D. Save time(money) while improving programs (10 Things I Believe)

I used to believe that education functioned like a recipe: invest in this technology, use it in that way, and you probably get certain educational gains for some particular cost. For example, as a consultant, I'd suggest starting or expanding a distance learning program in order to reach more students at a reasonable cost per student.

Perhaps you think that way, too. Did you ever say, "I can't run a program and produce good results if you give me that tiny a budget!" or "Let's look at the average of what institutions like ours spend on X, so that we can figure out what to spend on X." Both statements rest on the assumption that higher education is at least vaguely like a recipe: if you want to produce a good angel cake, it takes a certain amount of flour, yeast, eggs and so on. Too little or too much of any one ingredient: equally wasteful.

But economist Howard Bowen did a major study (Bowen, 1980) showing that very similar institutions of higher education (similar governance, physical setting, and reputation) spent very different amounts of money per student, and spent each dollar in quite different ways. In other words, there is no 'recipe' (production function) that relates higher education spending with higher education results. So one distance learning program with a particular design and a particular reputation might have low costs per student while another with a similar design and reputation might have high costs per student. Revenues, of course, can vary unpredictably as well.

Having said that, traditional budgets can be misleading. They divide costs by organizational unit, hiding the true costs of educational activities. Each activity is supported by people from several departments and offices. Higher education budgets go mostly to pay for people's time. So the real costs of any given activity (a distance learning program, a large course, an institution's use of clickers) - the real costs of any such activity are driven by how the individuals involved each choose to ‘spend their time.’

I’ll never forget a workshop on cost modeling that we ran some years ago. A faculty member and several staff members were creating a simple spreadsheet that listed the time (money) it took them to implement help that faculty member use a new technology at their college. So the faculty member recorded how he had spent time, and whom he'd asked for help. Those ‘helpers’ also recorded how much time each of them had invested, and noted when they each had asked the instructor to do something.

By the time I listened in, all of them were in a state of shock. Each individual had known that their own roles had been time-consuming (i.e., expensive). But each had assumed that, when they had asked one of the others to do something, it didn’t take that other person much time. However, when they totaled the time each of them had spent, they realized for the first time that the total time (cost) had been staggering.

These kinds of spreadsheets are called activity-based cost models, because they total all the costs associated with doing a particular thing in a particular way. If you can model how something really gets done in your program, you can then use your model to help figure out how to do that thing better, with less stress, and at lower cost. Several of us wrote a book on how to create such models, the Flashlight Cost Analysis Handbook.

At this point, you may be thinking that the way to reduce costs of an activity is for staff to spend less time on that activity. That's a good way to drive away your best staff, if you inadvertently cut down those activities that are most motivating for them! The Handbook includes a wonderful case study by David Pope and Helen Anderson on improving (and cutting the costs of) undergraduate engineering laboratories at the University of Pennsylvania (Pope and Anderson, 2003). Instead of asking each faculty and staff member how much total time they spent on different aspects of running the laboratory, Pope and Anderson asked them to separate time that was fulfilling from time that was burdensome (e.g., training students how to use the laboratory equipment). Armed with those kinds of insights, the Penn team redesigned the engineering laboratories in a way that simultaneously improved learning and made teaching more satisfying, while reducing costs for staff time, equipment breakage, and space.

We've known for years that such cost modeling can produce important insights into how to reorganize work. But it has been so frustrating to see how rarely institutions actually look at their own work. Either times are good so no one cares about costs, or else times are bad so no one has time to do the study...

Nonetheless, what I now believe is:

1. Institutions often have no idea what specific programmatic uses of technology cost, because those costs are spread across different units and consist largely of how individuals spend their time;
2. if a program does study such costs, that study creates opportunities to make programs more effective and work more fulfilling, while also controlling costs.

PS One organization that has done a lot in this area is the National Center for Academic Transformation. Their Redesign Alliance has a couple workshops coming up this fall, focusing on redesigns of large enrollment courses in ways that can improve learning while reducing per-student costs.

Note on this series of blog posts: "Ten Things I (no longer) Believe about Transforming Teaching and Learning with Technology" was introduced in this post. Past posts (and my evolving ideas for future posts) are summarized in this table.

Print References
Bowen, Howard R. (1980), The Costs of Higher Education: How Much Do Colleges and Universities Spend per Student and How Much Should They Spend? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Pope, D. & Anderson, H. (2003). Reducing the costs of laboratory instruction through the use of on-line laboratory instruction. In S. C. Ehrmann, & J. Milam (eds.), The Flashlight Cost Analysis Handbook: Modeling Resource Use in Teaching and Learning with Technology, Version 2.0. Takoma Park, MD: The TLT Group.

