Presentation Technologies

Hybrid French Language Course Development

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 18:02:00 +0000

Hybrid French Language Course Development Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 08/10/2015 - 12:02

CU ��«��Ƶ French language Graduate Part Time Instructors (GPTIs) taught hybrid French language courses this past spring thanks to ASSETT-funded training. The combination of online and in-classroom teaching methods can benefit undergraduate students who are enrolled in foreign language courses. The Associate Dean of the Arts and Humanities and Professor of Italian Valerio Ferme received an ASSETT Development Award last year to fund the graduate students' time in training in hybrid teaching methods.

Learning to Teach with Hybrid Methods

In Fall 2014, graduate students Erik Nesse and Cecile Rebolledo prepared to teach introductory hybrid French language classes for the Spring 2015 semesters. They met with CU ��«��Ƶ's ALTEC (Anderson Language and Technology Center) and ASSETT staff over several months to brainstorm hybrid teaching methods and plan lessons and activities. Nesse explained:

Edwige [Simon, Language Technology Coordinator of ALTEC] and Nisha [Azimova, former Teaching and Learning Consultant of ASSETT] helped with technical aspects and pedagogical theory and brainstorming. [They] were great and very available. And they would set up meetings immediately ... We gained a lot of knowledge about how to structure things and feedback about what worked.

Nesse and Rebolledo said that they learned more about D2L's capabilities for foreign language learning, like voice recordings, as well as implementing other online learning activities.

Rebolledo agreed that the time spent learning new technologies and planning activities was essential: "At the beginning, we really needed that help [from ALTEC and ASSETT]. We didn’t know where to start. It’s a tall order." Nesse says that learning the new programs, planning how to teach students how to use the new programs, planning activities for students, troubleshooting technical difficulties with the new programs, and grading activities takes more time for the instructor than does planning for and teaching a traditional, in-person class, especially considering that most instructors have learned through traditional classes, themselves. Despite the challenges, Nesse explained how ALTEC and ASSETT challenged him to think more about how to improve undergraduate teaching: "It was a good experience pedagogically, figuring out, 'How would I get someone to learn this online and not in person?' You start thinking about what are the key things to help someone learn these things."

Implementation of Hybrid Teaching Methods in Undergraduate French Language Courses

This past spring, Rebolledo and Nesse taught beginning French language courses French 1010 and French 1020, respectively. They each taught three days each week in person and two days each week online. During their days of online instruction, the undergraduate students enrolled in hybrid French language courses are expected to record themselves speaking online so that their instructor can listen to their recordings. Other programs, like Voicethread, allow students to listen to one another's recordings, and 'respond' to one another in their own time. Then, after the days of online instruction, students are expected to come back to class ready to use what they had taught themselves in their own time through the online activities. This way, students may actually receive more individual feedback than they would in a traditional classroom setting. Also, since some classwork is conducted online, students have greater flexibility in managing their time. In this vein, Rebolledo and Nesse both emphasized that succeeding in a hybrid course requires autonomous study habits on the parts of the students. Rebolledo explained that to succeed in a hybrid course, "Students should be independent and not need to be guided every step of the way."

Consistency Among Traditional, Hybrid, and Online French Language Courses

Ferme and Rebolledo explained how important it was for the French Department that undergraduate students receive consistent instruction, and succeed in standard assessments as they progress along the introductory French language courses, whether those courses are taught with hybrid, online, or traditional, in-person methods. To make this goal a reality, Rebolledo said that she and Nesse continued to collaborate in planning to ensure that they were on the same page: "Erik and I also compared notes and shared ideas ... We have the same goals."

Ferme says that the Department of French and Italian plans to continue to train graduate student instructors in hybrid methods:

... the reason I asked [GPTIs] Erik and Cecile to participate in this course development was to begin the practice of training our graduate students in online/hybrid education ... and so we are instituting a practice by which our hybrid/online graduate students are going to be shadowed by other students in the summer, so as to prepare them to teach those same courses.
We currently have a cadre of 3 GPTIs who have taught or are teaching hybrid/online (Cecile [Rebolledo] and Erik [Nesse] are two of them), and two more who have been shadowing this summer, and will be able to move in the classroom in the near future.

ASSETT supports excellence in teaching and learning with technology in the CU ��«��Ƶ College of Arts and Sciences. ASSETT Development Awards are granted to CU ��«��Ƶ College of Arts and Sciences faculty and graduate students each Spring and Fall semester. More information about ASSETT Development Awards can be found on the Development Awards page.

