EDUCAUSE | Teaching

Exciting to be back!

smirnova — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:12:38 -0500

I am excited to be back to EducauseConnect. I regisered a couple of years ago and wasn't active as I should have been! I have a blog in Blogger - Teaching to the Future and I also have a Pedagogy 21 pbwiki, and I am constantly teaching and exploring new technologies and tools. I found interesting postings on Educause and enjoy learning more new things! I am back!

Tune in March 25 for a Free Web Seminar on Teaching with Digital Collections in Undergraduate Curriculum

pkurkowski — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:35:38 -0500

Many academic digital collection projects are focused on special collections and college archives. Such projects seek to bring collections "out of the basement" and enable greater access to valuable and specialized research materials. However, undergraduate students and faculty often have very different needs and expectations of these digital materials than experienced researchers or the general public.

What does it take to implement a digital asset management system that not only improves access to collections but also allows faculty to integrate digital materials into their teaching? In this free March 25 EDUCAUSE Live! web seminar, Teaching with Digital Collections in the Undergraduate Curriculum, presenters Marianne Colgrove, Deputy Chief Technology Officer and Director of Web Support Services, Reed College, and Dena Hutto, Director of Reference and Instruction, Reed College Library, will share their experiences in implementing a CONTENTdm-based digital image collection for the classics and humanities.

Those unable to attend may wish to visit the archives after the event or browse related EDUCAUSE resources on DAMS, Digital Collections, Learning Objects, and Teaching.

Tag for ELI 2008 Annual Meeting Entries

jcummings — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:38:42 -0600

This posting is intended to establish a common tag for Connect entries related to the upcoming ELI 2008 Annual Meeting, Connecting and Reflecting: Preparing Learners for Life 2.0. The conference is scheduled for January 28-30, 2008, at the Hyatt Regency San Antonio-Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas.

When posting content from or related to the conference in Connect, please be sure to tag it with:

ELIAnnual08

This will ensure your content appears on the Connect page for the event and is available to the larger community sharing ideas and reflections related to the conference.

ELI Video Delves into Immersive Learning Environments

ecoghlan — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 10:30:14 -0500

The pedagogical applications of online games, simulations, virtual worlds, and other immersive environments are discussed in the new full-length video from ELI, Immersive Learning Environments: New Paths to Interaction and Engagement. The video draws on the ELI 2007 Spring Focus Session on this topic and includes discussions by Gary R. Bertoline, Phillip D. Long, Constance Steinkeuhler, Richard Van Eck, and others.

New ELI Brief Explores Twitter

ecoghlan — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 10:34:18 -0500

A quick snapshot of Twitter, a microblogging and social networking site, is presented in 7 Things You Should Know About Twitter, a new EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) brief. It also highlights Twitter's potential value for teaching and learning.

ELI White Paper on Authentic Learning

ecoghlan — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 13:50:03 -0500

The Internet and a variety of emerging communication, visualization, and simulation technologies now make it possible to offer students authentic learning experiences ranging from experimentation to real-world problem solving. Explore authentic learning, what it is, how technology can support it, what makes it effective, and why it is important in Authentic Learning for the 21st Century: An Overview, by Marilyn M. Lombardi, ELI scholar-in-residence and director of the RENCI Center and senior IT strategist at Duke University. This piece is part of the ELI white paper series.

Richard Van Eck Presentation on Digital Game-Based Learning

gbayne — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:56:38 -0500

In this podcast of the presentation "Generation G and the 21st Century," Richard Van Eck, associate professor of instructional design and technology at the University of North Dakota, discusses the theory behind the effectiveness of games in teaching and learning; what the past can teach us about if, how, and when to implement digital game-based learning; and what this will mean for colleges and universities.

This was presented as a general session at Immersive Learning Environments: New Paths to Interaction and Engagement, the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative's Spring 2007 Focus Session, held at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation in Raleigh, North Carolina, March 27-28, 2007. Additional resources from the event, including session recordings and audio interviews, video, presentation materials, and photos, also are available online.

Gary Bertoline on Computer Simulations / Visualizations Learners Can Feel

jcummings — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:50:16 -0500

[When initially posted, the audio file of this interview had some technical problems that hindered listening to it. Those issues have been addressed in the new file, which is attached below. - JSC]

In another interview related to the ELI 07 Spring Focus Session, Immersive Learning Environments: New Paths to Interaction and Engagement, I spoke with Gary Bertoline, Distinguished Professor in Computer Graphics and Assistant Dean at Purdue University. We discussed Gary's project parlor and concurrent session topic for the focus session, The Impact of Computer-Simulated Haptic Force Feedback on Learning.

