Last night was a good time. We had new friends Scott and Shawn, courtesy of April, bring us to the original Salt Lick, which was a great experience. After eating a large amount of beef and pork we decided to go out to 6th Street. Unfortunately, Patti and Glenna did not go out with us; April, Tom, Michelle, Kristi, our new friend Dan, I mean Chad, from Michigan Tech went to an Irish Pub and then saw a band—Erin James and the Bad Habits. Her husband is from Chassell (in the UP). It’s such a small world.
I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with the keynote speaker this morning, even at 8:30 a.m. He was discussing the concept of digital native versus digital immigrant, which is something I was introduced to during my doctoral program by my mentor Dr. Kristine Blair who required us to read an article by Marc Prensky entitled Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. (If I can attach that article, I will.) I can’t wait to look at the book, http://borndigitalbook.com/, which I find very pertinent to teaching freshmen. I think his presentation may inspire me to reorganize my EN 111: Composition I class for the future. I think that I have already started with this direction based on my beginning the semester with the Technological Literacy Narrative and the Day in the Life Profile Assignment, where they need to use the Flips and record and write about what goes on in their life.
After leaving the 10:00 a.m. session 20 minutes into it (I’ll not waste any additional time speaking of its inadequacies.), I spent time looking over three of the poster sessions. The thought that went through my mind as I went through reading the various presentations was “why weren’t these actual sessions?” What I found was that I continually thought, these are the types of projects that I would like to learn more about, specifically about the logistics of set-up, funding, sustainability, student perceptions etc.
Poster One: Not only did a get a wonderful mini paper origami swan from one of the Japanese faculty members from the cohort of 6 Japanese colleges and universities, but I received a brief look at how these “Learning Communities on a Virtual University Environment” provided, through the use of a Moodle site, were able to encourage workshops, student activities, and COLLABORATION between multiple universities! How awesome is that? I love that these universities embraced, perhaps from necessity, a way of reaching out and creating a way to share knowledge and approaches across universities—isn’t that what we should be doing (not only working with our departments, but among other departments across campus and beyond our physical landscape)? They directed me to http://eli2010.f.lecca.jp/ for more handouts.
Poster Two: The second poster session I “attended” was “Implementing Andragogy in the Online Class” where I talked with Heidi Ashbaugh. We discussed the aspects of modeling in online environments and the difficulties and benefits of these types of models for our students virtually. As we discussed, she suggested I looked into Flips if I haven’t already (which I have), and we jointly chatted about some possibilities like students filming their processes during various projects and models of service learning.
Poster Three: A joint effort between a graduate course in Engineering between Penn State and University of Seoul. While I didn’t get to talk to presenter, I could see how learning the logistical information behind this type of project could be extremely helpful. So much possibility.
Then Who Gives a Flip? (I found out that I do, and it should have lasted longer—even beyond the breakout session!)
Shawn Miller will post his materials on the pathway site, so I guess I’ll need to register soon. J
He guided us to their website www.duke.edu/ddi (This site will be redirected to http://dukedigitalinitiative.duke.edu/)
They found that flips were being used for short documentaries; class assignments; recording lectures; recording interviews; Digital diaries, self reflection of service learning projects (I’m seeing another theme!); Groups assignments; Rec events
Examples: http://thejungleblog-duke.blogspot.com/ and http://metoomonologues.wordspress.com/
Went to lunch at the Moonshine with April, which is kitty corner (I know many have different pronunciations and spellings for this, and I acknowledge these differences), to the hotel. My cobb salad was phenomenal, and having a few bites of April’s catfish was divine. What takes the cake, literally, was the Red Velvet Cake. HEAVEN on a plate! Lovely layers, moist, fluffy-from scratch frosting…ahhhhhhhhh…
On the way back up to the room, my phone notified me that I had a message. I listened to the following: “This is your mother. You said you were going to call us when you got to Austin. That was days ago! Call us when you get this.” I figured that I had waited a couple of days a couple of minutes more wasn’t going to matter because the one session I wanted to see since the beginning of this conference was in progress—eportfolios.
After having enjoyed my decadent experience and being shamed, I got to see some of the eportfolio session. My end thought: people are so limited in various systems. While I can understand to a certain extent why people use form driven programs, why not encourage students to create and develop their own hypertexts? By encouraging students to do this, they increase their technological literacy and their ability to analyze audience, purpose/situation, and usability. This type of creation of interactive documents, I feel and have witnessed, encourages critical thinking toward the internet and the sources/resources available on it.
While waiting for the Sophie session to start, I called my parents. Trying to whisper, I attempted to talk to my dad. He kept yelling, “I can’t hear you. Speak up.” So I quickly walked out and told my dad I was safe and at the conference. He said, "That's no excuse! Love you and call later."
Reimagining the Book: Multimedia Authoring with Sophie—a free/open source software (http://www.sophieproject.org/). (Just note: Some of this information was my random typing directly from their ppt.) The first speaker Susan used the word Prosumers = produces + consumers to discuss students. I liked this. Susan provided an overview of what multimedia and familiar terms, as well as the genesis of Sophie. The second speaker, Holly, discussed more intricacies of Sophie and the potential of multimedia and Sophie.
Genres of multimedia: Documentary, Thesis-driven, Essayistic, Game, Experiential, Digital storytelling
Types of Authoring Tools
Presentation: ppt, prezi
Content Authoring: NMC pachyderm, Sophie
Course Creation: Adobe Authorware, Trivantis Corp, Lectora
Resource: http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools
Examples: http://www.yhchang.com/BETTY_NKOMO.html; Kairos 14.2 Kuhn, speaking with students (I love Kairos!!! It’s in direct “competition” with Computers and Composition Online, which is where I am section editor, but I love to see something from my discipline here at the conference!); http://vectorsjournal.org/ Public Secrets by Sharon Daniel issue 4
Authoring Tool Considerations
Linear or branched? Static or interactive? Standalone or web-based? Local or hosted? Basic/simple or sophisticated/complex? Rapid or slow development? Commercial or open source? Free or costly?
