Technology in the Classroom: A Working Discussion Group

Nelson C. Baker, Ph.D.

Georgia Tech

SUCCEED

College of EngineeringCETL, OIT-Educational Technologies

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Outline

• Introduction

• SUCCEED Activities

• WebCT; Melissa Bachman

• CoWeb; Mark Guzdial

• ECE Core Courses; Barnwell & McClellan

• Classroom 2000; Gregory Abowd

• Discussion

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Objectives

• Discussion Forum for those using, creating, developing, and maintaining educational materials that use technology.

• Provide mechanism for faculty to learn these ideas/techniques and their impacts

• Foster environment to share results and lessons learned from implementations and research.

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Today’s Objectives

• Continue discussions on edutech-friends email list

• See demonstrations of educational technology here at GT

• Share ideas & experiences from using technology for learning

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Outline

• Introduction

• SUCCEED Activities

• WebCT; Melissa Bachman

• CoWeb; Mark Guzdial

• ECE Core Courses; Barnwell & McClellan

• Classroom 2000; Gregory Abowd

• Discussion

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SUCCEED Activities

• Student Transitions - Gordon Moore, OMED

• Assessment - Jack Marr, Psychology

• Technology-based Curriculum Delivery - Jim McClellan, ECE

• Faculty Develoment - Nelson Baker, CEE

• Campus Implementation Team Leader - Jack Lohmann, COE

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SUCCEED Faculty Development

• Effective Teaching Workshops– Active Learning– Cooperative Learning– Student Learning Styles– Faculty Teaching Styles– Developing Educational Objectives– Effective Testing– Creating new courses

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SUCCEED Faculty Development

• Effective Teaching with Technology Workshops– Use of technology– Web page creation strategies– Integration strategies of technology in the classroom

• Mentoring Workshops• Discussions between 8 SUCCEED universities

and another 5+ universities

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Faculty Development Viewpoint

• Engineering students did come not to Georgia Tech, knowing their subject(s), but came to learn.

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Faculty Development Viewpoint

• Engineering students did come not to Georgia Tech, knowing their subject(s), but came to learn.

• Engineering faculty did not study how to be educators, they replicate the techniques they have seen or learned over time.

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Faculty Development Viewpoint

• Engineering students did come not to Georgia Tech, knowing their subject(s), but came to learn.

• Engineering faculty did not study how to be educators, they replicate the techniques they have seen or learned over time.

• Use of technology is changing our learning environments reach and capabilities.

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Overview

• Many of you are currently using technology

• Your students are using the Web

• How well is it working?

• Can you utilize the technology and the Web more effectively?

• Where should this technology be utilized and where is it better to shy away?

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Assessments with Technology

• Lower quartile students improve greatly

• Little difference in upper quartile students

• Less time on task for same level of comprehension as measured by exams

• Initial increase in motivation, but fades

• Group decisions made electronically can be “ignored” or forgotten

• Access is critical factor in usage

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Questions

• Who are our students?

• How do they learn?

• How do we educate?

• What can we say about the learning process?

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Learning Styles

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Technology Impacts

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Web Impacts for All Learners

• Need for good organization and navigation

• Quick down load times

• Current information

• Value added quality information

• Frequent responses

• Collaboration

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Methods to assist different learning styles

• Inductive Learners need motivation

• Deductive Learners need applications

• Visual Learners need the graphics/pictures

• Active learners need both interaction with the pages and collaboration groups

• Inclusion of related Theory, Problems, Examples, and Real-world Cases

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Teaching Class Material

• Bloom’s Taxonomy:– Knowledge– Comprehension– Application– Analysis– Synthesis– Evaluation

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Web Impact to Teaching

• Assists with lower three levels of Bloom’s taxonomy easily

• Upper levels difficult to achieve without extensive interactions & collaborations

• Understanding these issues can greatly impact how and where the web is utilized in learning activities

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Learning Activities for Web

• Use in class as part of instructor and student presentations

• Assign homework with the web to introduce information that you want them to see

• Assign research activities that use the web

• Include external electronic course additions such as web sites and “lectures”

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Traits of Effective Web Pages

• Use of Examples (shows applications)

• Use of Cases (assists with knowledge transfer)

• Use of Audio Summary (different stimulus)

• Use of interaction (maintains attention and allows active learning)

• Quick down-load times

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Traits of Effective Web Pages

• Well organized

• Ability to navigate in multiple fashions

• Global integration of content

• Inclusion of collaboration mechanisms to maintain community

• Samples of previous student work & discussions

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Methods/Issues for Site Creation

• Much planning to do BEFORE using software tools

• Material gathering & organization

• Use of software page creation tools

• Assessment

• Refinement

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Thoughts for Web-based Class

• Design with a team approach

• Include significant amounts of readings

• Include collaboration activities (chat rooms, email, discussion news groups, etc.)

• Statement of academic integrity

• Frequent assessment of how class is doing and what they should have covered

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Outline

• Introduction

• SUCCEED Activities

• WebCT; Melissa Bachman

• CoWeb; Mark Guzdial

• ECE Core Courses; Barnwell & McClellan

• Classroom 2000; Gregory Abowd

• Discussion

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How to Start?

• Locate campus resources for assisting

• Provide visual information to supplement class. Link these with class activities.

• Provide communication methods for students.

• Provide samples of previous student assignments and example problems.

• Implement iteratively over time

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Challenges

• At least 3 main areas:– Educational for students– Educational for faculty– Institutional

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Education - Student Challenges

• Student Expectations– Production quality– personal vs. computer instruction– learning computer interface rather than content

• Vertical migration of information

• Educational objectives rather than course

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Education - Faculty Challenges

• Learning time for faculty to use/incorporate

• Development time for faculty

• Incentives to spend the time needed

• “Fears” of not-in-control of knowledge dissemination

• Lack of peer reviews

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Institutional Challenges

• Availability of equipped classrooms

• Ability to do long term assessments

• Contextual influences on assessments

• Maintenance of site/software/information (and funding to do so)

• Orchestrating support staff and faculty

• Incorporating into mainstream (scale-up, time, resources)

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Summary

• Excellent supplement to classroom material

• Engages many students, especially visual learners

• Audio summaries & Collaboration

• Must give development proper thought

• Navigation can be critical

• Many ways to provide access to global information