Off

Traditional

White

Lonnie Pearce's Students Map their Thinking with Prezi

Anonymous — Fri, 29 May 2015 16:30:00 +0000

Lonnie Pearce's Students Map their Thinking with Prezi Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/29/2015 - 10:30

Lonni Pearce, PhD is the Associate Director for First Year Writing at the Program for Writing and Rhetoric. Pearce implemented Prezi as a tool for students to visualize how their writing progresses.

Listen to description of project (MP3)

Teaching and Learning Challenge

Information Travels: Students Mapping Research in a First‐Year Writing Class

“The notion of ‘hybrid spaces’ and ‘hybrid lives’ is one that some rhet/comp scholars have explored as a reframing of our experience of the everyday as well as our communicative practices. The students who enter our classrooms have generally grown up in this hybrid kind of life, with ICTs melding, shaping, and mediating their experiences of space and time. One of the significant implications of this hybridized life are the frequent shifts among various rhetorical situations that students navigate‐‐‐‐sometimes successfully, sometimes not‐‐‐‐without being able to clearly articulate what’s appropriate/effective/persuasive in these different situations. As they shift from F2F, academic writing, social media platforms, emails to instructors, lab reports, how do they understand the choices they make and how can we as writing teachers give them a fluid, transferable framework for understanding the constraints/opportunities of different rhetorical situations? How do we help them learn how to learn what is needed in writing situations that vary so widely?” (qtd from my from Teach with Tech workshop post #1, February 2015)

Now that I’ve completed the Teach with Tech workshop, this question endures, but I’ve explored a subset of this question by focusing on the nature of first‐year students’ interactions with information—if students can develop a more nuanced, richer understanding of the texts they encounter and how those texts function within a complex spatio‐temporal conversation, they are better prepared to respond to and apply the information they find not only in their academic writing but in the hybrid spaces they inhabit.

Plans for Implementation

Ultimately, my project is designed to offer students the opportunity to create a visual representation of their research on a particular topic of their choice.

Project Means/Deliverable:

Using a set of scaffolded in‐class and homework activities, students will incrementally build a “map” of their research sources using Prezi. Students will start with a “pre‐search” map that represents what they currently know about their topic, then—over the course of several class periods—add sources and locate them on the map using proximity, shape, size, and color to create their map.

Note: Why Prezi? The open‐ended nature of a blank Prezi makes it ideal as a platform for designing this type of map. A blank Prezi is essentially a blank canvas where content can easily be arranged, sized, nested, linked, etc. In addition, various types of content can be included—text, images, sounds, video, etc.—so students can represent the many different types of research they gather.

Indicators of Success

Project Goals ‐ As part of students’ larger inquiry project, this sequence of assignments will:

Increase students’ engagement with their research and their topic
Help students identify spatiotemporal relationships among sources, and find connections, contradictions, tensions, agreements, etc.
Deepen students’ understanding of the complex conversation that surrounds any topic, issue, question – a conversation that occurs over time and across multiple genres
Prepare students to locate their own perspective within the conversation, and write persuasively in the next phase of their inquiry project

Project Outcomes:

Students will complete and present their research map, explaining to their peers the relationships they’ve mapped and the choices they made in locating/representing sources in a particular way.

Reflection

Conclusion:

While this project addresses only a very small sliver of my larger question, it’s a step toward helping students become more savvy readers and writers by explicitly directing their attention to the inherently relational nature of rhetorical practices across multiple genres and the persuasive strategies used to stake a position within a larger conversation.

Off

Traditional

White

Jany Implements VoiceThread Thanks to ASSETT Teaching with Tech Seminar

Anonymous — Wed, 27 May 2015 20:30:00 +0000

Jany Implements VoiceThread Thanks to ASSETT Teaching with Tech Seminar Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/27/2015 - 14:30

German Language Instructor Berit Jany's students use VoiceThread to fulfill, "I can..." requirements for German Language class. Jany developed her ideas through ASSETT's Spring 2015 Teaching with Technology Seminar.