Other considerations: standards, compliancy, licensing, platform, budget, development team
expertise
What are we doing? Writing? Composing? Directing? Curating? How do we write with media? (This seems like a question that has come up quite a bit at this conference. I have to say that I enjoy that people in other disciplines are thinking about these things and simply placing the responsibility solely on the rhetoric and composition faculty.)
Holly recommended not going into Sophie and just playing around. Instead, she suggested doing 2.5 hours of an investment to work the tutorials back to back to understand it. Sophie has a reader and an authoring tool. The reader only allows the reader to read and make sticky notes. In the future, the comment feature will be active. She walked us through an example of a book that she put together earlier in the day. Through Sophie, teachers will be able to create a conversation with students by having them read and respond through the sticky notes and then emailing them back to me. Tips: When creating a book, save the text as rtf files in order to transfer the information more easily.
10 people for a hands on experience—willing to come to campus to demo Sophie! I think this would be something to consider.
Tip from the audience: Rename the zip file s2.
I can see a lot of potential for this type of software in all avenues of writing. Exciting!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Good afternoon. I just attended a session on the authoring tool, Sophie.
I was hoping I could attach my notes since I was working in Word (am not aware of how to copy and paste). Will need to re-type when I have more time.
Prior to this session, I had a conversation with an Associate Dean from Duke about a poster display which was an overview of renovated building design in which the library, multiple classrooms, digital media rooms, and the helpdesk are in the same building. It appeared to be a holistic sense of combining faculty, students, resoures and media technology under one roof. Students and faculty alike really appreciate the functionality as well as the ambiance (not blue and white centric). Students increase traffic to this building 68% in the first year after the remodel. Students were not just going to check out a book and leaving (it appeared to be solely a library prior to 2008).
Also at this same time, a colleague from MTU, was hosting a project briefing on Acrobat Connect. Since I am familiar with it, I wanted to see if he had anything new to offer. Individuals were asking a lot of questions and I was pleased to know that I knew the answers thanks to my training in the CTIP computer bootcamp, our CTIP informal practice sessions and my classroom experience with it. So...while he may have had new information, I didn't hear anything based on questions that were asked.
Need to get moving to the next session.
I was hoping I could attach my notes since I was working in Word (am not aware of how to copy and paste). Will need to re-type when I have more time.
Prior to this session, I had a conversation with an Associate Dean from Duke about a poster display which was an overview of renovated building design in which the library, multiple classrooms, digital media rooms, and the helpdesk are in the same building. It appeared to be a holistic sense of combining faculty, students, resoures and media technology under one roof. Students and faculty alike really appreciate the functionality as well as the ambiance (not blue and white centric). Students increase traffic to this building 68% in the first year after the remodel. Students were not just going to check out a book and leaving (it appeared to be solely a library prior to 2008).
Also at this same time, a colleague from MTU, was hosting a project briefing on Acrobat Connect. Since I am familiar with it, I wanted to see if he had anything new to offer. Individuals were asking a lot of questions and I was pleased to know that I knew the answers thanks to my training in the CTIP computer bootcamp, our CTIP informal practice sessions and my classroom experience with it. So...while he may have had new information, I didn't hear anything based on questions that were asked.
Need to get moving to the next session.
the good and the bad
I went to a couple of sessions that were okay. One (which I won't be specific about here since I am not intending to offend the presenters) was one I was really excited to attend but which did not meet my expectations. Two were outstanding. The Second Life presentation was very interesting and I was very surprised and pleased when the folks viewing live in Second Life not only greeted me when I introduced myself to answer a question but also posted my blog http://simbioticbiome.wordpress.com.
The other presentation was amazing and very informative. It was about using Twitter in the classroom (and how that can be done effectively) as a back-chatter discussion during class. There was a librarian moderating the tweets and then subsequently archived them for future reference by the students. One thing that was mentioned is that by students discussing project ideas, the librarian could either help them focus better or shoot references their way early in the process. It really impacted that "last minute" thing that students do. I learned that I need to learn about things like hash tags, tweetdeck and other tools that can be used to facilitate it better.
On another note about Twitter, I am tweeting about sessions from the conference (I need to add the hash tags) and my students from ED 483 Technology and Media in Education are required to follow my tweets and then post replies on a discussion forum. I chose to use Ning since my preservice teachers will almost certainly not be able to use Blackboard/WebCT in a K-12 classroom. If you want to follow me on Twitter you can search for my name or my username which is cloweygreenwood.
As for the Ning - the students in ED483 are discussing on some readings, videos and presentations I gave them. The quality of their posts and discussions are very good. The first few were very good which set the standard I think. Carolyn Lowe
Online orientation presentation did not happen
So I may have had the smoothest flight here to Austin, but I striking out on sessions. This morning's session was changed (with no real warning) and because the goal of the presentation was different than what was promoted (on-line learning orientations for students), I departed, attempted another session nearby (which was so full there were no seats left), left that room and now I'm updating my blog.
However, I didn't leave completely empty-handed. Here is a quote for all educators to consider.
Envision your college being best for the world, rather than best in the world.(Candace Introcaso)
****
More on this morning's general session with John Palfrey. These are not my personal notes, but this colleague did a nice summary.
Also (for Matt) was able to take some pics with our faculty asking Palfrey some questions as well as some flip video of the conversation (audio might be soft).
However, I didn't leave completely empty-handed. Here is a quote for all educators to consider.
Envision your college being best for the world, rather than best in the world.(Candace Introcaso)
****
More on this morning's general session with John Palfrey. These are not my personal notes, but this colleague did a nice summary.
Also (for Matt) was able to take some pics with our faculty asking Palfrey some questions as well as some flip video of the conversation (audio might be soft).
Born Digital - General Session
This morning's general session, "Born Digital", included five areas of critique/concern for students who utilize electronic items/technologies more than 50 hours a week on average:
- Security
- Privacy
- Intellectual Property
- Credibility
- Information Overload
The following video nicely summarizes the trail of information or "Digital Dossier" left behind as an individual and their network of friends, family, and associates who utilize technology to search for and share information.
