believe that the teaching process starts with a little bit of effort from the instructor to evidence how things should be done. This is why I want to be a positive role model for my students by setting up a good example not only as a passionate music teacher but also as a devoted music performer.

As an international student I have come to realize how important it is to become familiar with other cultures from all over the world and especially when it comes to performing music. It is vital that we portray the correct cultural background of a composer or composition whether by playing an instrument or using our own voice as one. As a teacher I will always encourage my students to expand their cultural diversity by going on study abroad programs and by mastering different languages as well.

During my college experience I realized I always learned the most when my music professors would not only teach me but also get me involved in the subject. Now that I find myself on the teaching side I have made it one of my goals to always engage the students in my class by developing a welcoming environment in which they can express themselves and use their creativity.

I believe that human beings have the ability to achieve any goals they set for themselves, and it is my job as an educator to prepare the younger generations with all the tools they may need to be successful individuals.  (Jessica Rosas)

5. Teaching Philosophy

Teaching Philosophy can be defined as a personal statement concerning our thoughts and practices about teaching. This means that there is a great variety of different ways of how to teach. I strongly believe that Teaching Philosophy is an integral part of the teaching process and it is connected not only with the transfer of knowledge to the students but also with the process of the improvement of our own skills as teachers.

As far as I am concerned, the teachers’ duty is to care about their students, to know what they need to learn, to inspire them and to make the discipline even more fascinating and interesting for them. So, the first and the most important responsibility of the teachers is to have their course well planned. There should be introduction to the topic, detailed analysis of the concept and then presentation of the chief conclusions. It is also significant to emphasize the main ideas and give various examples to explain these theories. 

Moreover, an effective classroom is the one that allows the students to open a productive dialogue with the teacher regarding the topic that is presented. I believe that an interactive course - where the teacher discusses with the students many aspects of a discipline or a concept - is much more interesting and effective. In this way students are able to understand in depth the key theories, more questions are raised, and as a consequence they gain much more information than they would by just listening to the teacher. Students have the chance to analyze their opinion and exhibit their arguments. This ultimately brings about the improvement of their critical thinking. Furthermore, a good teacher has to answer all students’ questions. In addition, it is significant that the students should be encouraged to ask about everything they do not understand.

After the presentation of the topic and the discussion, the use of quizzes and other educational methods of tests are valuable in order to make sure that students are able to identify the main concepts that were introduced before. By this method (practice in the classroom), the teacher makes sure that the students can summarize the most important points of each concept and they also display the key conclusions.

I have decided to use this teaching method during my work at TTU as teaching assistant in the department in Economics, because I think that it will help students to learn faster and more easily. (Antonia)

6. Teaching Philosophy

Teaching is conveying the knowledge to others' minds. Although people have desire to learn, one of the very boring things in the planet is attending classes willingly, and sitting and listening to a lecture. So a teacher should not only be knowledgeable enough to teach others but also should be able to perform and entertain his students. In order to get students' attention, a teacher should be able to teach interactively to get his students' attention, make them participate and even memorize every detail and understand the concept by heart.

I personally love to teach, because I think this is a method that I can use to help others with my knowledge and at the same time I will develop my knowledge and understanding much more than before. Teaching is a two-faced tool. One way, it helps the teacher to improve his weaknesses in the specific concept that is being taught, and in the other way it helps students to improve their career. Teaching requires a lot of preparation for the teacher that makes him develop his knowledge and gets the latest updates on the field. I personally spend three hours before any class, to update myself on new issued articles and books, along with reviewing the past references. 

I like to interact with my students and make them participate more in class activities. That is how I manage to handle my classes and get my students' attention. I invite them to contribute more, and ask them about their outlook on the subject that is going to be taught. I try to raise questions in their mind and make analogies for most of the abstract subjects based on their everyday lives to make it more tangible and easy to understand.

I also make use of social media to get the class connected to each other for sharing any new articles or new books, bringing up any question, and solving problems in the group. In this case, students interact more.

