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Todays_Learner
Reaching and Engaging Today's LearnerAfter months of spirited discussion and debate, the EDUCAUSE teaching and learning community has named the, “Top Teaching and Learning Challenges, 2009.” Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and contribute ideas from your vantage point on campus to build a network of solutions around each challenge. Share the ways that your campus is combating the Challenges in the wiki below or simply peruse suggestions from your peers to find ideas that might inspire change at your institution. Before posting to this wiki, be sure to read the Community Wiki Guidelines developed by lead project contributors. Using the guidelines helps to ensure consistent format and usability of this collection. If you have difficulty posting or have any questions, please contact the workspace manager assigned to this wiki. They can post content for you or answer any questions you may have about contributing. To explore the other Challenges, return to the main wiki and connect with colleagues in the Challenges Ning network. Workspace ManagersCarol Henrichs, carolh@tamu.edu Challenge OverviewToday’s students have grown up amidst exponential technological change. The growth of ubiquitous computing and mobile devices has allowed them to operate in a type of third dimension, where face-to-face interactions are supplemented by an “always on” connection to virtual content and social networks. They create content, whether it’s remixing a video on YouTube or blogging about a summer backpacking trip. They share content, from posting photos on Flickr to exchanging biology notes with a classroom group on Facebook and they are increasingly using digital and mobile devices to access content. Are we ready for these Net Gen learners? Have our classrooms evolved to fully leverage the ways these students are accessing content and constructing knowledge? How do we truly reach and engage today’s learners? Campus SnapshotsNetworkBlue, University of Kentucky Dr. Christoper Rice, UK Political Science professor, is the newly appointed Online Community Manager working with faculty, librarians and staff to build an invitation-only online orientation/transitions social networking environment for the Fall 2009 entering cohort - centering around NetworkBlue (http://networkblue.uky.edu). Invitations to the NetworkBlue site go out each day as the incoming cohort is admitted and confirms their attendance to a summer conference day. In addition, Dr. Rice is moderating the use of the Ning-based platform by UK student leadership in the effort to craft a moderated, common online networking location for the University of Kentucky's undergraduate students. Student leadership is identified by the undergraduate colleges, the Student Government Association and by the Division of Student Affairs in order to best represent to the incoming cohort the exciting challenges and opportunities in their academic majors and programs. Dr. Rice will blog regularly on issues of social concern and use inquiry-based learning, roleplaying and the implementation of many different Web 2.0 applications, including the building of wikis and microblogging. This social networking initiative is part of the educational continuum in the University's efforts to raise student success rates in order to become a Top 20 public institution worthy of the state's flagship status. (This solution was featured in the May 18 Solutions in Action webcast. Download the slides.) Net Vibes and Social Tagging in International Business, University of Indianapolis Teaching International Business requires faculty and students to be current with international issues. Students must be able to find international statistics and be able to analyze the data to make informed decisions. Del.icio.us, a social bookmarking application, enables learners to share a wealth of information, thus one spends less time meandering through the Internet for data. Social bookmarking allows users to link to others’ websites via tags/bundles. For more information contact Katharine Bohley, KBohley@uindy.edu. NetVibes is a start-page that allows the creation of public and private pages. We created a NetVibes page with tabs, RSS feeds, and widgets for an International Business course providing instantaneous access to a wealth of up-to-date resources. The NetVibes pages have been implemented in two sections of an undergraduate International Business course. We also embedded widgets in order to provide instant messaging capabilities. For more information contact Katharine Bohley, KBohley@uindy.edu. Wikis for Collaboration, University of Indianapolis Today's students are seekers of their own knowledge; they desire collaboration. We created project wikis to promote collaboration and exchange of knowledge among students. The students are more involved and have access to the content after the course is complete. Wikis provide academicians with an excellent opportunity to use Web 2.0 technologies to transform their teaching and learning strategies to more learner-centered, authentic, while providing hands-on experiences. (For more information contact, Elizabeth Kiggins, kiggins@uindy.edu.) (This solution was featured in the May 18 Solutions in Action webcast. Download the slides.) Hands-on Simulations for Next Gen Learners, The Pennsylvania State University At The Pennsylvania