Hello!
Details below of a very interesting online seminar series, for anyone
busy engaging with the electronic side of teaching and learning -
Registration is free.
James
-----Original Message-----
From: James L. Morrison [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 02 May 2007 19:59
To: James Simpson
Subject: [Innovate] Innovate-Live Spring Seminar Series
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
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