Digital Dossier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79IYZVYIVLA
This YouTube video was shared as part of the opening session. Author, lawyer, Harvard professor John Palfrey spoke about his work "Digital Natives." More notes to come later as I took handwritten notes on this one.
This YouTube video was shared as part of the opening session. Author, lawyer, Harvard professor John Palfrey spoke about his work "Digital Natives." More notes to come later as I took handwritten notes on this one.
First Day - Notes
Jan 19 at 1 pm (CT) ELI Annual Meeting – Austin, Texas
General Assembly Welcome from Committee Chair (didn't catch his name)
There are three different layers of participants for this conference….in person, on-line (streaming) and Second Life.
Learning Environments for a Web 2.0 world (see white paper on ELI web page)
ELI 2010 – Who are we?
*495 enrolled participants (probably more now)
*seven countries represented (Canada,Egypt,Japan,Spain…more)
*faculty 39% of those in attendance (the most)
This meeting is concentrating on social networks. Tool selection to try while we are here. Two different ways.
Eli2010.pathable.com – ELI social networking hub (probably similar to Merlot Voices) includes contact list of registered guests.
GoogleWave-ELI annual meeting wave.
SESSION Speaker 1 p.m. - Digital Histories for the Digital Age -- How Do We Teach Writing Now?
Dr. William G. Thomas, III - University of Nebraska
Open with a story/discussion about experience in his curriculum (this might be of interest to folks in the History department as well as Archives and English).
Challenge – find ways to bring together archives/ example of railroad….new social history of the railroads. Developed a hypertextual history. How would faculty members use this in their teaching? (Fall 2007) Not yet begun to think about as web 2.0 approaches.
Description of History Survey courses – Univ. Nebraska
Fundamental problems existed – needed to improve digital literary skills.
Interdisciplinary team (English, Computer Science and History) 8 team members between three areas (most from History).
EDUCAUSE – conference that encourages interdisciplinary thinking.
Problem – how to write in digital age. (initial rationale – grant narrative). Students entry level. Seeking new model. Informal. Digital media. Students expect but cannot find digital materials…collaborative learning styles…..
Much of this is his verbatim....as best as I could type.
Tried to define digital history and what this scholarship might look like. Found myself arguing that digital histories make us think differently. When we digitize a text (diary, newspaper, etc.) we work through the partial…the contingent nature of our history. We are reminded that people lived complex interconnected lives, not always found in photos maps books, etc…
If we’re beginning to compose new forms of history – new forms of written work. We expect our students to do the same. Maybe produce their analysis in these formats.
Digital pedagogy. Marilyn Lombardi (ELI Publications) pointed out difficulty in teaching survey courses. Traditional modes of assessment….but…we should be asking ourselves. Research studies – content coverage less valuable than independent thinking….FACULTY know how difficult it is to move in this direction. Faculty development is essential to spur an active learning pedagogy.
Digital information overload. Underdevelopment of digital knowledge. Digital generation consumes, but does not produce digital media.
The novice in the archive. We expect students to know and how to behave.
We need to cultivate skills.
Writing Models for students – Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia
Challenge – largely, physically confined. Often first person and in Wikipedia, many times anonymous.
FORMS of writing – run counter in their objectives to humanities.
#1 - Problem/example – “Comment box” what is the genre of the comment box. Say something extreme. Phrase something Instantly effective. Longer and sustained analysis fades.
#2 - Problem – probanauts – where do things come from? Copies of copies of copies.
YouTube/Mtv (example Born in the USA…dozens of replications – what is original)
Is what students are looking at a primary source?!?! (Extreme examples) This is important. Students are confronted with COPIES of digital artifacts.
#3 – problem of inter-faces. Whole range of interfaces….google books, library of congress, national archives, LexisNexis, proQuest (particularly significant) ------------ WHAT is the classic catalog? They will get returns on searches….dissertation abstracts to
Can students discyfer these?
Fall 2008 – planned effort to run a new large survy lecture class.
Pilot with Blackboard in fall 1009
Ran course in spring 2009 with black board
Evaluate the process with classroom Wiki in Spring 2009 course to get close tracking and analysis beyond Blackboard.
160 students (2 TAs)
Made major changes to the way we taught the course.
Team writing assignments for Wikis (research topic…would work together to come together to compose thesis). *Progressive Era (topics) *Rise of U.S. as a World Power (1945-present topics)
One of the first things that happened….All sorts of bigger issues came into focus.
What should I do with the three hours of lecture?
Should I teach writing…with what tools.
What is the value of content coverage?
What do students need me to do?
What to do with three hours with 160 students?
Big changes – first, dropped textbook. No textbook. Symbolic.
Change some of the class time – focus on significant of events.
Explaining events.
Wouldn’t concern myself with how much content I could cover.
Instead – work – model historic thinking wanted students to bring to assignments.
Tests – essays only.
Use primary source documents from a reader to formulate thesis.
Took time out of lectures –
“how to” read a document.
“how to analysis sources”
How to write a thesis”
The way we approach historical events.
They would have the opportunity to be their own historian.
Focus of enterprise – historical THINKING. Habits of mind necessary to DO history.
Writing/practice doing history/see themselves doing history.
Emphasizes writing as a process of learning and disciplinary thinking
Uses digital sources to expose students to the complexity of the past
Requires collaboration in digital formats to formulate interpretation about sources.
EVALUATE approach!
Specially designed WIKI. (blackboard wouldn’t allow some things)
Wanted approach to be used in other systems – system to design for other faculty.
Key issue – what could we learn about pedagogy approach from our system?
What happened -
Objective – historical analysis and thinking
Technology – WIKI
Faculty friends in computer science – developed their own system. Allowed faculty to track students better.
Writing assignments were carefully put together.
Began by helping them become better readers of historical documents.
What questions do historians ask?