4. To help your bottom line, offer distance learning (10 things I no longer believe)

I used to believe that buying into technology for distance learning would help higher budgets by expanding revenues while simultaneously cutting costs (staff costs per student and also facilities spending per student).

Revenue: use distance learning to bring in new students, each paying tuition and/or driving additional state funds.

Cutting costs: The more students per faculty, the lower the cost of faculty per student, so tuition revenue per student comes closer to covering costs. That's simple math. I didn't like the idea of giant distance learning classes. So I urged that distance learning programs focus on attracting more students to under-enrolled courses and degree programs, increasing class sizes from, say, 5-10 students up to 15-20, cutting staff costs/student in half.

Many of us pointed out that distance learning could cut capital costs as well. The institution could serve more students without building and maintaining more classroom buildings, for example.

Similar arguments are made for potential economic gains from hybrid courses and degree programs: ones that reduce but do not eliminate use of classrooms.

Spend on technology in order to save money - it's obvious.

If skeptics doubted the argument, I could point to an example such as the Open University in the United Kingdom, a gigantic institution devoted purely to distance learning. The way it organizes courses and supports learners is entirely different from traditional institutions. The UK does a careful job rating instructional quality, and the OU's programs were rated comparable to those of other bachelor's degree programs. But its cost per student was only about 60% that of campus based institutions in the UK.

Buy technology and develop distance learning in order to make your budget healthier. Evaluative measure: total revenue; operating and capital costs per student. (That's what I used to believe.)

What have you seen? What did you believe, and what do you believe now?
1. Have you seen any examples of technology use saving money on the teaching/learning side of the house? distance learning? on campus? hybrid?
2. Are there any kinds of technology investment in teaching/learning that can predictably save money?

Please click the comment button below (Click the word "Comments" a bit to the right of "Posted by Steve_Ehrmann," below) and tell us what you've seen and what you think.

Later this week I'll summarize what I now believe about technology and how to control costs.

C. Distance (and campus) learning reconceived (10 things I believe)

My conception of ‘distance learning’ has changed over the last thirty years. My old vision, still held by many folks, was explained in the previous post. To explain why and how I’ve changed my mind, let me tell you about five programs I’ve seen over the years.

As you think about each story, consider that a large fraction of your “distance learning” students may well also take courses on your campus. They’re actually not ‘distant.’ But online learning offers them flexibility to have a part-time or full-time job to cover educational costs, to study when and where they want, to carry heavier loads, and to graduate sooner.

1. Bridging distance to include new students, and teachers: About twenty years ago, my friend Prof Nick Eastmond of Utah State taught an educational technology course to distant learners using audioconferencing. Nick invited me to be a guest lecturer for an upcoming session. “You want me to come to Logan?” I asked. “No, just call this phone number at the beginning of the class hour,” he responded, “and talk with my students about evaluation.” I was startled by what I found when I ‘arrived.’ If the students had all been in a room on campus, listening to my disembodied voice coming from a speaker, I probably would have felt distant. But the students, Nick, and I were just talking together on the phone. It was quite intimate. He invited a different expert from around the country to talk with his students by phone every week.

2. Reaching different kinds of students so all students can learn better: In the early 1990s, Leslie Harris was teaching a composition course at a small college. Students would read articles and then write an essay, summarizing evidence and arguing their own points of view about an issue. His students were reading about family and cultures. But they knew relatively little about families or cultures outside their own small world. In addition, the students shared too many beliefs and preferences. In short, there was little room for a real exchange of facts and views.

So, with a friend teaching a similar course at a dissimilar college, Leslie scheduled a series of online chats. At designated times each week, students from the two colleges would enter the same chat room in order to discuss a topic drawn from shared course readings. The students would also collectively contribute to a listserv discussion between the two classes. These conversations could easily grow impassioned. I recall one student writing in the chat room, “I am punching you in the nose!” That provided plenty of energy and direction to the essays students wrote later.

Although difficult to implement, the idea worked well enough that Harris organized several such pairs of composition courses in the early 1990s. Differences among students can be an asset when those differences can lead to productive dialogue, helping students become more self-aware. Bridging distance can help faculty increase such differences by design.

3. Slowing down the conversation in order to improve learning: During that same period, Karen Smith tried a new technique in foreign language learning at the University of Arizona. About forty students in Spanish IV spent some course time using a computer discussion board instead of going to a language laboratory. They wrote to each other in Spanish about many topics, including some issues they chose for themselves (e.g., planning a class party; advising a fellow student who was depressed). Initially these students used the bulletin board by going to a computer lab at scheduled class times. Soon they realized that they could add entries whenever they had access to a computer and a modem. Their contributions to the online conversation were graded on their fluency, not their grammar.

