CTL Clippings

Great New Online Usage Study from Pew Internet & the American Life Project

noreply@blogger.com (Zala Fashant) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:29:00 +0000

Generations Online in 2009

"Over half of the adult internet population is between 18 and 44 years old. But larger percentages of older generations are online now than in the past, and they are doing more activities online, according to surveys taken from 2006-2008.

Contrary to the image of Generation Y as the "Net Generation," internet users in their 20s do not dominate every aspect of online life. Generation X is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email (although teens might point out that this is proof that email is for old people)."

What I found interesting in this study was for all the information we hear about younger people being digital native there are many older generational digital immigrants staying connected. Each of the areas of the study provide a variety of graphs showing who and how Americans are using the Internet. If you are working online or with those who are working online, this study is worth a look!

Zemsky's Big 3: Learning, Attainment, Money

noreply@blogger.com (L. Milne) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:02:00 +0000

Robert Zemsky has written two commentary pieces recently in Inside Higher Ed. In the first, on September 4, he discussed topics that higher ed reformers are distracted by and, in his view, should leave alone. In the second, on September 14, he discussed about as clearly as has anyone, the three topics that should demand the academy's attention, action and reform: learning, attainment, and money. I couldn't agree more with his selection, and think that these would make a great core for the Board of Trustees' next revision of the strategic plan.

While I applaud Zemsky's summary, I do think that his discussion of the specific challenges in our assessment of learning is a bit shallow, and leads him only in the end to suggest that brain research will in coming decades help us better know whether and what students have learned. He describes the current state of affairs as argument between those in "two linguistic cul de sacs"--champions (or at least testers) of rote learning, and a supposedly opposite camp that teaches for creativity and critical thinking. It's a false dichotomy. "Experts in the process of learning," know that learning involves a great deal of memorization, rehearsal, and automaticity, often as a necessary precursor to or basis for analysis, synthesis and creativity. Experts in their own fields usually have to teach for a long time, and with a good deal of critical attention, before they gain the understanding of student learning that helps them know how to structure learning toward ever more sophisticated ends.

Zemsky still makes a strong case for the need for the investors in higher education to act as though learning is the important goal: important not just to teachers and students, but to society:

In fact, the absence of adequately defined testable learning outcomes reflects the fact that getting a good answer to the question [how and what are students learning?] has to date not proved very important. The United States continues to invest vast sums of money in an enterprise whose most tangible outcomes are only tangentially related to learning. Were this country -- or any country -- to decide it was important to rethink those investments, I think the academy would suddenly get very good at evaluating which teaching and learning modalities were the best. The question then becomes how best to create those conditions.

That's the question all right.

Online Education: The Elements for Better Learning

noreply@blogger.com (L. Milne) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:12:00 +0000

Some news (probably not enough) is being made of the recent U.S. Department of Education study, "Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies." It's a meta-analysis of 99 studies in the research literature from 1996 to 2008, with an emphasis on 2004-2008 (46 studies from that time period were of sufficient scope to permit the calculation of effect sizes).

The report finds that online courses can have outcomes that are superior to those of classroom-based learning. However, the real news is in the final pages of the study, in Discussions and Implications (p. 51):

"Clark (1983) has cautioned against interpreting studies of instruction in different media as demonstrating an effect for a given medium inasmuch as conditions may vary with respect to a whole set of instructor and content variables. That caution applies well to the findings of this meta-analysis, which should not be construed as demonstrating that online learning is superior as a medium. Rather, it is the combination of elements in the treatment conditions, which are likely to include additional learning time and materials as well as additional opportunities for collaboration, that has proven effective. The meta-analysis findings do not support simply putting an existing course online, but they do support redesigning instruction to incorporate additional learning opportunities online."

In other words, interventions that can increase time on task and engagement with learning materials and other students, are likely to improve student learning. This is not news, but an important confirmation. Online tools give us more options for achieving increased engagement, but online does not--and these authors say it emphatically--magically, or in itself, produce better teaching and learning.

