I read this interesting article in Educause Review … really a nice overview of the state and origins of blogging in education. As you can see, this is really an early adopter in education trend — one that I hope we can make successful. Take a look at the article and please post your comments. What do you think about the idea? Do you have recommendations for making this work better? Remember, this a grand experiment here, so help me figure it out–>
Month: August 2004
Teaching With Technology: For Real!
So this Thursday I start teaching IST 110 in the new IST Building. I’ve taught 110 so many times it can run fairly smoothly … but for some reason I decided to turn it on its ear this semester and do all sorts of new stuff. I am finally getting to teach in a classroom of my choice — the new Apple Teaching and Learning Studio. I’ve worked a long time here at IST to make sure we have at least one classroom with Apple technology in it.
Now the hard part — making it all work with the assignments I have planned. Here’s a summary of new stuff I’m doing:
- Class Blog Space: All discussion activities happening in an overall blog space … I am hoping this works. I’ve always used message boards, but I am becoming more and more interested in blogging. I read something interesting in Educause Review that has me thinking more and more about it.
- Individual Blog Spaces: As their first individual lab assignment, all studnets have to set up a blog space of their own and publish it to their PSU Personal Web Space. I am asking that they use it to keep track of interesting things related to IST.
- Studio Labs: I have them working in teams to utilize digital media to create, for lack of a better term, stories. These stories are to paint a picture related to IST. For example, they’ll create digital videos of interviews of various faculty, produce a documentary, and some other things. Hoping it turns them on to the power of digital media as a means to communicate complex ideas.
I am excited to see how it all goes. Really looking forward to trying some new things and seeing how they all react to it. I will be posting outcomes here over the next several weeks. If you want, check out my Online IST Syllabus and my class calendar, and the 110 Class Blog.
Teaching with Technology?
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about the so-called concept of teaching with technology and its overall impact on learning. I was recently at a steering committee meeting for the Apple Digital Campus project and the topic of teaching with technology came up … the overwhelming feeling in the room was, “technology has failed in the classroom …” and “it hasn’t made any difference.” I usually don’t sit these types of discussions out, but being one of the youngest and least experienced educators in the room I decided it was better to just listen. After a bit, I sort of felt like I was listening to a group of grumpy old men … everything they discussed had such a negative connotation to it. None of them (and there were about 30 of us from both higher ed and industry) really had anything positive to say about it all. I was shocked.
This room was filled with pioneers in the utilization of technology in the classroom and all of them were just nailing it. I took it in stride and decided to really think about WHY these people felt this way. What I came away with was that they might be very right and at the same time, very wrong.
Take for example the Internet … probably the one thing that every teacher would really like to integrate into their classrooms appropriately … I know I do. I am very lucky to teach at a place where literally every student has a desktop or laptop in front of him or her. This gives me an amazing opportunity to engage them via technology. But when I teach I very rarely let the students USE those machines to do any sort of Internet related work … I usually walk into class and say, “log out and close the laptops.” When I reflect on that, I can begin to see the perspectives of my colleagues. Maybe it is the technology? Maybe it really isn’t any good for the classroom … or maybe I am forcing my “old school” perspective on the way I think the classroom should be managed.
Then I take another step back and begin to see what is actually going on and I realize that I, for one, have been way too controlling with the way the students want to use it all. It seems to me that this is the most exciting time to be in a classroom that is technology-enabled. There are so many things hitting the mainstream that kids are using outside of class that it just has me very eager to try and let them show me how to make it work within the educational framework.
So the Internet sucks as a teaching tool when you just let them go crazy … but, if you can pull them in and let them all have blog spaces, open discussion areas, give them your IM screen name, and really let their everyday life drive the experience, I believe you’ll end up with a solid experience. The technology isn’t the end all be all … we know that, but it still seems important to say. I am beginning to see the Internet as a very powerful conduit to conduct my eBusiness (educational business) with. The whole idea of teaching with technology is more than Keynote, it’s letting the students teach us a thing or two. These kids are now built from the ground up in a digital framework … they know how to use this stuff.
So what’s the point of this post? Well, I spend all of my days working hard to innovate in the area of teaching with technology, but when I get to the classroom, I seem to freeze up, return to my “death by Keynote” mode of teaching and restrict access. I am now going to do the opposite — its their turn to flip on the technology, tune me out, and start learning. Can it happen? Sure. It does everyday, we just don’t see it as learning, we see as living … pervasive learning doesn’t mean wireless access, it means giving students opportunities to learn ALL the time — no walls, no wires, no lectures, just them living in a digital world and exploring, researching, and reporting on what works and what doesn’t. That’s it … not much of a point after all–>
Welcome to 110
Welcome to the blog space for IST 110: Introduction to Information Sciences and Technology. Throughout the semester I’ll be posting things here that I’d like you all to read and comment on. This may end up being a big part of your participation score.
I am really interested in how all this will work this semester. I am actually toying with the idea of using this same space everytime I teach 110 and see how it works over the long haul. ANGEL doesn’t really allow me to connect multiple semesters’ worth of thinking, posts, and discussion. This may give me a chance to do just that. I will also be cross posting in my real blog space, Learning & Innovation, so take a look over there as well.
