Above is the archive of a webinar I recently presented for VoiceThread. In the webinar I shared results of a semester-long teaching experiment that resulted in increasing the percentage of voluntary student voice or video comments from 25% to 75%. I also share student feedback results that demonstrate how learning out loud in an online class improved the students' perception of how well they understood of the material, improved their verbal skills, kept them motivated, and made them feel more connected to their peers and instructor.
I just read a great article titled "The Real Challenge for Higher Education" by Garrison Walters that thoughtfully considers why America, once the most educated nation on earth, now ranks 11th in overall education levels when we focus on our younger student higher ed demographics (the article notes that the US is still second when focusing on our population overall).
While typically the reasons for the declining college graduation rates are excavated from the inner workings of institutions (professor motivation, learning methods, assessment, administration) and within our governmental structures (particularly funding), Garrison takes a different look at the problem and reveals a very important discussion. According to his argument, Americans lack a "pervasive education culture" which lays a context for an overall undervaluing of the linkage between economic and personal success and the attainment of a college degree. While I certainly don't want to suggest that we should, in any way, lose or focus on the dialogue around institutional and governmental reform around higher education, I think he has a worthy argument here that is relevant to every single one of us.
Try his experiment yourself. Ask a young college student why s/he is enrolled. How many respond, "I'm here because my parents made me enroll," or "I enrolled because my girlfriend did." I recall hearing some of those viewpoints while teaching at a community college ... but is that a new phenomenon? That's difficult to say.
Now spend some time thinking about how the social context in which a young person is raised informs his/her values. That thought really concerns me when I reflect on Garrison's argument. I have done some writing and presenting on generational differences in recent years and this has caused me to think about my own upbringing and how the events around me informed my viewpoints and overall values. My father, first of all, was the first of his family of 15 children to leave his hometown and travel across the country from New Jersey to the golden state of California to attain a college education. His gateway? Porterville Community College -- where college was free and open to all. That story, I believe, ingrained the importance of college inside me from an early age. I attended public K-12 schools and remember hearing some dialogue between my parents about budget cuts. My elementary school was closed and torn down to build great big houses. But, overall, I don't remember feeling affected by budget cuts until college when I had to battle to get a seat in classes. And then I'd often struggle understand what the point of each lecture was. I always gravitated towards the visual discipline of art and art history and I often think this is partially due to the challenges I felt trying to learn in a fully auditory lecture environment. I found my passion in life through college, particularly graduate school which provided me with my first opportunity to step in front of students. I'll never forget the fire that I felt inside of me that day.
Now as I watch my two young boys grow up in public schools in California, I often think about how the context of their educational experiences is informing their values of education. We talk frequently about college and ponder the opportunity of exploring their dreams in life. I don't focus a lot on the notion of "college = more money" which is the measurement too frequently used to define the value of a college degree. I want them to be motivated by their passion to learn and explore, rather than achieve a good income. That's part of our problem, as a country, I believe.
The other concern I have is more real to young students, as the effects are seen around them on a daily basis and they feel them more deeply. My boys' classroom teacher-to-student ratio has increased in the last year from 1:22 to 1:30, as a result of budget cuts. And they're in elementary school. This ratio is in place in kindergarten too. The classrooms are tight, hot, and kids are virtually on top of each other. Teachers spend more time than ever on discipline and class management and less time on learning; although they're held to meeting the exact same standards. A friend who teaches described her experience as "like playing 'Whack a Mole.'" How does that demonstrate and foster a value for learning in our young students?
This year my kids lost their computer lab assistant, library aid, and they're having an extra week of instruction cut out of the school year to avoid teacher layoffs. Each family has been asked to contribute hundreds of dollars to help the school respond to the deficit. Now I ask, "What kind of messages are these actions sending to our youngsters about our nation's value of education?" Clearly, children don't understand the big picture of how budgetary systems work. They see what's happening at their school and they these changes to one simple message: "school is not important."
Another huge contribution to youngster's valuing of education is media, also cited by Garrison. Any child who watches television today is exposed to a nauseating extreme to "the dream of being a celebrity." Disney Channel is an extreme example and one that parents still, too frequently, fall back on as "safe" due to the mythical idealism that Baby Boomers and Gen Xers associate with Disney. The Disney Channel offering youngsters the "choice" to watch Hannah Montana live the "Best of Both Worlds" (a story about a teenage girl living on the beach in Malibu who dawns a blonde wig and night and lives a secret life as a rock star), The Suite Life of Zack and Cody (rich kids who used to live in a hotel and now live on a cruise ship), Sunny With a Chance (teenage girl who has left her family for a the chance of her life to star in a tv show in Hollywood, featuring comical scenes of classroom learning "between takes" when she can fit it in), and iCarly (a teenager with her own webcast and national following). And let us not ignore the lack of diversity in the lead characters and perpetuation of gender stereotypes that are fostered through the viewing of these shows.
