Becoming a Millennial

219. Pajama Day in the ETC

The last Friday of J-Term was dubbed "Pajama Day".  Students and faculty who wore their PJ's into the ETC would receive free hot chocolate or coffee, be invited to play some games, and win some prizes.  Everyone at least walked away with some candy.  Several won flash drives, and one lucky winner garnered a 300 GB external drive.  The day was a successful combination of gimic, fun, and promotion.  We may just have to make this an annual event to spice up the gray month of January. Pictured are Steve Curtis, Gary Friesen, and Mick Bates the unofficial winner for the best attire.

218. Three Testimonies

You may enjoy these testimonies from three relatively new professors to Taylor regarding the academic technology support they have discovered at TU (it's one of those secrets we're trying to get out!):

Testimony 1 (Statistics):  "From my first day as a faculty member at Taylor University, I've been impressed with the quality of support for academic technology.  Most importantly, the ETC staff has appreciated my own goals for my own courses...and then they've proven able to assist me with software and hardware that advance those goals.  Sometimes those resources have been resources they suggested and taught me how to use; other times those resources have been special-purpose tools that I need in my discipline and which the ETC has helped to set up.  The ETC staff have all been readily available, hard-working, versatile, and flexible.  They have also prodded me to enhance my own "toolbox" for instruction, e.g. using DyKnow in the classroom.  I find the level of support for academic technology at Taylor University to be far better than what I've experienced at a similar Christian College or at a larger state university."

Testimony 2 (Music):  "Even during the interview process it was apparent that Taylor University was interested and intentional about implementing technology in the classroom to better engage student learning.  I fretted about actually learning enough about PowerPoint to make a decent presentation!  Thankfully, support abounds for the entire campus community to utilize the great resources that abound including the ETC, IT support staff, mini-grant opportunities, workshops and the like.  In comparison to my previous (and wonderful) university where one projection unit was available in the entire Fine Arts department, Taylor is certainly a leader in advocacy for the exciting use of technology in higher learning."

Testimony 3 (Mathematics):  "Taylor's academic technology support from the ETC has been, in my opinion, stellar in several ways:
1.  They are proactive and aggressive in outfitting classrooms with educational technology hardware.
2.  They are likewise proactive and aggressive in purchasing and supporting innovative educational software, such as DyKnow Vision and Turning Point.
3.  They are wonderfully responsive to problems, questions and issues that arise with both the hardware and the software.
4.  They are actively involved in workshops, grant programs, blogs and other means of encouraging faculty to innovate with technology in teaching.
5.  They are responsive to faculty ideas about new technologies and new uses for existing technologies.  In particular, they understand and support when faculty desire to use technology for student engagement and interaction rather than merely for better faculty presentation.

I recently spent a sabbatical year at a top-tier public research university and was surprised to find that the educational technology that is ubiquitous in Taylor's classrooms was rare to find there.  At Taylor I can teach using pen-based technology and easily project my work on a screen in any classroom.  There I had to borrow a portable projector, which I took with me to class every day in order to project my (Taylor-provided!) Tablet PC to the class."

212. Winning a 90% Faculty Satisfaction Rating

The ETC recently received a 90% satisfaction rating from the faculty on instructional technology support provided.  The question was part of a larger survey completed by 109 of TU's 135 faculty. In an age of competing platforms and demanding constituents how was this accomplished?  Several factors come to mind.  Beginning in 2000 a careful strategy has been followed to standardize on key platforms and provide universal easy-to-use classroom technology, scheduled computer refreshes, high-quality training opportunities, one-one tutoring, and immediate help response.  The "we will help you" spirit of the 6-person ETC team has won the trust of the faculty, resulting in a thriving academic technology environment.