All in all, I believe being a teacher makes me be more giving, and feel more proud of what I am. I think teaching is an art of drawing people's attention and passing on your knowledge and skills and making students satisfied with what they have gained, which I am really good at.   (Saman) 

7. Teaching Philosophy

Learning a language is not only a question of integrating syntax, vocabulary and another enormous amount of linguistic tools. I would agree with the fact that those materials are necessary, but it won’t be a complete approach to the language in itself. Indeed, a language is set up in a specific context, and it represents one of the various components of one particular civilization. Language cannot be taught without providing a cultural perspective. As a consequence, it is essential for me to share with my students a cultural overview through discussions. Active participation and conversations are some tasks I ask my students to care about. I build up my lessons on anecdotes, stories and comparisons between different cultural practices, but at the same time I also provide important linguistic materials.  I apply this organization as many times as the class allows a room to do so but it is a priority to cover the program as well.

Why do I incorporate a lot of conversations and group activities in the classroom? The main reason is that learning from each other is one of the most important components in my work: we can grow up and become better human beings in sharing and listening to our life experiences. Therefore, I am convinced that the greatest feature of being a foreign language teacher is the opportunity of sharing every day our own culture and learning from other cultures. I have never conducted such deep analysis of my own culture as when I faced other societies.

Teaching is an exchange in which students have to interact as many times as the teacher does. However, students must be assessed as well as tested on their knowledge. Daily homework and weekly quizzes are a requirement which I might be very strict about. Learning a language is a daily practice and it should part of the student’s routine. I wonder if the perfect lesson exists and I do not pretend to have reached this perfection, I would rather focus my energy on creating a friendly and hard-working atmosphere in the classroom. Students and teachers have rights and responsibilities: if everybody respects this agreement, the class can be held properly.

Overall, I am an open-minded and tolerant person, involved in my duties and conscientious about student progress. Nevertheless, there is one thing which I cannot accept in my classroom: incivility. Beyond learning, attending school is also about how to behave in society, to respect others and to evolve with integrity in our environment. Politeness and honesty are two other elements I ask students to be aware of. Thus, I am dedicated to students who want to improve their skills, and expand their world, and I offer them all the help they need to achieve their goals. As a teacher, it is also my priority to make sure that all the students in my class can evolve step by step in their apprenticeship of the language. Finally, it is also part of my profession to prepare them for the adult world. I truly think this maturity can be gained through opening their eyes to different worlds, through learning other languages. (Emilie Mathis)

8. My Teaching Philosophy

To be frank, becoming a teacher was never an ambition that I had in my mind, even though now I find that I had been doing it ever since I was a kid. I can still remember copying certain example exercises from text books and preparing lessons out of them at the age of 8 years (I can hardly believe myself when I recall how I used carbon papers to make copies of my handouts at such a very young age! Maybe, my father helped me out there!). Whenever we got a break in class, I had a bunch of students coming to my sub-class (as I may call it!). I actually skipped my lunch to correct small quizes I gave in my class and I was clever enough to give the feedback to all my students by the end of the day, itself! Unfortunately, I just could not keep up with the growing number of students, so I had to give up! Being an Instructor in the field of Engineering in a prestigious university back home since 2010, I have found myself not just enjoying the idea of teaching, but I feel that ‘THIS IS WHAT I’VE ALWAYS WANTED!".

 I can still recall myself going through the student feedback forms at the end of my very first teaching assignment as a teaching assistant back there, and I was delighted to see that most of the students had loved to see me again for their next semester (there was also a message which said that I should not wear ‘Kadjol’ in my eyes!). Since then, I have been having good feedback from students, peers and superiors, and I personally made it a point to develop further by updating myself continuously. Although my family was growing up after marriage, I kept on participating in conferences, workshops etc., to learn about state of art teaching techniques whilst working as a part-time tutor in a distance education program to be good at online teaching. I also worked as a visiting resource person for two organizations during my spare time in order to build up my network with industry, as I believe that experience is a must to properly orient your students towards the industry, especially in a field like Engineering. In fact, the six years of industry experience I had in the field really helped me with my engineering students back home. I have found that the students were fascinated on the sections taught on industry applications.

 I believe that people tend to devote themselves to things they love most, and I guess it goes same for me. Every time I get a teaching assignment, I put maximum effort into giving the best to my students. I try to incorporate knowledge, experience in field and technological skills to complete it and I always make it a point to get continuous feedback for further improving my future service. I really would like to see my students becoming super heroes and heroines in industry, so that when the time comes for me to sit back and relax, I can be happy about the fact that I have played my part well…. (C. Kalpani D.)

