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EdVentures in Technology

teaching, learning and change

Diigo Links 10/01/2008

October 1, 2008 at 12:30 pm · Filed under Diigo Links

  • Effectiveness Of Traditional And Blended Learning Environments

    Strickland compared the course delivery methods in two respiratory therapy courses taught by the same teacher. One group of students completed the course in a traditional environment, while the other group completed the course in a blended environment. The method of course delivery, the final examination grade and the course grade were recorded for each student. Strickland studied the students’ satisfaction with the course through the information provided by each student on a standardized student evaluation of the course.

    tags: blended, blended learning, experiment, learning, teaching

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Diigo Links 09/30/2008

September 30, 2008 at 12:30 pm · Filed under Diigo Links

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Diigo Links 09/05/2008

September 5, 2008 at 12:30 pm · Filed under Diigo Links

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Diigo Links 08/30/2008

August 30, 2008 at 12:30 pm · Filed under Diigo Links

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Worldware and New Personal Learning Environments

July 30, 2008 at 10:56 am · Filed under EdTech, Higher Education, Teaching & Learning

Gary Brown, Director of Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology, Washington State University

My thoughts/comments are indicated by an asterisk (*).

Worldware refers to materials created for purposes other than teaching and learning.

Wesch - 100% want to learn, 50% want to be in classroom

We are all immigrants  because we have yet to learn to think critically.

Students are swirling, using multiple institutions to facilitate learning.

Students who value critical thinking are significantly more likely to value: peer critiques, community, and self-assessment.

Testing to kill learning?

Cites AACU report American Association of Colleges and Universities survey of US 301 Business Leader. (pull quotes)

Nace 2008 webcitation.org/5XoKP5UJh

Erosion of public’s faith and good will toward higher ed.

bush satire comic tell me johnny what have you learned, mcgraw-hill

Bloom warned of the danger of confusing taxonomy with chronology.

Harvard Private Universe Project honors the power and sophoitication of (students) ideas.

The Disengagement Compact - “I won’t expect too much of you if you don’t ask too much of me.”

WSU Critical Thinking Project (http://wsuctproject.wsu.edu)

Great focus slide comparing teacher, learner and learning centricity

  • Teacher centric: Assign Task, Study & Perform, Test & Submit
  • Learner centric: Cooperate, Study, Interact & Perform, Test & Submit
  • Learning centric: Help Define, Study, Collaborate, Discover, Generate; Share Beyond Class

Held an e-Portfolio Contest to identify innovative uses/styles of folio

The ideal ePortfolio continuum model: Select -> Reflect (initial) -> Feedback -> Loop back -> Longitudinal reflection

* How can we leverage this in working with employers?

Process over product (the process can be replicated, the product may or may not)

* I am going to get the slides and provide more reflection later. Gary shared some incredible quotes about the value of the ePortfolio

The Harvesting Gradebook
(WSU is using SharePoint) Activity Planning, Targeted Messaging, Learner Agency, Importing & Exporting Grades, Performance Over Time, Grade Calculations

Need to look into WSU model as this is perfect for our needs!
Student submits works for review using common, public rubric.
Faculty assignments can be reviewed using a similar rubric.

Presentation may be available here.

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Supporting Next-Gen Academic Development in a Web 2.0 World

July 30, 2008 at 9:46 am · Filed under EdTech, Social Software, Teaching & Learning, TechTalk

Susanna Wong Herndon, Associate Director, Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment, University of Texas-Austin
Robert Bruce, Associate Dean, DIIA, University of Texas-Austin

My notes are identified by an asterisk (*).

Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment (DIAA)

  • Address teaching, technology and assessment needs
  • Work with ALL UT colleges, schools and units
  • Power to convene, advise and advocate (responsible for informing Provost and make recommendations)

Supports faculty through:

  • instructional and technical consulting
  • professional development
  • resource development
  • project development
  • incentives & grants

Next-gen learners

  • mobile
  • digital
  • connected
  • experiential
  • immediate
  • social

* Experiment and learn through identification of cause and effect

They want to be engaged, to be part of a vibrant learning community, and have the opportunity to explore, collaborate, innovate and be challenged.