State University, real-life simulations are proving to be a dynamic way to engage today’s learners while them to understand the value of the material being presented. The Trading Room in the Smeal College of Business, for example, includes real-time ticker data and stock boards, as well as the computer systems and software needed for simulated trading. Many business majors find themselves managing portfolios throughout the semester and interacting in situations that are similar to those found on an active trading floor. Another hands-on simulation takes place in many supply chain, business, and executive education courses at Penn State. The Beer Game, created by a group of professors at MIT in the 1960’s, simulates the supply chain of beer through the factory, distributor, wholesaler, and retailer stages. Students typically work in pairs with 8-12 people per supply chain. The groups at each stage must make sure to keep beer in stock without crowding the warehouse. The bullwhip effect takes place when orders spike or drop creating instability of the overall system. A debrief occurs at the end for students to formalize understanding of supply chains, business decisions, and outside influences on their positions. In both instances, students are drawn into the dynamic, “real-life” approach to authentic curricular activities while learning – through doing – how to manage complex problems and portfolios. To learn more, visit: Smeal Trading Room, http://www.smeal.psu.edu/traderoom; The Beer Game Simulation, http://www.beergame.org/. (For more information, contact Erin Long, elc134@psu.edu) (This solution was featured in a recent article in the EDUCAUSE Review, Charting the Course and Tapping the Community: The | EDUCAUSE Top Teaching and Learning Challenges, 2009.) (This solution was featured in the May 18 Solutions in Action webcast. Download the slides.) Web 2.0 Tour from Maricopa Community Colleges, Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction Just over year ago, Maricopa's ten community colleges and their instructional technology leaders began a collaborative project in an effort to introduce our over 4000 faculty members to Web 2.0 tools and their application to various instructional environments. After some planning, we developed and introduced the Web 2.0 Tour. The Tour, which introduces faculty members to well over 60 Web 2.0 tools, is a series of hands-on workshops that take place at each of the colleges over an academic year. The curriculum for these workshops was developed collaboratively and approved for professional growth so that the faculty receives salary advancement for attendance. Materials, including websites, online tutorials, presentations, readings, webinars, podcasts, and examples were collected and developed by the team for use during the workshops. Tour topics include Web 2.0 overview, wikis, videos, images, audio, screencasting, blogs, RSS feeds, podcasting, collaborative media, and webconferencing. For more information, contact Veronica Diaz, PhD at veronica.diaz@domail.maricopa.edu or call 480-731-8300. Hybrid Learning Systems for Educational Leaders, University of California Santa Barbara In the Joint Doctoral Program for Educational Leadership, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Cal Poly State Polytechnic University have developed a hybrid learning system of face to face, video conference (four learning centers – UCSB, Cal Poly, Ventura Learning Center, and the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education), online course management system and ePortfolio (the epsilen environment), as well as handheld mobile connections. The online connections include the use of iChat and Skype for video and/or audio small group connections. Within the epsilen environment are workgroups, chats, blogs, wikis, forums, drop boxes, note boxes, and resource pages that provide for both synchronous and asynchronous connections. The students in this program are all currently serving in leadership positions in pre-K-12, community college, and higher ed. The opportunity to drive to UCSB for classes might entail ass much as a 200 mile round trip, which is clearly not feasible. The joint program hybrid learning system provides multiple connections across multiple media for almost seamless digital connections. For more information, contact Patrick Faverty at: pfaverty@education.ucsb.edu. Inviting the Community into the Classroom: Washington State University The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology (CTLT) at Washington State University (WSU) has been viewing portfolios as workspaces, akin to a personal learning environment, and as hub-and-spoke models for course designs that would "dock" a course within a student's portfolio. Yet the problem remained of how to manage the assessment of student work in a fluid environment. To meet that need, CTLT Director Gary Brown introduced the term "harvesting gradebook" to describe the gradebook that faculty need for work in these decentralized environments. As originally articulated by Brown, the gradebook "harvested" student work, storing copies of the work within the gradebook, where the work was assessed. On further discussion, the concept became inverted: assessments were "harvested" from the student work, which remained in situ. The concept was initially tested in an upper-level apparel merchandising class. Fifteen teams of students