Becoming a Millennial

214. Wireless Laptops in the Classroom

  At Taylor University all of our classrooms have wireless.  This fall we began encouraging faculty to take advantage of the fact that 95% of TU students have a laptop to turn their classroom into a "computer lab" on those days when they want to give a Blackboard exam, etc.  Several have done this successfully with classes as large as 25-30 students.  An accounting professor had her students bring in their laptops all semester long to work on in-class Excel problems.  We have found that our wireless supports an entire classroom of laptops for these types of applications.  For those few students who don't have a laptop (generally 2-3 in a class) the ETC has a handful of loaners.   

Do we have faculty struggling with the issue of students multitasking with their laptops?  Certainly, and it's an ongoing discussion.  Professors establish various laptop guidelines to suit their teaching styles.  We're working hard to help faculty view student laptops as an asset and not a threat.  Think back to the electronic calculator in secondary math classes in the 80's. 

211. Using a Wiki to Assess Student e-Portfolios

We have pulled off a significant initiative over the last few years in repurposing our course management system, Blackboard, to facilitate student e-portfolios.  The Blackboard Learning System has all the capabilities to organize and post artifacts, in a professional-looking format. 

This fall we figured out (actually, it was the brainchild of one of our education majors) how to use Blackboard's wiki tool for assessment purposes.  This is now in place for Education portfolios, and Social Work is working on something similar. It's a fun thing to come up with unintended applications for some of these digital tools. Click here to view a short video to see how this all works.

210. Blackboard Grade Center -- 22 Tutorial Videos

Using Camtasia I created 22 short videos (2-6 minutes each) covering nearly all the features in the new Blackboard 8.0 Grade Center.  The process went pretty quickly -- I did them all in 2 days.  They are not polished, but hopefully adequate.  I am very excited about the potential of these types of training videos for our faculty. 

Taylor is upgrading to Blackboard 8.0 over Christmas break.  We do not plan to hold any formal training sessions for the faculty for the new Grade Center.  Rather, they will be expected to watch these videos.  Of course, we will be prepared and more than happy to work with individual professors in answering questions and helping them figure out how to implement their particular grading schemes using Grade Center.

Here is how you can access the videos if you are interested:  Click here to get to our Blackboard.  After you enter username = guest and password = welcome you will find yourself in the "Resources for Bb Instructors" site.  Select the button labeled Grade Center 8.0 (bottom of list) and you will be able to access all 22 of the videos.

I think these will be helpful for people.  I searched the web and wasn't able to find much that was comparable.

175. The Choice of a Tool

Over the past few years many schools have struggled with the choice of a course management system.  You may be interested to read an excerpt from a letter I sent this morning to our university academic and technology leaders.

“I believe what has come together in the past 12 months validates our choice of the Blackboard Learning System.  As school begins this fall all of the following applications are available to our faculty and students fully integrated into Blackboard:

1.  Blog Tool

2.  Wiki Tool

3.  Podcast Tool

4.  SafeAssign (FREE plagiarism detection tool)

5.  Scholar (social bookmarking)

6.  MERLOT (learning objects repository)

7.  RefWorks (citation manager)

8.  Respondus (test generation application)

9.  StudyMate (leaning activities)

10.  Instant messaging & virtual whiteboard

11.  Assignments (electronic submission of papers)

12.  Learning Units (sequenced activities)

13.  Discussion Board

14.  Gradebook

15.  Online testing & surveys

16.  Glossary & Search

17.  Publisher CoursePacks (selection constantly increasing)

18.  e-Portfolio for every student

19.  e-Portfolio for faculty promotion & tenure

20.  Online student leadership application

21.  Lockdown Browser for secure online testing (currently running a 60-day trial)

22.  Faculty advising tool (using the e-portfolio)

Blackboard is proving itself a solid foundation for the university in moving ahead with 21st^t century technology.  As Web 2.0 increasingly becomes a focus in instructional technology note how many of these applications TU already has in full implementation. Be encouraged.  We are moving forward in the right direction.” 