Here are the specific factors that I believe has led to the ETC's success in working with faculty:

1. Ten years of "we will help you" spirit that has won the confidence and trust of the faculty.
2. ETC's uniquely gifted staff:  Steve--digital media, Leon--computing/electronics, Beth--administrative/service, Scott--one-one/first responder, Tony--supervision.
3. The ETC team provides immediate answers/assistance when a professor has a problem, including one-one "to your door" assistance.
4. The ETC provides a place for faculty to go when they have questions or need to complete a technology project.
5. A consistent 4-year faculty computer replacement schedule.  Professors are provided good equipment in a timely manner.
6. Since 2000 we have had a solid base product, Blackboard, upon which much of our instructional technology has been built (In the faculty survey the satisfaction rating for Blackboard's performance was 90% and for Blackboard as a product was 70%, both very high marks)
7. By 2004 every classroom on campus was equipped with a ceiling projector and computer/multimedia podium (TU was one of the first schools in the nation to accomplish this).  This helped immensely in getting faculty to use technology on a consistent basis in the classroom.  
8. Since the WordPerfect-to-Word switch in 1997 we have not changed platforms on faculty but have consistently built upon our core products -- Blackboard, MS Office, Respondus, Campus Pack, Turning Point, DyKnow Vision.
9. Every year there is offered a wide selection of opportunities for faculty to learn new technologies -- T4T Conference, Mini-Grant Week, technology luncheons and other workshops, informational email messages.
10. Consistent and timely communication to faculty on technology-related issues via portal announcements, email, and faculty meeting "rolling PowerPoints".
11. Eagle Recognition incentive program -- I don't know if this resulted in any more faculty attending training opportunities (my sense is that it did not), but I believe it provided a positive morale boost, especially over the past several weeks as 41 faculty cashed in their points for very nice prizes.

201. 6th Annual T4T Conference

We were able to complete the schedule for Taylor's "Technology for Teaching" Conference to be held August 14 & 15.  It took most of the month of June to put everything together.  Nearly 40 of our faculty & staff are helping to present sessions.  

This year's theme is, "Engaging Students With Digital Technology" and many of the 40 breakout sessions highlight technologies to do just that.  I'm especially looking forward to the opening panel, "Laptops in the Classroom: Ban 'em or Embrace 'Em?".  The topic has already begun to generate some energy with our faculty. 

We expect an attendance of over 100, mostly our own faculty.  We have also sent invitations to faculty from neighboring universities.  It always adds a nice dynamic to have participation from other schools. 

If you are somewhere within driving distance and would like to join us for either or both days we would love to have you.  Cost is $25/day and includes breakfast and lunch.  Here is the registration information:

1.  T4T schedule

2.  T4T session descriptions 

3.  T4T online registration

177. "Technology for Teaching" Conference

Here is an article in yesterday's Marion Chronicle Tribune on our Aug 16 & 17 "T for T" Conference.  Click here to open.

Details of the conference are available on a previous posting.

172. "Technology for Teaching" Conference

Web 2.0 tools will be a major theme at our 5th Annual "Technology for Teaching" Conference to be held August 16 & 17 on the Taylor University Upland campus.  This conference is primarily for our TU faculty, although we have invited a limited number of guests from nearby universities. 

This year we have expanded the offerings to include 39 different breakout sessions, an opening general session on "How Web 2.0 is Impacting Education", and 12 "mini-grant" presentations by faculty.  Click here to see the schedule.  Click here to see a description of the breakout sessions.

150. TU's Technology Promotional Video

Wired to Take You Into the Future is Taylor University's promotional video released over a year ago. This was also filmed and edited by Steve Curtis, ETC Operations Manager and Media Specialist. 

What Taylor offers in academic technology is second to none, and we're just trying to get that word out.   

144. ETC Podcast

Here you see Rachel (one of our student workers) and me recording our Nov. 6 ETC podcast.  Rachel played the host and I was the guest interviewee.  There were three others around the table, not pictured here.  Each of us had a microphone so that later in the editing process the audio could be balanced.  Music clips and sound effects were also added to spice up the podcast.

But you really don't need the sophisticated recording equipment.  In my previous post I talked about Quinn White podcasting with his group of six graders.  They just used the Olympus MP3 recorder with a $20 external microphone sitting on the table in the middle of the group.  It picked up everybody remarkably well.  For their first two podcasts they didn't do any editing.  They simply recorded their conversation around the table and then posted it using RSS Buddy.  Quick and easy.

