Web 2.0 Technologies and Social Computing

I had the opportunity to attend and to present at the University of North Carolina Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) Conference (Raleigh, NC, March 12-14). There were presenters and attendees from across the country and from various disciplines. There was college faculty and staff, K-12 teachers, representatives from industry. It was a great opportunity to network with other users and to come away with information about new ideas and concepts.
Several sessions focused on web 2.0 technologies and social computing. One of the most interesting sessions dealt with how social computing technologies can improve the learning experience of students. The most interesting track at the conference was the TLT Pedagogy Track which addresses exemplary and effective practices in delivering courses and programs, instructional design, development of learning materials and resources in technology-rich teaching and learning. I was also captivated by several of the presentation and workshops particularly geared toward engaging the “net generation.” A phenomenon that also fascinated me was the wide use of open source technology in the educational arena.

I presented with a colleague on enhancing learning in the computer science classroom with robotics. We enjoyed the opportunity of sharing our ideas and thoughts on the use of technology to help student learning. This session was well attended. Some members in the audience were interested in pursuing research on using robots as teaching tools.

Thank you CETL for your support!

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.

What Technologies Are They Using?

Another TLT session I wanted to mention briefly was one presented by Karen Smith-Gratto, Barbra Mosley, and Alecia Jones of North Carolina A & T. They were reporting on a study that asked students about what technologies (hardware and Web-based applications) they actually use. They were interested in finding out whether A&T students' technology use is similar to that described in national studies of college students' technology use or whether there are significant differences. (Unfortunately, I came in just late enough to miss the citation for the national study.) Among their findings were these:

• About 40% of A&T students (as opposed to 20% in the national study) use instant messaging.


• Whereas Boomers almost never use text messaging, the current generation uses it daily in overwhelming numbers. (Gen X also uses it.) You can tell I'm a Boomer--I'm sitting here wondering whether text messaging and IMing are the same thing!


• Students didn't report much use of social networking sites, but the investigators suspect that they didn't understand what the question was asking about.


• Overall, students may be less advanced and use fewer technologies than we think--but it is also possible that they are using some technolgies socially and do not want us invading their space! This reminded me of the looks of alarm I see on my students' faces when I mention that I have a Facebook page.

This struck me as a study it would be very interesting to replicate here. It would be particularly useful to know whether our students are really as technologically sophisticated as we sometimes think they are, and it would also be useful to have a clearer idea of how much their knowledge of technology varies. I suspect it varies a great deal--even some of the young students seem unfamiliar with word processing, while every class seems to include (thank goodness) at least one student who can help us get our technological tools to work.

Blackboard's Competition

The 2008 TLT conference in Raleigh was even better than the earlier versions of the conference that I have gone to, and there were many times when I had to choose one of three or more interesting-sounding sessions. However, one I particularly wanted to make time for was "A Study of Three CMS Systems: Blackboard, Moodle, and Sakai." The idea of open-source course management systems intrigues me, and I am very interested in alternatives to Blackboard.

The session presenters (Biwu Yang, Sharon Collins, Matt Long, and Ginny Sconiers) were from East Carolina University. They described a CMS platform evaluation project they are conducting, using all three CMS systems at once. They were able to recruit a number of faculty members to use Moodle, Sakai, and then Blackboard 7.2 in successive semesters. (This struck me as being so remarkable that I double-checked with one of the presenters afterward, to make sure I had heard correctly.)

The study is continuing, but the presenters reported that Moodle was challenging to get going, but users liked it for its "social feel": faculty said it "feels good." However, Moodle lacks a good conversion tool for moving materials from another CMS platform, and faculty needed a good deal of help in reformating their courses.

Sakai does have a conversion tool that reformats material from Blackboard. However, importing outside content, particularly tests and quizzes, presented some problems. The platform has only a few templates, and there are so many settings for tests and quizzes that learning to use the system is complicated.

I'm still shaking my head at the idea that faculty members taught their courses using three different platforms in three successive semesters, and it was clear that this test required a great deal of technical support, something that is probably more feasible for a large school like ECU. Therefore, I have no desire to see us try to replicate this study, but I do want to follow up on ECU's work and look for another report from them next year.

