There were two articles yesterday that caught my eye; a blog post from Tony Karrer, CEO of Techpower, discussing online conferences versus face-to-face conferences and an article from T.H.E. Journal detailing the technological impact in the classroom regarding online learning versus in classroom teaching.
The United States Department of Education published a report over the summer titled, "Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning; A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies" (Center for Technology in Learning, 2009). What's interesting about this report is that it confirms what many who actual teach or have taught either distance or online courses already know: that there is no significant difference between online learning and the face-to-face experience.
Both present good views on the single thread that “students” whatever the age or at whatever level in their educational process are online. They are texting, twittering, reviewing emails, researching, etc. while listening in class or web conference.
Whether you are a teaching professor at a university or college or a conference presenter it is imperative you are aware of your audience’s mobility and adjust accordingly.
The Report Abstract
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Coaxing students out of the ‘cloud’
While a number of colleges and universities devote resources to keep campus e-mail grounded on their own servers, they are finding it difficult to coax students out of the cloud.
Students are increasingly arriving at college already managing multiple e-mail addresses with “cloud”-based e-mail services -- such as Gmail and Hotmail -- which are hosted remotely by third-party companies. These students are often reluctant to use the e-mail client provided to them by their institution.
“We did a survey several years ago, and the overwhelming majority of incoming students said they had between three and four e-mail accounts,” said Beth Ann Bergsmark, director for academic information technology services at Georgetown University.
In order to keep things simple, many students set up their institutional accounts to automatically forward mail to one of their existing, cloud-based mailboxes. Students prefer not to check multiple mailboxes if they don’t have to, said Geoff Nathan, faculty liaison to computing and information technology at Wayne State University. When he asked his students recently why the majority of them auto-forwarded their e-mails to an outside account, they cited features often unavailable on campus accounts, such as texting, video chatting, and virtually unlimited storage space.
However, this is presenting colleges/universities with a dilemma regarding privacy issues with third party providers. If e-mail accounts are hacked or go down, like Google’s Gmail did recently, how will this effect university communications and what is the institutions responsibility to their students and faculty?
Great questions, not really sure we have the answers yet. As technology begins to grow faster than college e-mail procedures do to implement the advances, only time will tell whether or not the “cloud” will be lifted.
The full article by Steve Kolowich
Students are increasingly arriving at college already managing multiple e-mail addresses with “cloud”-based e-mail services -- such as Gmail and Hotmail -- which are hosted remotely by third-party companies. These students are often reluctant to use the e-mail client provided to them by their institution.
“We did a survey several years ago, and the overwhelming majority of incoming students said they had between three and four e-mail accounts,” said Beth Ann Bergsmark, director for academic information technology services at Georgetown University.
In order to keep things simple, many students set up their institutional accounts to automatically forward mail to one of their existing, cloud-based mailboxes. Students prefer not to check multiple mailboxes if they don’t have to, said Geoff Nathan, faculty liaison to computing and information technology at Wayne State University. When he asked his students recently why the majority of them auto-forwarded their e-mails to an outside account, they cited features often unavailable on campus accounts, such as texting, video chatting, and virtually unlimited storage space.
However, this is presenting colleges/universities with a dilemma regarding privacy issues with third party providers. If e-mail accounts are hacked or go down, like Google’s Gmail did recently, how will this effect university communications and what is the institutions responsibility to their students and faculty?
Great questions, not really sure we have the answers yet. As technology begins to grow faster than college e-mail procedures do to implement the advances, only time will tell whether or not the “cloud” will be lifted.
The full article by Steve Kolowich
Monday, September 28, 2009
Summer vacations may be cut short
If President Obama has his way, they will! The Associate Press reported today on President Obama's comment that "kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe."
Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education concurred in a recent interview, "Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today."
I don't have children, but do have several nieces and nephews and often wondered why school wasn't more of a year-round event with small breaks in between. I think it would be easier on child care for many parents struggling to find "sitters" during long summer time periods.
More importantly I agree with the president that to compete globally, we first need a strong educational system.
Read the full AP article
Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education concurred in a recent interview, "Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today."
I don't have children, but do have several nieces and nephews and often wondered why school wasn't more of a year-round event with small breaks in between. I think it would be easier on child care for many parents struggling to find "sitters" during long summer time periods.
More importantly I agree with the president that to compete globally, we first need a strong educational system.
Read the full AP article
Friday, September 25, 2009
Keeping Social Skills Alive at Online High Schools
As the digital age continues to grow for teen and young adults, online high schools and colleges are concerned with students developing social skills.
This has always been a concern for parents who home school their children. Many home schooled students actually enter high school just to have social interaction with other students through sports, drama, and events like proms.
In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal an article by Paul Glader outlines what some online schools are doing to prevent student isolation.
As online high schools spread, educators are ramping up efforts to counter the social isolation that some students experience. At the same time, sociologists and child psychologists are examining how online schooling might hinder, or help, the development of social skills.
"For online high schools, the biggest obstacle is addressing the social interaction for the students," said Raymond Ravaglia, deputy director of Stanford's Educational Program for Gifted Youth, which Ms. Ray attended. "At that age, people really crave social interaction."
Read the full article
This has always been a concern for parents who home school their children. Many home schooled students actually enter high school just to have social interaction with other students through sports, drama, and events like proms.
In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal an article by Paul Glader outlines what some online schools are doing to prevent student isolation.
