Technology Enhanced Learning at the University of Minnesota
November 20, 2009
Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology | Video on TED.com
Pranav Mistry presented a new way of merging the "real" world with the computer, data-driven world. Especially exciting for me was the demonstration at minute 10 of adding an image from a physical book, and a paragraph of text from another book, into a digital piece of paper. Except it isn't really a digital piece of paper.... You have to watch it to believe it.
Mistry's invention, which he calls SixthSense, uses a pocket projector, a mirror and camera. The user carries a mobile computing device in her pocket. The stream from the projector is captured and brought back into the device. He also applied sensors on his fingers that are read by the projects interface. The hardware for the prototype cost about $350.
Pranav Mistry is planning on releasing the source code for his device so other industries, NGOs, and developers can extend his invention further. Imagine what will come from the crowd-sourcing of this invention.
October 30, 2009
Two New, Fully Online Programs Added to the Digital Campus
The Digital Campus recently added two new, fully online bachelor's degree programs: Manufacturing Management - Quality Management and Marketing.
Both of these programs are housed at the University of Minnesota - Crookston.
If it has been a while since you visited the Digital Campus, you may be surprised by the growing number of fully online and hybrid program offerings.
October 8, 2009
Educational Technology Workshop - Oct 13 - Nov 17
The Office of Information Technology, in partnership with the Libraries, is pleased to announce a new free opportunity for faculty, staff and graduate students: the Educational Technology Workshop (ETW). The focus of this year's ETW will be "Web 2.0" tools and pedagogies, including blogging, microblogging, syndication, podcasting, video sharing, online collaboration and social networking.
For those interested in creating effective technology rich learning environments, exciting new opportunities emerge on a nearly daily basis.
This rapidly expanding suite of tools challenges us to understand each new tool's potential for enhancing learning and determine how best to integrate a suite of such tools to create an effective learning environment. The ETW is designed to help participants meet these challenges head on. The goals for participants are:
* to develop a flexible method for exploring and evaluating the utility of new technologies to enhance teaching and learning environments; and
* to master an effective process for designing technology-rich learning activities that includes planning, engagement, and evaluation.
The ETW will meet each Tuesday morning from 9-11 a.m. over six weeks (October 13 - November 17). Each participant will work in a small team to help design and deliver one class session. Because the ETW is participant driven, an additional hour or two per week outside of class will be required to prepare for each session. Those who complete the workshop satisfactorily will receive a certificate of accomplishment.
For more details, and to register, go to http://dmc.umn.edu/etw.
October 7, 2009
USC Rossier School of Ed sees high enrollments in new online program
Inside Higher Ed reports a new master teacher education program has unexpectedly high enrollment from a diverse, highly-qualified cohort of students. The program just launched in fall 2009, so metrics like teacher placement, completion rates, and certification exams won't be available for several years.
Several aspects of this venture, called MAT@USC, are interesting. The USC Rossier School of Education is a top-tier, highly regarded program. Often, faculty or administrators express concern that online programs might, as IHE notes, "dilute the brand" of the larger program or school.
In addition, teacher education has been one of the subject areas many schools think would not translate well to an online platform. That ties in to another interesting aspect the MAT@USC program; their partnership with 2Tor, a for-profit company that partners with institutions of higher education to build and deliver online programs. 2Tor is providing some of the technology infrastructure that helps ensure high student-to-student contact and student-to-faculty contact, hallmarks of most excellent teacher education programs.
It will be interesting to see the comparisons on data points like teacher placement and certification exams between the online program and the on-campus program in a few years.
September 3, 2009
News: What Doomed Global Campus? - Inside Higher Ed
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/09/03/globalcampus
Inside Higher Ed has a well-rounded piece on the downfall of the University of Illinois Global Campus. The Global Campus had millions in funding and a mandate from the president to make online learning a new revenue stream for the system. The original model called for the development of an additional campus, independently accredited, that would compete with the other UI campuses.
The faculty senates at all campuses rejected the plans, and the Global Campus needed to work in partnership with departments and campuses in order to move forward. In many ways, the waters might have already been poisoned, as few departments wanted to work with Global Campus and have their program stamped with Global Campus and possibly give up control of their curriculum.
Another issue is the model of growth the Global Campus used. Nicholas Burbules, a faculty member involved in the development of Global Campus noted:
"What we learned from this process, and what we're doing now, is a very different model of development, which is to start with very successful online courses and programs... then exploring how we can grow and scale up those programs, as opposed to creating a superstructure and then saying we need to create programs to pay off the initial investment," Burbules said. "It's basically a bottom-up versus top-down approach."
The importance of partnership in developing online programs and courses and sustaining them over time is clear. Faculty need to be at the table and be engaged actors in the process over time.
August 27, 2009
Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies
The Department of Education recently released their overview of a number of quantitative studies that have attempted to glean the impact of blended and online instruction on student learning.
For time-strapped readers, Inside Higher Ed (June 29, 2009) offers the following summary of the report:
The study found that students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through face-to-face instruction. Further, those who took "blended" courses -- those that combine elements of online learning and face-to-face instruction -- appeared to do best of all. That finding could be significant as many colleges report that blended instruction is among the fastest-growing types of enrollment.
Resource Link:
Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies (2009)
August 21, 2009
How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education | Fast Company
From Fast Company
Never heard of an Edupunk? Neither had I. The actual idea is not as cutting-edge as it sounds. The Fast Company article interviews several people in higher education who are looking outside higher ed for new solutions to old problems. Some of the solutions could be transformative, but higher ed as we know is not going away any time soon.