164. Blackboard e-Portfolios (An Interview)

Bill Vilberg, Assoc. Director of Instructional Advancement at Miami University (FL), contacted me the other day.  A mutual friend from Blackboard had given him my name.  Bill is the chief Blackboard person at Miami University and is doing something creative with his Blackboard Faculty Support Group blog.  Each week he records an interview and posts it to his blog. 

We set up a time last week and he interviewed me for 45 minutes over the phone.  He used Skype on his end (so the phone call was free) and I used my office phone.  In places it is a bit scratchy but overall the recording quality is pretty good.

Click on the above link to his blog if you would like to listen to our conversation.  We talked about the Bb e-portfolios that we have set up for every student at Taylor, as well as some of the Web 2.0 technologies that are impacting the teaching and learning environment. 

You can browse the Taylor e-portfolio catalog by going to http://courses.taylor.edu ... login using username=guest and password=welcome ... select the Courses tab ... and choose the appropriate category (e.g. 2006 Senior Portfolios).  We are still a year or two away from fully facilitating this to the point where every graduating senior will have completed his/her portfolio.  The infrastructure, however, is all in place supported by our Educational Technology Center and Career Development Office.

If you want to take a peak at a student portfolio, click on the link below.  My son, Neal, graduated in January 2006 with a Communications Degree and a Digital Graphics Minor.  Use the same guest login as described above:  https://courses.taylor.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=%2Fbin%2Fcommon%2Fcourse.pl%3Fcourse_id%3D_3593_1

81. Let's Stretch Our Use of Blackboard

The July/August 2006 issue of Educause Review has an interesting article discussing current course management systems from the point of view of students, faculty, and administrators.

What seems like such a new tool for us (i.e. Blackboard) in reality can seem pretty "old school" and unimaginative for the students.  Here are some exerpts from the article, Managing Courses Defining Learning.

"Students especially made the case that it's time for a change in how we think about teaching and learning and that the change is long overdue... They wondered why there is so little incorporation of the tools they use everyday, tools that they know are available (for free, they pointed out) but that instructors don't use.  Why, in an age of speed and instant response, does everything take so long and seem so clumsy and hard to use?  They told us that it is time for the academy to get with the program... they really don't want instructors to invade MySpace but that they do want the e-learning environment to use the same tools: blogs, wikis, home pages, public messages, online presence."

The author, Colleen Carmean, continues several paragraphs later --

"It would be a mistake to think that any of us can last out the storm by staying huddled together and expecting students to continue to come to traditional education gladly... The next-generation e-learning environment includes Google, IM, SMS, Web 2.0 social knowledge and software, intelligent systems with memory and personalization of the learner's needs, mobile learning, wireless learning ..."

Think about taking another "baby step".  This semester let's see if we can stretch our use of Blackboard a bit.  What about using the Gradebook so students can enjoy quick feedback?  ... or try the Assignments tool so students can electronically submit their papers?  ... or online quizzing to provide some interactivity? ... or experiment with the new Journal and Teams tools that provide blogging and wiki capabilities?  ... or try the Virtual Classroom/Chat for late-night virtual office hours? <-- that would suprise them!

71. TU Blackboard Also Has a Blog

Campus Pack also has a blog module, called Journal LX, that is great for student journaling. 

This will be ideal for programs that require students to keep journals: Education majors, business practicums, social work field experiences, etc.

70. TU Blackboard Has a Wiki

"Much of Web 2.0 is about harnessing the knowledge and work of many people to create something of value" -- Jim Rapoza, eWeek, July 10, 2006. 

A perfect example of this is Wikipedia.  The value of the website is due to the millions of people contributing to its content.  It is a group project on a massive scale. Another example is eBay, where the millions of sellers and buyers create its value.

Group projects are big in education today.  What often frustrates students is the difficulty in getting the group together.  Why not enable them to do some projects online using a wiki (which is one of the new Web 2.0 tools)? 

