{"id":1801,"date":"2013-09-13T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2013-09-13T09:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/?p=1801"},"modified":"2013-09-11T14:49:38","modified_gmt":"2013-09-11T14:49:38","slug":"engaging-learners-in-the-real-world-field-observations-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/2013\/09\/13\/engaging-learners-in-the-real-world-field-observations-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Engaging Learners in the Real World: Field Observations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/files\/2013\/09\/1Tiffany_Centre_Bondi_Junction.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1756\" alt=\"McDonalds\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/files\/2013\/09\/1Tiffany_Centre_Bondi_Junction-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/files\/2013\/09\/1Tiffany_Centre_Bondi_Junction-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/files\/2013\/09\/1Tiffany_Centre_Bondi_Junction.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Students often spend much of their time in classes talking about the content of their courses rather than applying that content. Moving students more quickly towards applying content in authentic ways can enhance and strengthen students\u2019 understanding of concepts and ideas \u2013 something that can be difficult through abstract discourse.<\/p>\n<p>If you would like your students to learn through application, field observations can be a very effective way to bring the real world into the classroom. \u00a0In his fully online course <i>Introduction to Sociology<\/i>, Netra Darai uses several <a title=\"Field Observation Example\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/files\/2013\/09\/Field_observation_example.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cParticipant Observations\u201d<\/a> in which students go out into their local communities to study a particular topic, and report and discuss their experiences with their classmates via a blog.\u00a0 In a unit on social class, his students speak to staff members of organizations supporting the homeless. In a unit on gender and age, they interview an elderly person they know.<\/p>\n<p>In her hybrid course, <i>Cross Cultural Psychology<\/i>, which meets face-to-face once per week, Katie Howe uses similar field observations. For example, in a unit on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcdonaldization.com\/whatisit.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">McDonaldization<\/a>, her students visit popular chain stores, restaurants or local sporting events to examine how such establishments follow principles of McDonaldization (efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control).\u00a0 Students then present a brief report on their observations in class.<\/p>\n<p>If you would like assistance with crafting such assignments for your course, feel free to contact the instructional designers on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/bios\/\" target=\"_blank\">eLearning team<\/a> or contact us at <a href=\"mailto:elis@lesley.edu\" target=\"_blank\">elis@lesley.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Note: The image above\u00a0is licensed under the\u00a0<a title=\"w:en:Creative Commons\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/en:Creative_Commons\">Creative Commons<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/deed.en\">Attribution 3.0 Unported<\/a>\u00a0license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Students often spend much of their time in classes talking about the content of their courses rather than applying that content. Moving students more quickly towards applying content in authentic ways can enhance and strengthen students\u2019 understanding of concepts and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/2013\/09\/13\/engaging-learners-in-the-real-world-field-observations-2\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[227],"class_list":["post-1801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assignment-ideas","tag-field-observations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1801"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1807,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions\/1807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesleyelis.com\/elisblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}