etc@bmc
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Click and Double-Click: Online Discussion
A new episode of Click and Double-Click where we talk about ways of managing and grading an online discussion.
New Blog in the Neighborhood
Brian Gall of Philadelphia University has started a new blog to share his thoughts, tips, and ideas about instructional technology. Looks like a great start! I'm looking forward to seeing more.
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Tuesday, February 27, 2007
More PAETC Presenations Online
Jean-Claude has more of the audio and video from the conference, including my talk and his own.
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Monday, February 26, 2007
Tim McGee on Literacy Education for Education majors
Jean-Claude has the first of the talks from PAETC 2007 up. He has both the audio and the screencast. Go check it out.
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Saturday, February 24, 2007
PAETC Day 2
So many good presentations today. Chris Lehmann got us started with a great talk about 21st century education. What he's doing at SLA is a real inspiration to all of us and I hope the success of such a place will begin to change education across the district. There was a lot about his talk that struck me. I loved his statement that they're creating 21st century citizens, not the 21st century workforce. He also talked about showing students that hard work can be fun.
Jean-Claude recorded all of the presentations, so as soon as they're up, I'll put links here. They're well worth listening to. We covered a lot of ground.
We've decided to continue in 2008 and I'm hoping someone will take the reins next year. I think I'll put up a planning wiki somewhere. Thanks to all the people who attended. Hope to see you next year!
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Jean-Claude recorded all of the presentations, so as soon as they're up, I'll put links here. They're well worth listening to. We covered a lot of ground.
We've decided to continue in 2008 and I'm hoping someone will take the reins next year. I think I'll put up a planning wiki somewhere. Thanks to all the people who attended. Hope to see you next year!
Tags:
Thursday, February 22, 2007
PAETC Day 1: Moodle and Podcasting
Today was a half-day of workshops. There were two workshops held at 1 and another set of two held at 3. I attended Marcie Hull's session on Moodle and Brian Gall's session on podcasting. The other two were Jean-Claude Bradley's on Blogs and Wikis and Michelle Sims' on Powerpoint. I hope to have resources to link to for those.
Marcie gave a nice overview of the Science Leadership Academy and how Moodle fits into its philosophy. Many of the notes for her talk can be found on her website. She talked about Moodle as an open source application that allows a lot of flexibility and showed us some of the ways they're using it. Not only is it their course management tool, but it's also being used for professional development for the teachers and as a communication tool. In addition, they've connected Moodle to ELGG, an open source blogging tool, where students often write reflective pieces. Reflection is one of the cornerstones of the philosophy at SLA, so ELGG as well as journaling tools within Moodle provide ways for students to reflect on the work they've done. I found lots of things about what Marcie had to say interesting, but two things really struck me. First, I thought the way they were building a community was fascinating. It was just teachers building their courses in isolation; there really did seem like there was a lot of collaboration. That collaboration is also part of the student community as well. Second, I thought it was interesting how organically things were developing and I think that's in part due to the nature of the tools they're using. They're able to adapt as they need to and able to adapt to individual needs. Moodle definitely seems like an interesting tool that's worth trying.
Brian did a nice presentation on podcasting. Because we didn't have access to the technology we needed, the presentation turned into a nice discussion instead of a hands-on workshop. Most of us in the room were familiar with podcasting and so we spent some time sharing ideas and talking about challenges we face as we're getting podcasting off the ground. All of us were using slightly different tools, so we talked about some of the pros and cons of Audacity, iTunes, GarageBand, Camtasia Studio, Breeze, and more. We also discussed some of the copyright issues related to podcasting and screencasting and the production issues. Brian showed us some examples of how podcasting is being used at Philadelphia University, many of them student created. I was interested in some that had students create a photo montage and talk about each photo and how it related to the course topics. There are so many interesting possibilities. It was nice to hear what others are doing and to brainstorm a little about what's next in podcasting.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow's lineup--should be a lot of interesting information.
