Mix it up: Creative Combinations for Learning in North Carolina

The theme of the 2008 University of North Carolina Teaching & Learning with Technology Conference was “Mix It Up!: Creative combinations for Learning in North Carolina.” This conference is an annual event that focuses on technology use on the 16 constituent institutions in the UNC system. Featuring more than 120 presentations covering a multitude of topics: online quality, open source applications, learning objects and repositories and course redesign, The TLT Conference provided a forum for varied educational interests.

This year, I was both an attendee and a presenter at the conference. The title of my presentation was “The National Foreign Language Standards and the Fusion of the iPod in the Foreign Language Classroom.” My goal was to demonstrate how the iPod could be used in the foreign language classroom to address the learning styles and intelligences of the millennial generation and meet foreign language standards and competencies. I defined the millennial student and professor, illustrated the educational uses of the iPod, highlighted the “best practices” in the field of foreign languages and connected the uses of the iPod to the five “C’s” (Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons and Communities) of foreign language education. The unsolicited feedback that I received at the end of the session from the audience was very favorable.

As an attendee, I found the following sessions to be worthwhile:

“Engaging Students with Social Software Applications: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and More!” was presented by Zahra Safavia, Director of Product Management at Learning Objects. The speaker discussed the powerful innovative uses of blogs, wikis and podcasts within the teaching and learning environments. She noted how wikis are are being used collaboratively to “build research projects, annotate works of literature and create course knowledge bases. Blogs are being used to collaboratively author novels, facilitate online discussion groups and practice reflective journaling. Podcasts are being used to deliver supplemental course information and lectures.” Ms. Safavia defined the new social tools, outlined their historical development (wiki means “quick” in Hawaiian) and listed their individual characteristics. A very informative introduction to the new 2.0 web tools. I strongly recommend this presentation.

“A Collaborative eLearning Environment: Using Wimba to Build connections, Enhance Learning, and Improve Student Outcomes” was presented by Seana Downing, Regional Sales Manager of Wimba. Ms. Downing noted that the mission of Wimba is to help people teach people. She outlined the history of the company and explained how Wimba’s Collaboration Suite of products empowers educators to enhance learning interactions across subjects and disciplines to build connections and community. Explaining how people teach and learn differently, the speaker noted how Wimba improves outcomes, increases student retention and enhances access and learning. As an effective learning program, Wimba also “creates an online learning community, engages students through action, provides prompt feedback, facilitates student to student communication and addresses diverse learning styles.” The Wimba Voice and Classroom tools create an effective and stimulating educational environment. Winston-Salem State University currently uses Wimba and I can personally attest to the value of this wonderful educational tool. An educator interested in improving and enhancing teaching and learning should attend this session.

“Promoting Collaborative Learning Environment in the Classroom using Mobile Tablet-PCs and Classroom Management Tools” was facilitated by Kuldeep Rawat from Elizabeth City State University. His focus was on using the Tablet PC and Classroom management Software to improve teaching and learning in the classroom. His new pedagogical approach “directly involves students in the learning process, increases their direct collaboration with one another in class, develops their note-taking abilities and promotes instantaneous sharing of data in real-time.” Active learning and technology integration are the direct outcomes of this new method. A very interesting and practical presentation. I strongly recommend this session.

The UNC-TLT conference is local but is growing yearly. For North Carolina educators it is a convenient conference to attend.