These media fiascos cultivate dreams and values within our children. They teach our children that "success" is tied to fame, rather than learning and exploring the vast possibilities that await them in a college education. And these media messages carry directly over to overly commercialized music, as well. The Pussycat Dolls' (whose recent tour was titled "Doll Domination) "When I grow up" rants:
When I grow up
I wanna be famous
I wanna be a star
I wanna be in movies
When I grow up
I wanna see the world
Drive nice cars
I wanna have groupies
When I grow up
Be on TV
People know me
Be on magazines
When I grow up
Fresh and clean
Number one chick when I step out on the scene
And don't even get me started on their "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" which, by the way, is featured on a recent Kids Bop album sung by young girls and has also been played at my childrens' school during recess (I know this because my seven year old came home singing the lyrics). Is this our vision of role models for young girls? Is this our vision for how we want women to be valued? Today the majority of the college population is female (many of whom struggle with body image issues and eating disorders -- hmmm, wonder why). What's on the horizon for our next generation?
As you read the words on this screen, begin to shape an awareness of the role you play in fostering an education culture; you need to voice support for higher education across the board and effectively navigate our youth away from countless hours watching these media "heroes" while teaching them to actively deconstruct the messages they convey at the same time (an outcome of integrating "visual literacy" as a core 21st century skill).
We all need to crystal clear that America's success in this global, information society is contingent upon an educated population of individuals of different genders, races, and ethnicities who can think critically, offer innovative solutions to complex problems, present ideas orally and in writing, collaborate in diverse groups and demonstrate a sensitivity of cultural differences. This is fundamental to the success, both personal and economic, of our children as they emerge into adults, as well as our country. As Garrison notes,
"[F]ew among our political leaders appear to be thinking about education as a K to graduate system, and far too few appreciate the changing levels of knowledge needed to function effectively in today’s society. Once, Americans thought everyone should have around a fourth grade education, then the line gradually moved up to the eighth grade and finally to the end of high school. But the line of minimum necessity has long since crossed into higher education; now, if all you have is a high school diploma, you’re a knowledge economy dropout."
Honestly, to me, it seems that contributing to an adjustment of our culture's values of education is the one thread in this complexly interwoven ball of tangled hair that we all can directly affect starting right now.
IBM's Institute for Business Value recently surveyed 1,500 chief executives to understand what the most highly sought after business skills are today. #1? Creativity.
Creativity has always been a driving force in innovation and innovation stirs disruption. As business leaders continue to become more thirsty to find ways to set their business models and products apart from their competition, they need creative thinkers who can bring fresh, new ideas to the table.
While leadership in the private sector has clearly identified creativity as an essential business skill, has the same occurred within education? Are our schools, colleges and universities clearly seeking evidence of innovation in our new leaders?
Moreover, while we, as educators, continue to focus on how to best meet the learning needs of today's Millennial students, this survey is more evidence that we need to also be reinventing the overarching objectives of education in general.
"How does the class you teach contribute to fostering creativity in your students?"
Last September 2009, while still employed at CSU East Bay as their Director of Online and Hybrid Support Center, I had the awesome opportunity to share my teaching innovations through a webinar hosted by the Educause Learning Initiative. The archive of the 60-minute presentation, titled Teaching Without Walls: Life Beyond the Lecture (which soon thereafter became the name of my consulting business), is now public and I invite you to watch and listen and share it with your colleagues.
The presentation is an overview of a semester-long teaching experiment in which I removed all lectures from my community college History of Women in Art class. The passive lecture content was pre-recorded as audio/visual podcasts (or enhanced podcasts) and shared through a link in Blackboard along with an illustrated text-transcript of the lecture; providing students with a choice in how they would access the lecture content. After completing the lectures online, my students engaged in interactive online VoiceThread discussions and learning activities, in which they applied lecture concepts in an effort to begin to reach the unit's learning objectives. After completing the pre-class assignments, students came to class where we spent all of our time actively engaged in discussion, analysis, and debate about the unit's content. Randomly, students were also given "active learning assignments," for example, "Go to the mall and critically observe your visual surroundings. Analyze the actions and signs that contribute to the social enforcement of the "male gaze." Share your experiences in class and evaluate whether or not our society constructs a passive experience for women, situating them as objects of the male gaze. Is this an extension or break from the effects of western culture's history of art?"