This quote from the article is key:
"The Internet disrupts any industry whose core product can be reduced to ones and zeros," says Jose Ferreira, founder and CEO of education startup Knewton. Education, he says, "is the biggest virgin forest out there."
I'll bypass the poor rhetorical choice of "virgin forest" and move on to the point I believe Mr. Ferreira was trying to make. There are too many aspects of higher education that cannot be reduced to ones and zeros. Higher education is credentials, culture, methodology, relationships, connections, collaborations. It is a public good and a private good. It is an economic engine that operates somewhat outside the rules of the marketplace. It cannot be reduced to ones and zeros. I say this as someone who strongly believes technology should transform the way we learn, teach, collaborate, and research. I think the author and maybe some of the people interviewed lack an understanding of the complexity of higher education and its role in the larger society.
The idea I found most compelling came from David Wiley at BYU: "Why is it that my kid can't take robotics at Carnegie Mellon, linear algebra at MIT, law at Stanford? And why can't we put 130 of those together and make it a degree?" Why indeed? Well, there are many cultural reasons why not. Beyond culture, most universities have policies and procedures requiring students to take a certain number of credits from their institution in order for the student to be awarded a degree. Few universities would want to put their seal on a diploma of a student who took most of their credits somewhere else. But what if the credential, in this case a diploma, came from something other than a single university? What if accrediting bodies started awarding degrees?
One key tension this article illustrates is the disconnect between what we in higher education think is important and what pretty much everyone else thinks is important. The article highlighted skills, competition, choice, efficiency, and costs. We tend to talk a lot about rigor, scholarship, learning, mentoring, and research. I am not saying the University doesn't pay attention to efficiency and cost - we have to, especially now. But there is a disconnect, and for that, the article was revealing.
August 3, 2009
Words, Words, Words: Metaphors, Meaning-Making and Distance Education
July 31, 2009
Teaching and Learning without PowerPoint?
This article profiles professors who are developing teaching methods and theories based on the argument that student learning is not necessarily enhanced by technology--if that technology is used to support traditional lecture-style methods. The provocative and seemingly anti-technology title of the article, "Teach Naked," is a bit of a misnomer: the faculty members profiled argue that podcasts and course content-related applications and games can both enhance outside-of-class learning and improve in-class discussions.
When Computers Leave Classrooms, So Does Boredom - Chronicle of Higher Education
July 21, 2009
Web 2.0 and Wisdom
In this article, Chris Dede, Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies
at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, draws from literature from multiple disciplines to argue that research infrastructures should be used in an attempt to generate "wisdom." The article then proposes how Web 2.0 research tools build the capacity for wise advice.
Technologies that facilitate generating knowledge and possibly wisdom Educational Researcher (38)4. 260-263. DOI:10.3102/0013189X09336672
.
July 2, 2009
Web 2.0 and Classroom Research
The May, 2009 issue of Educational Researcher explores the topic of "Learning, Teaching, and Scholarship in the Digital Age," and it features the work of three researchers with ties to CEHD's department of Curriculum and Instruction. Christine Greenhow, Beth Robelia, and Joan E. Hughes have examined how Web 2.0 has influenced the many contexts of teaching and learning. They have identified two major themes, learner participation and creativity and online identity formation, and propose that additional educational research on these topics is needed.
Greenhow, Christine, Beth Robelia, and Joan E. Hughs. (2009). Learning, teaching, and
scholarship in a digital age: Web 2.0 and classroom research: What path should
we take now? Educational Researcher (38)4. 246-259. DOI:
10.3102/0013189X09336671.
June 25, 2009
Summer Reading: Paperback, Audiobook, Kindle, or iPhone?
June 10, 2009
Corruption, for the low, low price of $3.95
Inside Higher Ed is running a story on a website that will, for a small fee, sell students an intentionally corrupted file that they may then submit to an instructor in lieu of their paper. The logic here is that procrastination-prone students could buy themselves precious time to finish their assignments.
The New Student Excuse?--Inside Higher Ed
June 2, 2009
Ethical Dilemmas in Faculty Efforts to Enhance Online Learning
In an effort to curb high drop-out rates in online courses, some faculty at universities around the country have taken on the guise of fake students in their own online courses so as to spark discussion, monitor group work, and participate in the building of community.
While such tactics may be intended to address issues such as frustration, isolation, and anxiety, they also open up new questions about the ethical gray areas of privacy, trust, and relationship-building between faculty and students.
Online Professors Pose as Students to Encourage Real Learning—Chronicle of Higher Education
May 26, 2009
PhilPapers: Online research tool for philosophers
PhilPapers: Philosophy Online
PhilPapers is a new directory of philosophy articles and books that can be found online. The site allows users to monitor current research, browse categories or search, and contribute their own research to the site.
The site is an interesting addition to the trend of "flattening" access to scholarship and research. Projects like Google Books are part of that trend, in providing digital access to as many books as possible. Another part of the trend is opening up who can add to the conversations in scholarship. Before the internet, academic conversations ("discourse", if you prefer) occurred at conferences or in peer reviewed journals. Access to the conversations were limited, and adding to the conversation could be very difficult. PhilPapers, and other sites like it, will likely make it easier for scholars to add their voices to the larger conversations in their field.
There are consequences to flattening access to scholarship and research. It may be more difficult to assess the quality of scholarship and research on a site like PhilPapers. It will broaden the research and scholarship available for new scholars to build on, making exercises like literature reviews more difficult. I am generally a proponent of access and abundance of information and I don't believe the consequences are overwhelmingly negative. Like most innovations, the key will be how we respond to them.
Hat tip: Dan Cohen
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