[soundcloud width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/298660503&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false"][/soundcloud]

Teaching and Learning Challenge

In the German language classroom, we are concerned about our students’ progress in developing all four language skills and using these skills for culturally appropriate communication in the target language. The objectives of our language courses stress students’ utilization of communicative skills (which also include sociolinguistic practices) in order to understand and appreciate other cultures and patterns of thought. As a general guideline for language and culture instruction, the Council of Europe put together the Common European Framework of Reference which aims to provide a method of learning, teaching, and assessing all European languages. Since its implementation in 2001, the CEFR has become widely accepted as a standard for learners’ language proficiency. Language examinations that are required upon entering a German institution of higher education as well as desired by employers as qualification largely correspond to the CEFR. It is therefore in the interest of our language students to adopt the CEFR and to integrate its guidelines into our German language curriculum.

The textbook selection for the upcoming academic year was much informed by CEFR. We selected materials that directly relate to the framework of reference to assist students in developing skills and competences in the German language that arecommonly accepted as standard. Integrating materials that are structured according to CEFR bears many benefits for language students, both for those who pursue majors and minors in German and for those who are from STEMMINT disciplines, interested in internships and study abroad in German speaking countries. But rather than simply informing learners about the progress and the skills that are expected of them in each learning unit, I find it important to help students become fully familiar with these expected skills and competencies and to make them aware of their abilities that they have already developed in the classroom.

All too often students in the foreign language classrooms (especially in the beginning stages of learning the language) become frustrated over their lack of expressiveness and unfamiliarity with complex grammar concepts. They tend to focus their attention on language items that they have not yet acquired rather than reflecting about their achievements already made in their language learning. Using the CEFR may assist them in becoming aware of the proficiencies that they have already gained and raise their motivation and responsibility in the language learning process. Asking students to reflect upon their abilities and compare them to the language proficiency framework will make the learning more transparent and selfdirected, and help these learners to recognize and appreciate their achievements in the foreign language.

Plans for Implementation

The technology intervention in form of an electronic language portfolio will take place in the first two of the three semesters of required foreign language courses in German. The implementation of the project will occur gradually. In the first semester, only one section of the beginner class will be selected for a project trial run. Upon student and instructor feedback on the project, it will be revised and implemented in all German beginner classes and added to the second semester classes in the following semester.

Indicators of Success

The electronic language portfolio (structured according to the standards outlined by CEFR) will provide opportunities for students to reflect on their progress in learning the language and gain motivation and a positive attitude towards language learning from these reflections. Students’ assessment of their own development and their contentment with their learning progress will be detected through interviews and surveys asking about the learners’ interests, attitudes, motivations, expectancies, and achievements. In order to measure students’ increase of motivation through the building of the electronic language portfolio, thereby engaging in a selfreflection task, a questionnaire will be used at the beginning of the semester asking students about their initial expectancies and attitudes toward learning the language as well as intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that fuel their performance and dedication to the learning of the language. At the end of the semester, an online survey will be conducted to find out about students’ level of motivation and their appreciation of personal achievements in the learning of the target language.

The production work on the electronic language portfolio takes place at the end of each textbook chapter, when students will review the objectives in form of cando descriptors. They will be given a list of “I can” statements and respond to these statement, thereby documenting their learning progress. Through this task, they will not only see the areas in which they can already communicate well, but they will also track their development as language learners in form of short recordings.

Here is an example of the “I can” statements taken from the first chapter (in accordance with A1/beginner level of German):

I can...

...say hello and goodbye.
...introduce myself and say where I’m from.
...ask someone where they are from.
... differentiate between a formal and informal address when asking questions and know when it is appropriate to use one or the other.
... ask someone how to spell their name and spell my name.

Students will cover eight chapters in each class which means they will produce eight video entries reflecting on their newly gained language abilities in their electronic language portfolio.

Since the emphasis of this technology project is clearly set on improving students’ confidence in the foreign language and helping them to become cognizant of their gained skills, knowledge, and structures, an easy tool/platform will be used – VoiceThread, available on D2L – which does not require additional instruction in technology, separate accounts, downloads, etc. VoiceThread will also be employed for other tasks in the language instruction, so that it will become a familiar tool for students within the first weeks of instruction.

At the beginning of the semester, students will receive a file that lists “I can” statements for all eight units as well as instructions on how to submit their contributions. Students will be asked to upload this form onto voice thread with their name. After each chapter, students will then return to the form on VoiceThread and use the comment feature to record their reaction of these “I can” statements in German. Posting all of the contributions as comments to one file will allow them to observe the progression in their learning of the language and make them aware of their learning accomplishments in the German language classroom.