The ECU page describing the "CMS Platform Project" has links to more information about each system, a "contact us" link, and a search box (at the top) that can be used to find the presenters' e-mail addresses.

I found what seems to be Moodle's home page at http://moodle.org/, and Sakai is at http://sakaiproject.org/. Both these sites have demonstration courses and other materials describing the systems.

The presenters did mention that ECU is hosting Moodle sites for some instructors at other schools, but they didn't mention whether they are accepting any more applications.

Simple Media Creation for Librarians

This was a very good session that was presented at the UNC TLT 2008 Conference. Although it is titled for librarians, everyone could benefit from using the tools that were presented. Audacity was used to create 5 minute updates on what is new at the library. It could also be used to create review sessions for classes or to introduce concepts before a class. Audacity is free and is available on the web at the Audacity website. Another tool that was presented was Photstory which allows you to create a movie from digital pictures. Photo Story is also free from Microsoft at the photostory website. If you want to spend some money Camtasia was also demonstrated. It allows you to do scrren captures of keystrokes which is good for creating training videos.

Carolyn L. Anderson

Online Course Delivery Enhancement

In March 2008, I had the pleasure of attending The University of North Carolina Teaching and Learning with Technology Conference. Currently, I teach online courses in psychology and am always interested in learning of new ways to infuse technology in the learning process. Recently I have become interested in course redesign which is a method for modifying courses using technology to increase student success. Course redesign was developed by the National Center for Academic Transformation. At the UNC TLT conference, I was a panelist in a session for course redesign. I wanted to take the opportunity to learn about the latest in educational technology and to consider how I could incorporate it into a redesign proposal.

One session that I found particularly interesting was on engaging students with social software applications such as: blogs, wikis and podcasts. As I further attempt to further infuse technological tools in my online classes and the online component of my face-to-face courses, I was intrigued by the possibilities social applications can offer. For example, blogs would be an easy way to include journaling on a course related topic throughout a semester. Based on the subject matter I could allow other students read and comment on each others entries or only view and comment on a student's entry myself. I also think wikis would be an excellent tool for facilitating exam reviews. Students could be assigned to groups and determine how they would contribute information for the review. Finally for the visual learners, podcasting would be an excellent way for them to view demonstrations of concepts.

There was some discussion about how to infuse social networking sites such as: MySpace and Facebook in courses. I am a little wary of incorporating those tools yet. Inclusion of such sites would have to be considered on a course by course basis. After informally asking a few of my students whether they would want a professor to join Facebook and contact them about school, there was hesitation and responses of 'no'. There are some social environments, I think, where students would not prefer to be contacted by professors for pedagogical purposes.

Finally, I was very impressed with the notion of using virtual worlds for instruction. Based on the demonstration I could see many application centered disciplines, such as health care fields, benefiting from this technology. I also think it would be a useful tool to train counseling psychologists. Meeting different types of clients in a virtual world could teach them about how to handle clients with various psychological issues. I believe that there are many new and exciting ways to use new technological advances to enhance student learning. However, I think we should always proceed with caution in what types of tools we use for the learning environment.

Smarthinking

At the UNC Teaching and Learning with Technology 2008 Conference in Raleigh on March 12-14, 2008, Dr. Barry L.Berman presented research documenting the effectiveness of Smarthinking’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) online tutoring service used by students in over 1000 educational institutions.

Kapiolani and the Broward County Community College conducted a two-year study to document learning gains as a result of tutoring through Smarthinking’s OWL. Results published in the Journal of Applied Research in the Community College show student success rates in Developmental English class improved from 67% to 75%.

Additional data suggests that Smarthinking may have a positive influence on student retention. Sharon Bittner, Director, Tutoring Center at Des Moines Area Community College, Iowa, found that retention rates increase 10-12% for students who used Smarthinking.

Dr. Berman believes WSSU could achieve similar learning gains and retention improvement with Smarthinking. He notes that “It is more expensive to recruit a student than to retain one” and that increased retention rates at WSSU will generate more revenue for the university.

