Friday, November 5, 2010
The African American Studies Librarians Section
http://afasacrl.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/fall2010.pdf
Tomorrow's Academic Careers: Reaching the Unreachable: Improving the Teaching of Poor Teachers
http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/cgi-bin/tomprof/posting.php?ID=994
When faculty development centers introduce workshops on teaching they often attract individuals who are already effective college teachers but who are seeking to augment their professional development by becoming reflective practitioners. This development of instructional awareness, or understanding of how they teach, is the first step in instructional improvement, as Weimer (1990) has suggested.
When we design a workshop, we prepare for participants who make up a heterogeneous group: excellent teachers who will communicate their enthusiasm and their experience; new teachers and mid-career faculty members who have the potential to be very effective in the classroom but need to expand their knowledge about teaching and sometimes change their behaviors, attitudes, values, and skills; and poor teachers who may be novices or faculty who have been teaching for many years. At workshops, discussions about teaching and experiential learning segments can address a variety of issues that will improve student learning. Generally, however, poor teachers do not attend workshops on teaching unless they are untenured and their department chairs advise them that their chances of getting tenure will be increased if they improve their teaching.
Sources of Faculty Resistance
Reaching poor teachers has been a daunting task. In my survey of self-report data (Lucas, 1994), less than one-third of 4,500 chairs who completed questionnaires reported any degree of success in motivating poor teachers. Based on my interviews and workshops with a large number of chairs, it seems they believe that improving teaching effectiveness is not their responsibility; they do not know how to help poor teachers become better; or they feel, sometimes based on painful experience, that any intervention would be resented.
Why is it that faculty who are not effective teachers are so resistant to change? A number of factors from research literature could explain this behavior. In a longitudinal study of 185 new faculty members at several comprehensive universities, Boice (1992) found that when student evaluations were disappointing, faculty explained by externalizing the blame. Poor ratings were seen to be the fault of unmotivated students, heavy teaching loads, and invalid rating systems. When faculty members externalize the blame for poor learning outcomes instead of accepting responsibility, they feel there is no reason to make changes in the ways in which they are teaching.
Based on Boice's findings on the teaching style of faculty in the late 1980s, some inferences can be made about the current teaching methods of the thousands of faculty members who were hired in the 1970s. Colleges and universities seemed to subscribe to the myth that if you knew your subject, you could teach it. This gave new teachers little help in becoming effective teachers. It is probable that, lacking guidance, large numbers of new faculty taught as they had been taught and settled into an approach that depended heavily upon lecture as the only way to teach, with no interaction with students. After becoming accustomed to this content-only approach, most faculty found it comfortable, and the style conformed to student expectations, if not their preferences.
Some of these teachers, although poor lectures, continued to use a teaching approach that did not work for them or their students, and they have built up defenses to help maintain their self-esteem. they do not want to talk about teaching, except in the most cursory fashion, because such discussions might force them to examine their teaching in ways that would create discomfort (Lucas, 1994). When they receive poor student evaluations, ineffective teachers among senior faculty, like the newer faculty studied by Boice, tend to defend themselves against the need for change by externalizing the reasons for their poor teaching.
Despite student evaluations that might contradict this belief, faculty members feel they are very effective in the classroom. studies reviewed by Feldman, (1989) indicate that faculty tend to rate their teaching higher than do their students of colleagues. K. Patricia Cross (1977), drawing on her survey of self-report data from college teachers, found that "an amazing 94 percent rate themselves as above average teachers, and 68 percent rank themselves in the top quarter in teaching performance" (p. 10). In addition, we know their self-assessments than good teachers (Barber, 1990; Centra, 1993). Therefore, one way of increasing the impact that teaching and learning centers have on teaching is to work directly with academic departments-both chairs and faculty-by initiating difficult conversations about teaching. This can be done not by focusing on poor teachers but by looking at issues such as how all faculty can continue their professional development by becoming even more effective in improving student learning outcomes.
A review of this background information will help you to anticipate the fact that there will be some faculty resistance to any interventions you try to make in the department. This may be expressed by some as, "I've been teaching for 15 years. I know how to teach." Or, worst case, but true scenario, "Students do not have the academic skills to be successful in college, and they are not motivated to learn. My job is to teach not to motivate them, and any discussions about teaching are a sheer waste of my time." However, what you can look forward to is the energy and enthusiasm of some of the best teachers and the synergy that can be created when you initiate discussions in the department about teaching.
When faculty development centers introduce workshops on teaching they often attract individuals who are already effective college teachers but who are seeking to augment their professional development by becoming reflective practitioners. This development of instructional awareness, or understanding of how they teach, is the first step in instructional improvement, as Weimer (1990) has suggested.
When we design a workshop, we prepare for participants who make up a heterogeneous group: excellent teachers who will communicate their enthusiasm and their experience; new teachers and mid-career faculty members who have the potential to be very effective in the classroom but need to expand their knowledge about teaching and sometimes change their behaviors, attitudes, values, and skills; and poor teachers who may be novices or faculty who have been teaching for many years. At workshops, discussions about teaching and experiential learning segments can address a variety of issues that will improve student learning. Generally, however, poor teachers do not attend workshops on teaching unless they are untenured and their department chairs advise them that their chances of getting tenure will be increased if they improve their teaching.