9. Teaching Philosophy

Talking about teaching philosophy, I would like to share my belief that a teacher should not only share the knowledge about the subject, but should give students an opportunity to experience a real problem or situation by using new information. I would like to be sure that after taking my class students will have a new useful tool in their hands and will be able to utilize it. Being in the field of Economics, I want my students to become more professional and look at the problems through the economic prospective.

The subjects of Economics contain a lot of theory, material and calculations. I know that in one semester students should handle a huge amount of information because they will have several subjects to learn. The teacher's ideal is when a hundred percent of given material will be obtained by students, but that it is impossible and not necessary. It is possible and I think very important to make students think critically and to stimulate them to analyze a situation trying to use new knowledge.

In my classroom I am not going to follow the textbook word by word; I will encourage students to read a chapter before class. I also do not want to spend so much time writing main concepts and determinations on a blackboard. They will be provided after each class in power point slides. During the class I would like to discuss with my students their readings and make them participate as much as possible. To be sure that my students follow the lesson, I am going to show different examples of where and how that or another concept can be met in real life.

All people are lazy in their nature and try to avoid difficulties if possible. Even good students tend to procrastinate in their study, if there are no clear requirements.  I am ready to lose some points in my student’s evaluation, but I am going to challenge them with homework assignments, quizzes and exams. I think homework is necessary, since it makes students review the material, questions them and makes them think. Results of small five minute quizzes about the finished material will show the picture of overall understanding. That will give me some clues about the auditory presentation and how should I work on my performance. Also it will stimulate students to work harder and be better prepared for exams. Several exams during semester will give students the opportunity to improve their grade if for some reason they fail one of them. My students should work hard, but they will be awarded. (Natalia)

10. Teaching Philosophy

 As I am a physics graduate student, most of my teaching is going to be on introductory physics courses for undergraduate students and physics laboratories. First of all, most of the students in these classes come from different departments and physics isn’t going to be the most important class they are taking. But as a physicist I believe that an educated person should understand some basic principles of how the world works; it opens a wide variety of interesting topics to study and helps in everyday life. In other words, one of the goals of my teaching is to interest people that are not motivated to study physics.

From my experience, the first step is to make students understand the teacher; even though physics can be an extremely complicated subject, my entire purpose in the classroom is to make it easy to understand and enlightening to my students. Even though I’m studying to be an expert in my field, I’ll likely make mistakes in simple issues and will gladly be corrected by my students. In fact, I believe that making mistakes in unimportant calculations helps the teacher understand if the students are interested and if they are paying attention.

So my teaching style can be mostly described as explaining the topic briefly and moving on to solving the problems on this topic that seem interesting or challenging. Normally I ask one of the students to do an example for the rest of the class. That usually helps the students to keep focused even if the topic seems to be stressful – they understand that they can do it anyway. Learning by working on the problem helps students understand the topic instead of just memorizing the pattern the teacher wrote. Students shouldn’t learn what the right answer is, but how to get it, how the equations work, and how to solve similar problems for themselves. My fear is that if I write out the equations, they may just copy my work or take a picture and go home, instead of absorbing the philosophies of what we’re covering in class and truly incorporating it into their knowledge. For the same reason I don’t use presentations in my classes – a hard science like physics may be scary at first, so the students need to make the first step in and try to do the examples instead of just looking at them.

I’ll also likely give regular quizzes, because they help students to find out what they don’t understand. Regular quizzes will also tell me what I need to concentrate on, or what I might not have previously explained well enough. I’ll give the quizzes just as extra credit, so if students don’t get answers right it doesn’t hurt them. This will also encourage students to come to class regularly, and show that I’m only there to help them.

I’d summarize my teaching philosophy as motivating students who may not have a natural interest in physics , humanizing physics, ensuring students learn how to think at least a little bit like physicists do about the world, and reminding students that I’m only there to help them. (Alexandra)

11. Teaching Philosophy

Coming from a background that taught me about how man evolved from apes due to evolutionary changes and genetic modifications makes me look at life in a different perspective. The never-ending growth and development in the field of science has always made me question everything the world has to offer. I only grew fonder of biology because of my teacher, without whom I wouldn’t know half of what I do today. She is my inspiration behind my teaching approaches, and I would love to share the same experience with my students.