We just installed the Blackboard building block, Campus Pack, that has a module called Teams LX.  It is basically a wiki that facilitates collaborative student projects. A group of students can work together asynchronously on the same document, each one having full access to the editing tools.  It will be interesting to see creative ways in which our faculty take advantage of this tool in the coming school year.

65. A Student's Thoughts About Blackboard

This week a friend (thanks KM) sent me this interesting article in Campus Technology, A Graduate's View of the Course Management System.  A student is writing about his experiences with Blackboard at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.  Here are some of his observations:

1. 1. "Those faculty who actively put material online and clarified assignments made it easier for everyone to maximize their time in class."
2. "Those faculty who created assignments that required Blackboard participation had students who came to class better prepared to participate in classroom discussions."
3. "To me it was also fantastic to get immediate feedback -- including grades on any of my assignments ..."
4. "It was those classes where the professors only partially used Blackboard that were the most frustrating.  In these situations, professors would sporadically post material, would occasionally respond to online inquiries, and would redundantly distribute materials both online and in class. I would never know if new material had been posted unless I checked regularly.  It was frustrating to not be able to rely on regular updates."

This last point was disturbing to me.  In fact, I almost hesitated to post it because we have been trying so hard just to get faculty on board using Blackboard.  My strategy has been that any content posted is better than none at all.

But I guess it's kind of like PowerPoint.  Once you get people to use the tool, then it's important to coach them in using it effectively (e.g. ditch all the sounds and annoying special effects).

56. The Threshold is Low

Here is further encouragement to those who may have been slow to get on board with technology; for whom Excel and PowerPoint are still applications that "everybody else is using".  The "Millennial Tools" are very easy to use. 

It's not like Excel where you really do need to sit in some workshops to learn the several dozen tricks to get a spreadsheet to work.  Once somebody points you in the right direction to get your blog started ... all you need to be able to do is type, browse for your picture (you can all do this because it is the same process as emailing an attachment), and click submit.  This might be a bit of an exaggeration in terms of simplicity, but not much.  Blogs, wikis, iTunes, Facebook are all really easy to use -- even for the non-Millennial.

To help Taylor faculty make this transition we've purchased from Learning Objects the Campus Pack modules that snap right into Blackboard.  There is a Journal (blog), Team (wiki), Search (allows for easy search of Bb content), and Expo (for external publishing of content).  Our Aug 21 & 22 "Technology for Teaching" Conference will include a couple sessions on the use of these tools.

45. ePortfolios for Faculty Promotion & Tenure

If Blackboard can be used to facilitate e-portfolios for students, why not use it for faculty?  For our tenure and promotion process we are offering faculty the option of submitting all of their materials in a Blackboard portfolio.  No longer do a couple thick binders need to be passed around to all the committee members.  All can view it at any time online.

44. The Power of Electronic Tools

Neal (see entry #4) graduated from Taylor this past January with a degree in Mass Communications and a minor in Computer Graphics. 

This spring he got his first (real) job with a company in Florida called USA Water Ski, the national govening body for organized water skiing in the U.S.  It was pretty amazing because they hired Neal sight-unseen.  A friend of Neal who works for USA Waterski put in a good word for him, Neal emailed in his resume along with the link to his online portfolio, they had a hour-long phone interview ... and he was offered the job the next day.  A neat example of what can happen over a distance of 1000 miles because of today's technologies.

Here you can see what Neal's portfolio looks like.  We've tried something innnovative at Taylor, using the Blackboard course management system to facilitate student e-porfolios.  This spring 90% of our 1850 students had an electronic portfolio in progress.  The senior education majors no longer create the 3-ring binder porfolio -- they do it all electronically.  Other departments are considering making this a requirement for their majors as well.

Freshmen are introduced to the e-portfolio in the COS104 required computer literacy course.  They post their picture, autobiography, resume, and some other artifacts.  Over the course of their study they add to their portfolio.  In their senior year our Career Development office will assist them in polishing up the porfolio for external presentation to employers.  This has been a 4-year effort spear-headed by the Educational Technology Center and Career Development office.  We really think we're on to something here.