CUTTING THE WIRES

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CUTTING THE WIRES

• Preparing for the Connected Learning Environment

Paul Bowers Director, Teaching and Learning with
TechnologyBuena Vista University
bowers.bvu.edu tltc.bvu.edu/ebvyou
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eBVyou Overview

• There are three kinds of death in this world.
  There's heart death, there's brain death, and
  there's being off the network.
• -- Guy Almes Chief Engineer, Internet 2

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What IS eBVyou?

• A plan for what we like to call,
• The nations first wireless community.
• Campus-wide wireless network
• ALL full-time students and faculty equipped with
  wireless portable computers

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UBIQUITY!
Everyone Everywhere ALL the Time

• ALL Fulltime Faculty and Students
• EVERYWHERE on our 60 Acre Campus
• 24 Hours a day, 365 Days a Year

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WHY eBVyou?

• Already today, belonging to a digital culture
  binds people more strongly than the territorial
  adhesives of geography - if all parties are truly
  digital. Like air and drinking water, being
  digital will be noticed only by its absence, not
  its presence
• But the really surprising changes will be
  elsewhere, in our lifestyle and how we
  collectively manage ourselves on this planet
• --Nicholas Negroponte, MIT Media Lab

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WHY eBVyou?
Institutional Mission Values Careers

• EDUCATION FOR SERVICE
• NEW AMERICAN COLLEGE STRATEGIC INTENT
• LIBERAL ARTS TRADITION
• STUDENT COMPETITIVENESS

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eBVyou Goals

• Implementing our wireless mobile computing
  environment SHOULD increase
• ACCESS
• Sustainable Support
• Collaboration Productivity

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Cyber Age Shifts
Being Told(Authority Based)
Deductive(LINEAR)
Dont KnowWont Try
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Cyber Age Shifts in Action
Which of the THREE does not belong?
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Metaphors?

• Like finger paint (and unlike television),
  computers can be used for designing and creating
  things.
• In addition to accessing existing Web pages,
  people can create their own. In addition to
  downloading MP3 music files, people can compose
  their own music. In addition to playing SimCity,
  people can create their own simulated worlds.

Revolutionizing Learning in the Digital
Age Mitchell Resnick, MIT Media Lab
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Cutting the Wires The Realities

• You will have to change how you teach
• Wireless transformations occur outside of the
  classroom first
• Classroom LEAP or Classroom FLIP?
• The NEW Digital Divide The N-Gen
• CONTROL or EMPOWERMENT?
• The DIGITAL REVOLUTION is already over- New
  Skills are REQUIRED
• The stakes for INFORMATION LITERACY have
  quadrupled.

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7 Principles of Good Practice

• Encourages Contacts Between Students and Faculty
• Develops Reciprocity and Cooperation Among
  Students
• Uses Active Learning Techniques
• Gives Prompt Feedback
• Emphasizes Time on Task
• Communicates High Expectations
• Respects Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning

Source AAHE
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Encourages Contacts Between Students and Faculty

• Synchronous and Asynchronous communication 24X7
  contact
• Ease of Scheduling time
• MOVEABLE Office (Office hours in the Union?)
• Alternate forms of communication
• Record of all communication (e-grading)

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Develops Reciprocity and Cooperation Among
Students

• EVERBODY Participates
• Threaded Discussions
• Survey Tools
• Student Critique of Student Work (peer
  evaluations)
• Virtual Collaboration SUPPORTS F2F Collaboration
  (Wireless Reporting)
• Students can SEE other students work

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Uses Active Learning Techniques

• Relevance of IMMEDIATE access to information
  (Drama class, Reporting)
• Visualization of processes (biology)
• Individualized and customized activities (Math
  applications)
• Creative and Construction projects (Marscape
  project, software engineering)
• Student contributions as course content (Written
  communication studies)

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Gives Prompt Feedback

• Online tests and quizzes
• Online gradebook
• Peer Evaluations
• Feedback Tools (Silicon Chalk, Kens Feedback
  client)
• Instant Messaging (?)
• Return Assignments any time

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Emphasizes Time on Task

• Destroys vestigial notions of SEAT TIME
• Broader distribution of student work
• Access to tools and information no longer the
  obstacle
• Access to information/tools shifts
  responsibilities toward student

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Communicates High Expectations

• More explicit Instructions
• Provide USEFUL resources and problems that drive
  students to use the resources as a solution
• Increase peer response and evaluation
• Collect/Display exemplary student works
• Provide relevant models for student work

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Respects Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning

• Multimedia presentations
• Visual
• Auditory
• Kinesthetic
• Alternate paths for communication providing a
  voice for all
• Provide alternate venues and formats for student
  work project based assessments

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If I were a Wireless Teacher,I would

• Put ALL Course material online
• Receive and return coursework electronically
• Provide online practice quizzes and tests
• Structure class assignments around
  explorations/analysis of web resources- report
  findings
• Ask students to generate knowledge content for
  the course

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If I were a Wireless Teacher,I would

• Make extensive use of a Course Management System
  and associated Tools
• Develop a CLEAR classroom policy on appropriate
  use of electronic devices
• Model for good behavior
• Student Responsibility Pledge
• TALK to students about e-devices policy and
  behavior
• Move more lecture material to the web, make room
  for classroom activities that engage students

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If I were a Wireless Teacher,I would

• Give frequent surveys, practice quizzes, and
  discussion assignments
• Work to engage students through the entire week,
  not just the class periods
• Work with students to represent information in
  multiple formats
• Increase collaborative projects structured around
  problem solving and analysis
• Communicate with students out of class much MORE

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If I were a Wireless Teacher,I would

• Encourage students to communicate much more with
  each other outside of class
• Use more video, audio, animation material to
  illustrate course concepts
• Use more webographies and structure interactions
  around them
• Focus on authentic/project-based assessments

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If I were a Wireless Teacher,I would

• Of COURSE, FIRST, ID ASK WHY

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In Conclusion

• Be a CULTURIST not a TECHNOLGIST
• Think INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN not DELIVERY
• Understand Student Needs
• Articulate Clear Objectives
• Intentional Teaching Strategies
• Practice and Feedback
• Assessment (tied to objectives)
• REMEMBER Discovery RULES over Talk!

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Teaching and Learningin the Wireless Environment

• Discovery rules over talk
• ENHANCES face-to-face contact
• EMPOWERS the learner
• Learning is no longer limited by space and time

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Teaching and Learningin the Wireless Environment

• Increased capacity for immediate feedback
• Emphasis on lifelong learning over content
• Computers as construction devices, not just for
  communication
• Computers as DISTRACTION

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EXAMPLES

• Virtual Office Hours
• Blackboard Course Assessment as Discussion
  Builders
• Instant Feedback Java Applet
• Wireless Reporting
• Theatre/Reporting Web Browsing
• Wireless Writing- Peer Editing
• Student Union Office Hours
• Cookies Project

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WIRELESS DISTRACTIONS

• Instant Messaging
• In-Class Email/Web Browsing
• MP3 Downloads
• Pornography/Sexual Harrassment
• General Netiquette

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DISTRACTING ISSUES

• Natural Evolution or Unnatural Disaster?
• Student Laziness or (lack of) Student Engagement?
• Faculty Control or Faculty Helplessness?
• Student Control or Student Helplessness?
• Wireless Gimmick or Engaging Challenge?

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FACULTY DEVELOPMENT
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Source THE Journal, Feb 2000
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