The Innovate-Live Seminar Series is a series of webcasts produced by our
partner, ULiveandLearn, that cover timely issues that arise when educators
attempt to use information technology tools to enhance the educational
process writ broad. These seminars will be archived within the
Innovate-Live portal. Particularly relevant discussions may give rise to
articles that could be considered for publication in Innovate. If you would
like to lead a seminar on an issue you regard as timely and important to
the community, please send me a paragraph or two framing the issue and
suggest who would join you in the audio discussion. The deadline for the
fall 2007 seminar series is August 15, 2007.

The 2007 spring seminar series is described below. If you would like to
participate in any of these seminars, please go to
http://www.uliveandlearn.com/PortalInnovate/ and either login if you have
participated in a previous Innovate-Live webcast or take a minute to
register if you haven’t. (Registration is free.) 

June 5, 2007, 1:00 PM EST
Designing Effective Asynchronous Learning in the Virtual 3D Environment
Seminar Leader: Christopher Keesey, Ohio University Without Boundaries 

Ohio University has recently opened one of the first and most comprehensive
virtual campuses of any research institution in the country. The campus was
built in the Internet-based virtual world called Second Life. 

This seminar will use Second Life as a frame for discussing how virtual
environments like Second Life can enhance learning through asynchronous or
simulation-style exercises. Developments like Ohio University's effort
demand that educators think creatively about how to exploit the potential
of these kinds of resources. That is to say, how do we seize the
opportunities that virtual worlds provide to drive learning forward, as
opposed to simply extending the traditional classroom model of learning? 


June 5, 2007, 3:00 PM EST
A Futures Approach to Organizational and Faculty Development
Seminar Leader: James L. Morrison, Editor-in-Chief, Innovate 

Employers are expressing increasing dissatisfaction with the ability of
college graduates to access, evaluate, and communicate information; to use
technology effectively; and to work well with people across cultural lines.
The underlying assumption of this presentation/discussion is that a change
of instructional paradigms--from passive to active (authentic) learning
strategies, such as project-based learning, problem-based learning, and
inquiry-based learning--is needed to address this situation. The purpose of
this seminar is to discuss an approach to modifying organizational culture
so that professors will be more receptive to adopting active learning
methods and using information technology tools to enhance these methods in
their classes. A detailed description of the rationale and approach of this
seminar may be found at http://horizon.unc.edu/conferences/index.html (See
ELME 2007 Conference description).


June 6, 2007, 1:00 PM EST
"What IS English?" Media Networks and Disciplinary Values in English
Education
Seminar Leader: Karen Sterns, SUNY Cortland

Pre- and in-service undergraduate and graduate students come to our courses
in technology applications for English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms with
traditional constructs of English built on outdated notions of what
constitutes literacy learning in a flat world. Students enter our programs
because they love literature, have an interest in creative writing, and
possess orthodox understandings of what it is students need to do in
English class (e.g., study novels from a formalist perspective, prepare for
paper-and-pencil testing, write school-sponsored essays on the literature
they read). Work in new media is considered a distraction from the real
work of the English teacher. Students see no relationship between their own
21st-century literacy practices and their lives as teachers in ELA
settings. They receive little encouragement or modeling of pedagogical uses
of new media in many of the schools in which they observe, student teach,
or teach while they are in our undergraduate or masters-degree programs.

How can teacher educators address changing paradigms in our content area
classes? This session will ask participants to share their own experiences
with disrupting notions of disciplinarity that have held sway in public
secondary education for over a century. How can we best prepare pre- and
in-service students/teachers for rapid change in the knowledge landscape?
What are other programs doing to neutralize the power of long-held beliefs
about what constitutes literacy learning in secondary public school
discourse?


June 6, 2007, 3:00 PM EST
For Digital Immigrants Only: Creating Your Core Communication Network
Seminar Leader: Denise Easton, CEO, ULiveandLearn 

There are a host of new online networks (e.g., Facebook, MySpace) that are
used around the clock by digital natives, but tend to overwhelm digital
immigrants. However, these networks are increasingly important to all of
us, for they link us with organizations and individuals with whom we do
business or with whom we wish to affiliate for personal/social reasons. The
purpose of this seminar is to describe how we can manage online networks by
using rather simple tools freely available to all, and, thereby, create our
own core communication network.


June 6, 2007, 4:00 PM EST
e-Portfolios: New Opportunities for a Timeless Instructional Strategy?
Seminar Leader: Glenn Johnson, Pennsylvania State University 
Panel Members: Philip Burlingame, Pennsylvania State University
David Babb, Pennsylvania State University
Cara Lane, University of Washington 
Vicki Lind, University of California, Los Angeles 

Much attention has been focused on electronic portfolios of late. This
attention comes from a number of perspectives, each with its own agenda in
mind. What is it about electronic representations of student learning that
has higher education looking closely at what is essentially an
instructional strategy? Are there pedagogical efficiencies that can be
taken advantage of? In what ways have e-portfolios impacted teaching and
learning on our campuses? From a different perspective, what are the
institutional returns for this investment in time and resources? Are there
administrative efficiencies here that will allow us to evaluate learning on
grander scales not possible before?