Sources of Faculty Resistance
Reaching poor teachers has been a daunting task. In my survey of self-report data (Lucas, 1994), less than one-third of 4,500 chairs who completed questionnaires reported any degree of success in motivating poor teachers. Based on my interviews and workshops with a large number of chairs, it seems they believe that improving teaching effectiveness is not their responsibility; they do not know how to help poor teachers become better; or they feel, sometimes based on painful experience, that any intervention would be resented.
Why is it that faculty who are not effective teachers are so resistant to change? A number of factors from research literature could explain this behavior. In a longitudinal study of 185 new faculty members at several comprehensive universities, Boice (1992) found that when student evaluations were disappointing, faculty explained by externalizing the blame. Poor ratings were seen to be the fault of unmotivated students, heavy teaching loads, and invalid rating systems. When faculty members externalize the blame for poor learning outcomes instead of accepting responsibility, they feel there is no reason to make changes in the ways in which they are teaching.
Based on Boice's findings on the teaching style of faculty in the late 1980s, some inferences can be made about the current teaching methods of the thousands of faculty members who were hired in the 1970s. Colleges and universities seemed to subscribe to the myth that if you knew your subject, you could teach it. This gave new teachers little help in becoming effective teachers. It is probable that, lacking guidance, large numbers of new faculty taught as they had been taught and settled into an approach that depended heavily upon lecture as the only way to teach, with no interaction with students. After becoming accustomed to this content-only approach, most faculty found it comfortable, and the style conformed to student expectations, if not their preferences.
Some of these teachers, although poor lectures, continued to use a teaching approach that did not work for them or their students, and they have built up defenses to help maintain their self-esteem. they do not want to talk about teaching, except in the most cursory fashion, because such discussions might force them to examine their teaching in ways that would create discomfort (Lucas, 1994). When they receive poor student evaluations, ineffective teachers among senior faculty, like the newer faculty studied by Boice, tend to defend themselves against the need for change by externalizing the reasons for their poor teaching.
Despite student evaluations that might contradict this belief, faculty members feel they are very effective in the classroom. studies reviewed by Feldman, (1989) indicate that faculty tend to rate their teaching higher than do their students of colleagues. K. Patricia Cross (1977), drawing on her survey of self-report data from college teachers, found that "an amazing 94 percent rate themselves as above average teachers, and 68 percent rank themselves in the top quarter in teaching performance" (p. 10). In addition, we know their self-assessments than good teachers (Barber, 1990; Centra, 1993). Therefore, one way of increasing the impact that teaching and learning centers have on teaching is to work directly with academic departments-both chairs and faculty-by initiating difficult conversations about teaching. This can be done not by focusing on poor teachers but by looking at issues such as how all faculty can continue their professional development by becoming even more effective in improving student learning outcomes.
A review of this background information will help you to anticipate the fact that there will be some faculty resistance to any interventions you try to make in the department. This may be expressed by some as, "I've been teaching for 15 years. I know how to teach." Or, worst case, but true scenario, "Students do not have the academic skills to be successful in college, and they are not motivated to learn. My job is to teach not to motivate them, and any discussions about teaching are a sheer waste of my time." However, what you can look forward to is the energy and enthusiasm of some of the best teachers and the synergy that can be created when you initiate discussions in the department about teaching.
The National Teaching & Learning Forum Newsletter / Mini-Journal
http://www.ntlf.com/
The National Teaching and Learning Forum began publication in the fall of 1991 as a joint venture with the ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education. ERIC/HE already published a series of short books reviewing research literature on various higher education topics, and it embraced the idea of The National Teaching and Learning Forum warmly as an extension of its mission.
The National Teaching and Learning Forum began publication in the fall of 1991 as a joint venture with the ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education. ERIC/HE already published a series of short books reviewing research literature on various higher education topics, and it embraced the idea of The National Teaching and Learning Forum warmly as an extension of its mission.
Faculty Focus: Beyond the Tools: The Art and Science of Online Teaching
http://www.facultyfocus.com/online-seminars/strategies-to-engage-online-learners-promote-deep-learning/?aa=15806/?c=FF&t=F101105a-FFA
Live Online Seminar
Date: Tues., December 7
Time: 12:00 p.m. Central
Length: 60 minutes
Cost: $229
($254 after 11/30/10)
The fee for this seminar is per site, not per person. Invite your colleagues to join you and it won't cost a penny more.
Plus, the seminar comes with a no-risk guarantee. If you're not satisfied, for any reason, we'll gladly refund your payment.
Most online instructors have at their disposal a growing arsenal of technology tools. However successful online teaching is not just about mastering a set of applications, it’s about marrying the science of online teaching with the art of student engagement. This seminar will get you to the altar.