Off

Traditional

White

Students Nominate Linguistics' Steve Duman for Excellence in Teaching Award

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 06:00:00 +0000

Students Nominate Linguistics' Steve Duman for Excellence in Teaching Award Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/13/2015 - 00:00

CU ��«��Ƶ students nominated Linguistics PhD student Steve Duman for an ASSETT Award of Excellence as an Outstanding Teacher in the Use of Technology. In their nominations, students wrote that they enjoyed Duman's PowerPoint presentations in his class, Perspectives on Language, Linguistics 4100. In Linguistics 4100, Duman presents a critical examination of a few selected language topics, including the relation between language and thought. In their nominations, his students wrote that his presentations were, "... engaging, efficient, memorable, and enlightening."

PowerPoint is just one launching point for Duman's class "... to get the conversation going," he says. Duman says that he sees his PowerPoints as stories in which he tells students, "... something to get them interested and involved in the material and excited about what's coming next." To help students feel comfortable, Duman creates thoughtful introductions to class that would be accessible to most students. For example, a pop music music video may have a theme that relates to that day's topic. Duman says that in providing more accessible avenues to approach an academic topic, he really tries to encourage all students to feel comfortable contributing to class discussions.

Then, Duman says that he tries to keep his PowerPoints light on text so that students must, "... fill in the blanks," and come to their own understandings. "I want slides to be something they can engage with, and make their learning experience more engaging, and help them think about these things from a slightly different angle."

During class, Duman may challenge students to answer questions from a research study already conducted. From their discussions, students predict what the studies found. "I walk them through the study so that they experience what it's like to be a participant in the study," says Duman.

Later in the semester, students conduct their own research studies that use, "... tools that are available to them at CU." Students use statistical programs that Duman teaches in class, like Qualtrics. Qualtrics is an online survey tool that CU provides to students. In Qualtrics, the user can generate several types of questions including multiple choice. Duman says, "Students want to be challenged. They want to learn new skills."

Recently, Duman was awarded a National Science Foundation Grant for a grant that he has used to perform research that has contributed to the development of the app Nano Nano. In Nano Nano, the player follows a story arch and use gestures to learn a new language.

Off

Traditional

White

Alina Van Nelson's French Students Upload Presentations to VoiceThread

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 06:00:00 +0000

Alina Van Nelson's French Students Upload Presentations to VoiceThread Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/17/2015 - 00:00

French Instructor Alina Van Nelson completed the Fall 2014 ASSETT Teaching with Technology seminar. Van Nelson implemented a new assessment approach to give students more opportunities to show what they learned. She created a Google Site for her class to upload written work. She also asked her students to record their presentations in VoiceThread.

[soundcloud width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/298660705&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false"][/soundcloud]

Teaching and Learning Challenge

The big idea for my technology project is to better integrate instruction and assessment in French beginner classes. As pedagogy has evolved quite a bit in the past decade, we took steps in changing instruction so it matches our students’ needs and interests, in flipping grammar instruction so class time is spent essentially on practice of the language. Assessments, however, remain too traditional at this point and don’t allow students to fully show what they can do with what they learned.

Plans for Implementation

As this will impact about a dozen graduate instructors, I decided to take small steps. Initially, I was planning to apply this to our second semester of French class, and only in the section I would teach. Lately however, due to fluctuating enrollment, I was not able to secure such a section. Given that we only have one section of accelerated French review this semester, I considered trying my project in this section, which turned out to be too small - only 6 students currently enrolled, which would mean very little student feedback on this project. Ultimately, I have to ask the three TA’s currently teaching the second semester of French to try this out, and I will depend completely on their approval. I will see them this Friday January 23, and I will see how many are willing to replace the first exam after their midterm with this project.

Instead of taking a paper and pencil exam, students will work throughout a chapter on one individual task (interpretive communication) and two collaborative ones (a dialogue and a written report). For modeling and assessment purposes, I will rely on specific activities in class and on clear rubrics, which will both allow students to focus on specific goals, and allow TAs to appropriately assess them and give them pertinent feedback.

I am currently working on a Google site that will host all their work and would allow them to react to their peers’ work. They will all have to leave specific comments on each part of the project. I am planning to develop the rubrics with the TA’s to ensure that everyone sees the value of such a project and has a say in the way assessment is tailored. They will use VoiceThread to record their individual presentation as well as the dialog with their partner, and Google Docs for the written piece. For properly recording their feedback, we’ll probably use Desire to Learn surveys.