Wary of Budget Knife, Teaching Centers Seek to Sharpen Their Role

noreply@blogger.com (L. Milne) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:24:00 +0000

Wary of Budget Knife, Teaching Centers Seek to Sharpen Their Role

I'd have called it, "Wary of Budget Knife, Teaching Centers More Vitally Necessary Than Ever." This Chronicle piece suggests repeatedly that teaching centers ought to be anxious, and quotes a few anxious folks. I couldn't agree more, though, with Connie Cook, who speaks to the contrary.

Not everyone is so gloomy. Constance E. Cook, who directs Michigan's teaching center, says that despite the high-profile closures, she believes more centers have opened than have been shuttered during the last two years. (No hard numbers exist, but most people interviewed for this story shared Ms. Cook's instinct.) "In this era in which people care so much about student learning, faculty teaching centers are generally thriving," Ms. Cook says. But she says that some of the recent closures, especially at an institution as large as Missouri, have made her colleagues anxious. As budgets tighten, she says, teaching centers need to strengthen their ties with other university offices and make sure that administrators see that the various offices are working in harmony.
tags: facultydevelopment, teaching, centers, economy

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Men Men Men Men

noreply@blogger.com (L. Milne) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:38:00 +0000

The day's news brings two items concerned with improving educational outcomes for boys and men.

In one, Grand Meadow (Albert Lea, MN) Superintendent, Joe Brown, announces that in his district, beginning this fall, four 7th- and 8th-grade classes (art, vocal music, industrial technology and physical education) will offer gender-segregated instruction. Brown cites Leonard Sax and others in support of this decision to give young men specific attention that may improve their education. Grand Meadow has a disproportionate number of boys with discipline problems, in special education, and underperforming academically. The Austin Daily Herald article reports that "Brown and his wife, Minnesota Rep. Robin Brown (DFL-Moscow Township), and possibly other staff are attending a National Association for Single Sex Public Education conference in Atlanta in October. Robin Brown, an art teacher in Albert Lea, sits on the Higher Education committee at the capitol and is also a proponent of the gender education." Brown was not specific as to the specific teaching approaches or learning experiences that might improve these students' outcomes.

In the other, the San Francisco Bay View publishes an article on the University of Pennsylvania's Grad Prep Academy, seeking 10 young Black males who will enroll as juniors in fall, 2009, as potential Ph.D. scholars. The 10 men selected will receive mentoring and specific preparation to prepare them to apply for graduate school. They will also be eligible for a full scholarship in the university's Graduate School of Education. The program is intended to address the disparity in doctoral awards by gender and race: only 2.1 percent of all Ph.D.s degrees awarded at American universities in 2008.

Both are interesting responses to particular gaps in K-12 and higher education outcomes.

Change: Now's our chance?

noreply@blogger.com (L. Milne) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:25:00 +0000

In a time such as this, when it's truly clear for once that things must change, you can't turn around without hearing loud calls for change and loud change-rakers.

Here are a couple thought-provoking "change we must" pieces from the week's higher ed news.

End the University as We Know It
Mark C. Taylor, chair of the department of religion at Columbia
April 27 New York Times

(and a reasonable response from Dean Dad at Inside Higher Ed)

In a Time of Crisis, Colleges Ought to Be Making History
Goldie Blumenstyk
May 1 Chronicle of Higher Education

Edutainment or Education?--Podcasting in Higher Education

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne S) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:46:00 +0000

Some educators wonder if we're lowering the bar by the use of podcasting, which is well known as a tool for listening to music by the Net Generation. I've wondered myself; but after trying it out and reading some of the current research, there are many reasons to pursue using podcasting in your course--online or onground.