The shift in my course design and pedagogy was strongly influenced by the research I had done about Millennial students. I wanted to explore the success of this type of learning environment, in an effort to fundamentally question the effectiveness of passive lectures and active classroom time in the construction of critical thinking, visual literacy skills, as well as the success of crafting personalized, relevant learning experiences for 21st century students.
The end of the archive reveals compelling student survey feedback. I hope you enjoy it and learn from it! Please share your thoughts if you take the time to watch!
The ELI website also shares a link to an audio recording of my speaking with three of my students at the end of the semester. Their dynamic voices are still some of the most compelling reasons for shifting our pedagogy and design of IN-CLASS learning experiences, in my opinion.
Just came across the superb presentation on SlideShare by Maria Puzzifero, CSU Global Campus, and Kaye Shelton, of Dallas Baptist University. I quickly marked it as a favorite, shared it on Twitter and I'm encouraging a contemplative review of the ideas here too.
The content shared here is of extreme relevance to all of higher education today and situates education today within an extreme paradigm shift, the pedagogical demands of which online learning is poised to meet. I'm elated to see such a timely conversation focused specifically on online teaching and learning, when so many of my day-to-day conversations and reflections seem to be pertaining to managing class size increases in the wake of more detrimental budget cuts.
I have always believed that if learning is truly valued as the outcome of an educational experience, then pedagogy will be the driver that determines the tools we use to deliver our courses, the number of students in a class, the questions we ask as we design the environment in which our students learn. The presentation shared here is clearly situated within the context of the learning needs of 21st century citizens. Unfortunately, the realities of college professors today reveal a different story.
For years I've been part of the anti-Powerpoint movement -- the group of individuals painfully opposed to educators who presumably "teach" with their entire lecture written on their slides, transforming their physical existence into a mere auditory translation of the text for the bored-out-of-their-mind students. I've considered the importance of teaching the "art" of designing effective presentations but today, I think I stumbled upon the answer.
Web 2.0 does it again -- another beautifully integrated, easy to use tool that turns the concept of a presentation inside out by focusing on key words and visuals spread out over a continuous two dimensional canvas, using hierarchy and zoom to convey importance. Now I can't help but draw the lovely metaphor between an artist's toolkit and the Prezi interface, as we embrace our new methods of creating in the 21st century (as an art history I rejoice in seeing the arts influence business innovations processes so inherently).
Here is a simple demo of Prezi so you can get the idea then you can take a trip over to the Prezi showcase to view lots more samples (many which are simply mimicking the Powerpoint interface, you'll catch on to them after awhile).
I also rejoice in a move towards a visually-centric content creation tool. This makes all the difference. Moving away from an interface that requires a user to click through pages or slides is a huge leap for the western user ... bravo Prezi! I have felt constrained and challenged as an art historian, and I've been very vocal about this in presentations I've given in recent years, as I've attempted to craft learning activities for my students to effectively achieve objectives focused on visual learning. But how does one have students engage, critique, analyze and study an image in a text-centric learning management system (like Blackboard)? That has been my biggest challenge as an online educator and that was specifically why I began to migrate outside of Blackboard and started to dabble with web 2.0 tools (like VoiceThread and Ning).
So, check out Prezi. It's quite amazing. Hmmm. Prezi training for educators and students-generated Prezi projects? Sounds like a turning point! And for those of you who are eager to ask the question, yes, Prezi offers subscription options that give you the ability to keep your content private. There is also an option for a "Public License" for students and teachers which I wasn't able to get more details about, as I am not currently teaching right now (unless somebody wants to hire me?? Grin.).
To learn more about Prezi, visit the Learning Center which provides many beautifully done, easy-to-follow video tutorials.
I have a nine year old son who attends public school in the "heart" of Silicon Valley. His learning has no technology infused into it. He repeatedly complains about how boring his classes are and has asked me over and over again, "Why can't my teachers use VoiceThread or podcasts like you do?" It breaks my heart. He sits with his photocopied homework sheets in front of him asking me, "What is THIS teaching me, mommy?" When he's done, he requests permission and then runs to the computer to read about the newest Bakugan news posted to blogs and shared through the YouTube community.
One day, he came home completely energized and ran over to share with me that his teacher had showed his class a video to teach them how to learn math. I said, "Wow, that's great." But then his head lowered and he said, "Yeah, but all 30 of us had to crowd around her little, tiny laptop screen to see it" (because his school's classrooms do not have LCD projectors to share digital content with students). (And, yes, the new class size in California is 30 students, thanks to our horrific rounds of state budget cuts to K-12 education.)
