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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