In Strategies to Engage Online Learners & Promote Deep Learning, Caterina Valentino, PhD will outline evidence-based strategies that can dramatically improve the online educational offerings at your school.
Coming Tuesday, Dec. 7, this live 60-minute seminar will cover:
•Transcending surface learning to foster deeper engagement
•Working effectively with course designers
•How the instructor’s role shifts throughout the course
•Using a story arc as a teaching and learning model
•Upbeats and downbeats in course design
•How to build supportive networks of learners
•The importance of generous, prompt feedback
•Getting students to help with writing and creating an online course
•The role of evaluation rubrics in course design
•Introduction to The PARS Model (Providing Academic and Relational Support)
If you’re looking to improve student engagement and learning in your online courses, this seminar will walk you through the steps needed to accomplish your goals. You’ll get proven online teaching tips and practical design strategies to improve the overall learning experience.
Your presenter for this seminar is Caterina Valentino, PhD, an adjunct professor at the School of Health Services Management at Ryerson University in Toronto and a sessional instructor at Athabasca University, Centre for Nursing and Health Studies.
An independent thinker and innovator in the delivery of online education, Caterina's reputation as an engaging online instructor has led her to receive accolades and awards from her students and peers. She'll answer your questions during the seminar.
Live Online Seminar
Date: Tues., December 7
Time: 12:00 p.m. Central
Length: 60 minutes
Cost: $229
($254 after 11/30/10)
The fee for this seminar is per site, not per person. Invite your colleagues to join you and it won't cost a penny more.
Plus, the seminar comes with a no-risk guarantee. If you're not satisfied, for any reason, we'll gladly refund your payment.
Most online instructors have at their disposal a growing arsenal of technology tools. However successful online teaching is not just about mastering a set of applications, it’s about marrying the science of online teaching with the art of student engagement. This seminar will get you to the altar.
In Strategies to Engage Online Learners & Promote Deep Learning, Caterina Valentino, PhD will outline evidence-based strategies that can dramatically improve the online educational offerings at your school.
Coming Tuesday, Dec. 7, this live 60-minute seminar will cover:
•Transcending surface learning to foster deeper engagement
•Working effectively with course designers
•How the instructor’s role shifts throughout the course
•Using a story arc as a teaching and learning model
•Upbeats and downbeats in course design
•How to build supportive networks of learners
•The importance of generous, prompt feedback
•Getting students to help with writing and creating an online course
•The role of evaluation rubrics in course design
•Introduction to The PARS Model (Providing Academic and Relational Support)
If you’re looking to improve student engagement and learning in your online courses, this seminar will walk you through the steps needed to accomplish your goals. You’ll get proven online teaching tips and practical design strategies to improve the overall learning experience.
Your presenter for this seminar is Caterina Valentino, PhD, an adjunct professor at the School of Health Services Management at Ryerson University in Toronto and a sessional instructor at Athabasca University, Centre for Nursing and Health Studies.
An independent thinker and innovator in the delivery of online education, Caterina's reputation as an engaging online instructor has led her to receive accolades and awards from her students and peers. She'll answer your questions during the seminar.
The root.com: The Root Interview: Julianne Malveaux on the Importance of HBCUs
http://www.theroot.com/views/root-interview-julianne-malveaux-importance-hbcus
November 2, 2010 By Harriette Cole
Contributing editor Harriette Cole visited Bennett College, one of two
HBCUs for women, and found a college president fired up about educating today's young black woman.
Educator Dr. Julianne Malveaux has long been known as a firebrand. Armed with a doctorate in economics from MIT, she's made a career out of interpreting the American economic landscape as it relates to African-American life. (Her latest book is Surviving and Thriving: 365 Facts in Black Economic History.) Three years ago, the economist refocused her lens to become the 15th president of the 137-year-old Bennett College for Women. Moving from the buttoned-up, politically savvy nation's capital to the conservative family town of Greensboro, N.C., she hit the ground running.
In a way, she had to. HBCUs have been under fire for years, often not being able to attract the best students or raise the funds required to finance their basic needs. Indeed, The Wall Street Journal recently published an op-ed criticizing what the editorial writer saw as the deficits of HBCUs, making the case that many should be closed rather than pumped with the additional $850 million that President Obama has earmarked for them over the next 10 years.
Bennett has not been immune to the challenges and sometimes harsh realities facing HBCUs. It was founded in 1873, in the basement of St. Matthews A.M.E. Church by former slaves who had made their way to Greensboro along the Underground Railroad. The school was repurposed to be a college exclusively for women in 1926. While it has consistently been a small campus with the mission of nurturing its students, the college has not always had the funding, nor the organization, it has needed. Former Spelman College president Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole became president of Bennett in 2003 and was considered a savior of sorts, spearheading a campaign to upgrade the financing and academic intentions of the school. She established the Johnnetta B. Cole Global Diversity & Inclusion Institute to expand the college's global awareness.