Over the course of our conversation, Gary explains that "computer-simulated haptic force feedback" refers to providing physical response to learners through computer simulations, essentially allowing them to feel forces in a simulation that they would otherwise have to infer. He then provides a brief overview of the research that demonstrates how such feedback enhances learning outcomes in science, technology, and math education and reviews its potential to support teaching and learning in other disciplines.

We also discuss how advances in technology are rapidly lowering the level of resources needed to incorporate computer-simulated haptic force feedback into teaching and learning. Gary closes our conversation by highlighting the importance of integrating technology into teaching and learning to keep pace with the demands of today's learners and the world they will engage when they graduate.

All participants in the spring focus session will get a brief overview of Gary's research during his project parlor on the first day of the event, March 27. On the second day, March 28, they will have the opportunity to delve much more deeply into his findings by attending either one of the two concurrent sessions on the subject.

Sarah Robbins on Teaching in Second Life

jcummings — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:10:31 -0500

We're about a week from the ELI 2007 Spring Focus Session, Immersive Learning Environments: New Paths for Interaction and Engagement. As usual, I'm interviewing some of the presenters scheduled for the event to get an advanced sense for the issues they plan to address at the focus session.

In this interview, I talk with Sarah Robbins, a TA Instructor in English at Ball State University, about her experiences in teaching classes in the immersive learning environment Second Life. I ask her about the teaching and learning objectives that led her to try to teach in Second Life, as well as the level of technical expertise she feels is or isn't necessary to teach in that online space. We also discuss the benefits she has found that students derive from learning in Second Life, as well as the benefits she has realized as a developing faculty member by teaching in an immersive learning environment.

On the first day of the focus session, March 27, Sarah will conduct a project parlor on her teaching activities in Second Life, which will give all of the session participants a brief overview of her efforts. Participants will then have the option of attending either one of two concurrent sessions Sarah will hold on the second day of the event, March 28, during which she will engage them in her Second Life virtual classroom and help them get a sense for how teaching in that environment works.

Using a flexible learning space to teach about a flexible learning space

pault — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:47:21 -0600

[Sorry it is so long since I posted - the Western New Year and Chinese New Year have both passed!]

My job title of 'VLE Administrator' covers a wide range of duties, many of which are quite technical and system-oriented, but it also involves advising staff on developing their areas in the VLE (LMS), the service front line, as it were. This term I've spent quite a lot of time preparing and delivering courses on how to use WebLearn; the face to face contact makes quite a pleasant break from coding or answering emails stuck in front of a computer screen.

We are now coming to the end of this term's series of lunchtime courses. They have usually consisted of a presentation with slides and demonstrations followed by hands-on where people work individually through a number of exercises, familiarising themselves with some aspects of the VLE. The peak of interaction usually would not go beyond viewing each each other's test area.

However, I've recently found myself in one of the so-called flexible learning spaces within the department - a wide room with islands of workstations and a lot of gadgetry. After a couple of weeks delivering the standard format in this space, I've only just realised that I ought to make more use of such communal spaces. So this week's course will mark a departure as I shall get people to work in groups, to plan and implement together some structures for online learning. According to the booking system, registrants are mainly staff, but a couple of postgrads among the number; some work in departments, some in colleges and I guess some belong to both; they cover humanities, social sciences, medical sciences, maths and physical sciences. And the number of resources they appear to have created in WebLearn range from 0 to dozens.

This is therefore, I think, an ideal selection :-) How? It reflects a typical cross-section of WebLearn's users and I'm hoping that those with more experience will become aware that they are able to help those who are relative novices. This situation is very natural within WebLearn (Bodington), because it is designed as a flexible space itself that allows as little or as much participation as people need. You can take any group of people, give one of them the right to create a container and from that point on they can adopt any number of roles to create a mock department or whatever with spaces for teaching, administration, research etc. Expertise grows tree-like - as the resources expand, all being well so does the amount of delegation and thus the number of people growing the tree.

I've made a list of requirements, suggested some tasks, and wonder how they will manage? Actually, I'm mainly hoping that participants turn up on the day - the competing demands (and intellectual distractions) on Oxford academics can be quite considerable!