UT defines Web 2.0 in their environment as:

  • social computing
  • mobile learning
  • educ gaming
  • geospatial technologies
  • immersive media

As UT scans their horizon, they are looking for tools that will:

  • facilitate collaborative and group work
  • connect students with ideals and information
  • create experience that we could not provide students before
  • merge the power of spatial analysis with geo-tagged multimedia

Identification Process

  • Technology - what are the characteristics of the tech?
  • Benefits - Does the tech address an important problem
  • Faculty Readiness - Are faculty ready, willing and able to use it?
  • Implementation - Can we implement and support it?

Funding & Dev

  • Student development grants
  • Provost’s incentive awards
  • Digital media support
  • Collaborative proposals with colleges

Incubation circles

  • Inner ring: tools
  • 2nd ring: new media research & support (NMRS)
  • 3rd ring: Student employees retention & Training (SERT)
  • 4th: faculty incentive grant (FAST TEX), Digital Media Services (DMS)

UTA - Teaching with Technology Resource Page

What is UT keeping up with?

  • Changes in technology
  • Shifts in student characteristics and expectations
  • New approaches to teaching and learning
  • The emergence of global communities
  • New knowledge

What if we don’t keep up?

  • We will have “Digital students at analog schools”
  • We will lose out on opportunities to engage students
  • We will fail to raise the bar in teaching & learning
  • We will fail to be a leader in higher education
  • We will fall short in support of the 21st century workplace and society
  • We will fail to contirbiture toa culture of innovation

* I changed the bullets above to statements as they seemed to be more powerful in conveying the message about a need for change and attention to our students.

Robert Bruce made a good link back to the tech problems early on in the presentation. The speaker’s IM failed to connect, as she used the tool to stay in touch with her children (said it’s the only way she can reach them). The corollary is that we will fail to connect with our students if we cannot adopt technologies that reach them.

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Teaching in Virtual Worlds with Sarah “Intellagirl” Robbins

July 29, 2008 at 10:56 am · Filed under EdTech, Teaching & Learning, TechTalk

Sarah Robbins, Ball State University and author of Second Life for Dummies

Pedagogy first, technology second
* Amen!

Students first, universities second
*Again, amen!

Chickering and Gamson 7 Principles for Good Practice in Higher Eduation (look up after)
*wOOt!

PPT is on blog, address on last slide

She is against idea of immigrants v. natives, no supporting data, causes divisiveness and problems. It’s a crutch.

Real difference is in the digital divide in terms of lifestyle, engagement and motivation. UK study - 15-18 yr olds least likely to give up cell phone, older folks more likely to give up cell phone and sex rather than liquor, caffeine and chocolate. *Scary!*

Don’t build a creepy treehouse! (http://technagogy.learningfield.org)

Approach
Identify problems and/or opportunities first, then match technologies with opportunities. What problem will tool X solve? Primary point of hesitancy and push-back. How will this HELP me?

From Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody, The Promise -> The Tool -> The Bargain
Establishes offering, expectations, operating norms, and rules of conduct. Focus on The Promise and The Bargain, not The Tool.

What is the Second Life Promise? Increased sense of presence, community bonding, more engaging and immersive learning (when SL used correctly), fun

What is the Second Life Tool? Stigmergy (ability to manipulate environment to send a message to someone who comes after you-we have the ability to build and create, change/modify, leave something for those who follow), Customized Avatars (allowing students to make changes, reading the student by who they choose or allow students to role play in a realistic setting),  Global Community , Multi-modal Communication (text chat, voice 1 to 1, group and area and ability to emote)

She cites a great example of using it to teach rejection and social interactions such as discrimination in a safe environment.

Sarah also shared a great example of modifying environment to experience LD life, what happens when your environment is upside down? How do you cope?