Meanwhile, many other students were assigned to use word processing to write in Spanish instead. And a third large group continued to use the language laboratory. In other respects, all three groups were taught in the same way.

Outcomes of Karen’s experiment: I visited the course that semester, and it was the most enthusiastic group of students I’ve ever met, before or since. Several said, “This is the first time I’ve actually used Spanish!” Second, they liked the deliberate pace of conversation. They pointed out that face-to-face exchange allows little time for silent thought. However, when using the discussion board, these students had plenty of time to interpret what had just been ‘said,’ and then to thoughtfully compose their replies. Third, they could focus on what to say in Spanish without being distracted by worries about pronunciation.

Amazingly, oral examination revealed these students had learned to converse in Spanish better than students who had trained in the language laboratory. The ‘discussion board’ students had become already adept at thinking in Spanish so that was no problem for them during the oral exam; instead they could focus on pronunciation and speed, and they did well. Karen concluded that these students were attracted to invest more time and energy on the course, which would also help explain their superior performance.

Even for undergraduates, joining any discipline is akin to learning a second language and culture. It’s about learning to communicate with a community, learning its language and adopting its values. How do you teach your students to ‘speak’ math, political science, or art? How do they learn to talk together as they do the work of the discipline? Is face-to-face always ideal? Or, sometimes, would a slower tempo and a little distance help them learn new conversational skills? Could you use those technologies to give each student different conversational partners, such as more advanced students or experts? Do participants in such conversations also need specialized tools? For example, should a participant be able to call up a painting, X-ray, or clip of news footage, and then point to elements of that image or video as they discuss it?

4. Global diversity can be a defining strength for a program: My first three stories were from decades past – their lessons do not depend on glitzy new technology. My fourth story is from today, but it’s still not high tech: five leading institutions on four continents collaborate in offering an executive MBA in global management. The US partner in “OneMBA” is the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Students enroll at one of the five institutions and come to campus monthly for meetings of half their courses. Meanwhile, the other half of the curriculum is taught online, each course led by a faculty team from the participating universities. Students from the five institutions work together in virtual teams. In addition, four times during their program, OneMBA students gather to learn and do research together. Significantly, when they meet in the US, they do not come to Chapel Hill; instead, they work together in Washington DC. The world is the laboratory for the students and faculty in OneMBA. By bridging time and space, they’ve created a program that could never have been offered on campus.

5. Including new learners and more diverse resources while saving money: Several institutions have recently developed laboratory equipment that can be used by undergraduates from a distance. Students can plan and carry out their experiments over the Web, and then download their data for analysis. They are running real, physical experiments, not simulations. Zhejiang University in China has pioneered the use of such online laboratories for distance learning in engineering.

MIT’s iLabs software enables institutions to network their online laboratory equipment together, supporting a multi-institution constellation of laboratories with shared tools for scheduling equipment use, storing student data, and other logistics.

However, iLabs has implications beyond reaching ‘distant learners.’ When using a traditional undergraduate laboratory, twenty or thirty students might share ten experimental stations, equipment used intensively for the hour or two of the laboratory session and then lying idle most of the week. That idle, costly, aging equipment has been one reason why undergraduate laboratories are so rare. In contrast, with iLabs, only one experimental station may be needed for a large group because students can take turns using that station, day and night. In fact, a single iLab may have so much capacity that students from other institutions can use the equipment as well. In fact, students in Africa have been using MIT laboratory, and vice versa, at hours when the host institution makes little use of its own equipment.

MIT’s reorganization of the concept of laboratory learning has implications:
• for access (learners half way around the world; learners on campus doing research at night),
• for the character and quality of education (with iLabs as with the web, the more institutions create iLabs, the greater the variety of laboratory equipment available to all participating institutions), and
• for costs (each station and its laboratory space can be used far more cost-effectively because they are used 24x7; even if institutions share the costs of expensive laboratory equipment, paying part of the cost is less than paying the full cost).

Summing up this essay: the terms “distance learning” and “online learning” suggest to many people that a) all the students are far away, b) the goal is to offer courses that are ‘comparable’ with campus-bound offerings.

But these stories all contradict that stereotype. They each improve upon what was previously possible when campus students were either in a classroom, or studying alone, and using only campus resources.