Even with Cole's efforts during her four-year tenure, Bennett was still in need. Malveaux says that she inherited an $8 million debt, which made it tough for school officials to proceed with much-needed construction projects. The graduation rate is still relatively low; about 38 percent of the student body typically graduates within six years. (The average graduation rate among HBCUs is 32.5 percent, according to a U.S. Department of Education study, compared to a national rate of 55.9 percent.)
Malveaux takes umbrage at the criticism, arguing that comparing HBCUs with traditional colleges is unfair. "If you didn't have historically black colleges, you'd have to invent them," she says. HBCUs, she argues, serve promising underprivileged students that other universities don't. She says that the student body is comprised of a diverse array of students, including those students who could easily gain admittance to the nation's top-tier universities -- among those a candidate for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. But she acknowledges that there are students who will likely only be accepted at HBCUs.
"Which colleges accept young people who come with academic deficiencies?" she asks. "We call our students who come with lower than a 2.4 'emerging scholars.' They're not there yet, but they will get there." For such students, Malveaux explains, the school gives them extra academic attention, from a tutoring center to a summer program to professors who provide intensive, one-on-one attention. "You're not going to get that anywhere else," she says. "You'll go to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a great school to be sure, and get swallowed. And that's just the end of that."
As Malveaux sees it, dismissing the importance of HBCUs is "part of this whole post-racial fallacy that a lot of people have embraced, that we have a black president and so being black doesn't matter anymore. Historically black colleges don't matter anymore. It's just not the case." Black colleges, she says, are an important part of our history, history that should not just be thrown away. In the post Civil War era, HBCUs played a vital role in educating former slaves; during slavery, in many states, it was illegal to educate slaves. Says Malveaux, "In North Carolina, the law read: 'to teach a slave to read is to excite dissatisfaction to the detriment of the general population.' Imagine that, that the general population would be threatened by you and me. So when you understand that, you must embrace HBCUs."
Today, many students attending black colleges face unique challenges. Many are the first in their families to attend college. Many of them struggle to pay tuition; one Bennett student, for example, can only afford to attend one semester a year.
And then there's the issue of the nation's public education system, which is failing to graduate students with the requisite skills to succeed. According to Malveaux, the average inner-city student attends school less than the average suburban student. A student attending school in urban school attends fewer than 1,000 hours a year, while on the other side of the country, a student in suburban Houston goes to school 1,300 hours per year, she says, explaining that part of the reason for the disparity from one location to another is budget. The bottom line: Many students come to Bennett not fully prepared for college.
Her mantra: "Bennett is an oasis where we educate and celebrate and develop 21st century leaders and global thinkers." To make good on her credo, the president insists that four areas be given special focus in the college's curriculum: entrepreneurship, leadership, global studies and communications. To inspire the students to imagine greatness for themselves, she regularly invites leaders like Cornell West to speak to the 800-member student body each week at the Academic Cultural Enrichment Series (ACES).
Meanwhile, Bennett professors hold a weekly roundtable discussion. "We come together weekly to talk through ideas and learn from each other," says Tamara Jeffries, a former Essence magazine editor who now teaches magazine writing and editing at the college. On a recent visit to the campus, The Root sat in on one discussion where a dozen students and several professors gathered to talk about making print magazines in this age of the Internet. (Bennett has its own monthly magazine now, called Belle.)
Implementing college-wide change requires money. As chief fundraiser, Malveaux worked with the Department of Education to redesign the college's debt. She also secured a $20 million loan to fund, among other things, five construction projects -- a new academic building, an honors dorm that features suite living, a global learning center, an intergenerational center and the transformation of an old heating plant into a media and communications building. This is the first time that there has been any construction on Bennett's campus in 28 years.
To Julianne Malveaux, all of the politicking, strategizing and negotiating is worth it. "If you know the African-American story, you understand that education has the power to transform lives. That whether or not you've gone to an HBCU or to a predominately white institution, that exposure to education transforms you from what you could have been to who you actually are."
Harriette Cole is the president and creative director of Harriette Cole Media. She is a life stylist, a best-selling author and a nationally syndicated advice columnist. She is a contributing editor to The Root.
November 2, 2010 By Harriette Cole
Contributing editor Harriette Cole visited Bennett College, one of two
HBCUs for women, and found a college president fired up about educating today's young black woman.
Educator Dr. Julianne Malveaux has long been known as a firebrand. Armed with a doctorate in economics from MIT, she's made a career out of interpreting the American economic landscape as it relates to African-American life. (Her latest book is Surviving and Thriving: 365 Facts in Black Economic History.) Three years ago, the economist refocused her lens to become the 15th president of the 137-year-old Bennett College for Women. Moving from the buttoned-up, politically savvy nation's capital to the conservative family town of Greensboro, N.C., she hit the ground running.
In a way, she had to. HBCUs have been under fire for years, often not being able to attract the best students or raise the funds required to finance their basic needs. Indeed, The Wall Street Journal recently published an op-ed criticizing what the editorial writer saw as the deficits of HBCUs, making the case that many should be closed rather than pumped with the additional $850 million that President Obama has earmarked for them over the next 10 years.
