Transforming Teaching with Technology:A Learning CommunityAugust 1st, 2012

Transforming Teaching with Technology

A Learning Community

MSU Denver Faculty Learning Communities

• Cross-disciplinary groups of faculty• Engaged in active, collaborative

learning• Focused on specific themes• Cohorts of 8 to 12• Facilitated by the Center for Faculty

Development (and Director Mark Potter)

Our Goals

• Explore how best to integrate technology into classes in classes of any format

• Approach technology through the scholarship of teaching and learning

• Foster a supportive professional environment in which to discuss these new approaches

The Learning Community Process

• Formed a nurturing, supportive, and validating environment

• Emphasized scholarly learning through article discussion and planning sessions

• Tested new tools together, allowing kinks to be worked out in a “living laboratory”

• Great discussion from the book, Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education

Technology Should Serve the Needs of the Course

• It quickly became apparent in our discussions that we had different technological needs

• One tool / instrument / technique would NOT address the pedagological role we felt needed improvement

• Faced the Challenge: focus on one insufficient tool or divide our efforts

• Decided to divide and conquer, sharing results but focusing on different aspects and tools

• All informed by a shared scholarly approach to the incorporation of different tools

• Projects spanned residential courses, as well as hybrid and online courses

Our Projects

• Flipped Classrooms (Dr. Bonham and Dr. Ethier)

• Focus Group Chats (Dr. Hutto)• Just in Time Teaching (Mrs. King and

Mrs. Rother)• Video Essays (Mrs. Olmsted)• Multimodal Assignments (Dr.

Akrabova)

Biochemistry Recitations

• The Goal: – Address time constraints and differences

in instructor background knowledge for Biochemistry Laboratory

• Technology Used– Employed Youtube-hosted video

Recitations– Created using Screencast-O-matic

(website and offline tool), Bamboo drawing stylus

Biochemistry Recitations

• Videos walk through core concepts of the experiment

• Provide background principles and point out common errors

• Focused on providing material instructor might not have time to cover in lab

Biochemistry Recitation Outcomes

• After initial period, student engagement at 80+%

• Several students used their smart phones to review during class

• Repeated views, especially before assignments due

• Student comments:• “Video tutorials were helpful & a good

use of technology”• “I liked that videos explained the labs

in more detail”• “Videos prepared us for lab”

Focus Group Chats

• Goal– Simulate for undergraduates in

Marketing Research a focus group experience in an online environment

• Technology Used– Employed Blackboard

• Developed series of focus group topics that fit one hour

• Conducted synchronous groups withinone week

• Used the BB chat function as the forum

Focus Group Chat Outcomes

• Outcomes– Lively discussions– Good fodder for research projects—

pedagogical and substantive• Student Feedback

– “Informative and fun”– “Great discussion”– “This was fun and thank you!”– “It was interesting to see everyone’s

varied viewpoints.”

Focus Group Chat Issues to Overcome

• Hurdles– Online can be difficult for synchronicity

• Multiple time slots offered

– JAVA issues• Asked students to prepare computers at

beginning of course

Just in Time TeachingCheryl and Jean

Video EssaysMikkilynn

Multimodal AssignmentsMaria

Technology in the Advanced FL Classroom

General Goals for the Advanced-Level Foreign Language Speaker (ACTFL Guidelines)

• communicate in a clearly participatory fashion;

• initiate, sustain, and bring to closure a wide variety of communicative tasks, including those that require an increased ability to convey meaning with diverse language strategies due to a complication or an unforeseen turn of events;

• satisfy the requirements of school and work situations, and

• narrate and describe with paragraph-length connected discourse.

Course-Specific Goals

I. ADVANCED GRAMMAR: Produce mid-length narratives on a variety of topics by using clear, engaging, elegant, and grammatically correct texts.

II. HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE: Examine a topic of difficulty in the area of language history, and present it in a clear, engaging, accessible manner to an audience of future learners (“learn-through-teaching” technique).

Technology is the Tool

Selecting the Right Technology: Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS Model (2003)

S Students Appropriateness

E Ease of Use Reliability

C Costs Spending

T Teaching/Learning Support for Instructional Approaches

I Interactivity Enabling Interaction (or not)

O Organization Issues/Barriers To Be Removed

N Novelty Familiarity

S Speed Implementation and Modifications

Examples:• Visual storytelling devices like the ones offered by www.pixton.com• Blogs and Wikis like www.wikispaces.com or www.blogspot.com • Presentations Software like Microsoft Publisher, Power Point, Prezi, etc.

SAMPLE PROJECTS (History Of The Language)

Outcomes: Successes

• Designed, implemented, and engaged students with a variety of technological techniques to encourage learning

• Solicited and received valuable feedback

• Served a a springboard to inspire other faculty into using technology in new ways

Outcomes: Challenges

• Finding the right tool for the right job is hard

• Every discipline has a different (or many different) “right tools”

• Finding a way to pursue varied goals and yet get meaningful colleague feedback requires an open attitude (and open schedule)

Moving Forward as Scholars of Learning

• Many trial programs from summer will be used in the upcoming Fall term

• The Committee reconvened for celebration and discussion of successes and challenges

• The greatest lesson: each technology is just one more tool in our quiver, and we always need to chose the right tool-- not just the newest tool!

Acknowledgements

• Our FLC members who could not attend: <blah>

• Mark Potter and the Center for Faculty Development

• Provost Golich and support from the Metro State administration

• Our students, for trying something new!