Podcasting can make lessons in your course more relevant to today's student and thus promote more and better learning. Sharon Stoerger's Annoted Bibliography on Podcasting in Higher Education provides many examples, and she regularly updates it; the last update was October 9, 2006. To highlight the point about learning needing relevance, Stoerger quotes McDermott (in Murphy 1999:17)1:

"Learning is in the relationships between people. Learning is in the conditions that bring people together and organize a point of contact that allows for particular pieces of information to take on a relevance; without the points of contact, without the system of relevancies, there is not learning, and there is little memory."

If you need some resources to get you started or to expand your exploration of podcasting, the article in this link is it.

New Book on Student Plagiarism: Blum

noreply@blogger.com (L. Milne) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:37:00 +0000

Inside Higher Ed today posted an article, "It's Culture, Not Morality," about Susan D. Blum's new book on student plagiarism (My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture)"The book, about to appear from Cornell University Press, is sure to be controversial because it challenges the strategies used by colleges and professors nationwide. In many ways, Blum is arguing that the current approach of higher education to plagiarism is a shock and awe strategy — dazzle students with technology and make them afraid, very afraid, of what could happen to them."

As usual with Inside Higher Ed articles, the comments are as good as the piece itself. I side with those who say no matter what theoretical frame you bring to it, practically speaking, the only way around plagiarism is to create assignments that make it very, very difficult.

Teachers: Can't predict 'em, can't live without 'em

noreply@blogger.com (L. Milne) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:47:00 +0000

Malcolm Gladwell (Mr. Tipping Point) in the December 15, 2008 New Yorker, says, "Teaching should be open to anyone with a pulse and a college degree—and teachers should be judged after they have started their jobs, not before. That means that the profession has to be more rigorous in how it evaluates young teachers…"

Gladwell draws comparisons to the recruitment and training of pro quarterbacks and financial advisers, and points to this kind of research about teachers: "A group of researchers—Thomas J. Kane, an economist at Harvard’s school of education; Douglas Staiger, an economist at Dartmouth; and Robert Gordon, a policy analyst at the Center for American Progress—have investigated whether it helps to have a teacher who has earned a teaching certification or a master’s degree. Both are expensive, time-consuming credentials that almost every district expects teachers to acquire; neither makes a difference in the classroom."

Compelling challenge. Of course, it's an idea that would only apply to K-12 teachers. Right?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

AAC&U Meeting in Minneapolis October, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (L. Milne) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:12:00 +0000

How's this for exciting? The Association of American Colleges and Universities is holding a national meeting on ethics and civic engagement here in town next fall. Call for proposals open through January 30, 2009. Let's make sure our public colleges and universities are well represented!

Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility: Deepening Student and Campus Commitments

Network for Academic Renewal Conference

October 1-3, 2009

Minneapolis, Minnesota

About the Conference

Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility: Deepening Student and Campus Commitments will bring together faculty, student affairs personnel, academic administrators, students, and others to explore how to move education for personal and social responsibility to the center
of institutional culture and academic practice. The program will feature promising practices that develop students’ civic engagement and social responsibility in both a local and global context; personal and academic integrity; ability to examine and understand differing (and often competing) perspectives; and ethical and moral reasoning.

The central premise of the conference is that personal integrity and ethics cannot be developed in isolation from a commitment to and engagement with others, and that students’ ethical, civic, and moral development must be addressed as part of their basic responsibilities as learners.

Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility | Conference Overview

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Face to Face with History

noreply@blogger.com (L. Milne) — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:13:00 +0000

On a day that brings news from our neighboring state of new public swastikas at the University of North Dakota, here's also news of real possibility, of teaching for peace, not hate.

Bernard Reuter, director of St. Cloud State University's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education, is leading a tour of 200+ students from the St. Cloud area to Germany and France, where they will study directly the effects of the Nazi holocaust on the area of Alsace-Lorraine. They will also take part in performing a choral work (by Stephen Paulus and commissioned by Fr. Michael O'Connell when he was pastor at Minneapolis's Basilica of St. Mary), "To Be Certain of the Dawn."

