--- Begin Included Message ---
******************************
Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 21:00:06 -0400
From: James L Morrison <morrison@gibbs.oit.unc.edu>
To: horizonlist <horizon@gibbs.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Integrating Information Technology Productivity Tools in Instruction
There are a number of information technology productivity tools that can
enhance the teaching/learning process: the Internet, the World Wide Web,
CD-ROMs, interactive videodisks, along with word-processing, spread sheet,
database, and presentation software programs.
This is a call for manuscripts that provide examples, success stories,
rationale, and tactics of how faculty members have incorporated technology
in their instruction. The objective is to provide guidance to faculty
members who wish to begin using such tools in their own classrooms. The
manuscripts will be developed from thesis paragraphs through completion on
Horizon Home Page.
If you would like to participate in this endeavor, please email me a
manuscript proposal describing your course, your students, the
technological tool(s) you have used, the lessons you learned, and your
recommendations for using information technology tools in the future. We
will post your proposal in the "Integrating Information Technology
Productivity Tools in Instruction" section of Horizon Home Page. Note that
there are two pages in this section, one for college teaching and one for
elementary/secondary teaching. The intent will be to develop an on-line
monograph in each section by soliciting critique/review of drafts (which
will also be posted) until the monographs are completed (September 1,
1996). Microsoft Corporation will publish the section on college teaching
as part of a CD ROM that they wish to distribute (free or at cost) to
college faculty; we are continuing to seek a publisher for the K-12
monograph.
-- James L. Morrison Morrison@unc.edu Editor, On the Horizon 919 962-2517 (office); 919 962-1533 (fax) Professor of Educational Leadership CB 3500 Peabody Hall UNC-CH Chapel Hill, NC 27599 Horizon Home Page http://sunsite.unc.edu/horizon*********************************** ***********************************
Date: Wed, 22 May 96 06:16:50 +0200 From: "Steve Gilbert" <gilbert@clark.net> To: American Association for Higher Education <aahesgit@list.cren.net> Subject: AAHESGIT: New Thread EMail, Elect. Comm.
As another experiment with the AAHESGIT Listserv, I've asked Tom Creed to guest-edit a "thread" addressing computer-based electronic communication with students -- EMail, computer- conferencing, etc. -- specifically focusing on how faculty can best structure its use to maximize student learning. You can either E-mail Tom directly <TCREED@csbsju.edu> or put "ELECTROCOMM" in the subject/title/header of any responses and we'll get them to Tom. Please feel free to submit concerns/questions about electronic communication with students, as well as any good suggestions you have for best using electronic communication -- and the degree to which this discussion needs to encompass other forms of telecommunications and teleconferencing as well. Tom will then shape them into further conversation for posting to AAHESGIT. As you probably know, I think course-related use of EMail is becoming the single most powerful force for integrating info tech into teaching and learning. I also think it often requires considerable work from faculty and students involved. I hope Tom Creed will address the issue of how much his own workload has increased in conjunction with the example he describes below.
Steven W. Gilbert, Director, Technology Projects American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) 202/293-6440 X 54 FAX: 202/293-0073 GILBERT@CLARK.NET http://www.ido.gmu.edu/aahe/Welcome.html
(Approx 90 lines from Tom Creed of Saint John's University/College of Saint Benedict <tcreed@csbsju.edu>.)
Of interest to most of us on this Listserv is how technology can be used most effectively to enhance student learning. One particular application of technology, electronic communication, has the potential to help us extend and enhance the conversation that goes on within the classroom. The technology is available now, does not require great sophistication to use, and is generally available to faculty and students. As with all tools, however, it must be used in a manner that emphasizes effective pedagogy if it is to truly enhance student learning. Roger Johnson, a guru of cooperative learning, frequently says that cooperative learning without a well thought out structure is just another seating plan.
Electronic Communication without student learning in mind can be just one more technological hoop for students to jump through. One of the forces working against effective pedagogy is the fact that campus electronic communication systems have not been designed with effective pedagogy in mind. Many computing staff are not trained in effective pedagogy, and tend to encourage a usage of the system that is not pedagogically sound. Structuring a pedagogically effective use of electronic communication may require extra steps, but the extra effort is worth it. For example, [SOME] electronic communication is designed to encourage simple, immediate communication. Creating, editing and finally sending a file is more cumbersome than dashing off a quick E- mail, which is what the system promotes.
An example of pedagogically driven electronic communication:
As one example of how electronic communication allows me to structure a more pedagogically sound way for my students to complete outside writing assignments, I ask them to submit their written homework two hours before class begins. Since their postings are time and date stamped, I know whether they've done it or not. There are a couple of pedagogical advantages to this. First, they can't do their work on the bus on their way to class. Since they need to do their work at a terminal, they are doing their work in a setting conducive to intellectual work. A computer terminal is a setting that has become associated with intellectual work for most students, so their work will be more thoughtful, and they should be more efficient since the setting evokes scholarly work fairly immediately.
Second, they must do it far enough in advance that they will be engaging the material twice--when they wrote it, and then again when they talk about it in class. The two (or more) hour break between writing it and discussing it is important. The break allows incubation to occur. Incubation occurs when we work on a problem, then leave it alone for a while. Even when we do not actively engage the material during the break, our thinking on the topic improves.
Not only does the two hour lead time allow for incubation for them, but it provides a unique and invaluable classroom assessment technique for me. I can read my students' submissions before class, which allows me to assess what they know BEFORE class begins--I go to class having a good idea what they know and where the problems with their understanding are. This allows me to concentrate on the areas where there are widespread weaknesses. In addition, since they send me their own questions on the reading, I can address the topics that they have already identified as being of interest to them.
Tom Creed, Director, Learning Enhancement Service Professor of Psychology Saint John's University/College of Saint Benedict Collegeville, MN 56321 Phone/FAX--(320) 363-3133,3202 E-mail: tcreed@csbsju.edu Home page: http://bingen.cs.csbsju.edu/~tcreed
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
NOTE: Anyone can subscribe to the AAHESGIT Listserv by sending the Email message (with subject line left blank): SUBSCRIBE AAHESGIT yourfirstname yourlastname to LISTPROC@LIST.CREN.NET If you would like to post a message to the AAHESGIT Listserv, send it to AAHESGIT@LIST.CREN.NET
************************************
--- End Included Message ---
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< David Faulkner D_Faulkner@lbl.gov (don't forget the underscore) 510.486.7326 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>