Marcie gave a nice overview of the Science Leadership Academy and how Moodle fits into its philosophy. Many of the notes for her talk can be found on her website. She talked about Moodle as an open source application that allows a lot of flexibility and showed us some of the ways they're using it. Not only is it their course management tool, but it's also being used for professional development for the teachers and as a communication tool. In addition, they've connected Moodle to ELGG, an open source blogging tool, where students often write reflective pieces. Reflection is one of the cornerstones of the philosophy at SLA, so ELGG as well as journaling tools within Moodle provide ways for students to reflect on the work they've done. I found lots of things about what Marcie had to say interesting, but two things really struck me. First, I thought the way they were building a community was fascinating. It was just teachers building their courses in isolation; there really did seem like there was a lot of collaboration. That collaboration is also part of the student community as well. Second, I thought it was interesting how organically things were developing and I think that's in part due to the nature of the tools they're using. They're able to adapt as they need to and able to adapt to individual needs. Moodle definitely seems like an interesting tool that's worth trying.
Brian did a nice presentation on podcasting. Because we didn't have access to the technology we needed, the presentation turned into a nice discussion instead of a hands-on workshop. Most of us in the room were familiar with podcasting and so we spent some time sharing ideas and talking about challenges we face as we're getting podcasting off the ground. All of us were using slightly different tools, so we talked about some of the pros and cons of Audacity, iTunes, GarageBand, Camtasia Studio, Breeze, and more. We also discussed some of the copyright issues related to podcasting and screencasting and the production issues. Brian showed us some examples of how podcasting is being used at Philadelphia University, many of them student created. I was interested in some that had students create a photo montage and talk about each photo and how it related to the course topics. There are so many interesting possibilities. It was nice to hear what others are doing and to brainstorm a little about what's next in podcasting.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow's lineup--should be a lot of interesting information.
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iCranky
Laurence Musgrove writes in Inside Higher Ed about his crankiness towards being forced to participate in faculty development workshops focused on technology. While I am sympathetic with his point of view of feeling unfairly targeted or marketed to, it is true that technology is increasingly an important part of all of our lives. Not to engage it at an academic level is to keep one's head in the sand. The comments on the article are also enlightening, exposing the multiple viewpoints and passion behind this issue.
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Tuesday, February 20, 2007
2007 Horizon Report
Educause and The New Media Consortium have released the 2007 Horizon Report. It tries to assess the technological landscape and determine what technologies will be affecting higher education in the next few years. It also presents general trends and challenges facing the higher education environment when it comes to integrating technology into teaching and learning. Among the key trends that I found interesting:
- Academic review and faculty rewards are increasingly out of sync with new forms of scholarship. They conclude that these could get even more out of sync.
- The notions of collective intelligence and mass amateurization are pushing the boundaries of scholarship. Think Wikipedia, blogs, del.icio.us, etc.
- Students’ views of what is and what is not technology are increasingly different from faculty. Think about the way students use cell phones and iPods.
- User-created content (YouTube, blogs)
- Social networking (Facebook, MySpace)
- Mobile phones
- Virtual worlds (Second Life)
- New Scholarship and Emerging Forms of Publication (publishing digitally)
- Massively Multiplayer Educational Gaming (like World of Warcraft and Halo for education)
Monday, February 19, 2007
Getting Faculty Involved
Innovate - Enhancing Teaching with Technology: Are We There Yet?
The issue of faculty involvement in technology issues, especially those related to teaching and learning, is one that I hear constantly when I'm out at conferences. People talk about low turnout at workshops, constant rescheduling of meetings (until the meeting just doesn't happen), and last-minute requests that make thoughtful planning impossible. I've tried a number of different strategies here, from standard workshops to one-on-one instruction. I still feel like I'm talking to the same 10-15 people.