Another application of e-portfolio technology that is just beginning to be
explored is in the area of cocurricular or out-of-class learning. Colleges
and universities provide extraordinary supplemental learning through
workshops, lectures, internships, study abroad and student organization
leadership. Research is now under way to determine the value of using
e-portfolios to communicate high expectations to students and to encourage
students to engage in reflective writing and self-authorship to connect
their curricular and cocurricular learning experiences.

Are e-portfolios more than an instructional strategy? Promise abounds on
all fronts, but can an e-portfolio be both student-centered and
institutionally valuable at the same time? And, to what degree does a
compromise extinguish the promise? This seminar will consider all of these
questions in an attempt to evaluate the real promise--and peril--of
electronic portfolios.


June 7, 2007, 1:00 PM EST
SMS as an Instructional Tool
Seminar Leader: Susana Sotillo, Associate Professor of Linguistics,
Montclair State University 

Preliminary results of an eight-month Short Message Service (SMS) pilot
study on social networks and language functions show that students often
use SMS to request clarification of class assignments, readings, and exam
questions posted to the university's course management system. Students
also use text messaging to justify absences or to request favors, such as
letters of reference or research guidance. This seminar will explore the
use of SMS or text messaging between an instructor and college students at
a large urban state university as a potential pedagogical tool for
encouraging active student participation. An important question that needs
to be addressed is whether it is possible for an instructor to use text
messaging to pose an overarching question that addresses course goals and
objectives (e.g., What is the nature of language? What functions do we
perform with language?). Would this type of question generate thoughtful
student responses? Since text messaging is extremely popular among entering
freshmen, could the use of specific types of questions keep students
interested in a semester-long conversation that would lead to what
education experts refer to as the social construction of knowledge?



June 7, 2007, 4:00 PM EST
Engaging Students
Seminar Leaders: Stephen Soreff and Stan Freeda, New Hampshire Department
of Education 

Teaching means engaging students in the classroom and online. Small group
work, stimulating problems, and humor are important engagement tools.
Online engagement is particularly challenging. Ice-breakers, captivating
websites, videos, audio links, pictures, clever power points, and forums
help instructors gain and keep online student involvement. All participants
are invited to share their experiences and tips of how they engage students
to enhance learning. 


June 8, 2007, 1:00 PM EST
The Quantity vs. Quality Debate in Online Education
Seminar Leaders: Stephen Ruth, George Mason University and Martha Sammons,
Wright State University 

The numbers are amazing. In the United States, eLearning enrollments grew
by 35% in 2005; close to 20% of postsecondary enrollments are online, half
of them in junior colleges. And there are no indications of a slowdown any
time soon. There are, however, disturbing indications that quality is being
affected negatively. Nearly half the US professorate is part-time, and
significant numbers of full-timers avoid teaching online courses if they
can. Jacoby's recent study indicating a clear link between drop-out
rates in community colleges and the number of full-time professors employed
must raise questions about the impact of online courses taught primarily by
adjunct and part-time faculty receiving pay the AAUP once described as near
the poverty line. The Sloan C list has chosen to include only a small
percentage of existing eLearning programs (see "The Sloan Consortium
Homepage at http://www.sloan-c.org/).

Since most eLearning takes place at institutions in the lowest tier of the
US News rankings, adequate funding of quality programs is always in doubt.
In this seminar, we will sort out these findings, assess their
implications, and engage the audience in a discussion of the future
quantity/quality perspective in eLearning.


June 8, 2007, 2:00 PM EST
Implications of the Sloan 2006 Report
Seminar Leader: Alan McCord, Lawrence Technological University 

The recently published Sloan Consortium found that online learning
continues to grow dramatically with no signs of an enrollment plateau.
Lower-level undergraduate students comprise the largest segment of online
learners, but graduate students appear to be taking advantage of online
programs as a way to help balance academic and workplace demands. 

While perceptions of online program quality are improving, significant
barriers to the growth of online programs remain, including increased
faculty skepticism over the past three years about the value and legitimacy
of online learning. More faculty agree than disagree with claims regarding
the value and legitimacy of online education, but a notable increase in the
percentage of faculty who are concerned about the value of online education
deserves discussion. This online dialogue will identify faculty concerns
about online programs, identify institutional and pedagogical practices
that may contribute to increased skepticism, and consider how faculty
skepticism may be addressed.

Please forward this announcement to colleagues who may want to participate
in them.

Thanks!

Jim

----
James L Morrison
Editor-in-Chief, Innovate
http://www.innovateonline.info
Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership
UNC-Chapel Hill
http://horizon.unc.edu