First assignment - WIKI in blackboard
Second assignment – Classroom WIKI (their own system)
#1 – (Progressive Era) with blackboard (many students had trouble with interfaces with library interface). Despite how-tos. Moderate high level…highly achieving students…group project affect grade negativity (burden to carry others). We found most groups…spent time meeting face to face….even though we expected to work asynchronously. (sounds like CTIP group) Using texting, IMs…no record of the process of that collaboration in the system!!! No record of them doing history. Blackboard didn’t have an easy connection. This was social…they thought they were doing what they should be doing. Last 30 minutes of assignment deadline. Half of class uploaded (broke blackboard). They did work off-line and uploaded.
#2 – (Rise of US as Power) This was a risk to switch technology in the middle of semester. Worked out. Highlights – gave clear direction about PURPOSE of assignment. Gave them more often and more consistently. More they engaged on-line, higher their scores. Informed them that our new system…tracked individually (much more than blackboard). Saw more discussion. Higher performance overall. Ability to track individual level work. These in effect became collaboratively assignments individual accountability. Found that students did slightly…but significantly better. More purpose to group’s formation. We saw better final exam essays. Not hard numbers, but after second WIKI project…we could literally see the students putting into practice.
Evaluation (preliminary):
Treatment Group earned higher average scores and had lower standard deviation – group able to work better
Total interaction counts similar
Treatment group rated peers slight better.
Comparisons hard to direct because first assignment wasn’t tracked as clearly as second (i.e. texting, IMing, etc)
Student Comments (not full quotes)
“It’s one thing to read a history text book. It’s quite another to play the part of historian and to develop an opinion about historical events…”
“Felt unsure what was required at first.”
“Wikis different kind of analysis…communication skills…new experience…”
Students are given choices of topics…use sources to find primary sources and do work of historian and compose essay from primary sources.
Faculty – found that when looking at historical analysis…
System handles multimedia.
What are the lessons learned.
First, whether or not we used a textbook. Students were fine with no textbook. But textbook would be handled differently.
Second lesson, we need better tools. We need more innovation in this area.
Third, digital literary skills are so important. Students need help with these materials.
Fourth, most important. We can adjust what we do in the classroom in a major way. We are emphasizing a mastery of a process…how to be a historian.
Why go to a residential college when information is available at fingertips?
What is a lecture course for?
Million of books on-line?
Other questions – students need this experience to gain mastery over a process. They should in these courses.
How to be a historian.
How to be a sociologist.
How to be a ________?
THIS requires student faculty interaction.
Teach students critical inquiry!
Conclusion – faculty are looking for guidance. Teaching is changing. Single example. Faculty need/want technology in their teaching. To build up critical thinking!!
SESSION Speakers at 2:45 p.m.
Digital Storytelling (need to review handwritten notes)
Crib notes from memory - this session showed participants how students at this college build digital "essays" based on what they were learning in philosophy. Librarian and Digital Media representative from the college (not faculty) were presenting. Small school (1200). Class appeared very small (maybe 12-15 students).
Students would work on writing first.
Storyboard second (both hand drawn or on-line, student choice)
collecting images
maybe voice over and music
editing together
showing in class and at a "film festival" for faculty
These "stories" appeared to be how the students interpreted material learned and instead of taking a test or writing a paper, they had to create this digital essay.
The first question - "how is this storytelling" which I thought was an appropriate question. It appears the word choice is confusing. I would call it a digital essay, but these people called it digital storytelling. Two very different things in my opinion. I see digital storytelling working for study abroad students who keep a video journal while doing field work in Peru (let's say) and then producing a digital story of their experience upon their return home and showing to an audience of peers, faculty, public -- whoever....
My question was second - "How do you deal with Copyright?" They seemed to think that they covered those bases with "free" stuff on-line, but clips we saw included copyrighted material. Should this stay within Moodle (password protected) that's one thing, but they did have a "film festival" for faculty (and possibly even a wider audience). That is a bit blurry to me.
Another question was about institutional support and these speakers did not know how to answer this question because things were in motion and it seemed too soon. My theory is that institutional support would need to be multidimensional ...I'll start with the top (should be of value of the instution) but also an investment from both faculty and students (a valuable tool) and support to make sure things work correctly (i.e. CITE in our case).
I will review my notes to get the exact college at a later time. Or Carolyn L. might post before I do that. She was there with me.
SESSION at 4 p.m. Google Wave
This was a "hands-on" session. I am a hands-on learner so I was eager to sign up for this session. Sorry, I must start with one complaint -- technology (like so many other aspects of our lives) is becoming even more compartmentalized, more seperated, more specific....
So this (google wave) is yet another platform to create my own ID, password, profile...etc.etc. This is actually SO new that it is not public and people must be invited. Unfortunately, a couple of things happened here --- (I'm sure the presenters are very nice people...but...)
#1 - there were way too many people in this session for a hands-on demonstration,
#2 - participants had different levels of experience (me = none)
#3 - technology was not our friend for the first 10 minutes (precious time wasted - so the presenters skipped some potentially valuable information)
#4 - the presenters were not familiar with how to apply a pedagogical approach to explaining/teaching GoogleWave....and...
#5 - presenters not aware of microphones/sounds - we couldn't always hear and acoustics weren't helpful.
As you can ascertain, I was disappointed with this session. On a positive note, I will say that Liz and I found a good website with explanations and guidelines. [see www.mashable.com]. But...I don't think I will be using this anytime soon.
*****NOT CONFERENCE RELATED BELOW
Our group opted to forego the "reception" and as a group we went out to eat just a bit out of town in Driftwood at the Salt Lick (thanks Mitch K for suggesting this). Luckily, my friends Scott and Shawn W (both NMU alums) helped out a great deal by driving ALL of us out there (and probably saving us tons of money in cab fare). Carolyn didn't join us due to her teaching commitment, but the nine of us who went had a wonderful time getting to know each other outside of CTIP/NMU/Conference...I appreciate the time getting to know people on a different level like that. And everyone loved the BBQ!
Once we were back in Austin, a few of us went "on the town" with a colleague from MTU (Chad). We all just exchanged first names. (that's important later).
