I hope to be posting a series of quick notes based on the Educause sessions that I'm attending. This is the first.
I'm at a session discussing the top teaching and learning challenges. They did an overview of three challenges:
Okay...getting up to participate around a flip chart...
... back now with a new "I challenge you!" sticker on my jacket. I also got to talk briefly with Cyprien Lomas (really smart guy from University of British Columbia if you don't know who he is). People are lined up behind a mic and reporting out now.
Top challenges (I don't agree with all of these -- just reporting out):
Overall, interesting and engaging session format. I think some of the report-out ideas are one-sided. In particular, I don't know that you can brainstorm and get into deep thinking about what faculty development and reward actually means. It's not just workshops and money. Long-term engagement, faculty partnerships, research, and publications have to be factored into the equation. There also seems to be a blind spot, as if the problem exists outside the group and that we (IT staff, administrators, etc...) don't also have the same challenges with appropriate adoption of new technologies and processes. Do most IT staff understand learning theory? Most don't have a background in education or much (if any) teaching experience, yet they build tools and set policies that affect teaching and learning.
Anyway, lots of food for thought.
I'm at a session discussing the top teaching and learning challenges. They did an overview of three challenges:
- We're in a tool-rich, but use-poor situation. We have blogs, wikis, games,
- Literacies: Written, Oral, and Visual media that includes the specialized vocabulary and techniques of each
- The challenge of introducing new technology to faculty. Students are willing and ready to adopt, but faculty lag significantly behind since they are not technology experts and don't get rewarded for their use of technology.
Okay...getting up to participate around a flip chart...
... back now with a new "I challenge you!" sticker on my jacket. I also got to talk briefly with Cyprien Lomas (really smart guy from University of British Columbia if you don't know who he is). People are lined up behind a mic and reporting out now.
Top challenges (I don't agree with all of these -- just reporting out):
- Faculty don't know what they don't know (use of CMS tools as places to dump PowerPoint). Lack of understanding of learning theory in teaching application. We teach the way we were taught.
- Micala speaks: We need ways to reward faculty for using technology
- Assessment: how do you assess new media to measure impact. Use of technology alone isn't enough
- Faculty Development: rewarding innovation and risk taking, assessment, stretching resources to make the tools available
- Larry Ragan: Identifying and measuring core competencies for instructors. How Web 2.0 technologies tie together and relate to each other in a coherent way.
- Producing effective solutions that actually impact teaching and learning.
- Teaching transferrable skillsets: teach faculty and students fundamentals that are not tied to a particular technology. The technologies will change.
Overall, interesting and engaging session format. I think some of the report-out ideas are one-sided. In particular, I don't know that you can brainstorm and get into deep thinking about what faculty development and reward actually means. It's not just workshops and money. Long-term engagement, faculty partnerships, research, and publications have to be factored into the equation. There also seems to be a blind spot, as if the problem exists outside the group and that we (IT staff, administrators, etc...) don't also have the same challenges with appropriate adoption of new technologies and processes. Do most IT staff understand learning theory? Most don't have a background in education or much (if any) teaching experience, yet they build tools and set policies that affect teaching and learning.
Anyway, lots of food for thought.
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