Second, in each case, the improvements in content, access (who can learn), and methods all resulted from the same technology-supported strategy. Eastmond’s use of audioconferencing enabled experts to bring in updated content, access for distant or busy learners, and tighter community, for example. Smith’s use of online discussion made education more accessible and also powered a far better, more engaging approach to learning Spanish.

Third, all but one of the stories involved hybrid strategy: distance and time were used to improve learning, but those elements were complemented with some kind of face-to-face interaction, sometimes nontraditional (e.g., OneMBA faculty and students doing field research together).

Your institution probably offers at least some online learning courses. It is certainly using technology in some ways to enrich education on campus. I suggest bringing those two efforts closer together. Faculty and support services should work together, using available technology, to help improve courses and programs in all three of these dimensions, simultaneously:
• What: How can we update and improve course content, even just a little?
• Who: How can we help even just a few additional people learn (including people whose differences might be assets for our program)? and
• How can each of these people learn a little more effectively than before?

Be pragmatic. When designing a program or improving a course, start with where you need to start (e.g. we want to serve this group of learners, or we want to make this change in content, or we want to make teaching and learning more effective). But then immediately consider how to use technology so that one change can achieve not only your initial aim but also net gains in the other two dimensions as well.

Things I hope you’ll comment about, below; to the right of 'posted by Steve Ehrmann,' click the word "Comments":
1. Does your institution already have any courses or academic programs whose technology-enabled design improves “what, who, and how” simultaneously?
2. If you're a leader at your institution, what kinds of changes in support services could make such a comprehensive approach work? What roles can evaluative feedback play in guiding such academic improvement so that it does succeed in all three dimensions?

PS If you like this series of posts, 'Ten Things I (no longer) Believe About Transforming Teaching and Learning with Technology' and think others should be debating their value and implications, please spread the word. If you got the word by Twitter, please retweet. Thanks!

Accessibility Guidelines for eClips & Brief Hybrid Workshops

Are these simple accessibility guidelines for Brief Hybrid Workshops clear, adequate, reasonable, useful? Too simple? Pls respond via Email gilbert@tltgroup.org or (preferably) comment to this post, below.

My emerging conviction is that our work with 5-Minute eClips and Brief Hybrid Workshops
(for definitions, see below) can be served best by embedding each one in a Web page that includes at least these options or versions for users:

1. Includes enough text that is manageable by screen readers for those who have vision needs or prefer to use screen readers to get enough of the information.

2. Includes enough visible text so that those with hearing needs or preferences can get enough information.

3. Accessible to people who use computers (Macs or PCs) configured in the ways most common during the most recent 3 years.

4. Accessible to people who have Internet connections of most commonly available speeds.

5. Not yet? Accessible to people who use handheld devices (smart cell phones) configured in the ways most common during the most recent 18 months?

The good news is that we now have tools that make all of the above possible more easily, quickly, and inexpensively than ever before - even for those who do not have the resources of major institutions available to them.

If you have suggestions for improving them or other comments, send via Email gilbert@tltgroup.org or, preferably, add a comment at the end of this blog posting (you can do so anonymously or, preferably, with an indication of your name and contact info so that others can respond to your contribution).

For more comprehensive information about Web accessibility, see:

http://www.w3.org/WAI/

http://easi.cc/

Definitions (from www.tltgroup.org/tlt5.htm):

A "brief hybrid workshop" (BTW)
is an activity of less than 15 minutes (preferably closer to 5!) for participants that includes the use of one or more Internet-accessible media clips AND some other files, instructions, activities, documents, plans, guidelines, etc. It is intended to help a group of people produce or learn how to do something useful to them. Participants usually interact with each other and with a leader/presenter/facilitator during the activity. (When run without interruption, all the pre-recorded media elements - the eClips - require less than 5 minutes total. Of course, some groups may find the materials so fascinating that they extend the entire sessions well beyond 15 minutes!)

A "brief hybrid teaching/learning module" (BHTLM)
is the same as a "brief hybrid workshop" EXCEPT for purpose and audience. These modules are intended to help students to learn something in a course (usually undergraduate).

Low-Threshold Approach
The TLT Group is committed to finding, developing, sharing, and publishing Brief Hybrid Workshops that reflect our longstanding work with LTAs - applications and activities that are reliable, accessible, easy to learn, non-intimidating and (incrementally) inexpensive. And we are committed to advocating and demonstrating how to use low-threshold Brief Hybrid Workshops to help others design, produce, use, and improve BTWs.