Okay...talk about small world. There are weird connections to share... I knew the blues performer, Erin James, in the club we happened to check out (free cover) whose husband's family lives in Harvey. Needless to say, she (Erin) was trippin' to see so many Yoopers in an Austin bar since she and her husband live and work in Austin. She played at the Marquette Area Blues Fest in 2008. SO...I call my husband to say..."hey I bumped into Erin James down here" and while I'm on the phone Chad from MTU realizes that my last name is Lindala. He says(while I'm talking to Walt),
"I know Mrs. Lindala."
to which I reply...
"Yes, you're looking at her."
"No. I know MRS. LINDALA on Lindala Road."
So Chad knows my MIL who lives in Chassell just south of MTU.
Yeah...kinds of an amazing night to an adventure-filled day!
I'm probably going to post pics on Facebook and Flickr. Will post links once they are up.
Thanks for reading.
General Assembly Welcome from Committee Chair (didn't catch his name)
There are three different layers of participants for this conference….in person, on-line (streaming) and Second Life.
Learning Environments for a Web 2.0 world (see white paper on ELI web page)
ELI 2010 – Who are we?
*495 enrolled participants (probably more now)
*seven countries represented (Canada,Egypt,Japan,Spain…more)
*faculty 39% of those in attendance (the most)
This meeting is concentrating on social networks. Tool selection to try while we are here. Two different ways.
Eli2010.pathable.com – ELI social networking hub (probably similar to Merlot Voices) includes contact list of registered guests.
GoogleWave-ELI annual meeting wave.
SESSION Speaker 1 p.m. - Digital Histories for the Digital Age -- How Do We Teach Writing Now?
Dr. William G. Thomas, III - University of Nebraska
Open with a story/discussion about experience in his curriculum (this might be of interest to folks in the History department as well as Archives and English).
Challenge – find ways to bring together archives/ example of railroad….new social history of the railroads. Developed a hypertextual history. How would faculty members use this in their teaching? (Fall 2007) Not yet begun to think about as web 2.0 approaches.
Description of History Survey courses – Univ. Nebraska
Fundamental problems existed – needed to improve digital literary skills.
Interdisciplinary team (English, Computer Science and History) 8 team members between three areas (most from History).
EDUCAUSE – conference that encourages interdisciplinary thinking.
Problem – how to write in digital age. (initial rationale – grant narrative). Students entry level. Seeking new model. Informal. Digital media. Students expect but cannot find digital materials…collaborative learning styles…..
Much of this is his verbatim....as best as I could type.
Tried to define digital history and what this scholarship might look like. Found myself arguing that digital histories make us think differently. When we digitize a text (diary, newspaper, etc.) we work through the partial…the contingent nature of our history. We are reminded that people lived complex interconnected lives, not always found in photos maps books, etc…
If we’re beginning to compose new forms of history – new forms of written work. We expect our students to do the same. Maybe produce their analysis in these formats.
Digital pedagogy. Marilyn Lombardi (ELI Publications) pointed out difficulty in teaching survey courses. Traditional modes of assessment….but…we should be asking ourselves. Research studies – content coverage less valuable than independent thinking….FACULTY know how difficult it is to move in this direction. Faculty development is essential to spur an active learning pedagogy.
Digital information overload. Underdevelopment of digital knowledge. Digital generation consumes, but does not produce digital media.
The novice in the archive. We expect students to know and how to behave.
We need to cultivate skills.
Writing Models for students – Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia
Challenge – largely, physically confined. Often first person and in Wikipedia, many times anonymous.
FORMS of writing – run counter in their objectives to humanities.
#1 - Problem/example – “Comment box” what is the genre of the comment box. Say something extreme. Phrase something Instantly effective. Longer and sustained analysis fades.
#2 - Problem – probanauts – where do things come from? Copies of copies of copies.
YouTube/Mtv (example Born in the USA…dozens of replications – what is original)
Is what students are looking at a primary source?!?! (Extreme examples) This is important. Students are confronted with COPIES of digital artifacts.
#3 – problem of inter-faces. Whole range of interfaces….google books, library of congress, national archives, LexisNexis, proQuest (particularly significant) ------------ WHAT is the classic catalog? They will get returns on searches….dissertation abstracts to
Can students discyfer these?
Fall 2008 – planned effort to run a new large survy lecture class.
Pilot with Blackboard in fall 1009
Ran course in spring 2009 with black board
Evaluate the process with classroom Wiki in Spring 2009 course to get close tracking and analysis beyond Blackboard.
160 students (2 TAs)
Made major changes to the way we taught the course.
Team writing assignments for Wikis (research topic…would work together to come together to compose thesis). *Progressive Era (topics) *Rise of U.S. as a World Power (1945-present topics)
One of the first things that happened….All sorts of bigger issues came into focus.
What should I do with the three hours of lecture?
Should I teach writing…with what tools.
What is the value of content coverage?
What do students need me to do?
What to do with three hours with 160 students?
Big changes – first, dropped textbook. No textbook. Symbolic.
Change some of the class time – focus on significant of events.
Explaining events.
Wouldn’t concern myself with how much content I could cover.
Instead – work – model historic thinking wanted students to bring to assignments.
Tests – essays only.
Use primary source documents from a reader to formulate thesis.
Took time out of lectures –
“how to” read a document.
“how to analysis sources”
How to write a thesis”
The way we approach historical events.
They would have the opportunity to be their own historian.
Focus of enterprise – historical THINKING. Habits of mind necessary to DO history.
Writing/practice doing history/see themselves doing history.
Emphasizes writing as a process of learning and disciplinary thinking
Uses digital sources to expose students to the complexity of the past
Requires collaboration in digital formats to formulate interpretation about sources.
EVALUATE approach!
Specially designed WIKI. (blackboard wouldn’t allow some things)
Wanted approach to be used in other systems – system to design for other faculty.
Key issue – what could we learn about pedagogy approach from our system?
What happened -
Objective – historical analysis and thinking
Technology – WIKI
Faculty friends in computer science – developed their own system. Allowed faculty to track students better.
Writing assignments were carefully put together.
