DANIEL NAUJOKS
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TEACHING PUBLICATIONS & TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

On this page, I share some experiences on the use of technology in the class room, student-centered active learning activities and provide some information on my teaching-related publications.

zipstrr video take-away points

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In discussions about assignments, students suggested to also include new forms of assignments and the use of technology. Based on these suggestions I partnered with the tech-start-up zipstrr to offer students the possibility to submit short-video take-away points from class.

Students can record a short video statement of 20-30 seconds in which they highlight what surprised them, what was interesting, what should be remembered for the future and where they see links to a previous classes and discussions. All videos submitted in one week are automatically compiled in a short, joint video that serves as a collaborative notepad.

Those who don’t wish to record a video, can submit written takeaway points to an online discussion board. All students have to watch the videos and read the entries in preparation for the following class and we start each class with a 5-minute discussion on the reflections. 

For details on the modalities, see my guidelines for video take-away points.

TEaching migration and citizenship studies – a comparative analysis of 100 interdisciplinary syllabi

My essay “Teaching migration and citizenship studies – a comparative analysis of 100 interdisciplinary syllabi” (2018, with Kelsey Norman) provides a comparative analysis of the close to 100 syllabi on migration and citizenship studies, examining whether syllabi are explicitly interdisciplinary and if they highlight the securitization of migration, gender, migrants’ human rights, or issues on ethnic or religious identity. In addition, the article explores select modalities of assignments, particularly on the incorporation of current news, as well as the adoption of technology.
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Students suggest CUrrent news

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The topics that I teach are important because they reflect key aspects of social, political and economic life that are relevant for an understanding of the world around us.
For this reason, the last 10 minutes of most of my courses are reserved for discussions on course-related current news that students are asked to suggest in advance of each class. This encourages students to actively follow news connected to the course, gives them a way to shape our discussions and it shows that the course contents are applicable to real world phenomena that students are confronted with on a daily basis.


Role-play Simulation on Large InFlows of RefuGEES

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​For the course on Mobility and Forced Migration at the New School's Graduate Program in International Affairs and Global Refugee Regimes at Columbia Law School, I developed a one-class role-play simulation, during which students engage in stakeholder negotiations on how to respond to a large flow of refugees between two fictional African countries. Each students gets a role with a corresponding role sheet and instructions for a briefing memo. Through this exercise, students acquire in-depth knowledge of arguments regarding granting and restricting refugees’ freedom of movement, civil and economic rights. Students learn about the possibilities to transition from humanitarian relief to sustainable development programming, the role of economic policies, human rights and public international law, security questions and securitization moves, political effects and determinants of refugee policies and the role of international relations and donor-recipient country relations.
While it remains to be seen whether a student evaluation’s prediction will hold true that “the intricacies of this experience will be memorable in 10, 15 years whereas some of the other more standard class instruction may not”, three observations prompt the conclusion that this role-play simulation increases student learning.
  • Participatory observation from five conducted simulations, including the debriefings during which students and the instructor discuss the validity and determinants of arguments, reveals that students display a high level of comprehension of the major arguments and policy solutions and are able to apply them to the discussion.
  • The preparation for the simulation led to a 60% increase in students’ response papers for the session with significantly more nuanced arguments, when compared with sessions on refugee camps in the same or similar courses in the previous years, when no such simulation was offered, as well as when compared with lecture-discussion-style sessions during the same course.
  • Furthermore, in the universities’ official student evaluations, as well as in a specific survey soliciting feedback on the simulation exercise, students self-assess across the board that the simulation is a very effective and engaging learning tool. For example, one student observes that “applying the arguments from the readings to a ‘real-life’ situation helped me understand the arguments better, and contextualize them”, while another highlights, “Through having to enact them, different aspects from the readings that seemed clear beforehand are suddenly called into question and require more thinking.”
​An analytical essay on the role-play simulation titled “Refugee Camps and Refugee Rights: A simulation of the response to large refugee influxes” appeared in the Journal of Political Science Education.

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