used WordPress blogs to create electronic poster portfolio presentations for midterm and end-of-term assessments. The posters were evaluated by a group of faculty members and also by outside industry professionals, from a rubric modeled after WSU's critical and integrative thinking rubric. For more information, contact Nils Peterson at: nils_peterson@wsu.edu. (This solution was featured in a May 18 Solutions in Action webcast. Download the slides.) Engaging Students Through Podcasting, South Mountain Community College Through the Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction, colleges within the Maricopa system have been able to create sites within iTunes U to upload podcasts from campus. MCLI has provided instruction in creating the podcasts and uploading them to them to the system. They've also offered workshops in navigating iTunes U. Faculty, such as Alisa Cooper, have taken that content one step further, engaging students in the actual creation of podcasts. For more information, contact Alisa Cooper at: dr.coop@yahoo.com. (This solution was featured in a May 18 Solutions in Action webcast. Download the slides.) Voicethread for Visual and Auditory Feedback, Simmons College Using Voicethread, a collaborative, multimedia slideshow, Ellen Grabiner at Simmons College is letting students engage with digital images using their voice and video. After posting a digital piece of work, students can log onto voicethread and annotate the work with text, video, or audio, providing commentary and feedback in the same slideshow within which the image is displayed. For more information, contact Ellen Grabiner at: ellen.grabiner@simmons.edu . (This solution was featured in a May 18 Solutions in Action webcast. Download the slides.) The Active Learning Institute, Dartmouth College Each year, the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning hosts the Active Learning Institute to help faculty develop and refine their skills for learner-centered engagement in the classroom. Participants receive a $500 stipend for full participation in the two-day institute, which features speakers who discuss active pedagogies and approaches for student success. To apply for the institute, faculty have to submit a brief statement (800 words or less) of the specific teaching challenges they wish to address over the two-day institute and the course they regularly teach or plan to teach in which these challenges arise. For more information, contact Barbara Knauff at: barbara.knauff@dartmouth.edu . (This solution was featured in a May 18 Solutions in Action webcast. Download the slides.) Using Technology and Collaboration to Engage Students, University of Michigan "Using Technology and Collaboration to Engage Students" is a video clip (16 minutes) on strategies to engage students. Professor Scott Moore discusses how he revised a course to increase student motivation and engagement using project-based learning and technology tools, such as blogs and wikis. The video clip (2nd one on the page) is available at http://www.crlt.umich.edu/faculty/Thurnau/ThurnauVideos.php. Scott Moore is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, BBA Program Director, and Professor of Business Information Technology at Stephen M. Ross School of Business,University of Michigan. Navigate to Professor Moore's class website: http://bit330f08.wikidot.com/ Community Solutions<<Hyperlink to Location of Document, Institution, Contributor, Contact>> Web 2.0 Toolkit: web20-toolkit.wetpaint.com/A comprehensive Web 2.0 resource site that lists various tools by their functionality; contributed by Veronica Diaz at veronica.diaz@domail.maricopa.edu Bloom's Digital Taxonomy: edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+Digital+TaxonomyAn updated Bloom's Taxonomy integrated with several Web 2.0 instructional applications; contributed by Veronica Diaz at veronica.diaz@domail.maricopa.edu Multimedia
Brainstorming Sessions
Tools in the Field<<Title of Tool, Reviewer, Institution, Short Description, Contact Information>> Experts List<<Name, Institution or Association, Email, Topic>> Key Readings<<Title Hyperlinked to Location, Year, Author or Organization>> Educating the Net Generation, 2005, Oblinger, D. & Oblinger, J. L. (Eds.)
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| Unless otherwise noted, EDUCAUSE holds the copyright on all materials published by the association, whether in print or electronic form. In certain cases the work remains the intellectual property of the individual author(s) (see Special Circumstances). Content from conference speeches, presentations, blogs, wikis and feeds reflect the opinions of the author, and not necessarily those of EDUCAUSE or its members. | |||
"Using Technology and Collaboration to Engage Students" is a video clip (16 minutes) on strategies to engage students. Professor Scott Moore discusses how he revised a course to increase student motivation and engagement using project-based learning and technology tools, such as blogs and wikis. The video clip (2nd one on the page) is available at http://www.crlt.umich.edu/faculty/Thurnau/ThurnauVideos.php.
Scott Moore is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, BBA Program Director, and Professor of Business Information Technology at Stephen M. Ross School of Business,
University of Michigan. Navigate to Prof. Moore's class website: http://bit330f08.wikidot.com/