In enhancing "Teaching with Technology: Are We There Yet?" Sharon Kopyc tries to tackle this issue. She begins by noting the gap between students' desires for technology use in their learning and faculty's lack of use of the very technologies students want to use. Although some places may have a serious lack of resources, most places have a good infrastructure and support in place. The issue seems to boil down to a lack of involvement on the part of the faculty.
She doesn't place the blame entirely on faculty. She also notes that computing departments have often put the "technology cart before the academic horse." Computing departments can sometimes push a technology without thinking through its implications in the classroom or for research. In theory, the advent of instructional/educational technologists should alleviate some of that as they are trained to think about the pedagogy first; however, I think many faculty still view them with some skepticism.
Kopyc offers some possible solutions, drawn from real institutions. First she offers faculty-led discussions. Certainly, I think this has merit. I'm wondering, though, if real initiatives can be accomplished this way. She does say that technology staff and administration participate in these sessions, but they just don't lead them.
Second, she suggests a strategy that gives faculty release time to redevelop courses. Faculty work with academic computing staff and other faculty members to work on their courses.
Finally she offers the just-in-time strategy of providing faculty with support quickly and immediately.
All of these could work and what she suggests at the end is that one must provide multiple opportunities for faculty to get involved. She also suggests connecting faculty to the research on incorporating technology into the curriculum, of which there is quite a bit. I have quite a few resources on the ETC resources page, including links to peer-reviewed journals that address teaching with technology topics.
All in all, I found this an interesting read. I'd love to hear thoughts from faculty if they have ideas about helping them with using technology in their teaching.
The issue of faculty involvement in technology issues, especially those related to teaching and learning, is one that I hear constantly when I'm out at conferences. People talk about low turnout at workshops, constant rescheduling of meetings (until the meeting just doesn't happen), and last-minute requests that make thoughtful planning impossible. I've tried a number of different strategies here, from standard workshops to one-on-one instruction. I still feel like I'm talking to the same 10-15 people.
In enhancing "Teaching with Technology: Are We There Yet?" Sharon Kopyc tries to tackle this issue. She begins by noting the gap between students' desires for technology use in their learning and faculty's lack of use of the very technologies students want to use. Although some places may have a serious lack of resources, most places have a good infrastructure and support in place. The issue seems to boil down to a lack of involvement on the part of the faculty.
She doesn't place the blame entirely on faculty. She also notes that computing departments have often put the "technology cart before the academic horse." Computing departments can sometimes push a technology without thinking through its implications in the classroom or for research. In theory, the advent of instructional/educational technologists should alleviate some of that as they are trained to think about the pedagogy first; however, I think many faculty still view them with some skepticism.
Kopyc offers some possible solutions, drawn from real institutions. First she offers faculty-led discussions. Certainly, I think this has merit. I'm wondering, though, if real initiatives can be accomplished this way. She does say that technology staff and administration participate in these sessions, but they just don't lead them.
Second, she suggests a strategy that gives faculty release time to redevelop courses. Faculty work with academic computing staff and other faculty members to work on their courses.
Finally she offers the just-in-time strategy of providing faculty with support quickly and immediately.
All of these could work and what she suggests at the end is that one must provide multiple opportunities for faculty to get involved. She also suggests connecting faculty to the research on incorporating technology into the curriculum, of which there is quite a bit. I have quite a few resources on the ETC resources page, including links to peer-reviewed journals that address teaching with technology topics.
All in all, I found this an interesting read. I'd love to hear thoughts from faculty if they have ideas about helping them with using technology in their teaching.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Ancient help desk?
Doug first pointed this out to me, and I've run into it several times since. It's especially funny for those of us in technical support roles.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Educause Institute: Managing Time and Priorities
It's very difficult to manage our time and priorities as IT professionals. In talking to people at the institute, many of had similar problems. We had too few resources (both people and money) and not enough time in a day to get everything done. For some reason, too, technical problems always seem to reach crisis level instantaneously. When email becomes slow or goes down, it is an emergency immediately. It's hard to know what to prioritize when it all seems so important. I struggle with this especially at the beginning of semesters when everything is coming at me very quickly. I end up instituting a first-come, first-served policy, which seems to work for me during that busy time.