There are two critical issues that need to be identified here:
1) Teachers need to inspired, encouraged, motivated and supported to cultivate learning environments with digital technologies and
2) classrooms need to be equipped for 21st century learning (including appropriate firewall security to allow for global communications)
This video captures these messages beautifully. If you believe in the importance of this message, please copy the url of this video and forward it to your network to express your message. Thanks to Barry Brown for sending it to me!
I Need My Teachers to Learn 3.0
Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CIh7FWv4UA
I Need My Teachers To Learn was Written and Performed by Kevin Honeycutt and produced by Charlie Mahoney (who also played percussion, bass, and Piano). This has gone through many incarnations, but after hooking up some good mics and recording equipment, I think we have a keeper. This recording includes background vocals from the Turning Point Learning Center Choir, which is composed of our virtual and face-2-face students.
While I do believe effective learning can come in a variety of formats, I also believe we've moved well beyond the lifespan of the lecture as a viable option in the 21st century. But what does 21st century learning look like? How could a student engage blogs, social bookmarking, social networking, podcasting and other forms of RSS as a path towards learning?
This question is so complex and ruffles the very foundations of traditional teaching approaches that most educators shun it and, instead, continue to teach the way they've always taught. Except for Wendy Drexler who, apparently, had her students illustrate what "Networked Learning" looks like. Quite a success, I'd say. What I appreciate most, perhaps, is the end of video that also defines the role of the "21st century teacher." This video also presents a beautiful visual model for connectivism, a pedagogy I've been mostly familiar with in the discourse of online education. Of course, the inclusivity of considering connectivism as a pedagogy for all learning environments is especially delightful in the spirit of innovation.
Thank you to Diana Wakimoto for her innovative spirit and for sharing this great video with me.
Sounds odd, doesn't it? Encouraging mistakes is a paradigm shift for a society who raises children in a context in which he who earns the highest percentage of correct scores or reaches the finish line the quickest is the one who is rewarded and praised.
However, what must be realized is a person who is raised to fear mistakes will not take risks. And a society void of risk takers is a society void of innovation. As we sit here ready to plunge into the second decade of the 21st century, we all should now be cognizant of the critical importance of innovation across all spectrums of our society -- this includes teaching and learning. We need change agents, we need out-of-the-box thinkers, we need creative minds. We need to foster a generation of risk takers and I believe we, as educators, need to be weaving risk-taking into our pedagogy to model it to our students. Risk-taking is teaching creativity. It's teaching entrepreneurial thinking. It's teaching 21st century skills. It's what we need to be doing every day in our classroooms. And it's ok to make mistakes -- we should be striving to make mistakes because without them we aren't learning how to transform our existing models of learning.
Joshua Kim has offered a wonderfully insightful and some would still say "brave" excerpt of a sociology teaching experiment that required risk taking on his blog. In the end, his experiment resulted in some successes as well as some failures. What was his experiment? Instead of requiring his students to complete research papers, the traditional outcome of a higher education experience, he offered his students the experience of working with multimedia to create "voice-over lectures and video mashups" (with Jing and iMovie) that would be placed publicly online through YouTube. Check out his students' impressive work!
The success? As Kim notes, "We created a warm and supportive learning environment. The students did great work. I think we covered the foundations of the sociology, and maybe got some people excited (and prepared) to take more courses." The failures? The technologies implemented for creating the project took a long time to master (not everyone enters a sociology class with video editing skills) which limited the amount of time the students had to engage more thoroughly with the curriculum.
I have, personally, reflected on this challenge myself as I have thought through the potential of encouraging faculty to integrate movie-based projects into learning. My suggestion to Kim (and one that I left in a comment to his blog post) would be to check out Animoto, and easy way to create videos with voiceover from still images. The resulting productive doesn't use video but it creates a high quality video with amazingly cool transitions set to music. Animoto even incorporates the ability to use voiceover and text-only slides. The training time is minimal and (here's the best part), it's all web-based (students can do it from home with an internet connection) and they offer free accounts to educators!
Cheers to Kim and his efforts. Do you have examples of risk taking to share from your classroom? Take a risk today and applaud yourself or a colleague for making a mistake. Start a paradigm shift. Be a change agent.
I'm very excited to be attending the 14th Annual Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning in Orlando from November 5-7, 2008. I have been honored with the request to participate in the pre-conference workshop on November 5th titled "Ask the Experts." This will be a panel event with presentations from last year's awards winners. My presentation will be 15-minutes in length.
I have been having a tough time framing my presentation. I want the presentation to be dynamic and convey a clear essence of what makes my online classes unique and worthy of last year's Excellence in Online Teaching Award. So, it occurred to me that I should pause and "ask the experts" directly. So, yesterday I sent out an email to all 105 of my current online students, the true experts, asking them to kindly reply with a brief description of what makes my class special or unique from other online classes. It's always interesting to ask for open-ended feedback from students like this. I learn so much.
