EdVentures in Technology
teaching, learning and change
March 1, 2008 at 12:30 pm · Filed under Diigo Links
phpScheduleIt : Open Source Web Based Resource Scheduling
tags: @petermello, nmi, open_source, scheduling
Northeast Maritime Institute
tags: @petermello, nmi
etchasketchquake.jpg (JPEG Image, 280×762 pixels)
tags: data, dataloss, etchasketch
Marietta College - Copyright.pdf
tags: college, copyright, faculty, highered, intellectual-property, ip, ownership, plymouth-ip, university
Copyright and Intellectual Property
tags: college, copyright, faculty, highered, intellectual-property, ip, ownership, plymouth-ip, university
FindLaw for Legal Professionals - Case Law, Federal and State Resources, Forms, and Code
tags: college, copyright, faculty, highered, intellectual-property, ip, ownership, plymouth-ip, university
KansasAmicusBrief.pdf (application/pdf Object)
tags: college, copyright, faculty, highered, intellectual-property, ip, ownership, plymouth-ip, university
AAUP: Court Ruling Favors Faculty Rights
tags: college, copyright, faculty, highered, intellectual-property, ip, ownership, plymouth-ip, university
February 3, 2008 at 3:28 pm · Filed under Higher Education
“The most shocking part of going back to school at this point in my life (in her 30s) is looking around and realizing that nobody is in the room. The professor is just another open browser window, 1 of 10.”
Profs compete for students’ attention | Tech news blog - CNET News.com
Part of my role as Coordinator for Learning Technologies at Plymouth State University is to work with our faculty in adapting to the new technologies that permeate our campus. While this quote from a recent CNet News article is nothing new, it is a reminder that just as technology is changing the way we communicate, it is also affecting the way that we teach. As evidenced by the quote above from Sharyl Grant, a non-trad student at UNC, technology is changing the way we interact even in the physical realm. When the “professor is just another open browser window,” is that a function of technology or rather a dysfunction of our teaching practice? K-12 teachers have grown up In an age of multiple intelligences and learning styles, differentiated instruction and Bloom’s Taxonomy. Yet in higher ed where we often still practice the lecture to learn, drill and kill, one-sided conversation/passive consumption methodology of information dissemination, can we really blame technology for a lack of student engagement or is it just another outlet (like doodling and note passing) for those stifled minds who reject passive learning and are seeking an opportunity for engagement?
Image courtesy of DavidDMuir
There are typically three schools of thought that seem to be prevalent. The first is the desire for an outright ban on laptop and mobile use in the classroom. Those faculty in this camp feel that their students should be focused entirely on what is being lectured and that technology serves only as a distraction to their learning. The second perspective is to simply ignore the technology use and pretend that it isn’t there, to teach around it. The last perspective is to embrace technology use and leverage it to make the class more engaging - integrating technology into their learning experience.
Now, integrating technology into the classroom experience at the higher ed level can be challenging and often means more preparatory work, and yet it has the potential to be far more engaging than the relatively static experience of lectures, overheads and PowerPoint presentations. Consider the opportunities for learning we could create if we tap our students’ affinity for technology by challenging them in class to find and share appropriate and timely references, news briefs, videos or lectures on our subject matter. Imagine if we showed our students how technology can serve them, rather than the other way around.
The 21-st century treats knowledge and information as currency and those who can effectively acquire, process and synthesize that knowledge into actionable projects and tangible results will be far better prepared for the world they will enter.
The image above is a screenshot of the resources I was utilizing to create this blog post. I tossed out a call for image resources to my Twitter network. I was searching for Creative Commons licensed images on Flickr. I was composing my post in my Flock (web browser) editor with my Google Reader RSS feeds in the background. My feeds are what turned me on to this article and got me thinking about writing this post. Imagine the power of harnessing these resources to improve our classroom experience. What would a higher ed classroom look like if our students were actually engaged in the learning process, rather than sitting in their lecture seats as passive vessels? As web browsing becomes resource hunting, as personal Instant Messaging gave way to consulting one’s personal learning network, as students become partners instead of problems.
If the professor is simply browser window 1 of 10, the question then becomes this:
“Is the professor allowing this to occur because they have not created and drawn their students into an actively engaged learning community?”
