Professional Development

The UNC TLT conference was a good one!  There were a wide variety of programs, some more geared towards things that we’re doing than others.  Some were really good at this point in time (like the Learning Commons presentation NCSU did) and others resonated with things that I’ve worked on in the past and inspired me to do more (like the Learning Objects one that UNCG did).  My presentation with Bob King went well. It was a little less hands on than I had hoped, but there was good discussion–such as privacy regulations for publishing student work on the web. We had a good turn out, even though the workshop was a 5 minute drive from the conference hotel.  Several people followed up saying that this is just the kind of thing their faculty are becoming interested in. So, overall, it was a good conference, and I got lots of good ideas.  Thanks!

Demonstration: The Learning Commons: Creating and Sustaining a Student-Focused Learning Space (Joe Williams, Janelle Joseph)

• Background
  • Learning Commons: social, friendly, inviting, support learning
  • Access to resources, images, ideas, inspiration, research support, productivity support (applications, etc), as well as social components
  • Renovation of East Wing
  • Involved students, faculty, staff
• Floor plan
  • You can see the PowerPoint here
  • Have in “information” desk, which is a little bit confusing… students ask “is this reference?”
  • Presentation room for practicing presentations
  • Different stations for different purposes
  • Group study spaces
  • Same feedback we’re getting: power, spaces, great wireless, etc.
  • Comfortable space
  • Circulation & reserve at one desk in another area (about 40 feet away)
  • This space has taken over the reference area
• Services
  • Research & computing, device lending, social space & collaborative spaces
    • Even have a few game consoles set up permanently as a break from studying, no complains about noise/distractions
    • Website has real-time PC availability that students can check before coming over
    • Can see some of the devices they loan out on their FAQ sheet (Word doc)
  • Accessible staff (even low, clear information tables (rather than tall, fort-like desks)
    • Signage focuses on words (like “law” or “dictionaries”) rather than call numbers
• Outreach
  • Week of celebration for opening of new learning commons
  • Student group involvement (multicultural students affairs office, union activities board, international scholars, student services, student organization resource center), went to their meetings to tell them about it
  • Campus partnerships (IT, center for teaching & learning, campus media, campus activities, eBoards)
  • Future events: with groups, maybe gaming, faculty lecture series (sound familiar)
• Assessment
  • Observations, counts, usage statistics
    • Including hits on website
  • Focus groups, surveys
  • Standing committees
    • University library committee, subgroup of this is specifically for commons (just students), director has student advisory board
  • Web-based options
    • Text box, fill in comments, hit send (right on front page)
    • Discussion board on main commons page
      • Requires university login to create new posts
• Interesting side effect
  • Business faculty bring students in to study how people use space, etc.
  • Some people teach in the space (not registering for spaces, though)
  • People LOVE roaming dry erase boards
  • Sound dampening furniture, more social space, louder than in previous space, some students shush other students, do query students when it seems like it might be too noisy
  • Staff didn’t need to be sold on this, but there was a need to do some retraining (printing options changed, etc)
  • Can rely on some grad assistants to help with advanced issues
• Some good photos and student comments in the powerpoint (link above)
• Funding
  • Bond, donations, Friends of the Library fundraising, library-specific campaign, education & technology fee allocation for computer equipment
  • 9 millions dollars, covered whole floor, includes learning commons, exhibits room, special collections reading room, etc.
  • 3 year refresh cycle for computing equipment
• Last page of powerpoint shows other resources that are useful
• Interested in knowing more? Listserv on that page, too
• Looks similar to Emory, from what folks were saying; will see if I can get over there on the weekend and take some pictures
• Maybe they’ll put together a bibliography on these topics

Panel discussion: Tapping Student Resources to Produce Multimedia Learning Solutions (Amanda Robertson, Mike Cuales, David Howard, Ben Huckaby, David Shew)

• Explained development of DELTA
• Recognition of top design students, hired them
• Have 9 interns, treat as part-time staff, to support multimedia solutions for professors
• Commit to good training for students in areas they want
• Creative with budget & location for student workers… sometimes hired/paid by department, but supervised by DELTA
• Students bring in good, new ideas about what’s really going on
• Students have good insight into student experience & help build relationships across campus
• Students get good, real-world experience
• Students get to be project managers on small scale projects, get management process experience
• Saves faculty time, lets students work directly with faculty
• Even simple flashcards and glossaries made major improvements
• Students paid 8-12 dollars per hour.  Also gearing up for a credit version (for folks within their own subject).