I believe that sharing knowledge is the best gift that man has to offer. All students have their own level of understanding and thought processing. My approach is to understand each student individually and cater to each one's needs. Firstly, checking on the knowledge of the students as to how well they are familiar with a topic is key. This gives you a brief idea as to how to approach the concept. Secondly, explaining the concept with figures is my best way to grab their attention. Asking questions about a term in between the lecture helps me understand their strengths and weaknesses and aids me to focus on what they are lacking. Also, I strongly feel the necessity to encourage a student to always be willing to ask questions or clarify their problems as it helps build a strong relationship with them. I would be readily available to always help them. I personally feel practical exposure is the best learning experience for any student. Being able to do an experiment by themselves is far better than being told what to do. Having a short quiz before every class on the previous lecture will help me evaluate the students and also how well they have understood the topic that was taught. This also helps them prepare well ahead of their final exam. Video demonstrations of different mechanisms, enzyme activities, and life cycles will also help them develop a clear idea about the topic. Group presentations and assigning a role for every member in the group for the presentation will help students share each other’s ideas and improve their performance during collaborations in the future. 

I emphasize the students' being able to analyze and perform experiments on their own with my guidance as it would help them develop their thought processing skills. Lastly, it is always important to have an interactive and lively atmosphere in the classroom. I want my students to enjoy what they learn and benefit from this class.  (Twaritha Vijay)

12. Teaching Philosophy

In the realm of education and learning, sports, wellness and physical education are often considered to be on a lower tier in relation to other subjects and topics such as English, Mathematics, and the Sciences. More often than not, the common belief is that sports and physical education is meant only for the physically gifted and those with the innate athletic ability that is required to excel. My role as a teacher is to create an opportunity for all students, regardless of skill level or athletic ability, to experience and enjoy sports and physical activity. I will welcome the challenges brought about by teaching anyone who wants to learn, from the novice level who need to master the fundamentals of movement and motor behavior, to the more advanced level who prefer to focus on the more technical and strategic aspects of physical activities. I would like to facilitate activities that could increase a person’s interest in becoming more active and leading a healthy lifestyle. I want to be able to demonstrate both the general motor skills and the more sport-specific skills or techniques that will allow the students to pursue sports and physical activity on their own.

Giving lectures explaining the ideas and concepts behind movement and following routines for drills or exercises have always been a part of teaching physical education. However, I believe that allotting more time for free play, once the theories have been explained and the fundamentals have been practiced, provides more benefits to the students. Starting each class with a brief introduction of the underlying principles of the movements and drills will help the students to have a better understanding of what exactly each motion does to help the body and how it can affect performance. The customary drills are there to have a form of standardized learning wherein the students will all get the opportunity to formally practice the movements and actions in a controlled setting before being subjected to more extrinsic variables. The majority of the time will be allocated to small scale games and situational exercises that can mimic real life situations. The rationale behind a more game-based approach is to entice the students to become more active without the restrictions of following an unchanging series of drills every time. I am a firm believer in the notion that allowing more freedom when it comes to learning sports and physical activity will help the students to choose what their lifetime sport will be. In other words, teaching the basic motor skills and exposing them to a variety of sports while still maintaining the allure of fun and free play is the best way to motivate students to actively participate in class.

In order to have a clearer picture of whether or not the students taking the class have been able to learn anything, I will still utilize a series of simple skill tests. These skill tests will be modified versions of the drills that they already did during class. The addition of variables such as stationary obstacles, time limits, or even a defender or practice opponent, can be useful in gauging how well the students have mastered the basic skills. Due to the more activity-based nature of the course, I will refrain from giving written quizzes, except for those that can be to check on the students’ understanding of rules or concepts related to the sports or movement patterns. I would also encourage the idea of using tournaments and organized competitions to see the students apply the skills they learned in the actual sport setting.

In the end, I want to be able to give the students an opportunity to experience the joys of sports and physical education. I want them to forget about the stereotypes of athletes or the ridiculous notion that only athletically gifted people play sports. The true goal I want my students to reach is to simply enjoy playing. I would like to think that my class would be the gateway for students to become more health conscious and start engaging in a physically active lifestyle. The class could be considered successful if even one student decides to pursue a particular sport or continue to train and exercise on a regular basis once the course is finished.  (Miguel Gavino)