A new textbook, Evergreen: A Guide to Writing with Readings, 6th edition, by Susan Fawcett, was adopted this fall for the ENG 1300 Introduction to College Writing course. This book comes bundled with Smarthinking’s Online Writing Lab and allows students to submit papers for a professional tutor’s comments. Students may then revise the paper before submitting the final draft to the instructor. Overview comments are given in paragraph form and additional comments are embedded throughout the paper. A summary of revision steps is provided, along with additional resources in Smarthinking’s online library, including student handbooks with information about writing, grammar, and usage.

The Writing Center suggests that ENG 1300 faculty design their course syllabus with multiple due dates for drafts. This would allow enough time for students to submit an early draft to Smarthinking. Turnaround time may take upwards of 2 or 3 days. Students would then be encouraged to bring Smarthinking’s E-structor Response Form with embedded comments to the Writing Center at which point peer tutors in the Writing Center could provide additional explanations to help the student understand suggested revisions. Combining instructor guidance with both professional tutor and peer tutor input could provide significant critical thinking and composition support for our students.

Elizabeth S. Priest
Writing Center Director

3D virtual learning environments can make a difference in higher education

Many people talk about 3D virtual environments in higher education but very few have taken the time to explore and integrate them into their teaching. At the 2008 Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) Conference organized by UNC (Raleigh, NC, March 12-14, 2008) I had the opportunity to learn from pioneers in this field who shared their experiences and lessons learned. Let me comment on two of them.

Second Life has been a phenomenon in terms of engaging adults in “real life” experiences that occur in a 3D virtual environment in which users exist as an avatar and interact with other residents. In her presentation “3D Virtual World Learning Environments (i.e., Second Life) in blended and online education”, Victoria Lynn Walker shared her experience creating, implementing and learning from a pilot study in learning nonclinical counseling and group therapy skills. She states, “Virtual environments offer instructors the opportunity to make their classroom come alive. By using well-designed educational environments that match program and course needs, students can be inspired to explore learning and develop understanding of course content”. I was very pleased to realize there is a growing community of researchers who study the educational use of highly interactive technologies that students love using. I would be very interested giving support from WSSU-CETL to WSSU faculty members willing to participate in similar studies.

Google Earth has been also a great success, as long as it provides users with the possibility of easily and accurately exploring places on earth that are of their interest. It was announced that this tool “combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain, and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips”. I had the opportunity to participate in a demonstration by a group of foreign language professors from UNC Charlotte in which Rosalba Esparragoza Scott, a Spanish teacher, shared her experience using Google Earth-supported web quests as a means of learning foreign language, literature, and culture in an effective way. According to her, “Students can annotate maps on Google Earth with vocabulary terms, historical facts, literary information, or write sentences in the target language describing virtual visits to foreign cities”. Way to go!

I got a couple of coincident clear messages from the above two presentations:

1. Integrating technology into higher education courses requires effort from faculty, in the exploration of educational potential of digital tools as well as in reengineering their learning environments.
2. Students love courses where faculty make sound educational use of digital technologies they use with other purposes; they become engaged and participate more effectively.

Alvaro H. Galvis
Director CETL
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

UNC-TLT: Lessons Learned

I’m glad I had the opportunity to attend the 2008 UNC Teaching and Learning with Technology Conference in Raleigh. I attended several interesting sessions and picked up some innovative ideas. The conference provided a broad range of technological information for teachers in any discipline. Being in the comp/rhet field, I found “Taking Advantage of Technology in Structuring Online Rhetoric and Composition Courses,” most rewarding for designing a hybrid or 100% online course. In this session, the presenter demonstrated how teachers can move beyond the traditional course management system to design a course using http://sites.google.com/. The site allows a teacher to include icons strategically placed in a type of shadow box. These icons lead students to assignments, practice exercises, drop boxes, online class meetings, and tutorials. With the Google site tools anyone can easily and professionally design a virtual classroom. The nonlinear construction of the site creates a welcoming place where students can learn.