As online high schools spread, educators are ramping up efforts to counter the social isolation that some students experience. At the same time, sociologists and child psychologists are examining how online schooling might hinder, or help, the development of social skills.
"For online high schools, the biggest obstacle is addressing the social interaction for the students," said Raymond Ravaglia, deputy director of Stanford's Educational Program for Gifted Youth, which Ms. Ray attended. "At that age, people really crave social interaction."
Read the full article
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Northwestern University Moves Print Journal to Online
Northwestern University announced Monday it will be moving their printed journal to online. With the economic downturn threatening the viability of some university presses, any "review" of a publishing house is likely to crank up the jitters. Northwestern University has "reaffirmed its commitment to publishing and disseminating scholarly writing," and that it will conduct a national search to hire a new full-time director of the Northwestern University Press. But while the review solidified Northwestern's commitment to a sustained role in scholarly publishing, it also reinforced that changes are coming to its press, as to the publishing industry overall.
Beginning next year, the university announced, the press will make its primary journal, TriQuarterly, available only electronically. “This move will align publishing efforts more closely with the university’s academic enterprise while at the same time expanding electronic dissemination and public access to the wonderful literature and essays that are published in TriQuarterly,” said Sarah Pritchard, the Charles Deering McCormick University Librarian. “Scholarly publishing is increasingly moving to open access, allowing greater distribution of academic work. This reflects that trend and allows the journal editors to take advantage of the multimedia capabilities offered through online publishing.”
Read more
Beginning next year, the university announced, the press will make its primary journal, TriQuarterly, available only electronically. “This move will align publishing efforts more closely with the university’s academic enterprise while at the same time expanding electronic dissemination and public access to the wonderful literature and essays that are published in TriQuarterly,” said Sarah Pritchard, the Charles Deering McCormick University Librarian. “Scholarly publishing is increasingly moving to open access, allowing greater distribution of academic work. This reflects that trend and allows the journal editors to take advantage of the multimedia capabilities offered through online publishing.”
Read more
Friday, September 18, 2009
A Party for 'Community'
I first saw Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live (I used to sneek a look when my parents weren't around), and fell for his slap-stick comedy immediately. I've been missing him of late and was glad to see he is back on the tube in "Community" on Thursday nights.
The debut of "Community" an NBC sitcom set at a fictional community college has been the subject of much debate among community college leaders, with some welcoming the attention and others objecting to the way their institutions are portrayed. Administrators and some faculty members of Prairie State College planned a premiere party Thursday night to watch together. And the American Association of Community Colleges has created a blog for viewer comments.
In this economy many students are deciding to go to community college first before moving on to a State or private university. Supposedly any publicity is good publicity. As far as I'm concerned, I thought the show was a hoot and loved seeing Chevy, be Chevy again.
The debut of "Community" an NBC sitcom set at a fictional community college has been the subject of much debate among community college leaders, with some welcoming the attention and others objecting to the way their institutions are portrayed. Administrators and some faculty members of Prairie State College planned a premiere party Thursday night to watch together. And the American Association of Community Colleges has created a blog for viewer comments.
In this economy many students are deciding to go to community college first before moving on to a State or private university. Supposedly any publicity is good publicity. As far as I'm concerned, I thought the show was a hoot and loved seeing Chevy, be Chevy again.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Name that style
Yesterday I read an article in the Shawnee State online news site University Chronicle about a research program being conducted by Professor Loretta Harvey at Ohio State University to study learning habits of students to see if their if a certain learning style has an effect on student performance in class. My first thought was YES or course it does!
Harvey said she hopes that this research project will make students and professors more aware of learning styles. She believes that every student has a learning style (auditory, visual, tactile, and kinesthetic) which best suits him or her, and Harvey says that most of these styles of learning are not being accommodated by lectures.
Again, YES!
In all due respect to Professor Harvey, do we really need a research study to tell us students learn better through interactive teaching rather than lectures. Professors were doing lectures in my day (suffice to say a long time ago). With all the technological advances I would think professors would have changed their teaching styles to meet the student’s style quite a while ago.
Harvey said her research into learning styles began as a project in a quantitative data class at OSU. She says the goal of her research is to "look at students' attitudes towards science, cooperative learning and critical thinking in a science course, and identify their learning style to see if there is a relationship between their attitudes and their learning styles.
Perhaps a professional research study is just what the teacher ordered. Let’s hope professors enter the 21 century and realize “talking heads” are not the way to teach science or any other course for that matter.
Read the full article
Harvey said she hopes that this research project will make students and professors more aware of learning styles. She believes that every student has a learning style (auditory, visual, tactile, and kinesthetic) which best suits him or her, and Harvey says that most of these styles of learning are not being accommodated by lectures.
Again, YES!
In all due respect to Professor Harvey, do we really need a research study to tell us students learn better through interactive teaching rather than lectures. Professors were doing lectures in my day (suffice to say a long time ago). With all the technological advances I would think professors would have changed their teaching styles to meet the student’s style quite a while ago.
Harvey said her research into learning styles began as a project in a quantitative data class at OSU. She says the goal of her research is to "look at students' attitudes towards science, cooperative learning and critical thinking in a science course, and identify their learning style to see if there is a relationship between their attitudes and their learning styles.
Perhaps a professional research study is just what the teacher ordered. Let’s hope professors enter the 21 century and realize “talking heads” are not the way to teach science or any other course for that matter.
Read the full article
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