Steve Gilbert

"Paris je t'aime" and Brief Hybrid Workshops

"Paris je t'aime"
18 brief movies (average 6 minutes, many less than 5) one after another, each filmed in Paris, each a complete episode, each having something to do with Paris and with love. The directors, actors, crews had no other obvious limitations and the composite they achieved together is funny, surprising, poignant, and memorable.

Wikipedia (June 24, 2007):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris,_je_t'aime

Official Web Site (June 24, 2007 - according to Wikipedia):
http://www.firstlookstudios.com/pjt/
Watch the trailer! (Just under 2.5 minutes)

The trailer is charming, and only slightly dilutes and misrepresents the quality of the entire movie. Can't blame them too much for trying to use the popularity of Natalie Portman's face as the beginning of the trailer, but this movie absolutely does NOT dwell on her face or any other easy option. Together, the 18 clips offer glimpses and insights into many more dimensions of love than suggested either by the trailer or by my own expectations of what could be done by these filmmakers under these limitations.

When Sally told me she wanted to go to a movie last night and that this was the one, I reluctantly overcame my end-of week lethargy and joined her. Especially after she told me she had already purchased the tickets online. We were a little later than we liked arriving at the theater (parking on a beautiful, warm summer night in Bethesda Maryland was challenging).

Sally went in to get our seats while I waited in line to buy the largest popcorn bag and some bottles of water - and I thought several times about when I would get to the restroom. I decided that I would try to last through the section with Juliette Binoche (one of my favorites - especially since seeing her in Blue) and then would slip out to the bathroom. I didn't expect I would much mind missing one or two episodes.

I joined Sally in the theater just in time for the beginning. Juliette Binoche was not in the first few. But I never thought again of leaving my seat. Each clip was complete. Some were quite funny. Many were poignant. Some were powerful, memorable, surprising.

In the last year I've become obsessed with the educational potential of "Brief Hybrid Workshops" - combinations of brief "eClips" with face-to-face or online synchronous interactions. By "eClips" I mean multimedia recordings available via the Web. We're combining the new power, availability, ease of use, and low price (much free) of new tools and resources for producing and publishing eClips with Todd Zakrajsek's idea of "5-Minute Workshops". Visit our growing set of ideas and resources and links to some great examples about Brief Hybrid Workshops at http://www.tltgroup.org/tlt5.htm

"Paris je t'aime" demonstrates the remarkable variety and power of what can be communicated in a few minutes by talented people. I don't expect that our educational "brief hybrid workshops" can often achieve anything close to this level, nor do we need to. But if we move even a little in this direction, we will achieve a lot!

I hope you will be inspired - not daunted - by the quality and variety of episodes in "Paris je t'aime," to join our work on Brief Hybrid Workshops.

Please send more examples of brief, effective "eClips" or ideas for using such things for educational purposes - especially to help with enabling and encouraging faculty members to take advantage of new opportunities to improve teaching and learning with technology.

Send to gilbert@tltgroup.org or, better, add a comment to this posting - click on "comment" below. Please include your email contact info so that we can invite you to introduce your idea in one of our online sessions!

Sally and I are going to return to see "Paris je t'aime" again soon - maybe tonight.

Hope you enjoy it, too - soon!

SteveG

Gandhi's List: - Brief Hybrid Workshop - SUGGESTIONS

Gandhi's "Seven Blunders of the World" That Lead to Violence ...Plus 6
Activity developed and revised by Steven W. Gilbert, TLT Group.
See: http://www.tltgroup.org/GandhisList.htm

Welcome your suggestions, etc. about how and when to use this Brief Hybrid Workshop and/or the eClip within it.

Pls click on "comments" or "post a comment" just below this posting to leave your suggestions for the TLT Group's Online Professional Development Workshops about educational uses of blogs, wikis, feeds, .... Web 2.0 + Social Networking
See more detail than you probably want or need about how to ensure we receive your comment/suggestion at the very end of this posting in italics.

Thanks,
Steve Gilbert

NOTE: MORE DETAIL THAN YOU PROBABLY WANT OR NEED
To be sure we receive your comment, click on one of the options below the box in which you entered your comment. Then type in the letters that you see in the weird script in the most obvious place - the "word verification" box. THEN CLICK ON "LOG IN AND PUBLISH" - DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE "LOG-IN" PART. You do NOT need to have a Blogger account to leave a comment. If you wish to comment anonymously, click in the circle to the left of that option. If you want to avoid getting a Blogger account, but want to indicate who you are, add your name and contact info WITHIN your "comment" and then choose the "anonymous" option.