143. Academic Podcasting

I'm involved in a couple successful (I think) podcasts.  Our ETC team, headed up by Steve Curtis and Ben Ranfeld, has published four episodes on iTunes. "The educational, on-the-job, and personal experiences of these staffers are fleshed out in a humorous engaging way.  You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll email them to try to get free stuff."  Check it out on iTunes.  Simply enter etcpodcast in the search box.

Quinn White, one of our TU education professors, has teamed up with a group of six grade girls in producing The Flying Dino Girls YA Book Club.  Their first episode discusses Eragon.  It's pretty fun to hear these girls give their insights and critiques.  This podcast is also available on iTunes.  Enter ya books and you'll find it.

BTW, if you haven't downloaded iTunes yet, you can go to Apple's website to get it. Here is the link.

111. 4th Thursday Faculty Workshop

For the past three years we have scheduled each month a 4th Thursday "Successful Teaching" Workshop for our faculty, from 8-10 am.  It includes breakfast followed by a 90-minute workshop on technologies related to teaching & learning.
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This week's topics are:
1. Demo (Leon Amstutz) -- 66" SmartBoard installed in the newly rennovated Ayres Conference Room.
2. Demo (Rich Parker) -- Rich's fully online Blackboard course, "Music and World Cultures", loaded with multimedia content.
3. Discussion/Presentation (Gary Friesen, Jeremy Case) -- Blogs & Wikis for Classroom and Personal/Professional Use
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Samples of TU faculty blogs:
Win Corduan -- informal style ... frequent postings ... combination of personal, professional, devotional
Andy Rowell -- formal style ... less frequent postings ... professional, church leadership topics
Chris Bade -- using TU's MoveableType blog tool ... combination of personal, professional
Mark West -- using TU's MoveableType blog tool ... I don't know what it is -- it's all in French!

Examples of TU faculty using Blackboard Journal (essentially a blog):
Ron Benbow in his MAT 262 course -- you'll need a TU Bb login to access these courses
Jeremy Case in his IAS 110 course

Example of TU faculty using Blackboard Teams (essentially a wiki):
Jeremy Case in his IAS 495 course

Search sites that help you find blogs:
BlogPulse -- general seach
Technorati -- general search
CyberJournalist -- journalist blogs
eTalkingHead -- political blogs
Rhetorica -- professors who blog

Wikis to explore:
WikiUniversity -- hosts and develops free content for teachers
WikiBooks -- free open-content text books that you can edit
Wiki How -- the how-to manual that anyone can write or edit

Sample classroom assignment:
1. Create and maintain a blog using any free blog tool of your choice (or Bb Journal could be used)
2.  Select five "professional" blogs that you will read on a regular basis
3.  Create a daily entry in your blog commenting on the five blogs, including quotations, links, graphics when appropriate, and your own opinions and analysis

106. ETC Podcast

Back in July I discovered RSS Buddy, a utility to create RSS feeds for a podcast.  This week Steve Curtis and I used RSS Buddy to publish our first Educational Technology Center podcast.  Steve and some of our ETC staff & students have been talking about publishing a regular podcast featuring a wide range of topics. 

Several days ago they recorded the first episode and Steve edited the MP3 file down to 35 minutes.  We used RSS Buddy to create the RSS feed and then submitted it to iTunes.  Within a couple days it was approved and appeared in the iTunes catalog under Education/Technology. The name is ETCpodcast.

To subsribe to the podcast open iTunes ... Music Store ... Podcasts ... and enter "ETCpodcast" in the Search box ...  You'll enjoy it.

97. The Read/Write Web

Will Richardson in his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms writes: "In and of itself the ‘old’ read-only web was a transformative technology. It has changed the way we work, the way we learn, and the way we communicate. I would argue that historians may look back on these past 10 years the same way we look back on the early days of the printing press, the steam engine, or the automobile. The Web has changed our lives.”

Janet and I are at the tail end of a 10-day trip through Canada, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Every motel we have stayed in has had internet access, either in the room or at least wireless in the lobby. In fact, right now Janet is catching a few extra winks and I’m lounging in bed with my ETC laptop writing this blog entry.