We spent a lot of time talking about delegating, which is a big weakness of mine. I manage about 6 students workers right now. It's difficult sometimes to know what can and can't be delegated and even more difficult, is figuring out a process for delegating. I'm still working on that because I certainly don't want any monkeys on my back. I have a great group of students though who I know are capable and who have managed a number of difficult projects. I think my main goal is becoming more efficient at handing out assignments.
I was happy to see mention of the GTD method, which I have used for a little over a year now. The book is an easy read and most of it can be put into practice immediately. I would also recommend a blog called 43 Folders, which provides lots of tips and tools for putting the GTD method into practice. It's a perfect site for geeks!
Well, I'm off to do some reviewing of my project list. How do you all manage your time? Do you have tips to share with the rest of us?
Technorati Tags: educausem071, time-management, gtd
We spent a lot of time talking about delegating, which is a big weakness of mine. I manage about 6 students workers right now. It's difficult sometimes to know what can and can't be delegated and even more difficult, is figuring out a process for delegating. I'm still working on that because I certainly don't want any monkeys on my back. I have a great group of students though who I know are capable and who have managed a number of difficult projects. I think my main goal is becoming more efficient at handing out assignments.
I was happy to see mention of the GTD method, which I have used for a little over a year now. The book is an easy read and most of it can be put into practice immediately. I would also recommend a blog called 43 Folders, which provides lots of tips and tools for putting the GTD method into practice. It's a perfect site for geeks!
Well, I'm off to do some reviewing of my project list. How do you all manage your time? Do you have tips to share with the rest of us?
Technorati Tags: educausem071, time-management, gtd
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Educause Management Institute: Changing Face of IT
Finally, I've dug out from the email and important! tasks. I hope to get a few of these posts up in the next couple of days.
This general session covered the changing face of IT, how things are changing so quickly in technology. We all had to make some suggestions about things we thought would change in the next five years. Security and legal issues were among the top choices everyone mentioned. We also talked about more mobility, more online courses, increased demand from students for technology solutions, and the rise of virtual worlds such as Second Life. The session also discussed ways we can keep up with change and pointed us to resources that can help.
One of the challenges I find in my position is dealing with the disconnect between the pace of change in IT versus the pace of change in Higher Ed. Just think about the technologies you were talking about two or three years ago. Either you're not talking about them anymore or they're so different from what they were as to be unrecognizable. And yet, it can take 2-3 years for something to get adopted in some institutions. Example: When I started four years ago, we were talking about portals. We reviewed a bunch of different options and in the end decided not to go with one. Portals went out of fashion for a couple of years, but seem to be making a comeback. Sometimes if you wait, it works out okay. Sometimes not.
In looking at the article on the Current Issues Report Survey 2006, I was especially interested in the chart on page 18 that breaks issues down by school size. In the overall results, for example, my area of expertise, faculty development and support, didn't make the list. In the small school breakdown, however, it's number 3. Elearning isn't on a small school's list, but it's on every other school's list. It was also interesting to note that although Faculty Development was listed as one of the most important issues to address and achieve success, it's at the bottom of the list in terms of amount of time CIO's are spending and near the bottom for general resources expended. That says to me that it's an area that needs more resources.
I think one of the difficulties as an IT person is keeping up with two distinctly different areas. First, we have to keep up with the technology. No matter what area of IT you're in, you need to know what's changing, what new hardware is out, what new protocols there are, what software is being developed, what devices people are buying. Since I never know what aspect of IT might be applied to teaching and learning, I try to keep up with a lot. I might need to understand more about wireless protocols, for example, if we move to a wireless classroom model. Or I might need to understand network and bandwidth issues to better facilitate streaming media production and consumption. Second, most of us should keep up with the higher education industry. I think everyone should know how the tenure process works (especially important for faculty support folks) and should know about different work models for faculty that are cropping up. You should understand the structure of your institution (who makes decisions about what). A third area I try to keep up with is educational research. Since I want to help faculty apply technology in pedagogically appropriate ways, I feel it's important to know what the research shows about how students learn.