What is the Second Life Bargain? What we need to accept: There is a Learning Curve (install and learn to get around, build avatar, learn to build, learn to script), Students need to suspend self-limitations (Loyalist College Border Crossing),  That we are using the tool as the best, justified use of the tools, Necessary expertise to serve as guide, advisor, AND instructor.

Resources
http://ubernoggin.com
http://SL-educationblog.org
SLED Mailing List
SLRL Mailing List

SL Avatar: Intellagirl Tully
http://intellagirl.com

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Riding Web 2.0 Toward Service Beyond the Classroom

July 29, 2008 at 10:08 am · Filed under EdTech, Social Software, TechTalk

Jim Wolfgang, Director, Georgia Digital Innovation Group, Georgia College and State University
Keith  Politte, Corporate Relations Officer, University of Missouri
Frank Lowney, Manager, Web Enabled Resources and Professor of Educational Foundations, Georgia College and State University

*Indicates my thoughts

Service-learning: The campus and beyond
Developing a community, a sense of belonging and common purpose/intent

*The bourgeoning growth of offline apps: Google Gears, Adobe AIR, MS Silverlight leading to innovation.

Real world application - Reynolds Journalism Institute “programming” competition
http://rji.missouri.edu

*Integrate technology using real world projects that lead to a real product/service as opposed to a theoretical one. Develop local history resources, develop materials to benefit your peers, profession, community.

*Beginning to see my “need” for an iPod Touch

Budget - how do you develop these innovations without money? Approach Provost for innovation funding - cross-disciplinary. Tell story to possible supporters. Match funds from other sources. Interdisciplinary Innovations Fund, Univ of Missouri 2008-09 Projects - iPhone Student Developer Competition, Building Dashboard, Sustainable Agriculture, FilmTech, Solar Decathlon

*Market and reach out!

Business of Innovation - how do you develop your innovative practice?
Consider: ownership, marketing, branding, promotion
ROI, it’s not all about money!

How others are using web 2.0 beyond the classroom?
*PELI, touted at #camptech08 for outreach and resource research and connection facilitation. I forgot to mention how we’d like to work with the State Dept and aid orgs for mapping and developing complementary efforts

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Notes from Adrian Sannier Keynote

July 29, 2008 at 9:06 am · Filed under EdTech, TechTalk

Notes to be filled in later, so stay tuned.

Faith in technology - tech will solve our problems
Extend education will increase excellence
We can’t see how amazing the age we live in is.

Progression of phones - Switchboard in Mayberry to cell phones for 8-year olds
Adoption 85 yrs for phone, decade for cells

Ray Kurzweil -

Static v. dynamic
portfolios are a representation but are not learning
How do we leverage technology for learning, for synthesis rather than re-presentation?

Frank Rhodes, Creation of the Future

How do we measure a university, what would we do if we were to start a university today?

Context to Core
ASU wants to go from 60K to 100K students, how long can we compete when we try to do it all ourselves? At what point are we wasting our resources trying to replicate what others can provide for less?

“Core processes… are the ones that differentiate you… so that customers select you over your competition. Everything else is context.” - Geoffrey Moore

How do we move from context to core? Eliminate inefficiencies, redundancies…
Research - The concept of one, do it once, do it well, do it everywhere
The concept of zero - don’t do it, let someone else who is better at what they do, do it for you. It’s a simple matter of scale, and Service Level Agreements.

Cop to Concierge
Amazon.com-ification - cut out the middleman

Info to Intelligence
Fractured business intelligence - Dashboards to die for
Create a data singularity where you train people to manage data from dashboards rather than fracturing their attention and time

Cattle-car to 1:1
Promote don’t prevent technology adoption on campus. Provide apps online, provide anytime, anywhere learning.

Physical to digital
Burn the libraries, stop air conditioning the books
We need change now

Traditional to hybrid
Abilene Christian University - 0 to warp speed

Is it time for a radical infusion of tech into higher ed?
Does the role of IT declien?
Does the CIO cease to be a strategic officer?

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Diigo Links 07/09/2008

July 9, 2008 at 12:30 pm · Filed under Diigo Links

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