Neither ignoring nor banning technology use will engage your students as effectively as embracing it and harnessing it for productive means. And embracing technology does not require that professors be tech experts, the students have that down. Professors just need to do what they’ve always done: share, guide, challenge and refine. They’re just doing it with more support and far greater resources than they’ve had in the past.
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Tags: attention, college, university, teaching, learning
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February 9, 2007 at 1:29 pm · Filed under Higher Education, Teaching & Learning
The following post was sent to me by a colleague who had found it by way of a Google alert for electronic portfolio. The post is apparently from a faculty member, although the author is anonymous. While I didn’t agree with everything the author wrote and find the tone rather antagonistic, many of the arguments (stripped of their vitriol) spoke to me as I struggle with where higher education is today and where it needs to go to better serve the needs of our learners as opposed to simply continuing the aged paradigms of a time long gone.
The author recognizes that there is blame to share, beginning with the trustees and continuing through the administrative ranks. But who does the author feels is at the root of the problem?
I blame most of all the professoriate. This is who has let me and the world’s entire educational enterprise down. They are supposed to be intelligent and wise and to know better. In the classroom, they act like they know it all, so why aren’t they actualizing that comprehensive vision outside the classroom?
The post is lengthy and can be found in its entirety here. But I’ve culled out some of the nuggets that held meaning for me:
The information revolution will not eliminate the teacher, merely liberate him to become a better teacher. The only cost to the teacher will be preparation. She must become fit to teach, able to use the wonderful new tools that are transforming our discipline.
People need high touch as much as they do high tech. They always will. While computers will continue to get better and better at freeing the classroom teacher from the routine elements of instruction, they will never be able to inspire.
Teachers must abandon their role as the definitive source of information and become facilitators instead. Their new role is not to instruct but to guide discovery.
The whole purpose of the teacher is not to posture as an authority but
to share knowledge and understanding, to empower students.
All organizations, all humans , are resistant to change. Our teachers teach the way they are taught, because that is what they know. We cling to what is safe and familiar.
As much as I found the piece engaging, in as much as it echoes some of my own personal beliefs about the state of the educational machine. However, given my current advocacy for digital literacy and critical analysis in the age of Google, I wanted to apply a bit of triangulation to assess bias and authority. As I did, a couple of things stood out and concern me about how this piece would be received by others.
- The author is anonymous. Although the author espouses a desire for educational reform, civil discourse, etc. the choice of anonymity seems to me contradictory. While I would like to believe that this was written by a peer to the professoriate that he rails against, the lack of background diminishes the argument. The About page presents an almost farce-like face to the blog.
- In reading the authors earlier posts, while they are certainly thought provoking, the tone and language suggests a biased perspective as opposed to a global one.
But even without the external validation, and although as I stated earlier I didn’t necessarily agree with everything the author wrote, much of the perspective centering around the evolving nature of information, knowledge and learning has a ring of currency and truth.
[tags]education, highered, college, university, professor [/tags]
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January 29, 2007 at 2:21 pm · Filed under Higher Education, TechTalk
A while back I posted about a scholarship contest which focuses on the digital dorm room of the future. Today, The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required) posted an article about the winners of a similar contest sponsored by ACUHO-I (Association of College and University Housing Officers-International). The contest was intended to spark thought and attention on implementing new principles of design and utility in the area of college housing. According to The Chronicle:
The competition was the first step in a process, called the 21st Century Project, that the association hopes will lead to construction of a prototype residence hall.
It appears that modularity was a common theme amongst the 46 entrants. The winning proposal was submitted by Jonathan Levi, architect and Harvard University adjunct professor. His proposal envisioned:
Residence-hall rooms of the future will be made in a factory, trucked to campuses, and stacked with other matching units — each constructed of sustainably harvested wood — to form buildings complete with lounges and corridors. The rooms will be filled with modular furnishings that can easily be switched out as needs change. A kitchenette might be rolled in to replace a second bed, for instance. And the rooms will be redecorated as often as their occupants see fit to reprogram the interactive floor-to-ceiling media walls.
[tags]dorm, residence, college, university, living, acuho, design [/tags]
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January 9, 2007 at 3:30 pm · Filed under Random Thoughts
From Christian at think:lab comes this interesting link. I would love to know what my future students want and/or feel they need in their future residence halls. I do wish however that a company that is asking its participants to be visionaries would actually support submissions which emphasize that vision, specifically the new media of today.