One of the things that makes this trip so resonant, and so hopeful, is that St. Cloud State University is the institution most known in the news of the last few years for swastika graffiti and other evidence of anti-Semitic hate. I look forward to learning about the impact of this visit on these students and the faculty who accompany them. And I wish them all a wonderful trip, full of learning and deeply human interaction.

How long could you go without a computer?

martin.springborg@so.mnscu.edu (Martin Springborg) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:30:00 +0000

Eight students in a film class at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota recently asked whether or not they could survive in college without their computers. Three of the eight students shut down, hid from view, duct taped and otherwise disconnected themselves from their computers for several weeks during the height of the term. The other five students followed these three in their struggles to conduct research, complete papers and get vital information from their instructors and fellow students without logging on.

I saw this film as it was screened during the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, and believe it indirectly addresses the issue of the technology divide on our campuses; who does and who doesn't have access to computers and broadband outside of class and off campus--and how that divide impacts student success rates. The documentary is very well-executed, professionally produced (by Carleton College faculty member Melody Gilbert and her students) and well-worth any college instructor's time in viewing. Future screenings are yet to be announced, but you can get a sneak preview and sign up to be alerted to screenings by staying connected.

January Thaw

noreply@blogger.com (L. Milne) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 21:51:00 +0000

We're warming up here at CTL. Hope you are, too.

Science Teaching Matters

noreply@blogger.com (L. Milne) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:21:00 +0000

An article in today's New York Times compares the sense of science education crisis in the post-Sputnik era and now.

It's a good general-interest update piece that pulls together a lot of the key current issues:

We need more and better science teachers in high-school classrooms (coincidentally, that's a current MnSCU initiative: More and Better STEM Teachers).
Teaching methods in science need broadscale improvement: too many memorization-based approaches, not enough conceptual and hands-on work.
The sequence of science education: it presents the arguments of the "physics first" scientists, who say that what made sense in the 19th century (biology, chemistry, then physics) is upside down, and based on the idea that biology is a "descriptive" science. (The American Association of Physics Teachers articulates this approach at http://www.aapt.org/Policy/physicsfirst.cfm).
A lot of disagreement about what the problems are.

The piece got me sifting through the dregs of my own files on STEM. Almost a decade ago, in 1999, Gibbs and Fox wrote an article in Scientific American, "The False Crisis in Science Education," that summed up the then-current sense of angst, and argued that there were really two problems underlying the "crisis:"
1. General science education in elementary and postsecondary schools isn't focused on science that is useful to most people in their adult lives, and
2. There are plenty of college students prepared and willing to take on advanced science education, but they get weeded out in gatekeeper introductory courses. The shortage is thus "controlled by universities, not by secondary schools."

As the NYT article notes, the "current" crisis has been roiling since at least 1983 and "A Nation at Risk." It will probably continue on bubbling until we can agree on what the problems really are.

Moodlin'

noreply@blogger.com (L. Milne) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 18:19:00 +0000

One of our summertime CTL colleagues, Yolanda Williams, shared with us today this List of Top 100 Tools for Learning from the UK Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies. It's a pretty good checklist of current instructional technologies. (Yolanda's note, though, pointed up an item in the Chronicle that took issue with the relative absence of library databases.)

In checking out the list, a couple things jumped out for me:

Our own (Lake Superior College's) Barry Dahl is one of the contributors to the Top 10/Top 100 list.
There's only one course management system on the list, and that's the open source Moodle. When I attended the TAOSE group's discussion on open-source IMS a couple weeks ago, a majority of the colleges and universities represented (outside of our system) were either adopting or experimenting with Moodle. Take a look at it; it's grown into a really flexible IMS.

As an adherent of social- or sociocognitive learning theory and fan of non-commercial, user-modifiable open source software, I'm fascinated by moodle, which was developed to serve both ends. It was initially developed by Martin Dougiamas, who articulates on the Moodle home page his own and Moodle's (imagine!) pedagogical philosophy.

