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Design Pattern: Show-case learning

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Summary	This pattern is about publically celebrating student work, either digitally or physically.
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Problem

Often in university settings, learning is hidden behind closed classroom doors, stored in private file spaces, or locked away in a VLE. In contrast, primary school learning environments celebrate their students' work by literally papering the walls with it, creating a more motivating and fun environment for teachers, learners and visitors. This pattern is about celebrating student learning in university spaces, either digitally or physically. It shows the students that we value good work, and they should be proud of it. Issues which should be considered [or forces operating on this problem?] are privacy and inclusion. Parameters to using the pattern include the mixture of technologies used, who selects the content, the duration of the display, and the size of audience with whom you wish to share the students' work.

Context

You could use this pattern in these contexts:

• university learners (undergraduate)
• in conjunction with learning technology such as a VLE/ Second Life, blogs

It works within computer science, and physical versions of this pattern are common in art or design schools. [Comments from people in other disciplines?]

Solution

There are a number of parameters which you can use to customise this pattern to your situation.

• Technology mixture: at one end of the spectrum you could make a paper "good work" board to hang on the wall of your teaching space. At the other end you could have a dynamic display of digital content on the university web space. Or you could have a digital display on physical screens in the university department, for example in social spaces or as screen savers in computer labs.
• Content selection: Who has ownership of this system?Do you want it to be staff lead as a way of modellling good work and encouraging students to emulate it? Or do you want it to be student led, where students have responsibility for selecting, filtering and maintaining content for their peers? This would be suitable for encouraging a student sense of community.
• Context of display: where will it take place, and for how long? Options include a quick demo of student work in a lecture, pointing out good work in the lab, making a display for a class wall which lasts for a semester or a more permanent display for a a department exhibition space.
• Medium: What will you display and how will it be presented? Will it be an oral presentation by students? Will it be photos or screen shots of student work? Written work? Physical artefacts?
• Audience size: The least threatening for students is displaying to a small group of friends within the class. The most stressful is likely to be a public display (such as a degree show). Points on the continuum include displaying something to the whole class, or showing work within the walls of the department.

Examples

• End of term showcase in which prizes are given for peer nominated work. nominated students present their work, and the staff give a prize to the best.
• "Star of the week" when a lecturer mentions a student who did good lab work during the week in a lecture, pointing out what they have done well.
• Departmental web pages which show excerpts from work of current students.

Issues to consider

There are a couple of issues to be aware of when working with this pattern: inclusion and privacy.

Consider the issue of inclusion: you want to celebrate students' work, but what does this mean for the students whose work is not showcased? They will perhaps feel left out or undervalued, or resent those whose work is shown. You could address this partly by taking care how you select the content for the showcase. Will you select only the best work? Or will you show work where the student has improved their own work recently? Or will you select work where students demonstrate attributes or skills like good problem solving, patience, or the willingness to help others? It is certainly important to establish with the students an atmosphere where they have positive feedback from the staff anyway, to reduce the feeling that their work is not good. Another approach is to invite students to peer nominate content as other students may be more aware of their classmate's good efforts thn the staff, depending on the class size.

What about privacy? When selecting content, you need to think about whether the students will react well to having their work displayed. You want to create a safe classroom environment where the students feel encouraged but not pressured. Students may feel stressed if they have to verbally present work within a large class, but may feel more relaxed if their work is shown on a display. For example, I once had a student with a social phobia who was very distressed at the thought of his work being peer nominated for a verbal presentation in class. They are more likely to feel worried when presenting outside the class group to visitors or other year groups of students. You might want to consider whether you need to get the students to sign consent forms if the work is to be shown in a very public place for a considerable length of time.( For example, one of my computer science students suspects the university of wanting to hoard his intellectual property and is wary of having his software displayed on university web space)

Related Patterns

list other patterns related to this one, under categories such as component, assisting, conflicting, uses this, etc.

Uses the gold star teaching pattern: http://pclc.pace.edu/~bergin/PedPat1.3.html#goldstar

Notes, Links and References

Liabilities, potential risks, extensions, expected side-effects

See http://judyrobertson.typepad.com/judy_robertson/2008/07/windows-onto-le.html?cid=129920726#comment-129920726 for a fuller explanation.

Licensing

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.