Indicators of Success

I hope to see student involvement in the project, and have positive reactions about how learning merges with assessment in a non threatening way. Although this will be new to our TA’s, I think they will see that matching instruction and assessment enhances classroom experiences and has a positive impact on students’ motivation and attitude toward language learning.

In the surveys, if more than 50% of students prefer this type of assessment, we’ll probably move to the next level and start replacing more exams by similar real-world tasks, refining both tasks and rubrics as we go.

Reflection

Part of my reticence to experiment with this project came from the difficulty of relying on others to administer a type of assessment that I created.

Although I’ve had the idea for a couple of years now, this reticence held me back. Being in this seminar and hearing other faculty’s struggles, on one hand, and having Amanda and Caroline next to us as both a resource and support, helped me finally making things more concrete and taking steps toward making it happen. I am extremely grateful for everything I have learned and for all the people I met during this seminar. I also immensely appreciated the gentle reminders that these two ladies had to send us. It is always hard for me to teach two or three different things and at the same time work on a completely different project.

The design process is not over for me yet. After meeting with the TA’s and deciding how we will go further, I will share the page with them and decide how to integrate the rubrics in the site, how to scaffold it so students find it easy to manage, and how to encourage them to collaborate. Working with technology definitely makes all these aspects compelling and worth exploring.

Off

Traditional

White

CU ��«��Ƶ Grad Students Teach with Technology

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 07:00:00 +0000

CU ��«��Ƶ Grad Students Teach with Technology Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/10/2014 - 00:00

Three CU ��«��Ƶ Grad Students Talk to ASSETT about Teaching with Technology

Graduate students at CU ��«��Ƶ have gone above and beyond to incorporate technology into their teaching. Josh LePree of the Sociology Department uses Twitter and Voicethread to encourage students to share their thoughts about class topics outside of class. Students nominated LePree for an ASSETT Outstanding Teaching with Technology Award in the Fall of 2013. Leah Holz in the French and Italian Department uses Yabla.com resources to expose her students to spoken French language. Holz went out of her way to improve her teaching when she participated in ASSETT's Flipped Classroom Workshop in the Summer of 2014. Suzie Wright in the Spanish Department uses Prezi in her teaching as a non-linear approach to presenting. Students nominated Wright for an ASSETT Outstanding Teaching with Technology Award in the Fall of 2013.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwIrVKJFoEM]

Off

Traditional

White

History Professor Yonemoto Nominated for ASSETT Teaching Award

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 06:00:00 +0000

History Professor Yonemoto Nominated for ASSETT Teaching Award Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 08/27/2014 - 00:00

"Visuals are important," says CU ��«��Ƶ History Professor Marcia Yonemoto. Yonemoto includes maps and photographs of woodblock art and historic Japanese architecture in her PowerPoint lectures about Japanese history. This spring, students nominated her for an ASSETT Teaching with Technology Award for her well organized presentations in the History seminar 4738, Age of the Samurai in the Early Modern Period. Students wrote that Yonemoto's class featured, "Meaningful usage of media to enhance learning and understanding. [She] created a memorable and educational digital discussion using modern pop culture media as submitted by students to create a better understanding of arts importance in understanding historical content." Yonemoto says that following along with a PowerPoint presentation can be helpful when students are less familiar with Japanese language and names. She shares the images that she uses in PowerPoint presentations on her D2L course pages.

Yonemoto says that her History 4738 course investigated the samurai as, "... a cultural icon ... We watched several dramatic films about the samurai ... Now with D2L, you don't have to take class time to watch a movie." To complement students' readings of historical documents, Yonemoto streamed both historically accurate and less than historically accurate films (including 47 Ronin) onto D2L for students to watch for homework to complement their readings. She asked her class to consider, "Why do we represent Japan in this way?" Yonemoto also plays cultural music that may better inform students about World War II fervor or the differences among regions within Japan. She assigns alternating Discussion Group Leaders to post discussion topics for upcoming class discussions onto a D2L discussion boards before class.

Yonemoto says that much of teaching is about learning from students:

I like talking to and engaging with students. Teaching is a learning process where you learn from your students. You find out interesting ideas ... It keeps everything moving. It's always exciting. It's what makes this a great job. It's always a new generation. They have different responses. I may assign the same book over a period of teaching, and I get different responses ... I learn so much from how [students] engage with the material ... I think that can inform the way we teach ... It's always a work in progress.

