Well, the semester is over and the whole thing left a very good taste in my mouth. I know the reason why I enjoyed it so much this semester — I changed everything! I have taught IST 110 several times over the last several years … as a matter of fact every fall since the IST program really got rolling … with several CE and World Campus sections thrown in. I usually stay very true to the Online IST design model we built and have evolved over the last 5 years. There are some really great things going in that design and it has served me well every time I use it.

This semester I wanted to challenge myself, and my students, with a different type of experience. I am the project director for IST and PSU’s part of the Apple Digital Campus program and really wanted to take advantage of the connection and bring the research we are doing with them to life in the classroom. I decided that I would only teach 110 this fall if I could do it in the new Apple Teaching and Learning Studio Classroom in the IST Building … that room is filled with 25 G5’s with a whole host of great apps … iLife, Final Cut, Macromedia MX, and others. The room made a huge difference.

I also decided the machines should be an active part of the lectures. In the past I have done the whole, “computers off” thing before I start talking and only let them in when I am done. Not this semester! Machines on, roaring and running – I frankly just didn’t care if they were using IM, bidding at eBay, or updating their profile in the facebook … I just wanted it to be an open and fluid experience. I really think it was.

The inclusion of digital expression assignments was of huge benefit as well. The students learned how to use rich media to express their ideas and how to use it appropriately to communicate very serious technology solutions. The typical semester would see students doing a couple large proposal documents and presentations … this semester I reduced that to one large scale assignment dealing with illegal file sharing and added a digital media project to it. Students not only had to create a 20 page solution, a 10 minute presentation, but also produce a persuasive, educational public service announcement built using digital media tools. They did this and a couple other small media assignments with very little real instruction with the tools – “here’s a camera, here are a couple of overviews on how to plan and produce a digital media piece, and this is when its due …” Basically I just threw them into it. Results were nothing short of outstanding!

The biggest change though stemmed from the combination of two new pieces of technology. The first is the software we’ve built here at the Institute – Edison Services Syllabus Toolset. The big thing was that it gave me a very quick and easy way to communicate with my students outside of class with the announcements feature. It kept me from having to log into ANGEL, navigate the interface, use their email tool, and then send it … saved me a ton of time. It also seemed to make me communicate with them on a more regular basis. The second, and perhaps more powerful, change was the Class Blog. I decided from the get go that I was going to create a space that I could very easily post to and solicit responses from my students (and people outside the class). I loved it and the students used it (measured by quantity of posts) more than I have ever seen in comparison to the typical discussion board stuff I have always done. I can honestly say this one thing enriched my experience beyond imagination! I could quickly bang out a post with pointers to all sorts of interesting articles and just watch the remarks roll in. I even did my graded Discussion Activities there and got nearly 100% responses from the class – I think only three people didn’t do all the DAs! That is unreal. Typically, more than 2/3 of the class misses at least one DA during the semester.

We did do a little data gathering related to the blog in the class and are in the process of going over the results. I’ll be sure to post stuff here as it becomes clear. As an aside, I stumbled across this today and it has me thinking of how to make the students even more actively engaged in what’s going on. It’s a very interesting concept and worth a look.

All in all, the best time I’ve had teaching and a major step forward in my thinking about using technology in he classroom and in how to effectively use emerging technologies to motivate and challenge students. I actually had fun doing my job! Good stuff. Leave comments if you have any–>

I’ve been using all sorts of new activities in the new Apple Studio in the IST Building for a couple weeks now … you can take a look at some of my plans by looking at this previous post. I have to say its going well on a couple fronts — mostly the blog space is really working well. I don’t want to get too jacked up about it yet … we’re only two weeks in, but the interaction has been outstanding. I am really happy with how well it all seems to be working.

Back to the Studio … I have been a little disappointed with the room. The desks are arranged in a miserable way — long rows that almost discourages teaming, big G5 towers on the desks that block people’s view, and several snafus. Today, Carlo is doing an iLife overview and it appears as though half the group is thinking, “cool” while the other half is saying, “so what”. I am very hopeful that once they start to use the technology they’ll all be saying “cool,” but I’m not counting on it.

I still think most of them are wondering why they aren’t learning about the usual tools (Office, Front Page, etc …). I hope we can get over that and get creative and learn a lot about the fields within information sciences and technology. Within two weeks, they’ll all have turned in their first effort with digital expression. we’ll see!

For now, I’ll just rely on the blog for excitement.

I’ll be doing most of my regular posts over in my Class Blog for this semester. So far, my students are being receptive to the whole thing and are even posting comments! So, for the next couple of months I would expect that most of my posts will be over in my Class Blog. Enjoy them and please feel free to join the conversation and bring in new ideas!

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.