The fact that the web has changed our lives is not news to you. What might be news to you is Will Richardson’s next statement: "This 'new' Read/Write Web will change it even more." Yes, what's new is that people can now write to the web using tools that are as easy to use as email. For years it has been possible to publish on the web, but you had to be a techie. You had to be able to navigate Frontpage or some such web editor to create your web site. But with blogs, wikis, and social networking software one can literally sign up and within minutes begin sharing ideas with the world.

Richardson writes, “The bad news is the Read/Write Web threatens to make the differences between teachers and learners even more acute. Whereas students are open to the ways of new technologies, schools by and large are not.” 

What if our writing teachers would encourage their students to write their essays on a blog where they could easily be read by the rest of the class … or their parents, friends … or the world at large? Would their motivation be greater knowing they are really publishing as opposed to generating what they perceive to be busy work that gets graded and thrown away?

We have a success story. This spring I spent a couple days in English Methods (as I have done for the past 4-5 years) teaching these education majors how to use Publisher to make a website to which they would post their group semester projects – lesson plans, course units, links to resources, etc. For the first time we announced that the site would be posted on an external server, linked to the English Dept web site, and kept live for the world to see (including participants at a conference the professor was going to present at later on in the summer). It was amazing to see the difference in motivation as the students attacked a project that was genuine and not just an “assignment”.

89. Getting Ready For the School Year

As you know, one of my projects this summer has been to play with (or should I say "research, analyze, and assess"?) the various digital tools young people are using today.  Much of what I am learning will be presented in various workshops at our 4th annual "Technology for Teaching" Conference to be held the week before the start of school. 

One session in particular is going to be a lot of fun.  We advertised that the first 20 to sign up for the "Tools of the Millennials" workshop would receive a free Olympus WS-320M player.  The session filled up fast! 

The past two years we have had over 80 attend the conference, and this year it looks like we will have even more.  Most of the participants will be our own Taylor faculty, but we have also invited colleagues from nearby institutions.  Here are links to the schedule and session descriptions.  If you are in the area and would be interested in attending let us know.  We might still have a few spots available.

67. Baby Steps

I was talking with one of our professors yesterday in the ETC and he asked the question, "Isn't one of the differences between us and the Millennials is that they have time to play with all of these tools?"  We talked about the load that faculty carry, leaving little time to experiment and simply "play" with technology.  I wish we had a way to lighten this load, to provide an hour or two release time each year for this purpose.   

I believe the secret is to keep taking "baby steps".  That is why I'm writing this blog ... to help with these baby steps.  I'm trying to distill what is out there, and pass on in small chunks what I believe will be most helpful and relevant to teaching faculty.

If you can take a few minutes each day to read the new entry you will keep moving forward and stay current (at least conceptually) with today's technologies.  Then from time to time some tip or utility will strike you and you'll figure out a way to carve out the minutes (or hours) to try to incorporate it into your teaching.

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.

25. The Secret of Success -- A Good Team

A department is only as good as its staff ... and I've got a great one!  Steve manages the ETC and is our video guru.  Joe handles classroom and lab technology. Beth administers Blackboard and takes care of a lot of other administrative functions. Ben is our all-purpose "go to" guy who can handle just about any technical issue.

These four quality individuals are the reason I have time to "play".  They take care of business on the home front, and I am greatly indebted to them. 

It is because of them that I have the freedom to attend conferences, to dream dreams, launch new initiatives, and spend this time learning how to use all these new tools.  I am very fortunate, and grateful.

1. 52-Year-Old Becomes a Millennial

I've been involved in educational technology for 25 years at both the high school and university levels.  Currently I am the Director of Academic Technology at Taylor University, Upland, IN.  Over the past several years we have been very successful at Taylor in moving our faculty toward greater and more significant use of technology.  However, I am not sure many of us understand very well the way the current crop of students uses technology.

Last week at the CCCU technology conference at Cedarville University I was struck by the fact that I really don't understand how today's young people use technology.  I'm totally fluent with the Microsoft Office products, etc., but I don't blog; I don't IM; I don't have an iPod; I've never installed iTunes; I don't listen to podcasts; I've never posted to a wiki, ...

Last Friday, June 2, as the conference began winding down I made a decision -- I needed to become a Millennial!  How else could I effectively help our faculty better connect with our students and leverage the technologies that they are all using?