Began by helping them become better readers of historical documents.
What questions do historians ask?
First assignment - WIKI in blackboard
Second assignment – Classroom WIKI (their own system)
#1 – (Progressive Era) with blackboard (many students had trouble with interfaces with library interface). Despite how-tos. Moderate high level…highly achieving students…group project affect grade negativity (burden to carry others). We found most groups…spent time meeting face to face….even though we expected to work asynchronously. (sounds like CTIP group) Using texting, IMs…no record of the process of that collaboration in the system!!! No record of them doing history. Blackboard didn’t have an easy connection. This was social…they thought they were doing what they should be doing. Last 30 minutes of assignment deadline. Half of class uploaded (broke blackboard). They did work off-line and uploaded.
#2 – (Rise of US as Power) This was a risk to switch technology in the middle of semester. Worked out. Highlights – gave clear direction about PURPOSE of assignment. Gave them more often and more consistently. More they engaged on-line, higher their scores. Informed them that our new system…tracked individually (much more than blackboard). Saw more discussion. Higher performance overall. Ability to track individual level work. These in effect became collaboratively assignments individual accountability. Found that students did slightly…but significantly better. More purpose to group’s formation. We saw better final exam essays. Not hard numbers, but after second WIKI project…we could literally see the students putting into practice.
Evaluation (preliminary):
Treatment Group earned higher average scores and had lower standard deviation – group able to work better
Total interaction counts similar
Treatment group rated peers slight better.
Comparisons hard to direct because first assignment wasn’t tracked as clearly as second (i.e. texting, IMing, etc)
Student Comments (not full quotes)
“It’s one thing to read a history text book. It’s quite another to play the part of historian and to develop an opinion about historical events…”
“Felt unsure what was required at first.”
“Wikis different kind of analysis…communication skills…new experience…”
Students are given choices of topics…use sources to find primary sources and do work of historian and compose essay from primary sources.
Faculty – found that when looking at historical analysis…
System handles multimedia.
What are the lessons learned.
First, whether or not we used a textbook. Students were fine with no textbook. But textbook would be handled differently.
Second lesson, we need better tools. We need more innovation in this area.
Third, digital literary skills are so important. Students need help with these materials.
Fourth, most important. We can adjust what we do in the classroom in a major way. We are emphasizing a mastery of a process…how to be a historian.
Why go to a residential college when information is available at fingertips?
What is a lecture course for?
Million of books on-line?
Other questions – students need this experience to gain mastery over a process. They should in these courses.
How to be a historian.
How to be a sociologist.
How to be a ________?
THIS requires student faculty interaction.
Teach students critical inquiry!
Conclusion – faculty are looking for guidance. Teaching is changing. Single example. Faculty need/want technology in their teaching. To build up critical thinking!!
SESSION Speakers at 2:45 p.m.
Digital Storytelling (need to review handwritten notes)
Crib notes from memory - this session showed participants how students at this college build digital "essays" based on what they were learning in philosophy. Librarian and Digital Media representative from the college (not faculty) were presenting. Small school (1200). Class appeared very small (maybe 12-15 students).
Students would work on writing first.
Storyboard second (both hand drawn or on-line, student choice)
collecting images
maybe voice over and music
editing together
showing in class and at a "film festival" for faculty
These "stories" appeared to be how the students interpreted material learned and instead of taking a test or writing a paper, they had to create this digital essay.
The first question - "how is this storytelling" which I thought was an appropriate question. It appears the word choice is confusing. I would call it a digital essay, but these people called it digital storytelling. Two very different things in my opinion. I see digital storytelling working for study abroad students who keep a video journal while doing field work in Peru (let's say) and then producing a digital story of their experience upon their return home and showing to an audience of peers, faculty, public -- whoever....
My question was second - "How do you deal with Copyright?" They seemed to think that they covered those bases with "free" stuff on-line, but clips we saw included copyrighted material. Should this stay within Moodle (password protected) that's one thing, but they did have a "film festival" for faculty (and possibly even a wider audience). That is a bit blurry to me.
Another question was about institutional support and these speakers did not know how to answer this question because things were in motion and it seemed too soon. My theory is that institutional support would need to be multidimensional ...I'll start with the top (should be of value of the instution) but also an investment from both faculty and students (a valuable tool) and support to make sure things work correctly (i.e. CITE in our case).
I will review my notes to get the exact college at a later time. Or Carolyn L. might post before I do that. She was there with me.
SESSION at 4 p.m. Google Wave
This was a "hands-on" session. I am a hands-on learner so I was eager to sign up for this session. Sorry, I must start with one complaint -- technology (like so many other aspects of our lives) is becoming even more compartmentalized, more seperated, more specific....
So this (google wave) is yet another platform to create my own ID, password, profile...etc.etc. This is actually SO new that it is not public and people must be invited. Unfortunately, a couple of things happened here --- (I'm sure the presenters are very nice people...but...)
#1 - there were way too many people in this session for a hands-on demonstration,
#2 - participants had different levels of experience (me = none)
#3 - technology was not our friend for the first 10 minutes (precious time wasted - so the presenters skipped some potentially valuable information)
#4 - the presenters were not familiar with how to apply a pedagogical approach to explaining/teaching GoogleWave....and...
#5 - presenters not aware of microphones/sounds - we couldn't always hear and acoustics weren't helpful.
As you can ascertain, I was disappointed with this session. On a positive note, I will say that Liz and I found a good website with explanations and guidelines. [see www.mashable.com]. But...I don't think I will be using this anytime soon.
*****NOT CONFERENCE RELATED BELOW
Our group opted to forego the "reception" and as a group we went out to eat just a bit out of town in Driftwood at the Salt Lick (thanks Mitch K for suggesting this). Luckily, my friends Scott and Shawn W (both NMU alums) helped out a great deal by driving ALL of us out there (and probably saving us tons of money in cab fare). Carolyn didn't join us due to her teaching commitment, but the nine of us who went had a wonderful time getting to know each other outside of CTIP/NMU/Conference...I appreciate the time getting to know people on a different level like that. And everyone loved the BBQ!