Web 2.0 Meets SOTL - 3+ Big Questions

Recent and emerging Web-based tools (often referred to as "Web 2.0") extend the time and space for teaching and learning, as well as interaction and communication, in ways that both enhance and challenge these activities. Please consider some emerging questions about learning and teaching in emerging environments - classroom, online, hybrid - within the context of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL).

What are the most pressing questions, promising directions for scholarly research prompted by Web 2.0? How can (and should?) teachers use new tools to act more like researchers? What kinds of intra- and inter-institutional collaborations can build our knowledge about how to improve teaching and learning?

These 3 questions are expanded below, with some comments and references, after brief explanations of SOTL and Web 2.0.

"SOTL" "… fosters significant, long-lasting learning for all students; enhances the practice and profession of teaching, and; brings to faculty members' work as teachers the recognition and reward afforded to other forms of scholarly work. …"

From - CASTL Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at:

http://www.carnegiefoundation.org
/programs/index.asp?key=21

"Web 2.0" Very loosely defined term that includes blogs, wikis, MySpace, … for more than you need to know about this term, see: "What Is Web 2.0 - Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software" by Tim O'Reilly at:

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/
news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

(1) Most Pressing Questions?
What are the most pressing questions about the educational uses of Web 2.0 tools that should shape areas for research for those interested in the scholarship of teaching and learning?

How can this research be guided to be especially helpful to those who decide which Web-based tools and resources are most promising and worthy of investment and support?

(2) Teachers Use New Tools to Act More Like Researchers?
In her plenary for the ISSOTL 2006 Conference, Diana Laurillard asks:

"A research-based approach to learning design is not sufficient. Innovative teachers need to be able to act like researchers as well. Could teaching innovation be more like research - exploratory, building on the work of others, experimenting, redesigning, sharing ideas, a community…?"

* In what ways might emerging, Web 2.0 technologies, help teachers "act more like researchers" especially by providing new ways to capture data and evidence of learning and learning processes?
* Do all "innovative teachers" need to "act like researchers" vis a vis their own teaching?
* Is "teaching innovation" a goal in itself? Can teaching and learning be improved in ways that Laurillard would NOT describe as innovative?
* Are all effective teachers innovative?
* Are all good teachers aware of all their own gifts? Do they need to be?

See: "Personalizing Pedagogy"
http://www.tltgroup.org/PersonalizingPedagogy/Home.htm

which begins:

" There are many kinds of good teaching and good teachers -- just as there are many kinds of learners and learning. New applications of technology have made it possible to respond to different learning needs more realistically and intentionally. Now it is also becoming possible to enable more faculty to improve teaching and learning in different ways. Information technology offers new options for matching diverse needs with diverse gifts. [Information technology can be the excuse and the means to ....]"

(3) Collaborate to Build Knowledge about How to Improve Teaching and Learning: Institutional and International?

What new kinds of collaborations around the investigation of teaching practice and student learning do new Web 2.0 technologies support that weren't possible before these tools were readily available?

Can you describe an instance in which faculty members, educational technologists, and other academic professionals collaborated on projects in which they used new technological tools to gather evidence of student learning and then used this evidence to support the improvement of teaching practice? To support the improvement of educational uses of technology?

What possibilities do you see for such collaborations?

Are there research or inquiry themes for which you are seeking collaborators?
What factors are likely to help make this collaboration effective? Already established patterns of communication within the institution?

What, if any, are the likely sources of misunderstanding, miscommunication? Lack of shared vocabulary? Lack of awareness and understanding of each other's conceptual frameworks? Priorities? Interests? Assumptions about how the world works?

Advice to Bloggers - Always Use Ping-o-Matic

ADVICE: use Ping-o-Matic whenever you think your blog might have gotten messed up in a way that interferes with the RSS or Atom feed available for it.
Ping-o-Matic (free) enables you to get a feed reader or news aggregator or directory to update info from/about a partciular feed immediately - instead of waiting for the next scheduled updating time for that reader/aggregator. E.g., you can get Bloglines to update the current info about the latest change in this blog! Very useful if you suspect that a recent change in your blog (or whatever you are running that produces a feed) has somehow damaged the feed or that something might have happened that will inconvenience your feed subscribers.


I just added "Ping-o-Matic" to my list of favorite tools.
[See: Favorite Online & Laptop Tools - SWG ]

"Class Size" - Sampling vs. Covering: Dangerous Discussion/Clothing the Emperor

"Class size" has long been a Dangerous Discussions Issue, but now more than ever. Pressures to increase class size, especially in online or hybrid/blended courses, are growing - just when many faculty members already feel overloaded. Many people are still only beginning to learn how new educational uses of technology can support different ways of teaching and learning and different class sizes. Opportunities to discuss the implications of these new options openly, civilly and constructively are all too rare.