The links in the sidebar will get you to some of my other sites and other resources … please explore and comment on that as well. Looking forward to it–>
Driving Adoption: The Edison Services Way
As the Solutions Institute prepares to rollout version 2.0 of our Edison Services toolset we are asking ourselves, “how do we get faculty to use it?†We went through a similar adoption and dissemination effort about four years ago when we started rolling out the first Online IST courses. As the chart below indicates, we were very successful in getting faculty to start using the course materials. It was a lot of good old fashioned leg work that got the ball rolling – visiting different PSU campuses around the Commonwealth, lots of face time with faculty in workshops, and other “high touch†kinds of events.
With this Edison rollout things are different. We aren’t really pushing it like we did with Online IST … it is a different approach and it is a different toolset than courseware. What we are attempting to do now is create something that supports all forms of teaching and learning, innovates in a space that desperately needs it, and really just enables new ways to build community around the concept of teaching and learning with technology. Our goals with Online IST included creating a consistent and quality learning experience at the core of the IST curriculum and build a next generation learning environment that students would actually enjoy using. I think we did that and students seemed happy and faculty adopted the technology. With Edison 2.0, we are trying to get EVERYONE within IST, not just a subset, to use it as the central hub to his or her digital teaching and learning life. The graph below indicates our hopes for adoption over the next several years.
The idea is to make sure every faculty member uses technology for teaching and learning purposes in an appropriate and dynamic fashion. Let’s be honest, part of what we are doing is trying to get students excited about our curriculum … higher education has become a very competitive environment … with budgets as tight as they are its very important to land good students and keep enrollment strong. With that in mind, the entire experience of taking an IST class needs to be as exciting as it possibly can be. One thing our students demand is good utilization of technology in the classroom and by them starting their experience with access to a next generation suite of tools that can support their learning goes a long way towards convincing them that IST faculty know what they’re doing.
I just read an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education today that discusses student’s views of technology in the classroom. What I found interesting was that of the nearly 4,400 students surveyed, nearly 50% said that the biggest benefit of classroom technology is convenience, while only 13% said that improved learning was taking place … What Edison aims at primarily is that convenience factor … but, with keeping an eye on improving the way faculty structure a teaching with technology experience. One of our primary goals with Edison was to streamline and improve the teaching and learning experience for both students and faculty. We wanted faculty to be able to very quickly create cutting edge teaching experiences and we wanted to empower students with features that other LMS/CMS tools just can’t deliver.
But what this entry is really about is adoption. How do we get faculty to recognize the value in the toolset and to take the time to explore and ultimately deliver their materials via Edison? Furthermore, how do we get students to demand an experience like the one they can only get from Edison? Well, to answer the first, we’ll go directly to our faculty, put them through some usability testing, ask them what they want, and teach them how to use the tools. Hopefully they will see the value, understand how this will help them (higher ratings and better perceived quality of delivery), and become strong supporters of the technology. Back when we rolled out Online IST, we picked two or three key members of the faculty as pilot testers and then let them do the selling to the rest of the group – that worked and we’ll do it again. As for student adoption, well, that will have to wait until faculty begin to really use it. When edison 2.5 rolls out for the Spring semester the community tools will be ready and I think students will begin to demand having it available in all their classes.
For now, its back to the good old fashioned leg work to get them to show up on August 15th for the rollout … until then, we can only plan for a good release. If you have ideas, I know we’d love to hear them!
Virtual Learning Worlds — Where are we Headed?
A colleague of mine, Bart Pursel, has an interesting blog site that he has been working on related to what he calls, “Virtual Learning Worlds.†His concept is that the same engines that power today’s most popular games can be essentially re-skinned for education and training purposes. He is clearly onto something. If you have some time, jump over and take a look at some of his postings.
He has been pushing us to add principles of game theory to our courses and tools over the last couple of years and we’ve finally started doing just that. This Fall we’ll be rolling out a new eLearning course that is supported heavily be small interactive exercises that take game theory into consideration. Our hope is that students not only use the materials to acquire knowledge, but then spend a larger amount of time interacting with the material because it is designed as a game. When its all said and done, I think we’ll find that student retention goes up and that their overall levels of satisfaction and motivation will rise as well. We’ll be looking at it in a couple of classes to see what its really all about.
When you take the syllabus as the hub to your digital teaching and learning life concept and extend it with the ability to send students directly into engaging simulations and other game-based interactions you can start to do some very interesting things. For example, let’s say there is a simple game-based simulation that students must interact with to solidify a certain set of skills we hope they acquire … the idea would be to allow them to “play†the game over and over to practice and ultimately assess their learning. If all the students are using this same interaction on a regular basis, you can begin to pull the high scores out and list the top five students every week on the syllabus. I know for a fact it would motivate students to strive for higher scores and ultimately greater mastery of the skill set. There is so much work to be done in this space and when you start to pull it all together you begin to see how powerful a mix of all these ideas can have–>