So far I've received many responses. Common favorite aspects of my classes include VoiceThreads because "they make me feel like I'm really in a classroom" and for the web cam introductions and feedback I provide for my students. Seeing me speak to them promotes my presence in their learning experience which encourages them to participate and stay connected. Others note the benefits of hearing my voice through my audio announcements and podcasts. Students also appreciate having the option to read my lectures or listen to them or do both: "I can read and listen (which helps me learn the best)."
Ning is also a big hit this semester. I have created a Ning community for my Art Appreciation students to interact in (with required blog posts). One student shared, "the whole Ning approach is really fun and a good way of getting us to interact moreso than with any of my other 5 online classes I've taken/am taking. It makes the class feel more together, not as detached, yet a fun way of doing assignments opposed to discussion boards or just homework assignments." Also, "Ning has really helped me grasp the other students personalities." Ning seems to be a natural community builder and, personally, I love that it's closed to just those students who I invite. Much more secure than using Blogger, as I previously did for my students' blogs.
Much of this feedback is common to the results of recent surveys I have deployed and hearing the feedback is so important because it reassures me that I'm on the right track. But my reason for sharing this is because many students have also simply commented on some things that can't be conveyed through technology. Here are a few excerpts:
"You care very much about the subject and your students and learning. You like to teach and share the knowledge."
"You teach in a way that makes us think, that makes us view our environment differently and therefore also think about things differently."
"The online tests are easy to understand how they work and is on materials we study...not trick questions."
"You explain things clearly and thoroughly. Your assignments are consistent and easy to follow. Your interaction is top notch..."
"...[I]t is your personal touch and enthusiasm that make the class so engaging and thus, effective."
Students' perceptions and overall impressions about their experiences are so important for instructor tap into. They've given me a fresh perspective on my class and I look forward to using their insights to frame my presentation.
In a post I made last week, I shared a story about my seven year-old son who, upon his startling realization I grew up without the internet, he asked, "But Mommy, how did you know anything?" This question has really got me thinking this summer. I have been spending 30-minutes a day on the treadmill, an activity that I usually find mind dulling. But things are different now. Now I have my friendly iPod shuffle that I have filled with stimulating podcast episodes from educators like David Warwick and Wesley Fryer. Just yesterday, I had the opportunity to listen to a keynote speech by Kevin Honeycutt given at the Trends, Tools and Tactics for 21st century learning, held in Wichita the week prior, when I was actually on vacation in Chicago. (Does it get better than this?!) The amount that I’ve learned and the degree to which I’ve been creatively inspired by these educational innovators through their podcasts is truly difficult for me to put into words. But I’m going to try.
In Kevin’s speech he engaged his audience with a sound that everyone can relate to, the sound of a heartbeat. When I heard that sound through my earbuds, it effected me differently than others, I'd guess. For years I’ve been struggling with a way to inspire my fellow educators to see the power and potential of using technology to enhance our students learning experience. Finally, I feel like I'm onto something. And it was with me all along.
Two and a half years ago, I underwent major heart surgery to replace my aortic valve and a large aneurysm that had quickly formed in my aorta. It was scary. When I was twenty-one I learned about my congenital valve defect that would, as my doctors told me, need to be “replaced” sometime in my forties, according to the general surgical data. At the time of my surgery I was thirty four and had a three and a five year old at home. I was very busy with a full-time community college teaching career, was just getting my arms around what it meant to be an effective online teacher and was Mommy to a three and a five year old. I was moving full force ahead. The next thing I knew, I had a calendar filled with cardiology appointments and medical tests aimed at getting more clarity on the severity of my condition. I heard lots of numbers, “Your aneurysm is measuring 4.8 centimeters.” The next week a more invasive test revealed it to measure 5.2 centimeters. I was told “the marker” for surgery was 5.0 centimeters. Things were moving fast and before long I was on the operating table. My surgeon had selected a shiny new titanium St. Jude valve that was connected to a synthetic aorta, a cutting-edge piece of medical technology that would soon replace my valve and artery tissue and make me a real “bionic woman.”
During this whirlwind experience, I dove into Google with a passion reading about my condition, the surgery I was about to experience and the lasting effects of living with a mechanical valve. I remember learning that the mechanical valve makes an audible tick noise as the blood pumps through it. In all honesty, I blew that off as a non-issue. My focus was on long-term survival.