Bennett has not been immune to the challenges and sometimes harsh realities facing HBCUs. It was founded in 1873, in the basement of St. Matthews A.M.E. Church by former slaves who had made their way to Greensboro along the Underground Railroad. The school was repurposed to be a college exclusively for women in 1926. While it has consistently been a small campus with the mission of nurturing its students, the college has not always had the funding, nor the organization, it has needed. Former Spelman College president Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole became president of Bennett in 2003 and was considered a savior of sorts, spearheading a campaign to upgrade the financing and academic intentions of the school. She established the Johnnetta B. Cole Global Diversity & Inclusion Institute to expand the college's global awareness.
Even with Cole's efforts during her four-year tenure, Bennett was still in need. Malveaux says that she inherited an $8 million debt, which made it tough for school officials to proceed with much-needed construction projects. The graduation rate is still relatively low; about 38 percent of the student body typically graduates within six years. (The average graduation rate among HBCUs is 32.5 percent, according to a U.S. Department of Education study, compared to a national rate of 55.9 percent.)
Malveaux takes umbrage at the criticism, arguing that comparing HBCUs with traditional colleges is unfair. "If you didn't have historically black colleges, you'd have to invent them," she says. HBCUs, she argues, serve promising underprivileged students that other universities don't. She says that the student body is comprised of a diverse array of students, including those students who could easily gain admittance to the nation's top-tier universities -- among those a candidate for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. But she acknowledges that there are students who will likely only be accepted at HBCUs.
"Which colleges accept young people who come with academic deficiencies?" she asks. "We call our students who come with lower than a 2.4 'emerging scholars.' They're not there yet, but they will get there." For such students, Malveaux explains, the school gives them extra academic attention, from a tutoring center to a summer program to professors who provide intensive, one-on-one attention. "You're not going to get that anywhere else," she says. "You'll go to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a great school to be sure, and get swallowed. And that's just the end of that."
As Malveaux sees it, dismissing the importance of HBCUs is "part of this whole post-racial fallacy that a lot of people have embraced, that we have a black president and so being black doesn't matter anymore. Historically black colleges don't matter anymore. It's just not the case." Black colleges, she says, are an important part of our history, history that should not just be thrown away. In the post Civil War era, HBCUs played a vital role in educating former slaves; during slavery, in many states, it was illegal to educate slaves. Says Malveaux, "In North Carolina, the law read: 'to teach a slave to read is to excite dissatisfaction to the detriment of the general population.' Imagine that, that the general population would be threatened by you and me. So when you understand that, you must embrace HBCUs."
Today, many students attending black colleges face unique challenges. Many are the first in their families to attend college. Many of them struggle to pay tuition; one Bennett student, for example, can only afford to attend one semester a year.
And then there's the issue of the nation's public education system, which is failing to graduate students with the requisite skills to succeed. According to Malveaux, the average inner-city student attends school less than the average suburban student. A student attending school in urban school attends fewer than 1,000 hours a year, while on the other side of the country, a student in suburban Houston goes to school 1,300 hours per year, she says, explaining that part of the reason for the disparity from one location to another is budget. The bottom line: Many students come to Bennett not fully prepared for college.
Her mantra: "Bennett is an oasis where we educate and celebrate and develop 21st century leaders and global thinkers." To make good on her credo, the president insists that four areas be given special focus in the college's curriculum: entrepreneurship, leadership, global studies and communications. To inspire the students to imagine greatness for themselves, she regularly invites leaders like Cornell West to speak to the 800-member student body each week at the Academic Cultural Enrichment Series (ACES).
Meanwhile, Bennett professors hold a weekly roundtable discussion. "We come together weekly to talk through ideas and learn from each other," says Tamara Jeffries, a former Essence magazine editor who now teaches magazine writing and editing at the college. On a recent visit to the campus, The Root sat in on one discussion where a dozen students and several professors gathered to talk about making print magazines in this age of the Internet. (Bennett has its own monthly magazine now, called Belle.)
Implementing college-wide change requires money. As chief fundraiser, Malveaux worked with the Department of Education to redesign the college's debt. She also secured a $20 million loan to fund, among other things, five construction projects -- a new academic building, an honors dorm that features suite living, a global learning center, an intergenerational center and the transformation of an old heating plant into a media and communications building. This is the first time that there has been any construction on Bennett's campus in 28 years.
To Julianne Malveaux, all of the politicking, strategizing and negotiating is worth it. "If you know the African-American story, you understand that education has the power to transform lives. That whether or not you've gone to an HBCU or to a predominately white institution, that exposure to education transforms you from what you could have been to who you actually are."
Harriette Cole is the president and creative director of Harriette Cole Media. She is a life stylist, a best-selling author and a nationally syndicated advice columnist. She is a contributing editor to The Root.
The Chronicle of Higher Education:Technologies for Teaching: Strategies and Pitfalls
The Chronicle of Higher Education
October 31, 2010
Technologies for Teaching: Strategies and Pitfalls
http://chronicle.com/article/Technologies-for-Teaching/125109/
By Julie Meloni October 31, 2010
It isn't a stretch to say that the definitions of "teaching online" and "teaching with technology" vary across colleges and departments, even from instructor to instructor.
