Back to Work

Watching a video of Dan Roam talking at Google about his book Back of the Napkin. It's about using visuals to solve problems in business. I like the concept. Can we apply it to teaching? To the extent that learning is about solving problems, one can do an overlay of the concept on to education. Creating visuals can be a powerful way to create/share meaning.I find that I want to share things with faculty ... this video of Dan Roam is one of them.

Learning Outcomes in the 21st Century

I led a 1.5 hour workshop on how learning outcomes had changed in the 21st century. It provoked much thinking in me. First I had to clarify for myself what learning objectives and learning outcomes were.

I see objectives as teaching-centered and outcomes as learning-centered. Objectives guide what we teach; outcomes are what we hope students learn. The model of program evaluation works well here. We are both the program implementers (we teach the class) and the program evaluators. Programs can be evaluated in 3 areas: efficiency, effectiveness, and impact. Efficiency is about using the resources appropriately. Effectiveness is about meeting program objectives. Impact is about how the program changes lives. I see a good correlation between efficiency/objectives and impact/outcomes. The model works for me and aligns with my current understandings. Now, to ponder the other pieces.

When I was designing the session, I wondered about participant thinking on the 21st century and on objectives vs. outcomes. I wanted to set a stage for deep understanding of the changes and nature of changes happening in our workforce and our students– I read an excerpt from A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink, provided opportunity for discussions, and showed a video on 21st century students . I appreciated that Evelyn brought up the LEAP Report and that several pointed out the banking attitude that many current students have towards education. Both enriched our thinking.

My hope was that we had shared and deepened our understanding of 21st century challenges and were then ready to talk about learning objectives and outcomes. I didn’t want to give a set answer on objectives and outcomes, hence the World Cafe conversation format. I was surprised by the variety of understandings of objectives and outcomes. Lastly, I wanted to plant a seed of possibility by having each person the story of a student describing his/her class. My hope was to create a subliminal intention to make that story a reality.

Cindy chided me later that we didn’t go back to the issues of the Conceptual Age and what that meant for our learning outcomes. I jokingly replied that I knew I was off the hook- there wasn’t time for that next level of discussion. I apologize that I didn't create an opportunity for that exploration. We set the stage nicely, I think, for that next level. I'd love to hear how the conversation and courses evolve.

Taking a Face to Face Class

I signed up to take a new course in program evaluation - taught by my friend Ed. Several of my colleagues are in the class, too, so I look forward to this as both a learning opportunity and as a way to nurture our learning community.

It's a face-to-face class, but the course materials all reside in Blackboard. So, it's a technology-enhanced face-to-face class. And my work is much more technology-enhanced than I anticipated. We have discussion board posts on the reading; I usually do my writing in Word so that I can proof it easier. Now I am using Google Docs so I don't have to remember which computer I was working on. The easy online access to my documents is quite nice.

I left my book at home (The ABCs of Evaluation by Boulmetis and Dutwin) but had bought the optional online version from Amazon. I logged in to my Amazon account and there was the book. Adding notes, tags, boomarks, and highlights is easy and fun. I can go back to any of these marked pages very quickly too.

Reading online gets tedious after awhile, but having the ability to annotate is great. This may be a great tool. Now, if I can share my markups and annotations with others in the class.....

Beginning of Spring Semester Ruminations

The start of Spring trimester/semester has been less hectic than I anticipated. A few instructors (mostly the newer faculty) have needed help. I have done my rounds of visiting offices and checking in with folks. In general, the faculty seem less frantic than I expected. We have begun our switch to trimesters and our winter break has been shortened a week.

Last fall there were fewer takers of my seminar series and the monthly check-in sessions. For whatever reasons, these were of less need to folks than in the prior year. My assumption had been that folks are busier with the extra demands at the college. Now, I have a couple other assumptions: most faculty have learned enough to "get by" with the distance technology, so there is less desperation. We have settled back into our regular routines. I would like to encourage further learning. How do I make this more enticing and get greater participation?

My two assumptions here are: try different activities (e.g. Saturday sessions) and show exemplars that could lure folks into wanting to model/learn more about them.

I have a survey ready to deploy to determine how best to facilitate deeper learning in technology and the pedagogy of teaching with technology. If one of our goals is to embrace Understanding by Design principles, then that is one area that needs more work. From my experience, this is less alluring than learning technology. I think it's critical, though.

As I look towards the May workshops, maybe one of the entry tickets could be the enduring understandings of one or more classes. I could also tie in to the College's enduring understandings and the 4-part lens that we are trying out.

Spring Semester Starts

My colleagues have made great strides with Elluminate and Blackboard in their distance courses over the past year. I wonder if I could have worked myself out of a job - or more realistically- what will be the next technology trend to incorporate into the work of teaching and learning here at the College of Education. I know that surveys and conversations will help me to determine the course. I also know that sometimes people need a model of what's possible.

I began investigating Facebook last fall. I am in the Alaska Anch network - that's UAA- and there are 4,291 members of that network. 308 of these show up when I search for education - not all are Ed majors, not all are still in school -but it's a place where we could connect with students. I wonder about Club Ed using Facebook or about programs using Facebook to connect/communicate with students.

Second Life has been an interesting process. It's a fascinating virtual world that may have great use for us. I've heard of various uses in educations such as preservice teachers building their ideal classrooms. There is a learning curve with Second Life, and I'm still on it. It may be a fascinating way to have meetings or hold classes at a distance. I will continue my explorations. My avatar is LeeMaria Hifeng.

Oh, and there is the whole creation of interesting content: podcasts, video clips, etc. that I can help folks learn.

Yes, I'll be busy for awhile...

Podcast voice

I'm listening to a podcast on voice. I was looking for how to do voice on line. I've picked up these tips from podcasting-unleashed.com

1. Have passion for your topic
2. Leave them wanting more...
3. The maximum length that someone will listen to a podcast is 7-10 minutes
4. Good stories, well placed, help your talk.
5. Introductions are crucial... you need to capture their attention quickly. Attention spans are short. You can use an enrolling question.
6. Make sure that the quality of your voice is pleasurable to listen to.
7. You are an entertainer... Just get over it...

My Head Spins

I've been a subscriber to the Brandon Hall email newsletter for about a year. Last week they announced that they are discontinuing the newsletter and moving to an online group in Facebook. This gave me an opportunity to check out Facebook. I've joined the UAA network(Alaska Anch) and the Anchorage, AK networks as well as the
Brandon Hall Research Innovations in Learning group. I see some interesting potential in Facebook and the potential of an enormous time sink.

Wandering around today, I came across a project from TechSmith entitled Jing that may be the magic application my coworkers need for creating tutorials. WizIQ appears to be a free-version of an Elluminate-style product. Both intrigue me. Jing is still too early for me to suggest that faculty try it.

My husband bought me the book We are Smarter than Me which is a romp through the ways collaborative networks are changing how we do business.

I tried to get us to use twitter at work, but it failed. Several of the staff are IM'ing with the MSN network. The faculty don't use MSN Networking and will occasionally use IChat. We did not find the value- added of twitter. Maybe if I could have gotten it to work in my ichat client, it would have made more sense.

My paradigm hasn't caught up with all of this yet. Or my curmudgeon is acting up.