Plenary session: Staying Ahead of the Curve: The Open Croquet Consortium, (Marilyn Lombardi)

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” - Alan Kay

• What is the future of online education we want?
• Where is your teenager now?
  • Harbinger of social change
  • Pass around ideas like social items
  • Multitasking
• Online socialization
• Participatory culture
  • Media creators, remixing, passing media along
  • Multimodal interaction (visual, textual, audio)
  • Affinity-based self-organization
    • Fan fiction, online games, carving out own informal learning environments, joining apprenticeships/learning/on their own
  • Distributed cognition
    • Collective intelligence, virtual communities (including research communities), blur line of instructor & student, controlling is shifting from power holders, bottom-up contribution
• Learning
  • Online Learning 1.0: Course-centered: package, deliver, CMS
  • Online Learning 2.0: Student-centered: connect, converse, Sakai/Moodle/eFramework
  • Online Learning 3.0: Context-centered: coalesce, co-create, open source, 3D meta-medium, Croquet
• Context is everything
  • Proximity is important, but can you achieve this online?
  • Learning Commons
• Learning in Authentic Contexts
  • Real world relevance, ill-defined challenges, sustained investigations, multiple sources and perspectives, collaborations, reflection, interdisciplinary, integrated assessment, polished products, multiple interpretations
• Discussed using virtual environments (Second Life)
  • FERPA (may interact with anyone)
  • Use screen names (not real name)
  • Storing lessons, mission critical work on someone else’s servers (not yours or institutions)
  • Reliability? depend on SL servers, what if it’s down at a critical time?
• Recommends going in & playing, getting used to it & piloting programs
  • Then, when institutions are ready to be in there, there will be open-source solutions ready for you
  • Croquet!
    • Open source, scalable architecture, will run on PCs/laptops/PDAs/mobile phones, will run on different OSs
• Croquet
  • Share and co-edit resources in real time
  • Synchronous (how does this scale with DISTANCE learning?)
  • Allows browser in the game, but can be changed collaboratively
  • Allows hyperlinking to a new world
  • Privacy, authentications, etc (personalized workplace worlds, where they can interlock)
  • Visualizing abstract concepts
  • Collaborative white-board, CAD, etc
  • This is a developers’ environment, not an application
    • Very easy to create new objects!
  • Incorporates tagging & metadata for objects
  • Can make it so that some users see more of the world (in same location) as a reward for passing one level
  • Integrated VOIP power (Jabber), showed video of professor talking in corner of virtual world
  • Don’t need an avatar, can be yourself
• Croquet Consortium
  • Will be releasing software developers’ kit 1.0
  • Institutions can consider joining
  • Want: long term viability for platform that we need, not the entertainment industry

Formal presentation: Promoting Higher-Level Processing: Evidence-Based Support for Student-Created Digital Learning Objects (Robert Crow)

• Test to see if elaboration is working
• Can learn through different modes: image, text, etc,
• Learning Objects
  • Any entity, digital or non-digital which can be used, reused, or referneced…
  • Deliverable over internet
  • Merlot used eSkeletons as an example
• Based on Elaboration Theory
  • Essay writing activity
  • Narrated PowerPoint, Camtasia, podcasting, use many modalities
• Grading was a challenge. Crow’s way of dealing with it was to grade by slide.
• Did a study correlating experimental and control groups with overall GPA, etc.
  • Used tests on concepts to get numbers
• Best correlation, Yes, having students construct learning object was a valid way to get them to hold onto concept over a longer period of time

Formal presentation: Effective Practices for Online Instruction (Laura Rogers)

• Focus on constructivist principles
• Want a lot of interactive, thoughtful conversations, thinking transformed through interaction
• ePedagogy interest group in TLT
  • maybe an eLearning coach for faculty?
• Demo-ed Second Life

Formal presentation: MySpace or Yours? Building Connections Between Student Computing Culture and Academic Computing Competencies (Bob King)