The link below is from my diigo account, a new alternative to del.icio.us and Furl. Thanks to Will Richardson for pointing this one out!
Gradware.com - 2007 National Essay Scholarship: The Digital Dorm Room of the Future
Essay:
In 750 words or less
- It’s really too bad that a scholarship competition that seeks to find out what students feel that the dorm room of the future will look like doesn’t allow for the use of the new media of today!
- post by edventures
[tags]dorm, residence, college, university, living, gradware, design, scholarship [/tags]
November 20, 2006 at 3:49 pm · Filed under Higher Education, Random Thoughts
Have you ever had an encounter where you knew instinctively that you life was about to change in a very exciting way although you couldn’t exactly say why or how? I had one of those moments yesterday when I had the distinct pleasure of meeting one of the most dynamic and passionate individuals I have perhaps ever met, Beena Raza.
Beena, and her sister Dr. Baela Raza Jamil, are the driving force behind Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA), the “Centre for Education and Consciousness” public trust in Pakistan and are heavily involved in the South Asian Forum for Education Development (SAFED). ITA has been our partner group in organizing and facilitating our grant-based program, the Pakistani Teachers Training Summer Institute. This grant funded program began in 2004 and has run every summer since with approximately 20-25 participants each year.
My meeting with Beena was facilitated by our new Pakistani Institute coordinator, Blake Allen. It was originally intended to be a simple one hour meeting to discuss technology and online learning opportunities. It evolved into a three hour brainstorming and incubation session in which the three of us spoke of everything from the nature of work within ITA’s adopted schools to Beena’s outreach efforts with the Rag Picker culture. I am amazed by her passion and commitment to her work, to her fellow Pakistanis, particularly when she mentioned so casually that some of her work had led to death threats if she returned, and yet return she did. Her persistence and commitment are inspiring!
Eventually our conversation began to center on collaborative and communicative technologies for Pakistani educators and we spoke of the informal “Google Office,” blogs, Skype, portals, connectivity issues and the $100 laptop initiative out of MIT. We spoke of the importance of follow-up contact with Institute participants and how we might develop a mechanism to enable post-institute connections and continued sharing and development of ideas which support the educational system. We began to envision a distance learning initiative which would provide ongoing support and training for our institute alums. It was incredible, the amount of energy in the room.
Our discussion culminated in an informal invitation for me to travel to Pakistan to work with and share collaborative technology ideas with educators there. I was, and still am, humbled by the thought but I believe that the opportunity to share my thoughts and expertise with Pakistani educators would pale in comparison to what I would learn from the experience.
Thank you Beena.
To be continued…
[tags]pakistan, pakistani, institute, ITA, SAFED, PSU, plymouth, state, university, beena, raza[/tags]
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November 3, 2006 at 2:25 pm · Filed under Higher Education, Learning Theory
As part of the committee charged with developing the USNH e-Portfolio summit, one of our tasks was to determine our audience. Now this initiative is coming out of a system-wide $450,000 block grant so on one hand an obvious audience are the constituents who pay into the system, namely the University of New Hampshire, Plymouth State University, Keene State College and Granite State College. But my friend and colleague, Dr. Royce Robertson, has thoughts similar to mine when the topic of e-portfolios in the state arises. In his blog, The Virtual Sherpa , he states:
The cycle of change regarding ePortfolios in the State of New Hampshire has a few missing links - teachers, employers, college admissions, and licensing boards.
Which echoes my thoughts exactly. Three of the four institutions have a focus on teacher preparation and education. The State of New Hampshire is eyeing an electronic portfolio requirement. And then there is what we do with those portfolios when we’re move from K-12 to higher ed and from higher ed into the job market.
It strikes me that the most logical partnership would be one between the State and the University System so as to create standards and portability between all of our institutions. Consider what an effective model of Dr. Robertson’s cycle listed above could look like.