I've learned firsthand that "teaching with technology" can mean using PowerPoint in a lecture, or the distribution of course materials via e-mail, or customized course blogs enabling user-generated content, or the integration of wikified student-edited syllabi.
Similarly, "teaching online" may mean an experience in which the instructor and students communicate from disparate locations solely through a learning-management system such Blackboard or Moodle, or it may mean a course in which the bulk of the content is delivered online but the instructor and students occasionally meet face to face, or it may mean a regular face-to-face classroom experience supplemented by online discussion and accessible writing such as in student blogs.
Whatever the level of technology, and regardless of our comfort level with it, remember that for all that educational technology can offer us through new communication methods and the ability to reach a wider range of students, it is no panacea. An instructor must still deliver relevant material, enable students to achieve the goals of the course, and assess their work. Students must still learn the material, use assignments and discussion opportunities to achieve the course goals, and, ultimately, produce work to be assessed. In this article, I discuss some tools and processes that can help instructors leverage their own pedagogical and content expertise when bringing technology into the classroom or managing a classroom that exists entirely in a virtual space.
Before planning a course that will involve technology—be it entirely online or a hybrid model—we would be wise to heed the words of Karl Stolley, an assistant professor of technical communication at the Illinois Institute of Technology. During the 2009 Computers & Writing Conference, Mr. Stolley took issue with the seemingly innocuous question, "How can I use x, y, or z technology in the classroom?" When the question lacks a final clause, such as "to enhance student engagement" or "to offer opportunities for critical analysis," it becomes "a solution looking for a problem," he argued. And I agree.
So let's look at a few problems and possible technological solutions:
Communication. Many classroom problems fall under the umbrella of "communication," broadly defined. When we teach in the physical classroom, our primary mode of communication is synchronous—we are in the same place with our students, at the same time. But if we teach entirely or partially online, we have the opportunity to employ synchronous models at a distance—same time, different place—or asynchronous models—different time, different place.
If you use the "same time, different place" model, you may encounter such barriers as cost and bandwidth—not only on your end, as the individual instructor or the institution, but also on the students' end. This is especially true with conferencing systems: Web-based videoconferencing requires equipment to receive as well as to deliver. Although the benefits of real-time videoconferencing are clear—it's as near to a physical classroom environment as online education can get—the software, hardware, and bandwidth necessary on both sides can be more cost-prohibitive than actually physically attending a class.
Some learning-management systems have integrated synchronous tools with-in the delivery platform, such as Blackboard's integrated chat and whiteboard features. Although there are still software, hardware, and bandwidth requirements for those tools, the requirements are not as cost-prohibitive as those required for videoconferencing and can be used equally effectively.
•Discussion boards. A core feature of most learning-management systems, and freely available outside such systems (many people use Google Groups), a well-managed discussion board can produce rich conversations.
Do not assume that discussion boards are useful only in the all-online classroom; a discussion board attached to a class that meets face to face can provide opportunities for you to clarify or enhance content discussed, and for expressions of knowledge by students who are perhaps too shy to speak in class (or who, like myself, need to think about their answers before blurting something out).
•Blogs. Speaking of providing additional opportunities for students to exercise their voices, individual blogs are my favorite. Not only do the students discuss content with one another and the instructor, but they learn to write for a wider audience. Blogs aren't just for students: I use a general course blog (to which my students' blogs are linked) to provide wrap-ups after each face-to-face class. This serves both as a teaching journal for me and as a way for students to ask additional questions after our face-to-face time is over.
•Social-networking sites. Facebook and Twitter can play important roles in your asynchronous communications strategy, in both online and hybrid classrooms. Facebook pages can provide up-to-date information about the course, while Twitter and Twitter lists can be useful sites of asynchronous discussion.
•E-mail and e-mail lists: Some people consider electronic mailing lists to be quaint relics of a previous technological age, but it's hard to argue with the fact that they still work. An e-mail-based discussion list provides the ability to carry on threaded discussions in a private environment, yet outside the confines of a managed system. In fact, Google Groups is a threaded discussion board that can also take place via e-mail, putting a different twist on the typical concept of the e-mail list.
Each of those four tools can be used in any online or hybrid classroom model. But regardless of which tools you use, be sure your communication plan is clear to your students. Online communication has rules, just like face-to-face communication does.
Don't throw a lot of different tools at your students all at once (unless it is a class specifically about tools). Remember that you will be the students' first point of contact after their initial foray into the technology, so you should require only as much technology as the course goals justify, and be sure you can support it. Set guidelines as well as expectations, and use only those tools that you have evaluated and that clearly enhance teaching and learning. Again, avoid using technology just for the sake of using technology, tempting though it may be to turn everything over to the machine.