Once we were back in Austin, a few of us went "on the town" with a colleague from MTU (Chad). We all just exchanged first names. (that's important later).
Okay...talk about small world. There are weird connections to share... I knew the blues performer, Erin James, in the club we happened to check out (free cover) whose husband's family lives in Harvey. Needless to say, she (Erin) was trippin' to see so many Yoopers in an Austin bar since she and her husband live and work in Austin. She played at the Marquette Area Blues Fest in 2008. SO...I call my husband to say..."hey I bumped into Erin James down here" and while I'm on the phone Chad from MTU realizes that my last name is Lindala. He says(while I'm talking to Walt),
"I know Mrs. Lindala."
to which I reply...
"Yes, you're looking at her."
"No. I know MRS. LINDALA on Lindala Road."
So Chad knows my MIL who lives in Chassell just south of MTU.
Yeah...kinds of an amazing night to an adventure-filled day!
I'm probably going to post pics on Facebook and Flickr. Will post links once they are up.
Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Digital Histories for the Digital Age: How Do We Teach Writing
This is the first general session and so there are quite a few people here. FYI - for Matt Smock...I am taking photos when I can.
One thing I wanted to mention is that we were invited to put up to five stickers on our name tags. I've never seen this before. Interesting idea.
I will try to take pics of each of these for our group so you can see how each of us identify ourselves with our connection to technology (and ourselves in general).
Am a wee bit confused on the different between ELI and EDUCAUSE. Am hoping that my time here will clarify.
One thing I wanted to mention is that we were invited to put up to five stickers on our name tags. I've never seen this before. Interesting idea.
I will try to take pics of each of these for our group so you can see how each of us identify ourselves with our connection to technology (and ourselves in general).
Am a wee bit confused on the different between ELI and EDUCAUSE. Am hoping that my time here will clarify.
Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) Day 01
Here we are at day one of the ELI annual meeting in Austin. This year's theme, "Learning Environments for a Web 2.o World", promises several interesting topics. In fact, there are some time slots during which I need to make tough choices between more that one session.The multitude of conference sessions explores community solutions and new approaches for five key challenges facing higher education today: creating learning environments, developing 21st-century literacies, engaging today's learner, encouraging faculty adoption and innovation, and advancing innovation in teaching and learning.
About 500 attendees will share ideas throughout the next few days, and I hope to provide some interesting ideas from the sessions I attend.
On a side note, I hope to find some good BBQ before I come back to NMU as well.
More on the Newbie Orientation and
ELI is using two different programs for interaction while we are here at the conference. One is Google Wave, which is something I will learn more about at 4:00 p.m. at the interactive session, and Pathway.com (http://eli2010.pathway.com), which I haven't logged into yet, but it has user profiles and can direct me to the different speakers for me to contact.
Looked at the conference program...as always, every thing I would like to see is at the same time. (Don't worry Matt, I'll attend more than one session per day!) :)
Even though Carolyn Lowe and I had some trouble getting to Austin last night, dinner was awesome at Manuels (http://www.manuels.com/). April's post for a pic of my Chile Relleno del Mar; it was the biggest poblano I have ever seen and other than the small cap of cheese at the top, it was packed with shrimp, blue crab, and bay scallops. Breakfast was also wonderful--gingersnap blueberry pancakes.
Luckily there is a Starbucks in the hotel! My Americano and I are off to the Digital Histories for the Digital Age: How Do We Teach Writing now lecture.
TTFN!
Looked at the conference program...as always, every thing I would like to see is at the same time. (Don't worry Matt, I'll attend more than one session per day!) :)
Even though Carolyn Lowe and I had some trouble getting to Austin last night, dinner was awesome at Manuels (http://www.manuels.com/). April's post for a pic of my Chile Relleno del Mar; it was the biggest poblano I have ever seen and other than the small cap of cheese at the top, it was packed with shrimp, blue crab, and bay scallops. Breakfast was also wonderful--gingersnap blueberry pancakes.
Luckily there is a Starbucks in the hotel! My Americano and I are off to the Digital Histories for the Digital Age: How Do We Teach Writing now lecture.
TTFN!
ELI Conference
This is the conference we are attending.
http://www.educause.edu/eli/sessions
Currently at Newcomer's orientation. Presentation used was with "prezi." See prezi.com for more information on this new application for presentations.
http://www.educause.edu/eli/sessions
Currently at Newcomer's orientation. Presentation used was with "prezi." See prezi.com for more information on this new application for presentations.
Tuesday at ELI in Austin
Yesterday was my "get-to-know-Austin" day. I think I was the only one to have a smooth flight. I left earlier than Tom G and arrived sooner. (hm?) Thanks Laura at Holiday Travel.
An NMU Alumnus who worked at our Center for Native American Studies (and a good friend) picked me up from the airport and took me to lunch at the Green Mesquite. my bad...I didn't take a picture of my plate. They use Green mesquite for cooking (interesting tidbit).
I guess this diner was featured in "Diner's Drive Ins and Dives" a while back. It was a dive for sure and unless someone took me, I'm pretty sure I would drive by. They had black t-shirts with the saying "Horrifying vegetarians since 1988" hanging all over along with some other items.
.
The beef briscuit was the special and I was very happy with my choice. Had a side of fried okra (a favorite) and cajun rice (good, but should have had twice as much fried okra). Peach cobbler was free on Mondays with the special...so had to have it since it was free. Luxary of the south. Everywhere has Dr. Pepper. :-D
Scott W (NMU Alum) drove me around Austin after that and I spotted a music store "Wild About Music." I could spend a lot of time (and money) in that place. Purchased some goodies for the hubby and took in what I could. Walked up and down 6th street (the happenin' street) in the afternoon and waited for my roommate (Liz from English) to arrive. We are staying in the Hilton Austin (it looks beautiful, but has a few flaws underneath it all). Bottled water is $3.75 for a "small" bottle. It costs to run on the treadmill (ugh!) and internet costs in our "sleeping" room. I'm on free thanks to Starbucks in the lobby (is that coffee I smell, or a ploy?).
