Transforming Education: Engaging Students with Technology
In a recent visit, Leah Savion, a professor of philosophy and cognitive science at Indiana University who provides faculty development workshops, reminded us that it is our job as instructors to motivate students because, without motivation, there is no learning. Digital teaching tools represent an opportunity to motivate students and facilitate learning, but too often these technologies are used simply to "recreate" face-to-face courses or portions of courses online. Course Web sites are used as repositories for content. Tools such as e-mail and discussion boards are used for simple communication tasks. Electronic grade books are used to enable students to view their grades. Assignments and assessments are merely transferred to the online arena. Audio and video recordings are used to deliver lectures to distant learners—or those who didn't make it in to class that day.
These applications of technology to learning are not inherently bad; students and teachers are grateful for the efficiencies that technology creates and for easy access to class materials. But as Reeves, Herrington, and Oliver (2004) point out, there is a distinction between learning from technology and learning with technology. The "learning with" approach goes beyond information delivery to put digital cognitive tools into the hands of students: tools that enable them to create, explore, and innovate.
Seminar
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
12:00 p.m.–1:30 p.m.
402 Walter Library
East Bank, Twin Cities campus
See a UMConnect Meeting recording of the seminar.
Moderators Lauren Marsh and Kim Wilcox from the DMC, Office of Information Technology, will moderate a discussion among this year's cohort of DMC faculty fellows:
- Sauman Chu:, Department of Design, Housing, and Apparel, College of Human Ecology;
- Joan Hughes:, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education and Human Development;
- David Levinson:, Department of Civil Engineering, Institute of Technology;
- Donald Liu:, Department of Applied Economics, College of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Sciences; and
- James Nixon:, Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, Medical School.
They will discuss how they and others are using technology as a cognitive tool for engaging students in learning, including topics such as:
- the utility of digital games to enhance transfer of student knowledge from one learning situation to another;
- the design and development of online learning environments to promote collaborative inquiry groups;
- the use of online simulations that enable students to run experiments, test strategies, model behavior, and practice for real-world encounters; and
- the use of personal response systems ("clickers") to facilitate active learning.
Bibliography
The following readings may help you prepare for the TEL seminar.
Reeves, Thomas C., Jan Herrington, and Ron Oliver. "A Development Research Agenda for Online Collaborative Learning." Educational Technology Research & Development 52, no. 4 (2004): 53–65.
The authors of this article advocate using "development research" to generate design guidelines for improved collaborative online teaching and learning based on "authentic tasks." They also describe features of development research and authentic tasks.
Savion, Leah. Home page. Indiana University, Bloomington (accessed 21 April 2006). http://mypage.iu.edu/~lsavion/sotlwork.html.
On this page on her personal site, Savion includes abstracts of scholarship of teaching and learning workshops she's given and lists related publications and presentations.
Svinicki, Marilla D. "Student Goal Orientation, Motivation, and Learning." Idea Paper 41 (February 2005). Manhattan, Kansas: Idea Center.
Svinicki traces the development of student motivation theory, and offers suggestions on how instructors can increase student motivation. The paper can be accessed from the Idea Center home page at http://idea.ksu.edu by selecting the following links: Client Resources, then Idea Papers, then Student Goal Orientation, Motivation, and Learning.