For info about TLT Group's next Online Workshop about this topic - November 2, 9 and 16, 2006, see below and:
http://www.writely.com/View?
docid=ajcxc7jhbwxg_13dwhpds

Powerful principle: Sampling vs. Covering

Most effective learning and teaching happens somewhere between
"anywhere/anytime/anything/anyone"
and
"everywhere/everything/everytime/everyone"

Every teacher makes sampling decisions about almost every aspect of teaching and learning: selecting a group of topics, a group of students' responses, some portions of students' work, some individual students, etc. to deal with as a meaningful representative of the full collection of such items or people. For example, during a traditional classroom discussion, a teacher may invite only a few students to respond to a few questions about a reading assignment that was to be completed in preparation for the class.

Traditionally this has applied primarily to choices about topics to be covered in assigned readings, discussions, laboratory work, and classroom presentations within a course. However, educational conditions are changing so that teachers and learners have many more choices about what, how, and when to learn and to teach - and about what, how, and when to interact with each other. The sampling decisions have become more important and more dangerous to leave to old habits and assumptions that may no longer apply.

For more on this topic, this excerpt is from:
http://www.tltgroup.org/ProFacDev/
DangerousDiscussions/ClassSizeSampling.htm

Class Size Online Workshop
Thursdays, November 2, 9 and 16, 2006 3:00 - 4:00 pm EDT
Leaders: Cynthia Russell, University of Tennessee Health Sciences, and John Sener, Sener Learning Services

To see more about what we'll be discussing and our two guest leader/presenters, visit:

http://www.tltgroup.org/
clothingtheemperor/class-size.htm

SUGGESTION BOX Blogs/Web2.0 Online Prof. Dev. Workshops TLT Group

Welcome your suggestions, etc.

Pls click on "comments" or "post a comment" just below this posting to leave your suggestions for the TLT Group's Online Professional Development Workshops about educational uses of blogs, wikis, feeds, .... Web 2.0 + Social Networking
See more detail than you probably want or need about how to ensure we receive your comment/suggestion at the very end of this posting in italics.

Review related Writely planning document.
http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=ajbkv7nhdrt8_22hrqq8c

I welcome your ideas - leave your name, contact info so we can respond, thank you... or leave your comments anonymously. You can:

• Tell us what would be most helpful - topics, dates, times, media...
  
• Request to become a "Collaborator" for that document so that you can add items directly yourself.
• Ask questions
• Suggest something else we haven't even thought of
  

Thanks,
Steve Gilbert
NOTE: MORE DETAIL THAN YOU PROBABLY WANT OR NEED
To be sure we receive your comment, click on one of the options below the box in which you entered your comment. Then type in the letters that you see in the weird script in the most obvious place - the "word verification" box. THEN CLICK ON "LOG IN AND PUBLISH" - DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE "LOG-IN" PART. You do NOT need to have a Blogger account to leave a comment. If you wish to comment anonymously, click in the circle to the left of that option. If you want to avoid getting a Blogger account, but want to indicate who you are, add your name and contact info WITHIN your "comment" and then choose the "anonymous" option.

New Student Activities: Facebook?

If you haven't noticed Facebook yet, you should. Yet the latest of the ever-more-rapidly-spreading student uses of technlogy, Facebook first seems to be a significant distraction from academic work. Could it be used in some ways to encourage, support, or extend teaching, learning, scholarship, reserach, civil constructive communication and collaboration?

"Facebook is the popular college-based social network Web site. Like MySpace, people can post profiles with pictures, blogs and so forth and let friends within their networks have access to the material. Unlike MySpace, it is something of a closed community, limited to college campuses, high schools, workplaces and geographic regions."

From: "New-Media Richcraft Invites Priceless Comparisons," By Frank Ahrens, Washington Post, Sunday, September 24, 2006; F07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content
/article/2006/09/23/AR2006092300031_pf.html

Also see "7 Things You Should Know About Facebook " (ID: ELI7017), in the Educause Resource Center at: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7017.pdf

Welcome to CATs Online Workshop [Begins 9-12-2006]

Welcome!
Please leave a comment introducing yourself. If you like, add a question or suggestion for this workshop. Best of all, suggest some additional resources - esp. an example of a CAT that has been used online - that your colleagues in this workshop might find interesting and useful.