Citizen Journalists, Wikis, and a Culture of Misinformation

martin.springborg@so.mnscu.edu (Martin Springborg) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:25:00 +0000

I recently attended a conference devoted to an information-management system for online teaching and learning. Good conference, but one session wherein participants had a discussion about how OUR (instructors') learning has changed as a result of online teaching and learning ruffled my feathers a bit.

It was my opinion that too many in attendance were speaking too highly of the information attainable today via the Internet. It's easy, they said, always accessible (if you have the right technology and have it with you always, as some do, it truly is), and easy to digest. Furthermore--and this where I think we really get into some trouble--it is easy to push out to students. My stance is that more information is not necessarily better, and easily digestible information does not a more literate or informed society make.

I am seeing in our communication system a proliferation of bullets, dashes, summaries, and text messages. I believe this is resulting in the erosion of our language. Think about it for a minute, and I think you'll see it too. Some of you will remember listening to your professors address a class and sounding as if they were reading from a well-written book, with metaphor, analogy, and nuance. Not only does that nuance of language work toward a better, clearer understanding of things; our understanding and use of it is a necessity in our increasingly complex society. That is, so long as having people fully understand what you are trying to say is important.

I believe that the proliferation of information via the Internet is a good thing for some, but not for many purposes. Wikis are particularly dangerous tools, especially when they are used under the guise of a catalogue of fact. Indeed, some information found on Wikipedia is fact, but this only exacerbates the problem; because some of the information IS factual, it becomes easy for people to believe they can continually go back to this source for more factual information.

One point that I brought up at the conference session was that Wikipedia and other wikis are akin to a current journalism epidemic: the "citizen journalist." Citizen journalists' stories (wrought with opinion, and more often not written with the rigor, discipline, or research required of professional journalists) are often printed within main sections of a newspaper, and presented in a way that makes them indistinguishable from stories written by professional journalists. My point was not well-received, as one person pointed out that our newspapers routinely publish stories that are not entirely true and that a newspaper or trusted news source does not necessarily present better information than what is written by an average citizen and available on the Internet. I emphatically disagree, for the same reason I disagree with the concept of the citizen journalist. When a public is presented with fact and news, that public should be able to expect its news and information sources to have done research. In tandem with much of the easily digestible, summarized, and unresearched information on the Internet, our news and information sources' adoption of citizen journalists is, in my opinion, resulting in a culture of the misinformed.

So, am I suggesting a ban on the use of the Internet in teaching? Absolutely not. I am suggesting that we, educators, need to be increasingly cautious and vigilant in the presentation of information to our students, especially in online environments. I am suggesting that now--perhaps more than ever--all educators must be guardians of language. Our work is most definitely changing as a result of the online revolution in higher education. We must accept that that online education is here to stay, but we don't have to let it degrade our students' (or our own) learning experience.

The Minority Experience

noreply@blogger.com (L. Milne) — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:09:00 +0000

This month's issue of About Campus explores a number of issues related to students' racial, social class, and cultural diversity.

It closes with an article by Craig Bennett of the University of Cincinnati. He teaches a course called "Strength Through Cultural Diversity," in which he gives students the assignment to "actively participate in a cultural event in which they can experience minority status." While the assignment requires involvement in just a single event, Bennett recounts the anxiety, panic, and resistance of his students. They are mostly white, and have grown up in white neighborhoods and schools.

They are often creative about finding new experiences: attending a gay nightclub, using a wheelchair at a shopping mall, or attending unfamiliar religious rituals. "However," says Bennett, "the experience that typically generates the most awareness and challenge is white students attending an African American church."

Besides resulting in good discussion and new awareness, the experiences end up with students reporting new more welcoming behavior, improved understandings--and giving highly positive end-of-course evaluations.