13. Teaching Philosophy

When I was surprisingly given an assignment as a laboratory assistant in my senior time when I was an undergraduate student, I had no idea how to teach properly, I just thought that the experience would probably benefit my CV. My job description was to give more technical explanations about how to understand econometrics in practice. Econometrics is the most important tools for the students to finish their mini thesis. I had already finished mine, was only waiting for the defense, and still I had to wonder how to deliver such abundant important information to students as so they would not easily forget. All my students were smart and curious and also were an active group; this gets tricky because they thought I must be smarter than them. I feared misleading them, but I gave myself a grip through a question; "If you were a student yourself, how would you want to be taught?" and I started from there. When I finished my assignment (it was a two-year assignment), I had gained progress semester by semester; the first year was tough, but when I reached my last year,  the students were giving me the highest evaluation grades, and also, their grades were reported as the best in their regular class.

To me, the most important part of teaching is how to make the materials easy to remember. Since Economics is knowledge about human behavior, it is not easy to make students understand. The basic parts of Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and their applications are the hardest even for a PhD level. However, I always remember that through practice, we can make our way. Weekly homework, quizzes, essays and regular class attendance are important; however, beside these things, the  most important is the student's motivation to study, and it is not through punishment or humiliation for their inscience, it starts from the teacher's understanding that no knowledge is easy and delivering it through patience. It is okay to try to comply to the syllabus, but in my point of view, a student's understanding is the most prominent goal in teaching. I believe in motivating them through thorough material, good and readable points on the board, a short review of last class every before starting a class, feedback on the exam result and giving them short break every hour. Also, my readiness to give them a proper extra office hour to answer their questions and the usage of more updated technology to help them in the process is to be allowed, of course in a responsible way.

Saying I was a Lab assistant is probably not an elegant way to say that I have experience teaching; however, it was also the best time in my life; I can call it a life changing experience. Through two years I finally found that teaching is a passion rather than a vacancy; it is a decision in my life that if I am going to be an Economics researcher, teaching is the best way to develop my skill, because I have to keep studying to teach my students something. I have to keep studying in order to deliver Economics to students in the best way. I will have to do research in order to develop my curiousity. I will have to keep my hard work up so my students will work hard too.  I started as an inexperienced teacher, and became a continuously learning teacher. and I am happy with the process. I believe only through this philosophy, college can bring forth amazing students throughout the years.  (Eva Nurwita)

14. Philosophy of teaching

Undoubtedly, education plays an important role in the progression of an individual’s skills. In other words, learning is a significant factor which should be taken under consideration. From the first day of school when we academically began to learn, we have had various experiences with different instructors and teachers.  Therefore, we have different feelings and memories from that time. Some of these memories are about teachers that leave an undeniable impact on our learning .We can never  forget their effective role in our education.

Teachers play an important role in education. I believe capability of learning is highly dependent on the effectiveness of teaching methods and teachings that are used or exploited by the teacher.

As an instructor, my focus  and my teaching strategies are based on students' learning. Someone interested in pedagogy has to take into account which factors have a decisive impact on learning. One factor is the interaction between instructors and students. I find this factor important in terms of significant progression in learning. It  emphasizes the importance of  student understanding and the quality of my instruction. Therefore, my primary role as an instructor is to create an interaction which develops an interest and motivates students for learning.

As a result, I try to communicate with my students and ask them to tell me their expectations and desires. I believe good communication is another important factor which should be considered. In this regard, I try to develop my assignments in a way that they can be adapted to students' needs and expectations. Hence, I encourage my learners to participate in discussions and give their ideas about the syllabus. I encourage them to think about the work of art that they created and I want them to talk about their interests and ideas. Therefore, students are not only thinking about creating art, but also verbally expressing their ideas reading their own art works as well as others.

Another item that I believe could be effective in terms of improving student learning is the passion and enthusiasm that the instructor has regarding the subject. For instance, while a teacher explains and demonstrates a subject with great passion and interest, definitely, he can motivate students through his/her enthusiasm for the subject. This could be a great inspiration in terms of students’ success.

I find creativity an important item for learning art. I encourage my students to experience new ways to  think about their art work. In this way they will find their own voice by experiencing and discovering items.

Finally, my attempt is to assist students to expand their knowledge as well as develop their ideas in regard to reaching  their artistic goals and being successful in their lives. (Kaveh Rafie)

15. Teaching Philosophy

I believe that not everybody can be a teacher; it requires patience, skills, knowledge, personality and the will to teach a person from any walk of life. If I am chosen to be a teacher, I would be teaching the undergraduate courses to students who have just finished high school, or some returning to school after working in the field for years. Some of my students will be totally unfamiliar with the subject while some would know it in depth, having experienced it. My teaching philosophy is to make sure that the students who know nothing gain the most from my teaching and the ones who know most walk out gaining something from the class.