• Problem: disconnect between student computing culture & what we want students to do with the computer
• We know they’re doing something
• Learning builds on what we already know, must connect to existing knowledge
• When students come into academic setting, we don’t value what they know (their computing culture)
• Problem v.2: students begin their learning by deactivating what they know, rather than building on it
• How do we build connections between what they know & what we want them to know?
• We don’t have to like what students already know about computing
• We do have to know what they know, to build connections
• So what do they know? (brainstorm)
  • They know how to communicate (with their friends, emotion based, w/o proper grammar)
  • Knowledge-construction knowledge
  • Know how to multitask, know how to skim & surf (not necessarily how to drill down)
  • They have knowledge of how to make content in a variety of media
  • They may know less than they think
  • They know how to access information and play games
  • Have an online life
  • Sherry Turkle has useful theoretical context to understand this
  • The ability to explore the unknown socially
• What type of knowledge do they have? In either case, how do we build on it?
• Common views of what students know (Kaiser, D. Oblinger, etc)
  • The knowledge students have is very impressive and is generational or DNA-based, of a different species, gen X, Y, or M, etc.
  • The knowledge students have is not, after all, very impressive; despite what students may think, they lack basic skills
  • The knowledge students have is market-driven and represents an encroachment on academic turf (media-culpa)
• Student video (good stuff about information literacy!) on how they use the internet for academic & general purposes
• Problems with generational hypothesis
  • Doesn’t really allow us to build bridges
  • Idealize students just for being young leads to classroom disconnect & ignoring students who don’t like online existence
• One student said they’re lazy multitaskers
• Forcing into info lit or computer training model (ignoring what they do know) makes disconnect
  • “Such views minimize the social-base of students knowledge of computing while acknowledging (barely) their information-base (they can Google, yes, but that ain’t good enough)”
• Connection: both groups blame media
• Proposal: cultural-ecological knowledge hypothesis
  • The significant knowledge students already have about computing is of a type that is best described as cultural-ecological
  • Not a matter of generational difference, though can be younger
  • Not a matter of knowing insignificant skills & lacking basic
• A REALLY NEAT chart comparing student computing culture, academic computing culture
• If we incorporate items that they do know into our teaching, build bridges
  • Highly social, highly autonomous, choice-driven, desire-driven, bricolagic, nomadic/temporary, focused on content creation
• Real work application
  • Students create own wiki, own their own space (autonomous, choice-driven)
  • Collage, mashup, remix (bricoleur-friendly metaphors)
  • Self-selected topics
  • Focus on knowledge-construction processes including conversation, design, information skills
  • Temporal, project or performance-based structures

Formal presentation: What Can Students Learn from Computer-Based Training? (Tammala Bulger, Dana Ward)

• Supplemental online activities that allow printing certificates of completion
  • Sometimes this is used in face-to-face classes
  • Using SkillSoft’s SkillPort
  • Books 24/7
• What can students learn from CBT
  • Gives tech skills to students and certificates that can prove skills for internships
  • Blended Learning technique, slightly different definition than in the previous session
• I can see someone playing Second Life in front of me
• This session was less applicable to info lit instruction, as it focused on very specific software and one type of class, but still interesting information.

Formal presentation: A Primer on Blended Learning (Donna Petherbridge, Traci Temple)