So now the question is: in what courses and disciplines--beyond the "diversity course" might this be a useful assignment? And, like Bennett, I'll ask you the starter question: "Who can share an experience in which you were the only person representing your race in a room?"

Pedagogy vs. Andragogy

noreply@blogger.com (Yolanda Y. Williams) — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 17:57:00 +0000

"Andragogy is the process of engaging learners in the structure of the learning experience. The term was originally used by Alexander Kapp (a German educator) in 1833, was developed into a theory of adult education by the American educator, Malcolm Knowles , (April 24, 1913 -- November 27, 1997)." -- wikipedia

Moving from Pedagogy to Andragogy

Hiemstra and Sisco make a great case here for learner-centered education. The goal of "raising up" students who know how to learn, rather that the creating students who are dependent on the instructor for learning is not a new one; and is most often the way instructors of adult learners view their raison d'etre. The article it offers us a reminder of those teaching goals and positive encouragement to "stay the course."

CTL Tutorials--please comment

noreply@blogger.com (Gretchen C. Dorn) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:31:00 +0000

We welcome comments about your experience at the CTL Tutorials:

Academics Joining Ranks Declaring 'E-Mail Bankruptcy

noreply@blogger.com (Yolanda Y. Williams) — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 17:02:00 +0000

The above article appears in the May 29th edition of the Washington Post. I agree that something has to be done to eliminate or at least curtail the amount of time taken up with not just answering emails, but adding email addresses to your "do not trust" list or setting up rules that will block out spam that find their way interestingly enough right through your spam catcher into your inbox.

As a faculty member I would to add to this discussion of email, the perception of students that email, chat and the pager functions offered by some programs like Desire to Learn and Webct translate into 24/7 access to their faculty member.

Feeling compelled to "be there" for my students I have often answered their emails at midnight, on week-ends and during holiday breaks. Of course a lot of that has to do with the "workaholic gene" passed on to me by not one but both parents, but some of it also has to do with the perception of students that now that we have this technology, faculty is duty-bound to use it in their best interest.

I posed the question of emails to one of my colleagues and was given a great bit of advice that I pass on to you. Her syllabi impose limits and offer response times to emails so that it is clear that emails will not be responded to in the evenings over the week-ends or during holiday breaks.

Voila! Of course it makes my already 10 page syllabus a little longer, but it has spared me at least the "student expectation" of an immediate response. Now, I just have to impose those limits on myself!

Fact to Face?

noreply@blogger.com (Yolanda Y. Williams) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:09:00 +0000

This article "Learners' Perspectives on What is Missing from Online Learning: Interpretations through the Community of Inquiry Framework"discusses a research project of online learners who site missing face-to-face contact. It explores what exactly it is about the face-to-face contact that they miss. The three authors have a background in "ground" and online teaching at the university level and offer their "take" on the five themes that emerged when conducting the resource.

When I read the article I wondered if the concept of "presence" is really due to the fact that it is an online course, or the way those particular courses were designed. Considering the fact that are growing numbers of people who participate in many intimate human interactions via chat rooms, anonymous phone dating, etc. I began to wonder if the concept of "presence" has more to do with a person's perception (as noted in the title) of "presence."

I also wondered how many students in "ground" courses feel the lack of "presence" in courses that have certainly face-to-face contact, but do not strive to create a learning community. Perhaps a larger "look" at the new ways in which community is being perceived and constructed would inform both teaching environments.

Questioning Assumptions About Student's Expectation for Technology in College Classrooms

noreply@blogger.com (Yolanda Y. Williams) — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:38:00 +0000

To read this article from Innovate: Journal of Online Education, you will need to register, but not to worry registration is free.

There are many things about not only this article but most of the articles features in the June/July edition focusing on so-called Net Generation students that bear further discussion.

The one that is at the top of the list for me, is the apparent theory that students who can IM, Chat, Pict/Flix, answer emails, surf the web and download are technologically savvy. I wholeheartedly disagree with this. What may be true is that there is a comfortability level with technology, but there must be more evidence of skill and the ability to evaluate these resources, or use them appropriately for some level of "savvy-ness" to be evident.