The morning after my surgery while I lay in intensive care surrounded by my family, I remember hearing it for the first time. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick...a steady, audible sound much like a very old Timex installed in my chest. I looked around the room expecting everyone else to be intently listening but nobody was. It was my tick. I had hopes of the tick getting quieter after my body healed but it never did. Two and have years later, it’s with me incessantly...now as I type, when I’m in meetings, while I’m lecturing, when I’m holding my children, while I lay in bed at night. I’ve had days when the tick has made me want to jump out of my skin. Sometimes it’s more like a bass drum than a tick and sometimes it’s more lick a tap, it changes with my body and my surroundings. Others hear it sometimes but I hear it all the time. I live every moment to the audible beat of my heart.
So, when I listened to Kevin Honeycutt’s keynote presentation and heard that heartbeat, I realized something very important. When I reflect on my surgical experience, the first thing that comes to mind is my unyielding respect and gratitude for the technological advances that have given me an extension on my life. However, as amazing as this medical technology is, it didn’t help me cope with the psychological effects of my condition and the fear of surgery or the need to talk, discuss and feel connected to others who had been through a similar experience and also knew what it felt like to live to the beat of an old Timex. I wanted proof that this thing really could “take a lickin.”
Honeycutt’s heartbeat example reminded me of the community of people, real people with beating hearts, who I found late one sleepless night on Google while I was anticipating my surgery date. I found a website called valvereplacement.com, a virtual community with many active discussion groups filled with women and men of all ages who had either been through a valve replacement surgery or were anticipating one. In the coming days, I connected with a woman in Australia, close to my age with two boys, like me, who shared my condition. We wrote back and forth before my surgery quite a bit and followed up with many messages in the months following which included her own surgery. I met a man who wasn’t as fortunate as I. His aortic aneurysm dissected (this is what killed John Ritter) and he was life flighted with little to no chance for survival. He survived. And he now is a regular monitor and contributor of valvereplacement.com. He provides support and advice for those who come to the site with the need to connect and build relationships with those who share common experiences. They were in this with me. I really felt that way. And that’s just what I needed to help me cope.
The relationships that I built on this social networking site were made possible through technology and a creative idea. Discussion groups gave me the ability to find someone I could relate to at 3am on those restless, sweaty nights during recovery. Those relationships were invaluable to me. Social networking technologies have changed dramatically in the two and a half years since my surgery. Today we have Facebook, MySpace, blogs, Second Life, Twitter, wikis and countless other examples.
These products of web 2.0, the internet’s second edition, transform the web from a tool for disseminating information to a vehicle for users to easily create and share content and connect with other users around the world. These same technologies have allowed me to build relationships with the educators I listen to on my iPod. The power social networking technologies hold for educators is in their ability to foster and enhance relationships and facilitate the sharing of personal stories and reflections. We all know the characteristics of “great teachers.” Go ahead, ask someone you know to share a story about an amazing teacher. That person is like to talk about an individual who inspired them or touched them in some way. This is a relationship that is foundational to great teaching.
Some community colleges are seeing social networking technologies in a strategic context and leveraging them in an effort to remain competitive in the 21st century instructional landscape. Rio Salado, a community college in Arizona, has developed RioLounge, a social networking arena for their students to connect with each other and for Rio Salado to stay connected to them after graduation. Bingo...automatic alumni pipeline.
However, some educators are reluctant to view technology as a way of improving a student’s learning experience through fostering relationships. Some educators see technology as an intrusion that violates the sanctity of the face-to-face educational setting. While much of this dissent stems from generational differences that are complex and difficult to negotiate, my intent is to try to recontextualize “technology" and encourage my fellow educators who feel skeptical about the internet's effect on education to pause for a moment and consider an alternative view of technology. It is my view that web 2.0 technologies, if used wisely, can promote greater student engagement and enhance teacher-student and student-student relations.
In the past year, I have introduced podcast versions of my lectures in addition to brief, weekly audio announcements into my online classes. Now audio itself isn’t exactly a web 2.0 tool but it is a form of technology that integrates my presence into my students’ remote learning experiences. In fact, 91% of my online students indicated that the use of audio in my teaching increased their sense of my presence in their learning experience. My online students also keep blogs that they update weekly with responses to prompts I provide in their learning units. The blogs keep me in tune with the pulse of my class. I understand what is happening in my students’ learning experiences and can respond to individual revelations or moments of confusion. On a week when my art appreciation students were learning about the interrelationship between light and color, one student commented on his blog about how amazing it was to be able to listen to the podcast on a car ride into the Sierra foothills as the light dwindled in the evening hours. This new “mobile” learning experience made possible through my podcast and his iPod (not a requirement to listen to a podcast, by the way) enhanced his learning by connecting our course’s learning objectives with his surroundings.
