By: Shawn Graham

I’ve had some spectacular fails in my teaching practice. When I first started out, I would look around at what other folks were doing and decide, ‘yes – that’s the thing! I’ll do that!’ More often than not, it would crash and burn. But why? It worked for so-and-so; I just must not be doing it right. Or maybe it depends on the particular dynamics of the group. Or maybe it was the year.

So back I’d go to the well, draw another draught of wisdom, and try again. Sometimes it’d work; sometimes not. What made the difference? Was it the particular well I was drawing from? I do read some of the scholarship on teaching and learning in higher education. I follow a lot of folks on Twitter. I’ve been in a lot of classrooms. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with, and learn from, some excellent teachers over the last several years. Nope, probably not the well.

As the cliché goes, ‘it’s not you, it’s me.’ If I’ve learned anything about being creative in the classroom, it could be summed up in two words: “be authentic”. When things have gone wrong for me, it’s because what I was trying to do was not authentic – either to myself or to the situation.

For instance, I blog a lot. I find a lot of value in sharing my thoughts, my works in progress, my wins and my fails with a broader community. Blogging as part of the coursework in my classes should therefore be ‘authentic’, right? As it happens, no, not really. Most of my students, if they think about blogging at all, regard it as rather passé; they don’t do it, and asking them to do it as part of the coursework just becomes another hoop to jump through.

The first time I tried it in a class at the university level – asking students to blog about readings – it quickly became a rote activity with no added value, a way of ticking off the ‘participation’ box. After some reflection, I realized that for this to be an authentic activity for the students, it had to reconnect to what was going on in the classroom and to their other assignments and to the other students. It had to become integral to the learning, not a bolted-on afterthought.

Drawing on the teaching practice of Mark Sample (now at George Mason University, but shortly moving to Davidson College), I assigned different weekly groups of students to respond to the readings on the course blog, prior to the week’s sessions. Another group of students would then present the first group’s posts to the class, to kick-off discussion and a third group would then draw out the interesting elements of the discussion in final cap-stone blog posts. You can read the course blog at 3812.graeworks.net.

The exercise was successful I think for a number of reasons, but what fostered the most creativity in class and out was the way the activity required each group to be a pillar for the next group’s work. It was that ‘integrity’ that made the blogging so much more authentic this time around. True creativity lies in dealing with constraints and identifying authentic tasks is one such constraint.

The award, sponsored by the and , recognizes innovative teaching and learning approaches in post-secondary education, both nationally and internationally.

Professor Graham has been able to weave together an incredible tapestry of innovations that include course design, assessment and teaching and learning approaches. He had students partner together and produce an augmented reality book with the Canadian Museum of Civilization and interact in an archaeological dig within a virtual learning environment. He also integrated game-based learning approaches and ancient roman civilization simulations in his classes.

Key to these innovations is Professor Graham’s ability to guide students to achieve learning outcomes. Whether in their first year or at the graduate level, learners experimented, thought critically and contributed to their field of study. He encourages every learner’s potential by providing engaging and powerful learning experiences both at ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University and beyond.

Sandra Bassendowski (University of Saskatchewan), Jacqueline Murray (University of Guelph), Trent Tucker (University of Guelph) and Ellen Zweibel (University of Ottawa) were also honoured for their exceptional and innovative approaches to education.

The winners will be celebrated on June 21 in Sydney, Nova Scotia at the 2013 STLHE Annual Conference and at Desire2Learn’s annual users’ conference, FUSION 2013, which will be held from July 15-17 in Boston. Each winner will receive $2,200 toward travel and registration costs for both conferences as well as a two-year membership to STLHE.