Second, how does labeling all students "Net Gen" and funneling resources toward revising teaching strategies so that focus on them, impact students from lower incomes or who for some other reason may have a cell phone and a computer, but again, are not at the same level as those mentioned in the studies? Just when you think the "playing field" is becoming more equal another volcanic mountain pushes to the surface.

A couple of stories...

One of the classes I teach at Minneapolis Community and Technical College is a beginning music theory class that uses a cd-rom for exercises. My students all have cell phones, evidence by the rush to check for messages once class is over and the two class periods we go through "enjoying" ring tones until everyone gets used to the procedure of turning off their cell phones at the start of class. Yet getting these same students to become proficient with the cd-rom, and the use of d2l (Desire to Learn) to access grades and upload assignments took sometimes into the middle of the semester. Their "savvy-ness" does not translate.

Second story, I had four "laptop kids" in a class I taught at the University of MN. Since I tend to move around in the class when I lecture, I noticed on several occasions that they were not taking notes or viewing sites that had anything to do with my class., they were in fact asnwering emails, checking game scores, etc. Looking back at these same student's grades it was clear that unlike the student mentioned in the article posted, these students did not already know what I was talking about, as they performed poorly on tests and assignments related to those very lectures. There may be the assumption that portions of lectures aren't important or that they present familiar information, but how valid is that perception? In my students' cases not valid at all. It might have been interesting to test laptop kid's actual knowledge of the material being presented to assess this. So multi-tasking, schmasking.

Rather than implementing changes demanded by students for more "bells and whistles" in the classroom, perhaps we should actually be studying the impact that technology is having on the ability or inability to establish community in the classroom (and the world for that matter) The comment made by the laptop kid when told of the distraction his laptop use was causing was this "You can choose if you want to be distracted by the tablet [PC] . . . or pay attention to the professor" - laptop kid. Clearly the classroom is not his community, nor does he see it as his responsibility to promote rather than to distract from it.

Perhaps there is need for some definitions. What does savvy mean? Is it more than just being comfortable with some forms of technology? Does it involved being able to use this technology appropriately?

Along with new defintions, maybe we should ask if students are actually exhibiting multi-tasking "skills" leading to sucessful learning or are they merely increasing their inability to focus on anything?

Knowing Your Data is COOL

noreply@blogger.com (Yolanda Y. Williams) — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 18:29:00 +0000

Click on the link http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/29/spellings for a piece in "Inside Higher Ed" on Margaret Spellings's complaints regarding information on higher education, and how her own department already answers the "lack" she decries.

For me it illustrates a number of things: how cries for assessment indicators are often made by people who've never looked for the plentiful data available; how useful is the ENORMOUS amount of higher ed data collected and publicly reported by the U.S. Department of Education; and how all of us probably have data in our own back pockets (or on our Web sites) that could improve our practice...and our minds. --Lynda Milne

What the Best Teachers Do

noreply@blogger.com (Your CTL Staff) — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 16:31:00 +0000

I was pleased to see that Ken Bain, in a study about best teachers and best teaching practices, not only went to the colleagues and students of his instructor subjects, but also to their colleagues in other fields. These varying viewpoints paired with Bain’s recommendations on how, through the rigors of the academic year, college instructors might best prepare and evaluate themselves and their students are inspiring, and will no-doubt lead to deep analysis of ones own teaching practices.

Key to the success of this book is a subject central to the success of any college instructor: a discussion of deep learning. Relative to this topic is my favorite line in the book, wherein Bain addresses instructors who simply scare students into doing well on exams and writes "Any teacher who causes students to hate the subject has certainly violated our principle of 'do no harm.'" (p 8)

Martin Springborg, CTL Faculty Development Coordinator

Bain, Ken; What the Best College Teachers Do; Harvard University Press; 2004