The hardest part about all of this, of course, is finding the time to keep up. I try to set aside some time every week, but some weeks it's difficult to squeeze in even an hour or two to read and think. I've always felt it's important to keep up, but it somehow seems to fall to the bottom of the list.
Technorati Tags: educausem071, it, education
This general session covered the changing face of IT, how things are changing so quickly in technology. We all had to make some suggestions about things we thought would change in the next five years. Security and legal issues were among the top choices everyone mentioned. We also talked about more mobility, more online courses, increased demand from students for technology solutions, and the rise of virtual worlds such as Second Life. The session also discussed ways we can keep up with change and pointed us to resources that can help.
One of the challenges I find in my position is dealing with the disconnect between the pace of change in IT versus the pace of change in Higher Ed. Just think about the technologies you were talking about two or three years ago. Either you're not talking about them anymore or they're so different from what they were as to be unrecognizable. And yet, it can take 2-3 years for something to get adopted in some institutions. Example: When I started four years ago, we were talking about portals. We reviewed a bunch of different options and in the end decided not to go with one. Portals went out of fashion for a couple of years, but seem to be making a comeback. Sometimes if you wait, it works out okay. Sometimes not.
In looking at the article on the Current Issues Report Survey 2006, I was especially interested in the chart on page 18 that breaks issues down by school size. In the overall results, for example, my area of expertise, faculty development and support, didn't make the list. In the small school breakdown, however, it's number 3. Elearning isn't on a small school's list, but it's on every other school's list. It was also interesting to note that although Faculty Development was listed as one of the most important issues to address and achieve success, it's at the bottom of the list in terms of amount of time CIO's are spending and near the bottom for general resources expended. That says to me that it's an area that needs more resources.
I think one of the difficulties as an IT person is keeping up with two distinctly different areas. First, we have to keep up with the technology. No matter what area of IT you're in, you need to know what's changing, what new hardware is out, what new protocols there are, what software is being developed, what devices people are buying. Since I never know what aspect of IT might be applied to teaching and learning, I try to keep up with a lot. I might need to understand more about wireless protocols, for example, if we move to a wireless classroom model. Or I might need to understand network and bandwidth issues to better facilitate streaming media production and consumption. Second, most of us should keep up with the higher education industry. I think everyone should know how the tenure process works (especially important for faculty support folks) and should know about different work models for faculty that are cropping up. You should understand the structure of your institution (who makes decisions about what). A third area I try to keep up with is educational research. Since I want to help faculty apply technology in pedagogically appropriate ways, I feel it's important to know what the research shows about how students learn.
The hardest part about all of this, of course, is finding the time to keep up. I try to set aside some time every week, but some weeks it's difficult to squeeze in even an hour or two to read and think. I've always felt it's important to keep up, but it somehow seems to fall to the bottom of the list.
Technorati Tags: educausem071, it, education
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Notes on Educause Management Institute
Since I'm the designated blogger for the Institute, I now feel the pressure to make sure my notes are insightful. But I realize that there are many other minds out there who can help me, so what I thought I'd do is encourage everyone to share their thoughts with me about each session and how it might be applied to your institution or what you learned from it. You can do that through the site set up by the institute itself or send me an email (lblanken@brynmawr.edu) or share in the comments of each post and I'll add in your thoughts to the main post.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Click and Double-Click: Episode 16
Perhaps I should rename the broadcast since Double-Click has moved on. It's just Click now. In this episode, I talk to senior Emily Pinkerton about her thesis work in hypertext and cyberpoetry. We also talk about using the web for research, women in technology, and more.
Take a listen.
Technorati Tags: technology, education, clickanddoubleclick
Take a listen.
Technorati Tags: technology, education, clickanddoubleclick
