One of the more exciting aspects of lecturing in a university, is when you are forced to think on your feet and improvise. This can be when technology fail, when you have forgotten your lectures notes, or when students are asking you a smart question. During one of my lectures last week, a student asked me about smart ways to revise for an examination. I tried to stress the need to be involved in active learning.
British students seem to always use the term revise for studying. This is in itself an issue as, and it is not only me being pedantic - now, I am an academic and this should give me a license to be pedantic!
) - you can only revise when you have already been involved in a genuine learning process. Approaching studying as revising, understood as a form of cramming, is plain silly and extremely counter productive. Furthermore, it is not an effective use of one’s time.
As simple yet, effective, ways of being involved in active learning I suggested on the day, things like:
1) preparing a mind-map for each of the theme studied
2) preparing a very short text (500 words max) summarizing the material studied on a specific theme
3) Rewriting this short text as a story (… once upon a time …)
4) Preparing a series of essay questions, which could come up for the examination, and preparing a plan for the essay (Remember, I am French and the French are obsessed with the art of writing essay plans!)
A final idea, which technology-enhanced, came to me on the spot and might be worth exploring further, as a little experiment. The idea was to use PersonnalBrain as a revision tool, and in that instance, I do mean revision. More specifically, I mean active revision.
Stage 1. Study the material you are interested in, by preraring a mind-map. This can be done, one paper, on a whiteboard (or a blackboard - remember the time when you used a good old blackboard and chalk?), a mindmapping software like FreeMind, MindManager or MindMeister (disclosure: I am a MindMeister affiliate), or directly into PersonalBrain.
Stage 2. Unless you have created your mind-map using PersonalBrain, copy your mind-map into PersonalBrain.
Stage 3. Use PersonalBrain’s wander function to activate your mind-map and focus your attention on the screen.
Do you think this could be an effective way of reviewing the material studied as part of a revision strategy?
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British students seem to always use the term revise for studying. This is in itself an issue as, and it is not only me being pedantic - now, I am an academic and this should give me a license to be pedantic!
) - you can only revise when you have already been involved in a genuine learning process. Approaching studying as revising, understood as a form of cramming, is plain silly and extremely counter productive. Furthermore, it is not an effective use of one’s time.As simple yet, effective, ways of being involved in active learning I suggested on the day, things like:
1) preparing a mind-map for each of the theme studied
2) preparing a very short text (500 words max) summarizing the material studied on a specific theme
3) Rewriting this short text as a story (… once upon a time …)
4) Preparing a series of essay questions, which could come up for the examination, and preparing a plan for the essay (Remember, I am French and the French are obsessed with the art of writing essay plans!)
A final idea, which technology-enhanced, came to me on the spot and might be worth exploring further, as a little experiment. The idea was to use PersonnalBrain as a revision tool, and in that instance, I do mean revision. More specifically, I mean active revision.
Stage 1. Study the material you are interested in, by preraring a mind-map. This can be done, one paper, on a whiteboard (or a blackboard - remember the time when you used a good old blackboard and chalk?), a mindmapping software like FreeMind, MindManager or MindMeister (disclosure: I am a MindMeister affiliate), or directly into PersonalBrain.
Stage 2. Unless you have created your mind-map using PersonalBrain, copy your mind-map into PersonalBrain.
Stage 3. Use PersonalBrain’s wander function to activate your mind-map and focus your attention on the screen.
Do you think this could be an effective way of reviewing the material studied as part of a revision strategy?