Managing course content. Here are a few important tools for managing, sharing, and backing up your course content—or any documents, in fact. Consider using cloud-based storage systems, in which your data are stored by third-party vendors. One such provider is Dropbox, but there are other cloud-storage vendors you could use as a backup-and-retrieval mechanism. For example, while you might have course presentations stored within a learning-management system and perhaps on your own course Web site, if Blackboard or your Web-hosting provider goes down, where would your students turn? How long would it take you to recreate those systems? If your documents were also stored in a public folder in your cloud-storage account, anyone could access them from any device (including mobile devices), and you would have a backup ready to transfer to another system.
Additionally, reference-management tools such as Zotero and Mendeley allow you to store, manage, and annotate class resources, and to publish these collections as either public or private groups. So, whether you teach entirely online or have simply brought elements of technology into the physical classroom, your students could gain access to these curated collections perhaps more easily than they would if working through a potentially labyrinthine library system (if your university even subscribes to the resources they need).
Collaborating. One of the greatest technologies of all is completely independent of your classroom location. The technology of collaboration is free, with few bandwidth requirements and a low barrier to entry. And the potential payoff is great.
One of the benefits of presenting course material online—on a publicly accessible Web site or blog, rather than within a restricted learning-management system—is that instructors at other institutions can get a sense of what you teach, how you teach it, and how students are engaging with the material (if they are writing public blogs). Such sharing is invaluable, especially for graduate students and junior scholars seeking guidance as they plan their own courses, as well as for any scholars looking for new approaches. Sometimes the free exchange of ideas invites more-formal collaboration in the form of conference-panel invitations or ideas for co-authored papers—both of which have come my way simply because someone in my field happened to see a syllabus I had put online.
Another type of collaboration involves students. The public nature of blogs allows for communication among students at different institutions, or among peers at their own. To cite an example from my own course experience: At the University of Victoria, American-literature students have discussed issues of slavery and abolition with another instructor's Victorian-literature class. The opportunities for collaboration are endless, but begin with exposing course materials online.
Finally, although you are the content expert, there are very likely others at your institution who have completed training and conduct scholarly work in fields, such as information technology, library science, and educational technology, that relate to and can enhance your own. They can help you evaluate and use tools and technologies in your online or face-to-face classrooms, and you can then pass that knowledge on to your colleagues.
Perhaps one day these technologies will become the panacea that some hope.
Julie Meloni is a postdoctoral fellow in information management and digital humanities with the INKE Research Group at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, and a former managing editor of ProfHacker.
October 31, 2010
Technologies for Teaching: Strategies and Pitfalls
http://chronicle.com/article/Technologies-for-Teaching/125109/
By Julie Meloni October 31, 2010
It isn't a stretch to say that the definitions of "teaching online" and "teaching with technology" vary across colleges and departments, even from instructor to instructor.
I've learned firsthand that "teaching with technology" can mean using PowerPoint in a lecture, or the distribution of course materials via e-mail, or customized course blogs enabling user-generated content, or the integration of wikified student-edited syllabi.
Similarly, "teaching online" may mean an experience in which the instructor and students communicate from disparate locations solely through a learning-management system such Blackboard or Moodle, or it may mean a course in which the bulk of the content is delivered online but the instructor and students occasionally meet face to face, or it may mean a regular face-to-face classroom experience supplemented by online discussion and accessible writing such as in student blogs.
Whatever the level of technology, and regardless of our comfort level with it, remember that for all that educational technology can offer us through new communication methods and the ability to reach a wider range of students, it is no panacea. An instructor must still deliver relevant material, enable students to achieve the goals of the course, and assess their work. Students must still learn the material, use assignments and discussion opportunities to achieve the course goals, and, ultimately, produce work to be assessed. In this article, I discuss some tools and processes that can help instructors leverage their own pedagogical and content expertise when bringing technology into the classroom or managing a classroom that exists entirely in a virtual space.
Before planning a course that will involve technology—be it entirely online or a hybrid model—we would be wise to heed the words of Karl Stolley, an assistant professor of technical communication at the Illinois Institute of Technology. During the 2009 Computers & Writing Conference, Mr. Stolley took issue with the seemingly innocuous question, "How can I use x, y, or z technology in the classroom?" When the question lacks a final clause, such as "to enhance student engagement" or "to offer opportunities for critical analysis," it becomes "a solution looking for a problem," he argued. And I agree.
So let's look at a few problems and possible technological solutions:
Communication. Many classroom problems fall under the umbrella of "communication," broadly defined. When we teach in the physical classroom, our primary mode of communication is synchronous—we are in the same place with our students, at the same time. But if we teach entirely or partially online, we have the opportunity to employ synchronous models at a distance—same time, different place—or asynchronous models—different time, different place.
If you use the "same time, different place" model, you may encounter such barriers as cost and bandwidth—not only on your end, as the individual instructor or the institution, but also on the students' end. This is especially true with conferencing systems: Web-based videoconferencing requires equipment to receive as well as to deliver. Although the benefits of real-time videoconferencing are clear—it's as near to a physical classroom environment as online education can get—the software, hardware, and bandwidth necessary on both sides can be more cost-prohibitive than actually physically attending a class.
