January 2010 Archives

Julie Sykes and Christopher

Ecological design -- What is this? They don't really define it, but I think they are talking about a gaming design methodology that allows non-programmers to

They develop place-based augmented reality games.

They are using the MiFi device to get the iPod touches online.

Arisgames.org -- Augmented Reality for Interactive Storytelling

arisgames.org/editor

Branching and nodes -- how to use this to create dialogue.

Learnger engagement:

• design as learning content,
  
• design as community research,
• design vs brainstorm,
• ecological design

How can teaching and learning best "move into the cloud".

What's the best balance of campus and cloud tools?

Can there be too many tools and web 2.0 tools in the class?

• virtualization?

Kevin Guidry, Amy Garver, and Allison BrckaLorenz

Student engagement: http://nsse.iub.edu/

National Survey of Student Engagement and Faculty Survey of Student Engagement

• First-year and Sr. students.
• Nature of their interactions
• Their surveys focus on what students do
• 370,000 students from 640 institutions and 19,000 faculty from 148 institutions

NSSE Benchmarks:

• Academic Challenge


• active & collaborative learning


• student-faculty interaction


• supportive campus environment

Deep Learning Scales

• High order thinking


• Integrative learning


• reflective learning {does this mean metacognitive learning?}

Their BIG questions:

• Does technology increase student learning and engagement (motivation?) Why or why not>?


• We are having a pretty robust discussion around this.

Kuh & Vesper, 1999 -- Familiarity with computers contributes to and doesn't detract from student learning.

NSSE, 2003 -- Using information technology seems to correlate with positively correlated with positive student learning and motivation.

Nelson Laird, 2004 -- Students who use the web for academic and intellectual pursuits.

NSSE, 2006 -- Distance learners are less likely to participate in on-campus activities, and collaborative learning,

Chen, Lambert, & Guidry, in press -- Technology seems to be positively correlated to desirable learning outcomes.

They are also finding positive correlations with use of LMS and web 2.0 technologies and student engagement outcomes.

They found that 70% of their respondents were using LMSs, women and sciences were more likely to use the LMS.

Casey Green, Campus Computing Project -- Looks at the percentage of classes on campus using LMSs

They have some interesting findings in general based on gender, age, etc.

Bob Smallwood, Alabama, The CLASSE.

They use the ARCS model of instructional design.

Literature review for clickers:

• Mayer, et al. -- enhance questioning methods
• Gauci, et al. -- PRS fosters active learning
• Barbara Petersohn's pilot study -- PRS in library instruction leads to moderate increase in learning outcomes
• Emily Dill -- cautions against putting too much faith in instructional technology

They use Keller's ARC Model of Motivational Design

Four elements:

1. Attention: Use the clickers to gain attention early and keep attention going


2. relevance


3. confidence: students know what the objectives are and believe in their ability to master the material. Over-confidence can lead to students feeling that the material is not relevant.


4. satisfaction: students should feel that they should be able to apply what they learned and that it is helpful to them -- this actually valence in an expectancy-valence model.

They are measuring the ARCS motivational outcomes and pre- and post-learning outcomes. They tested ACRL (Assctn College & Research Libraries) literacy standards.

He sets up three divides, and focuseso n the divide of young people's skills in the online space, rather than economic and access issues.

Key opportunities:

• Digital identities -- Kids don't see a big distinction between their online and offline lives, while adults do. This can be a challenge, but it's also an opportunity.


• Interoperability -- "going online" isn't something you do, it's just something that lives in their hands and in their lives all the time.


• Creativity -- Kids know their models for expression and are very fascile -- not all kids, but more and more of them, and we can encourage this.

Some of the challenges:

• Security: There is fear that something bad will happen to kids. He suggests that there is reason to be concerned. Young people are sometimes convinced to move from seedy corners of cyberspace into public forms of cyberspace -- out of a chat room and into friending a bad guy on Facebook. However, he suggests that sexual predators haven't increased in numbers since the advent of social media. Kids are finding pornographic material if they are looking for it -- he suggests that you should teach kids. He suggests that the biggest increase is in cyberbullying -- kids are very mean to each other online. The likelihood of harm of being taunted by peers is incontrovertibly on the rise.


• Privacy: Myth: kids share too much information about themselves, and that kids don't care about privacy. He agrees with the first statement. Kids speak to unintended audiences -- they think of it as a private space. They forget about replicability. They forget about searchability. They forget about persistence. RE: the second myth, kids actually *do* care about privacy. They think that they are protecting their privacy, and don't translate lessons learned by friends into their own online practices.


• Intellectual Property: Myth: kids steal music and movies, and they don't understand what they are allowed to do. The first is true. Students do steal music. He makes the case that kids presume that the media is free; kids who buy their music are really spending down a gift card on Apple. They don't have a sense. They know their practices are unlawful. "Semiotic democracy" -- look it up. Students don't know whether they are allowed to take a snippet of a song and put it into their YouTube video.


• Credibility: Kids are using online resources -- how do we ensure that they are using good research and analytical techniques. Kids to a person described their research techniques went to Google, searched for the topic "Spanish American War", looked through search results for the Wikipedia page. Only then was there any deviation. Kids "graze" for news information, as they spend 8 hours a day online they are fed little headlines, and then there's a little bit of a deep dive if things that pique their interest. Sometimes kids actually process and create content around it.


• Information overload: He sees libraries as the guides through the world of information overload.

He suggests that we have an opportunity to define what the new learning environments are, and that they should include what we know about how students are using technologies and the opportunities and challenges associated with that. He argues that we haven't "architecturally designed" the web, including the "rooms" and the "features" of the space. I'm not sure I agree with this idea -- seems to undermine the idea of the web.

He suggests that if you want a one-stop shop for good research you should go to the DML site.