Instructional Technology in Higher Education

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Comment by Joyce Steelman on December 3, 2009 at 3:59pm

Greetings!

Jeana, thank you for setting up this forum to discuss the use of technology in higher education! I look forward to discussions here.

In the last five years I've gone from being fairly illiterate in technology (I knew word processing!) to being immersed in it. In selecting a quality enhancement project for our accreditation institution, SACS, our community college adopted digital storytelling in our introductory English Composition classes. It has been a wonderful and rewarding experience, changing my attitude and activities in teaching!

A side benefit to digital storytelling has been that I've begun to use other tools, such as blogs and wikis, in my classes. For example, students in my Introduction to Literary Research class create blogs in which they give a personal history of their experiences with poetry, followed by several posts in which they analyze poems of their choosing. The project empowers them and the connectivity of the project through the blog seems to take some of the sting out of reading and analyzing poetry. They also become very creative in designing their blogs!

In the professional writing classes, we use wikis to manage large collaborative projects such as feasibility reports and proposals.

Despite its frustrations and occasional misuse, I truly believe technology has great potential to reframe learning.

Comment by Daniel Christian on December 2, 2009 at 6:31pm

Super -- thanks Jeana.

Daniel

Comment by Jeana Rogers on December 2, 2009 at 6:06pm

Great list of resources. Some of this were new to me, thanks! Here's a few of my favorite DST resources:

http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/
http://www.storycenter.org/resources.html
http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/index.cfm

Thanks

Comment by Daniel Christian on December 2, 2009 at 5:24pm

Hello all --
In case any of the following pages are helpful to someone out there, the following pages are some topics related to technology and education. NOTE: The views expressed on my personal website are my own, and not necessarily of those of Calvin College.

http://www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/
http://www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/smart_classrooms.htm
http://www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/learning_ecosystems.htm
http://www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/1to1.htm
http://www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/online-learning.htm
http://www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/hybrid-learning.htm
http://www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/future.htm
http://www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/digital_audio.htm
http://digitalstudio.calvin.edu/sites/
http://www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/walmartofeducation.htm
http://www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/accessibility.htm
http://www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/digital-storytelling.htm

... and other topics as listed below:

Peace,
Daniel Christian

Comment by Phil Ray Jack on December 2, 2009 at 2:46pm

Jeana,
I use many of the Angel features for my classes -- from linking students to videos and websites to encouraging online discussions. I also assign group projects and set up "teams" on Angel so they have a way to communicate and work together.

My only real complaint about Angel, in fact, are the limits that are imposed by using it. For example, in one class, our textbook publisher offers online support. We have a large number of International Students who really need the extra support, but there is a problem with the connection between the textbook website and Angel, and the link feature doesn't work properly.

Overall, I do find using Angel discussion boards has helped improve our in-class discussions as well.

Comment by Jeana Rogers on December 2, 2009 at 12:15pm

Phil,

Welcome to the discussion. I love that you consider technology a "tool" and not the answer, precisely what it is. And as we all know tools can be used in many ways for many things. I'm curious about the features of Angel that you use in your curriculum. Is it more of a class management tool for you or do you also engage your students in discussions, etc. using Angel?

Comment by Phil Ray Jack on December 2, 2009 at 11:57am

Hi Jeana,
I joined this group for several reasons. Besides being a community college English instructor in Washington State, I am the union president of our faculty local and one of the VP's of our state organization. During the last few years, there has been a strong push for us to "expand" e-learning, use more Open Educational Resources (OER), and move toward a standardized curriculum. I often find myself trying to explain why the mandates are harmful while the tools are helpful.

It has become very clear to me that we have not been spending enough time talking about the pedagogy of using technology, and I am very interested in supporting forums where I can spend more time talking about how to use the resources available to us effectively. I view technology as a tool, not as "the answer," and I'd like to learn how to use the tool more effectively.

So, in answer to your question, I use Angel, which is the platform used statewide for e-learning courses, both for online classes and to support my face-to-face classes. I'm also using videos. I hope to begin using wikis and social media more.

Mainly, I'm here to be mentored.

Comment by Jeana Rogers on December 2, 2009 at 11:39am

Hello everyone. I noticed several new faculty have joined this group recently. I'd love to hear from any/all of you about your experiences with technology in your curriculum. What types of technology do you use? Social media, video, blogs, wikis, etc. and how do you incorporate it into your teaching?

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