Visit the home page for this workshop at:
http://planning.tltgroup.org/CATsFall2006/workshop.htm


We look forward to communicating with you during the next 2+ weeks!
Steve Gilbert

Welcome to TLTG OLI Blog/Intro Workshop [begins 9-12]

Welcome!
Please leave a comment introducing yourself and giving the URL for a new Blogger blog you've created for mutual use in this workshop! If you like, add a question or suggestion for this workshop. Best of all, suggest some additional resources that your colleagues in this workshop might find interesting and useful.

Visit the home page for this workshop at:
http://planning.tltgroup.org/blogswikisworkshopfall2006/workshop.htm


We look forward to communicating with you during the next 2+ weeks!
Steve Gilbert

My Favorite Online Tools [& Info Tech Devices]

Here [below] is a list of the online tools, resources, and related devices that I use most often, depend on, or just really like - they are mostly new, Web-based, and free. My list is probably unique in the universe - almost like a fingerprint - and you probably have a unique list too. [See "reprint" about Fingerprint Computers in previous TLT-SWG blog posting: "Fingerprint Computers" vs. Standardization [Revisited].< http://tlt-swg.blogspot.com/2006/07/fingerprint-computers-vs.html>

If after reviewing my list you think I am missing some terrific tool or new Web-based resource - one of your favorites - please share that info with me and others by adding a comment to this posting. If you would like to add your own separate list, let me know and I will give you editing access to the Writely document I use to accumulate/modify my own list.

In the list below, I've indicated the tools/resources I rely on most frequently, completely with a "*". I've marked those that were new to me in the past year with a"&". Those that are free - or almost free (legally!) are marked with "-$". Those that have a significant but reasonable fee are marked "$". The list that follows has 4 sections; within each section the items are listed in alphabetic order - not in order of preference or quality:
1. MOST DEFINITELY - WILL FIGHT TO KEEP THESE! - Free or very inexpensive
2. MOST DEFINITELY - WILL FIGHT TO KEEP THESE! - Significant but reasonable fee
3. STANDARD – FOUNDATION TOOLS, RESOURCES
4. NOT SURE YET – BEGINNING TO USE MORE OFTEN
5. DEVICES
6. SERVICES


1. MOST DEFINITELY - WILL FIGHT TO KEEP THESE! - Free or very inexpensive
Amazon.com * -$
Audacity *& -$
Bank of America online banking * -$
Blogger *& -$
Bloglines *& -$
eBay -$
Feed2JS *& -$
Google * -$
Google Desktop *& -$
Google Local *& -$
Google Maps, Directions *& -$
MERLOT - collection -$
MERLOT - sharing tools -$
-$ Print FedEx Kinkos
Skype/Skylook [free/inexpensive phone via Internet + dial from Outlook contacts + record directly onto computer] *& -$
Solitaires (Spider, Free Cell, ...) * -$
Spybot Search & Destroy -$
Yahoo Widgets [analog clock; weather; wireless meter *& -$
Writely *& -$

2. MOST DEFINITELY - WILL FIGHT TO KEEP THESE! - Significant but reasonable fee
Flashlight Online * $
Income Tax Software (TaxCut) * $
iVocalize *& $
RoboDemo (or equiv...) $
SecondCopy * $
Skype + Skylook *& $

3. STANDARD – FOUNDATION TOOLS, RESOURCES
AOL * $
AVG (virus protections, etc.) * $
MS Windows Media Player * $
Quicktime Player *
Adobe PDF *
Google Pack http://pack.google.com/ *

Microsoft Office Suite * $
FrontPage
IE
PowerPoint
Outlook
Excel


4. NOT SURE YET – BEGINNING TO USE MORE OFTEN
Acez & -$
Concept Mapping -$
CrystalTech & $
Digital Voice Editor 2 & $ [Sony Digital Voice Recorder]
Feedburner & -$
FeedForAll & -$
iTunes & -$
MS Money $
Photo editing software (e.g., Picasa2) -$
Trillian Pro & $ (easier management of multiple IM "channels")
Voice Recognition - cell phone? $
Voice Recognition - transcription $
Voice Wizard Editor & Voice Wizard + [Digital Voice Recorder] $

5. DEVICES
Laptop * $$
Cell Phone
PDA
Digital Camera (stills, videos) * $$
*&Treo 650 - Cell Phone + PDA + Camera * & $$
*Digital Voice Recorder * & $
*Telephone recording adapters * $
*Internet-Phone Gizmo * $ [Links Internet audio sessions with telephone conference calls]
*Headsets * $
Headset - Bluetooth & $
Copier/Scanner/Printer/Zoom * $

6. SERVICES
Telephone conference calls * $
Telephone conference calls toll free * $$
Skype/Skylook * & [$]