Our learners begin their electronic portfolio career as early as the primary grades. These portfolios then follow our learners into middle and high school. As part of their commencement, these learners will be expected to present a portfolio which highlights their mastery of certain core competencies. As they begin to look towards their post-secondary education, these learners submit their portfolios to the institution(s) of their choice as part of the admissions process. Once admitted, the build upon their existing portfolio with their post-secondary work and employ the portfolio as part of their degree defense. As our newly graduated teachers begin to seek employment, this comprehensive portfolio is used during their job hunt to highlight their competencies and areas of expertise. Because these schools are using similar standards, the evaluation process is simplified. Now if the learner decides to pursue an advanced degree, they take their portfolio and carry it over (virtually) to their new institution.
I’ll admit that their are a lot of assumptions here, but since all of these entities are utilizing e-portfolios in one way or another, would it not make sense for folks to be able to take a look at any portfolio and have an understanding of what it represents?
technorati tags:eportfolio, electronic, portfolio, usnh, college, university, summit, psu, plymouth, state, nh
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November 3, 2006 at 1:48 pm · Filed under Higher Education, Learning Theory
The University System of New Hampshire will be hosting an e-Portfolio Summit at the University of New Hampshire - Manchester campus from 9-2:30 p.m. on Friday, November 17th. Our keynote speaker will be the noted Dr. Helen Barrett.
Dr. Helen Barrett has researched strategies and technologies for electronicn portfolios since 1991. She maintains a resource Web site, http://electronicportfolios.org, and an Apple Learning Interchange exhibit, on e-Portfolios, and has authored chapters in several books and numerous articles on the subject. Dr. Barrett is the Research Project Director for The REFLECT Initiative, an international research project assessing the impact of e-Portfolios on student learning, motivation, and engagement in secondary schools.
Additional sessions include an overview of the current state of portfolio initiatives in the four representative institutions and a brainstorming session on how our institutions can and/or should work together to pursue these initiatives.
The full program is available here: USNH e-Portfolio Summit
This summit is the precursor to an anticipated $450,000 University System of New Hampshire block grant to support electronic portfolio initiatives system wide.
technorati tags:eportfolio, electronic, portfolio, helen, barrett, usnh, college, university, summit, psu, plymouth, state, nh
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August 31, 2006 at 7:59 pm · Filed under Higher Education, TechTalk
My colleague, Dan Bramer at watersedge, beat me to the punch on this one. In our email today came this announcement from Blackboard which provided a link to the official renaming schema of WebCT to Blackboard Learning System. In our case, running WebCT Campus Edition 6, our new product name is Blackboard Learning System CE Enterprise Ltd License. Try saying that five times fast!
Our campus products will not see any naming change until we apply both Application Pack 1 and Service Pack 1 to the former WebCT application. But it is good to start getting used to the new name now as it is bound to cause some initial confusion among our faculty, staff and student body.
technorati tags:webct, blackboard, lms, cms, higher_ed, education, college, university, learning, system
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August 28, 2006 at 3:33 pm · Filed under Higher Education
My colleague, Ken Kochien, has been blogging about the impact of web services on the slow to change behemoth of higher education. While he was talking specifically about the integrated suite of apps we presently utilize such as our Student Information System (SIS), Learning Management System, portal solution, email solutions, he wondered about the potential impact of new web services such as Microsoft’s Live.
In an interesting bit of timing, the buzz in my blogosphere today has been about Google’s new suite of apps. As I was perusing their site, I came across a link which targeted higher ed institutions specifically: Google Apps for Education. Google apps is the convergence of Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar and Google Page Creator with the intent to construct a collaborative environment that does not require place-based apps. The higher ed model is slightly different than the business model in that it eliminates the Google Page Creator and adds an Administration Console which enables the institution to brand its environment and manage student accounts.
And yet I wonder whether any of these types of suites will ever fully be accepted in this day and age where a good majority of our future students are already fully jacked in to the ‘Net and have already created their own collaborative environments. Will Microsoft Live and Google Apps ever truly be adopted by this generation that has its own way of staying in touch through social networking arenas such as Facebook and mySpace?
What could higher ed gain if it were found that it was unnecessary for institutions to replicate the services already being used by these digital natives? What might be lost?
Should higher ed be taking the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach? Instead of competing with and recreating artificial environments that mimic Facebook, should we instead be looking to see how we might be able to partner with and extend the capabilities of these already near-ubiquitous services?
These are the questions that higher education will be required to answer over the next few years.
technorati tags:higher_ed, education, college, university, myspace, facebook, web, services, google, microsoft, digital, native
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