Liz and Carolyn (School of Ed) finally arrived at 6:15ish (late!). We found a Mexican restaurant a few blocks away (thanks to Erwin at the valet desk!!!!!) Manuel's is the name. I'll have to look up the name of the actual dinner that Carolyn and I shared....but I suggested we order it because it had cactus and I wanted to say "I've eaten cactus." :-D
Instead of going out on the town (which we could have easily), Liz and I chilled out and talked a lot. (See Matt, we can behave). It is nice to get to know colleagues on a roadtrip like this. Liz and I found out we have a common addiction - beading!
This morning we found Tom G and the four of us (Carolyn as well) went to breakfast at a nearby bakery and cafe.
I have images to share (mainly food at this point), but this computer is not moving fast enough for me. I need to get to the first timer's orientation. More to report on the conference very soon as it gets started here in six minutes. Thanks for tuning in.
An NMU Alumnus who worked at our Center for Native American Studies (and a good friend) picked me up from the airport and took me to lunch at the Green Mesquite. my bad...I didn't take a picture of my plate. They use Green mesquite for cooking (interesting tidbit).
I guess this diner was featured in "Diner's Drive Ins and Dives" a while back. It was a dive for sure and unless someone took me, I'm pretty sure I would drive by. They had black t-shirts with the saying "Horrifying vegetarians since 1988" hanging all over along with some other items.
.
The beef briscuit was the special and I was very happy with my choice. Had a side of fried okra (a favorite) and cajun rice (good, but should have had twice as much fried okra). Peach cobbler was free on Mondays with the special...so had to have it since it was free. Luxary of the south. Everywhere has Dr. Pepper. :-D
Scott W (NMU Alum) drove me around Austin after that and I spotted a music store "Wild About Music." I could spend a lot of time (and money) in that place. Purchased some goodies for the hubby and took in what I could. Walked up and down 6th street (the happenin' street) in the afternoon and waited for my roommate (Liz from English) to arrive. We are staying in the Hilton Austin (it looks beautiful, but has a few flaws underneath it all). Bottled water is $3.75 for a "small" bottle. It costs to run on the treadmill (ugh!) and internet costs in our "sleeping" room. I'm on free thanks to Starbucks in the lobby (is that coffee I smell, or a ploy?).
Liz and Carolyn (School of Ed) finally arrived at 6:15ish (late!). We found a Mexican restaurant a few blocks away (thanks to Erwin at the valet desk!!!!!) Manuel's is the name. I'll have to look up the name of the actual dinner that Carolyn and I shared....but I suggested we order it because it had cactus and I wanted to say "I've eaten cactus." :-D
Instead of going out on the town (which we could have easily), Liz and I chilled out and talked a lot. (See Matt, we can behave). It is nice to get to know colleagues on a roadtrip like this. Liz and I found out we have a common addiction - beading!
This morning we found Tom G and the four of us (Carolyn as well) went to breakfast at a nearby bakery and cafe.
I have images to share (mainly food at this point), but this computer is not moving fast enough for me. I need to get to the first timer's orientation. More to report on the conference very soon as it gets started here in six minutes. Thanks for tuning in.
Friday, January 15, 2010
CTIP Project
I have a lot to think about next week while I am in Austin. In conjunction with the excellent team at TV 13, I will be pushing some of my creative buttons for my CTIP project (thanks goodness).
I will be writing vingnettes (sp?) for my Native American Experience course. These will be produced similar to fillers between progams (something I did in my past life at TV 13). Since we will be using broadcast (HD) equipment these will also be shown on the air. At the meeting yesterday, it was also asked if perhaps another station could air them. My goal is to make them so that they could be universally shared on-line, broadcast and of course with my students.
The tricky part will be to keep these bad boys to less than three minutes. My first ideas include the following topics (some are broader than others): Identity, Oral Tradition, Snowshoeing, Sugar Bush, Cultural Persistence (i.e. pow wows), and Wild Ricing. We are going to start with six and if it works out well, we might do more. Here's hoping.
I will be writing vingnettes (sp?) for my Native American Experience course. These will be produced similar to fillers between progams (something I did in my past life at TV 13). Since we will be using broadcast (HD) equipment these will also be shown on the air. At the meeting yesterday, it was also asked if perhaps another station could air them. My goal is to make them so that they could be universally shared on-line, broadcast and of course with my students.
The tricky part will be to keep these bad boys to less than three minutes. My first ideas include the following topics (some are broader than others): Identity, Oral Tradition, Snowshoeing, Sugar Bush, Cultural Persistence (i.e. pow wows), and Wild Ricing. We are going to start with six and if it works out well, we might do more. Here's hoping.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Getting Ready
I've never been to Austin before. The mid January forecast looks quite different from the one here in Marquette. I am excited to learn from other faculty and tekkies at the ELI conference next week. I hope that I am able to put some things that I learn in to practice rather soon.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Belated Fall Semester Wrap-Up
The CTIP blog has been neglected for the last few months, but CTIP has been going forward full steam ahead. On November 20, we actually managed to gather 10 of the 13 faculty cohort members in one room for the Fall All-Cohort Meeting. Another participated remotely and the final two pre-recorded brief presentations.
Each cohort member in attendance took a turn talking about his or her fall project, including what had gone well, lessons learned, and plans for the future. Some showed examples of work as well.
As the semester wrapped up, cohort members also submitted their fall summary reports and their plans for winter semester.
Next up:
- As winter courses get underway, cohort members are beginning to implement their winter plans.
- Seven cohort members, along with instructional technologist Tom Gillespie, are headed to the ELI Annual Meeting next week. Look for blog entries from NMU's attendees during and after the conference.
- We will be continuing to offer group viewings of the monthly ELI webinars this semester. A schedule was recently sent out via e-mail; you can register to attend online.
- Our MERLOT partnership also continues. As of now we have a few faculty members participating in MERLOT as peer reviewers. As we evaluate whether the partnership should be continued beyond thie year, it would be great to get some more people involved.
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