I have also moved away from using the text-based discussion boards in Blackboard and have begun utilizing VoiceThread, a free to low cost (depending on your criteria for use) tool, that creates a visual, interactive discussion space in which students can leave asynchronous feedback with text or voice (with the use of a microphone or their phone). So, how does this foster relationships? When I asked my students to share their thoughts about how VoiceThread has effected their learning in comparison to traditional discussion boards, one student said, “…[h]earing the inflections in a student’s voice is important as it prevents miscommunications and hurt feelings I’ve witnessed on the discussion boards. I am also a full-time online student and after many online classes I can say that hearing my peers’ voices and seeing an image helps create a better classroom community and leads to more collaboration amongst the class. This is important as I feel lack of community is one of the biggest drawbacks to online education.” To me, that comment is evidence of technology’s ability to foster relationships between students. By the way, you are welcome to listen to this and other comments left by my students with permission to share them publicly by clicking here.
Teaching in the 21st century feels, to me, like being a kid in a candy store. I know I’m surrounded with amazing, free or low cost tools that are easy to use and can be integrated into my face-to-face and online classes. Our traditional classrooms no longer have four walls thanks to a course management system's ability to result in a web enhanced class. Students can take your voice with them in a podcast, participate in online discussions between class meetings, read each other’s class related reflections on their blogs. And, as Kevin Honeycutt pointed out, if a class is recorded and posted as a podcast, a student who didn't quite grasp that critical chemistry concept in lecture can go home and listen to it over and over again...without a class of 25 of his peers judging him for needing extra help.
What we do as educators hasn’t changed. We still strive to connect with our students and inspire them to learn, be curious, ask questions and share perspectives. We need to focus on our goal to foster relationships with students and make their learning relevant while understanding that technologies can help us do this.
As for me, I am now conceptualizing my “tick” as a constant reminder that technologies can extend human relations, as well as human lives. For now, this is making the incessant noise less annoying. And without web 2.0, I wouldn’t have had this revelation.
I came to campus today, in the middle of summer (my "time off") to prepare for my fall classes. I was greeted with the Summer 2007 edition of "FACCCTS: Journal of The Faculty Association of California Community Colleges." I proceeded to flip through the pages and found the article "'I, Me, Mine' on Steroids -- Are Today's College Students and Young People More Narcissistic?" written by Suzanne Crawford, English professor at Cerritos College. The article comments on the supposed self-centeredness and rudeness that some professors identify as a brewing epidemic amongst today's younger generation of "millennials" or the "net-generation." The current dialogue about "narcissism" surfaced after a "research" survey was published last spring out of UC San Diego. The "study" was, interestingly, released in tandem with Twenge's book "Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled -- and More Miserable Than Ever Before: Generation Me."
I have concerns about this growing dialogue amongst faculty. It seems to me that many college professors are eager to jump into this discussion and identify examples from their classrooms that support the "narcissistic" characteristics of their younger students: they arrive late, they are more likely to turn in homework late and expect it to be accepted despite a clearly articulated policy in the syllabus, they pay their tuition and 'expect' a good grade in return. All of this self-centeredness, according to the "I, Me, Mine" argument by Crawford and Twenge are a result of new forms of social networking technologies like MySpace and YouTube which encourage, heaven forbid, self-expression and sharing of one's personal experiences.
I read this situation much differently and I am, frankly, very concerned that the eagerness of faculty to jump on board with this dialogue is doing nothing more than expanding the gap between "us" and "them." First, we all should critically approach Twenge's theory. The students that were surveyed responded more positively than previous generations to questions like, "I think I am special" and "If I ruled the world it would be a better place." Could we not read this as a positive shift? Do we, as educators, negate the importance of believing in one's power to leave a positive impression on the world and embrace our own uniqueness? As a mother, I would only hope to see my child respond positively to these questions. Are we, as educators, saying we want our students to view themselves as meek, insignificant, powerless creatures?
I do agree that I have students who seem to "not get" the importance of timeliness and expect more forgiveness when an assignment is late. I do not bend on my policies in my classes but I also want to stress that most of my students are engaged, present and eager to learn. I recently learned that local high schools (I am in Placer County in California) have adopted a "no fail" grading process. This means there is no such thing as receiving an F. Students who do not meet the criteria to pass a class are provided with a "no mark" which means they are provided with another chance to complete the necessary work before they are graded. This to, to me, is more indicative of a cause of the traits highlighted in the Crawford article than social networking.