I believe teaching this diverse group would be a challenge, but I am willing to take it head first. Good teachers need to be patient and should be flexible with the student’s capability to understand. They should be able to understand the questions being posed and answer them; they should also be willing to admit not knowing an answer rather than providing incorrect infomation. I feel that anyone can be a teacher with training, but the will to teach with training is what makes you a good teacher.

The teacher should have sound knowledge of the subject. At the same time a teacher should have command of the language to efficiently communicate with the students. The personalities of teachers hold importance too; they have the ability to influence a person’s life. A teacher is the leader of a class. Students should respect teachers and at the same time should be able to approach their teachers with queries. A good teacher can produce good technologically sound citizens from the students in the classroom. I don’t plan to make attendance compulsory but I will make sure students would not want to miss my class. (Patil)

16. Teaching Philosophy

Political Science is such an area that takes a lot of efforts to teach. It is very specific, unique and has many “reefs” that need to be taken into account. When teaching Political Science there are three things that I would include into my teaching philosophy.

One of the most important things I would teach in my classes is critical thinking.  It is not a surprise that today’s newspapers turn the truth in any direction they are interested in. That is why it is extremely important not to take all the news in all good faith. In order to be good in Political Science, a student should read a lot of articles from different countries in order to understand what is true and what is not. This is the first thing my students would learn in my classes.

Second, I would definitely involve training in public speaking. People usually tend to underestimate the power of the word. The person that has the word in control could, in fact, rule the world. If students know public speaking, they will definitely be much more successful.

Third, I believe that the professionalism of a teacher is something that influences students extremely. To my mind, the teacher should be friendly, but should never be unprofessional or incompetent. I believe that the number one aim for all teachers is to be a role model for their students. If a teacher is organized and disciplined, and has authority or influence in the field, the students will be interested in visiting his lectures, asking questions and interacting in many ways. Few things motivate students as strongly as having a mentor that can be a role model in their field of study, an example of a great intellect and cordiality. A good teacher is the teacher whose aim is to make students surpass his own achievements. (Masha)
 
17. Teaching Philosophy

Teaching philosophy is the philosophy of a teacher in order to teach students in an efficient and productive way. Now in this philosophy, one can keep on improving by adding more efficient tools and ways that cater to the needs of students in this challenging world of ever growing technology. So knowledge should be transferred from teacher to students in the best possible way. Not only this, but that particular knowledge should have all the excitement to grasp the attention of students so that they start enjoying the lecture to its very last second.

When I started teaching, it was a very challenging experience first, but I started to learn and adapt myself according to the teaching environment. With time I learned many new techniques; by now, having experience of four years at different universities has made me versatile in my teaching. Every new place has to offer me something new to learn and that always helps me in my teaching and has improved my teaching skills. So teaching and learning is a never-ending process.

When you are teaching a class of forty to fifty students at the undergraduate level, the first and the foremost thing a teacher has to keep in mind is to tactfully deliver the lecture so that their attention is totally grasped by the students and they are with the teacher at each and every moment of the class, not finding it boring or a never-ending class. For this basic fact, a teacher can use many tools, thanks to the technology, as it offers many new ways to learn and deliver lectures on broader aspects for better understanding. In the field of physics, while explaining theory, one always needs to relate it with some visual aspect, or give some examples. Now multimedia and other visual tools help the student to understand that particular theory with a good visual example, which otherwise could not be shown. Theory is always related to experiments, so in my class of physics I make sure that I am relating the theory with the experimental aspect of it in labs so that students can relate both the things with each other. Numerical based problems are very challenging for students, so the best way is to solve them as much as we can; this increases the ability of students to solve and find solutions while keeping all dimensions of that problem in mind.

Assignments and quizzes are good for assessment of students; it helps them prepare lectures on time and be prepared for the next class. Group assignments and presentations help students built up their confidence and present their ideas. I also recommend that students join some online scientific communities or groups; this is very effective learning way for students. They can interact with many other people, share ideas and thoughts and work on something that they find interesting. This builds their research skills. (Hira Farooq)