Some learning-management systems have integrated synchronous tools with-in the delivery platform, such as Blackboard's integrated chat and whiteboard features. Although there are still software, hardware, and bandwidth requirements for those tools, the requirements are not as cost-prohibitive as those required for videoconferencing and can be used equally effectively.
•Discussion boards. A core feature of most learning-management systems, and freely available outside such systems (many people use Google Groups), a well-managed discussion board can produce rich conversations.
Do not assume that discussion boards are useful only in the all-online classroom; a discussion board attached to a class that meets face to face can provide opportunities for you to clarify or enhance content discussed, and for expressions of knowledge by students who are perhaps too shy to speak in class (or who, like myself, need to think about their answers before blurting something out).
•Blogs. Speaking of providing additional opportunities for students to exercise their voices, individual blogs are my favorite. Not only do the students discuss content with one another and the instructor, but they learn to write for a wider audience. Blogs aren't just for students: I use a general course blog (to which my students' blogs are linked) to provide wrap-ups after each face-to-face class. This serves both as a teaching journal for me and as a way for students to ask additional questions after our face-to-face time is over.
•Social-networking sites. Facebook and Twitter can play important roles in your asynchronous communications strategy, in both online and hybrid classrooms. Facebook pages can provide up-to-date information about the course, while Twitter and Twitter lists can be useful sites of asynchronous discussion.
•E-mail and e-mail lists: Some people consider electronic mailing lists to be quaint relics of a previous technological age, but it's hard to argue with the fact that they still work. An e-mail-based discussion list provides the ability to carry on threaded discussions in a private environment, yet outside the confines of a managed system. In fact, Google Groups is a threaded discussion board that can also take place via e-mail, putting a different twist on the typical concept of the e-mail list.
Each of those four tools can be used in any online or hybrid classroom model. But regardless of which tools you use, be sure your communication plan is clear to your students. Online communication has rules, just like face-to-face communication does.
Don't throw a lot of different tools at your students all at once (unless it is a class specifically about tools). Remember that you will be the students' first point of contact after their initial foray into the technology, so you should require only as much technology as the course goals justify, and be sure you can support it. Set guidelines as well as expectations, and use only those tools that you have evaluated and that clearly enhance teaching and learning. Again, avoid using technology just for the sake of using technology, tempting though it may be to turn everything over to the machine.
Managing course content. Here are a few important tools for managing, sharing, and backing up your course content—or any documents, in fact. Consider using cloud-based storage systems, in which your data are stored by third-party vendors. One such provider is Dropbox, but there are other cloud-storage vendors you could use as a backup-and-retrieval mechanism. For example, while you might have course presentations stored within a learning-management system and perhaps on your own course Web site, if Blackboard or your Web-hosting provider goes down, where would your students turn? How long would it take you to recreate those systems? If your documents were also stored in a public folder in your cloud-storage account, anyone could access them from any device (including mobile devices), and you would have a backup ready to transfer to another system.
Additionally, reference-management tools such as Zotero and Mendeley allow you to store, manage, and annotate class resources, and to publish these collections as either public or private groups. So, whether you teach entirely online or have simply brought elements of technology into the physical classroom, your students could gain access to these curated collections perhaps more easily than they would if working through a potentially labyrinthine library system (if your university even subscribes to the resources they need).
Collaborating. One of the greatest technologies of all is completely independent of your classroom location. The technology of collaboration is free, with few bandwidth requirements and a low barrier to entry. And the potential payoff is great.
One of the benefits of presenting course material online—on a publicly accessible Web site or blog, rather than within a restricted learning-management system—is that instructors at other institutions can get a sense of what you teach, how you teach it, and how students are engaging with the material (if they are writing public blogs). Such sharing is invaluable, especially for graduate students and junior scholars seeking guidance as they plan their own courses, as well as for any scholars looking for new approaches. Sometimes the free exchange of ideas invites more-formal collaboration in the form of conference-panel invitations or ideas for co-authored papers—both of which have come my way simply because someone in my field happened to see a syllabus I had put online.
Another type of collaboration involves students. The public nature of blogs allows for communication among students at different institutions, or among peers at their own. To cite an example from my own course experience: At the University of Victoria, American-literature students have discussed issues of slavery and abolition with another instructor's Victorian-literature class. The opportunities for collaboration are endless, but begin with exposing course materials online.
Finally, although you are the content expert, there are very likely others at your institution who have completed training and conduct scholarly work in fields, such as information technology, library science, and educational technology, that relate to and can enhance your own. They can help you evaluate and use tools and technologies in your online or face-to-face classrooms, and you can then pass that knowledge on to your colleagues.
Perhaps one day these technologies will become the panacea that some hope.
Julie Meloni is a postdoctoral fellow in information management and digital humanities with the INKE Research Group at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, and a former managing editor of ProfHacker.
New Orleans Book Fair November 6, 2010 11am-6pm 500 to 600 Frenchmen
http://www.nolabookfair.com/index.html
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