Interesting to me is the fact that Crawford noted a 2006 publication titled "Are They Really Ready To Work?" which sites comments from employers who note a lack of "profesionalism and work ethic in young people." Colleagues, are we preparing the Millennial Generation for success? Do you feel you are teaching your students the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century? Have you considered what these skills are? The Partnership for 21st Century Skills identifies some of these skills as problem solving, finding innovative solutions to everyday challenges (i.e. creativity), and working collaboratively with a diverse group. We need to ask ourselves if *we* have these skills because if we do not, how can we teach them?
Herein lies the heart of the issue. Today's educational model is providing today's students with skills needed to succeed in the 20th century, not a digital society that requires the ability to learn independently, think for oneself and make sense of endless streams of information (including textual, auditory and visual information). Perhaps the disconnect educators are observing in the classroom has to do with the fact that most professors today do not have these 21st century skills and, therefore, are not crafting their students' learning experiences to ensure they are leaving our classrooms with applicable skills. Is the "rudeness" we perceive simply a lack of connectedness or engagement? Students today are used to personalization, self-expression and being part of a network. Then they enter our classrooms and they're told to sit down, read the syllabus, follow the rules and learn.
I know, I know...you're thinking I'm "one of them." I'm one of those educators who lets my students walk all over me and never incorporates "rigor" into my curriculum. I assure you my students work hard and the follow rules. However, they are also given options and opportunities to share their thoughts. My students know they are part of a community; I expect them to help each other and contribute. Instead of viewing technology (like MySpace and iPods) as a threat to human evolution, I view social networking and digital tools with excitement because of their potential to engage my students and enhance their learning. I have transformed my way of teaching in the past two years to include web-based assignments (including lectures as podcasts and online movies) and require students to create blogs that are, essentially, online journals that are viewable and commented on by the entire class. Learning is non-linear in my classes, much like the learning patterns of today's younger students. My students learn as much from each other as they do from me. Students need to be taught to solve problems instead of recite information. Education today is about teaching students to use information, not giving students information.
Yes, MySpace and YouTube place individuals on center stage. They also promote collaboration, sharing and creativity (all right-brain traits, by the way). Isn't this a format educators could adopt to share teaching ideas and collaborate on projects? Couldn't we learn from the Millennial landscape? For years, I have heard colleagues discussing their interest in getting students to engage and participate in discussions. Don't social networking technologies hold potential for this in education? Our classrooms no longer have four walls if we are willing to step inside the shoes of our students and explore the tools they use to interact.
My concern, again, is that I see a large number of faculty willing to contribute to the discussion about "today's narcissistic students." Whether or not Twenge's theory has validity is open to interpretation; however, the energy it is creating is widening the gap between professors and students. Educators teach the importance of making decisions within a context. If you are a an educator, I encourage you to reconsider the perceived lack of etiquette and interest you may have identified in your students and examine your teaching methods. The rest of society has adapted to our societal shift into the digital age, when will higher education do the same?
The University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, one of the top business schools in the world, announced a new requirement today for applicants. In addition to the traditional application and essays, each applicant is required to submit up to four Powerpoint (or Keynote I presume) slides about themselves. One might think this is an attempt to judge the applicant's ability to use Powerpoint efficiently; however, the school indicates that "[t]he slides submitted with the application will not be judged on technical ability but rather the self-expression that is revealed." Hmm. Looks to me like creativity is rearing its head even more prominently in the business world. In 2004, the Harvard Business Review published an article by Dan Pink titled "The MFA is the new MBA" which indicated an interest from MBA programs in pursuing potential MFA (Master's of Fine Arts) candidates. Looks like this trend is moving along. Creativity is becoming one of those essential qualities for success in the 21st century. It has the power to differentiate you from the others and the power to provide you with the ability to take risks, find innovative solutions to problems, and live a more meaningful life. So, remember, art classes aren't just for painters anymore.
Story: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/7/prweb539763.htm
MBA is the new MFA http://www.michael-r-nelson.com/design_blog/images/HBR_Feb2004.pdf
Educators...it's time to wake up! Our country has a serious responsibility to our students in the face of the most significant social shift since the industrial revolution. The landscape of our society has change so dramatically in the past five years that few educators (in higher education at least) have acknowledged the fact that individuals need to be taught new skills in order to succeed. Please, please, please take the next eight minutes of your life to view the movie below. Then come back to this blog and post a comment. What are you going to do to remedy this? If you're a student, how do you feel about the education you are receiving? Is it reflective of to the skills you need in life? Are you being taught to be an innovative, conceptual, creative thinker? Do you understand how to critically deconstruct information (including textual, visual and audio)? Do you understand the ethics of living in a global, digital society? If you want to continue this dialogue and really make a change, go to the 21st century skills link below to find out more.