• Very much an overview, but a nice general session
• Student characteristics
  • Demand we-based ed, prefer some tech, expect faculty to use some tech
  • Net Gen & Millennials (lumped together when comes to interest in online learning)
  • Web interactions have lead to an expectation for interaction and input into what and how they’re learning
  • Students still say teachers are invaluable to learning; online education often means LOTS of email for instructor… because they still want access to expert
• Blended Learning (lots of definitions)
  • Combining learning modes, teaching method/learning styles, teaching and learning strategies, learning in different contexts, and mixed approaches
  • Reduction in class time: refers to “Hybrid Learning,” not necessarily “Blended Learning.”
  • Mixed mode looks like: socialization group learning with learning possibilities of online environment
  • Student centered looks like: shift from lecture to student centered, new teaching strategies, teachers as facilitators, and focus on engaged instruction
• Viewed on a continuum (Carol A. Twigg)
  • Supplemental Model (traditional with online elements)
    • Could be PowerPoint that you post online
    • Could be a podcast, blog, discussion board
    • Online quizzes
    • CDROM/DVD with rich, interactive activities, simulations, movies
  • Fully Online Model (majority/all instruction online)
    • Students can access course anytime, anyplace, with asynchronous meetings
    • Content available online; materials could have been created collaboratively with multiple faculty members focusing only on their areas of expertise
    • Assignments within context of LMS at own pace
  • Replacement Model (Blended Learning)
    • Can reduce number of meeting times
    • Technology-based instructional activities
    • In-person classes could remain same (or change)
    • Can work individually or in small groups
    • Activity based learning fosters critical thinking skills
    • At own pace
    • Learning materials can match students’ personal learning styles
    • Weekly quizzes replace homework grading (sound familiar?!)
    • Automatic grading and record keeping
    • Links to additional learning resources: streaming media, lecture notes, exercise
    • Instructors spend time responding to students’ questions and needs
• Blended Learning Research
  • Recommends Educause (who doesn’t love it?)
  • Recommends looking at Program in Course Redesign at University of Central Florida
• Examples
  • Demo-ed eFlashcards that incorporated pronunciation
  • Blended website for an entomology course
• Benefits to students
  • Students like blended environment
  • Flexible course format
  • Active & student-centered
  • Greater interaction (student-faculty, student-student, student-content)
  • Part of learning process/learning communities
  • Serves varied learning styles
  • Increases learning outcomes
  • Better attendance, completion, and retention rates
  • Flexible, fits with “real life” family issues/work responsibilities, etc.
• Institutional Interest
  • Increased student learning
  • More efficient classroom use, increases capacity of facilities
  • “Supersection” model (I can’t imagine we’d ever see this at WFU, but we do something like this at UNCG) More info, see: Hartman and Moskai
  • Issues for administrators
    • Classroom scheduling, technology needs, testing facilities
  • Institutional Questions
    • Accreditation, institution definition of BL, how listed in catalog
• Overview
  • Blend “high-touch” with “high-tech”
  • Many different models
  • Will take time to develop courses

Demonstration: New Online Teaching Strategies: Bringing Theory to Life for More Effective Learning (Robert Brown, Nora Reynolds, Scott Brewster)

• Production office that creates online materials (learning objects), collaborating with faculty
  • Whole staff that develops these learning objects
  • Some students in the office, tell what’s dull and what’s not
  • Want faculty to stay on top of content; this office stays on top of technology (too much for faculty to have to do both)
• Game designed to let people tweak numbers and see how data changes. (demo)
• Also develop games that are whole courses
• Looking for ways to add essay grading
  
• Software
  • Flash, ALEX tool, java, Maya animations
  • Take Flash, export to html, create page, open within Blackboard
  • Use LDAP authentication to track how students are doing
    • Looks seamless to students, they don’t even know they’re not in Blackboard
    • Can look and see where each student clicks, where lags are
    • Faculty can supplement with podcasts to help with concepts folks are having a hard time with
• Core design:
  • Deliberate practice, feedback, teacher
  • Manipulation, text, visual, audio, practice, immediate feedback, 3 or 4 ways to learn the same concept
    • Combinations at the same point in the session (text with optional audio annotation, etc)
  • Exercises to be done in one sitting: pretest, exercise, post-test
    • Autonomy, if they score well on first test, they know they don’t need to complete that unit
  • Software can remember what student misses, if a later topic requires previous information but the student has missed it, they are prompted to learn that information again
  • Using real-world examples
  • Supplementary video to complement learning object
  • Consistent symbols: same symbol for sound across the pages
• Easy to see the application of games in courses that deal with practical applications (math, economics, etc)
  • Harder to see application in theory
  • Virtual Philosopher: discusses topic, asks what you think and gives option, students choose one (branching tree), and the prof. follows up on their answer
    • Faculty who is doing this says it’s even more effective than lecturing to a group of 70 students; 100% participation
• Faculty presence
  • Students want “high touch” faculty interaction
  • Students have to apply theory to advance in game
    • If not applied correctly, sent back to learn again
  • In moment where come up with some question in game, can IM LO staff to get help at the moment of need
  • Games fill up as soon as they post
• My notes:
  • Smooth corners, nice graphics/text/LO combinations, very professional look and feel
  • I really like how they talk about “play and manipulate” in this presentation. They don’t necessarily mean this in the traditional “game” sense, but just in interacting with the data.
  • The course pages feel like blogs, with the center column & sidebars
  • There’s a woman on the front row with a NEW looking iPod and microphone hooked up to it. She’s not taking notes madly on a laptop the way that I am. I’m completely jealous.
  • Amazing session, I am totally inspired.