Yonemoto says that she is interested in the digital humanities. Yonemoto explains that having access to digitally archived historical documents and search engine features allows historians to draw historical conclusions that would have taken much more time before this technology existed. She wants to get students excited about the prospect of more easily investigating a larger amount of historical documents. Yonemoto says:

To expose students to the excitement of doing research in documents; being the first person to analyze the documents in this way or come up with the data in this way ... What can we study that we don't already know? There's so much we don't know. Students can be on the ground floor discovering it for themselves ... Basic search engines and digitization have revolutionized what you can do ... The possibilities are great.

Off

Traditional

White

Anthropology Intructor Inga Calvin Engages Students with Zotero

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 06:00:00 +0000

Anthropology Intructor Inga Calvin Engages Students with Zotero Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/15/2014 - 00:00

CU ��«��Ƶ Anthropology instructor Inga Calvin engages first year students with the research tool Zotero in Anthropology 1190, Origins of Civilization. She participated in the ASSETT Teaching with Technology Seminar.

Teaching and Learning Challenge

ANTH 1190 Origins of Civilization Upgrade

I decided to focus on improving my course, ANTH 1190 Origins of Ancient Civilizations, taught to ±20 freshman as part of the Residential Academic Program at Baker/Cheyenne-Arapahoe during Spring of 2014. I have taught the course for at least five years and continue to try to make it more engaging for the students — with what I believe to be only limited success.

Origins of Ancient Civilization is a class that fulfills the historical context component of the College of Arts and Sciences core curriculum. During Spring 2014, I taught Origins to 20 freshmen enrolled in the Baker Residential Academic Program based in the Cheyenne-Arapahoe dorm. Because the course fulfills a requirement, most of students in the class are not Anthropology majors and this will be their only encounter with the field while at CU. The class surveys the ways humans have survived and thrived in different parts of the world through an analysis of their archaeologically-recovered material remains. The course examines the societal transformation of humans from foragers to farmers and the different types of social and economic complexities that characterize various civilizations throughout history.

This semester, I began by asking myself what it was I wanted to my students to get out of the course; what did I want them to learn – rather than just memorize. After reading Barr and Tagg (1995-From Teaching to Learning), I realized that I have relied on the "sage on a stage" model employed by my professors. I also recognized that the existing strategy of assigning grades based on three short-answer and fill-in-the blank tests, only serves to reinforce the rote, normative-answer model of education. If I wanted to stimulate curiosity and excitement, the status quo wasn't making it.

I divided my goals into two parts, the first of which I believed would result in the students learning the material and achieving better grades. By improving the basic materials covered in the class, I believed it would be possible to pose more in-depth questions and allow the students to engage more deeply with cross-cultural questions.

Practical — quantifiable goals

to know the terms & definitions used by anthropologists and archaeologists
to be able to extract data from scholarly articles to make a 20-minute oral presentation and written outline

Theoretical — heuristic goals:

to approach the past as well as living culture with curiosity
to comprehend that the objects recovered by archaeologists represent activities done and beliefs held by humans in a specific environmental and cultural context
to understand that historical-archaeological interpretations are made through the cultural filter of the individual doing the research (conscious or unconscious ethnocentrism)
to identify similarities & differences between environments and societies to make cross-cultural comparisons

Strategies employed in previous semesters

Because of the broad nature of the course, I decided in 2013 to replace a single required-reading textbook with what I hoped were more interesting academic articles related to the various topics. I posted the articles on D2L. I also posted a list of terms for each academic section. I asked the students to print out the terms as a spelling aid for their notes and, if I did not cover a term, to ask me about the definition.

To give the students a sense of ownership of at least one archaeological site or culture and to invite them to engage more directly with the material, I assigned students to work in pairs to produce a 20-minute presentation on an aspect of civilization or an archaeological site not covered in class. Each pair was also to write an in-depth outline that summarized the points covered in their presentation and cited at least three academic sources that they had used in their research. The students were given specific instructions as to the type of format to be used and a summary of how their work would be graded (this, along with a summary of the Society for American Archaeology citation format was also posted to D2Learn). To provide further guidance, I posted one of my lectures and the outline that I used in class.

Results of previous strategies

Although the majority of students began the semester by downloading or reading the articles online, by mid-semester few students were consulting D2L. There was a flurry of downloading just before the first test but, thereafter, the only students who visited the website were those who were also consistently achieving a 95% or higher on the tests.

The presentation and outline segment of the class encountered a number of issues, largely related to unfamiliarity with the academic standards required at the university rather than high school. The issues can be summarized as follows:

students spend insufficient time researching topic
- need to learn to organize materials
- need to learn how to manage resources from multiple sources
students don't identify "scholarly" sources
- find academic journals boring
- don't know how to identify salient points
- feel reluctant to use library
students do not like listening to others' presentations
- have difficulties in understanding what is important
- have difficulty paying attention when presenters read their PowerPoints
present a superficial or normative review of material
- do not frame presentation in terms of why topic is interesting or worthy of study
- understanding how does this research or site relate to what was covered in class

Rationale for trying to integrate new technologies

Those students who entered CU with a high degree of academic motivation, a sound foundation of what constitutes scholarly research and the ability to follow directions used the materials provided on D2L and did well in my class. My goal was to snag a portion of that other 80% who might find themselves motivated if they could get excited by the material.

Plans for Implementation

Phase 1:
- To try to engage more students with the materials presented by their peers, I considered replacing the formal 20-minute PowerPoint component of the class with something more interactive like VoiceThread. The individuals doing the research could post their information and an over-the-web dialogue could be established with other members of the class.
- To assess whether everyone in the class had access to the requisite technology, I conducted an in-class survey that revealed that although all the students had access to a computer with camera technology, many were resistant to learning a new computer program that they never anticipated using again. I had to agree that this was not the best use of their time and continued with the 20-minute oral presentation format previously employed.
Phase 2:
- Experience had indicated that students spend an insufficient amount of time engaged in research and often floundered when seeking scholarly resources for their outlines and presentations. As part of the Teaching with Technology Seminar, Caroline Sinkinson suggested that the students might benefit from acquiring and learning about Zotero, a free annotation software available from Mozilla Firefox. I had to admit the computer program had much to recommend it:

The students could work independently to acquire academic sources, as well as share this information electronically with their project partner. They could download PDFs directly from the library into Zotero and make annotations or highlight specific text for use in their outline or presentation.
They could "share" their work on Zotero with me. Thus, I could check that they were progressing in a timely fashion and make suggestions regarding sources without the need for them to schedule an appointment with me.
They would learn a computer program that could be used throughout their career at CU, during which they will write a number of papers in fields that prefer particular citation formats; Zotero would allow them to modify their citations to conform to the requisite styles easily.

I made an appointment with Juliann Couture, Interdisciplinary Social Sciences Librarian at Norlin Library, to introduce the class to the features of Zotero. Before our field-trip to the library, I had all the students bring their laptops to class so that we could upload Zotero.

Problem 1:
- Although everyone had a laptop, several of the computers encountered challenges in acquiring Zotero. Of the 20 laptops, one was almost 10 years old and incredibly slow, one was owned by an exchange student and all the commands were in Norwegian, some students had the latest Windows 8 operating system that they didn't know how to use, while others were using Macs that I couldn't help them with. But, 45-minutes of class-time later, the computers were loaded with Zotero and ready to go to the library.
Problem 2:
- On the day we arrived in the library, the University was having problems with its servers and our connection to the web was intermittent. Much of the next hour was spent by the students trying to acquire a wireless signal and nothing was learned about either how to use the program, how to establish "shared" files or even how to use the Norlin library to acquire articles.
- In short, my efforts at integrating Zotero into Origins of Ancient Civilization during Spring 2014 were a failure. I did provide the students with a link to Zotero's screencast tutorials (http://www.zotero.org/support/screencast_tutorials); however, based on their comments and my later analysis of the students' outlines, no one followed up on learning anything about Zotero.
Phase 3:
- For the first time, I required that all student outlines be posted to the Dropbox on D2Learn. Although I was unfamiliar with this technology, the students seemed to have no problems uploading their work. I was successful in applying the Originality Check feature and quite impressed at how well it worked (except for those partners who submitted the same outline individually — in which case it reported 100% plagiarism). I liked that there was a digital record of when each pair of students submitted their work — it was easy to identify those who waited until after the deadline to post their outline. I also REALLY appreciated that the program did not modify formatting regardless of what word processing program the students had used.
Phase 4:
- After the oral presentations (and using the sample kindly provided by Bianca Williams), I gave the students a series of questions to be answered via Dropbox on D2L. I asked them to give each presentation a percentage grade (I assured them I would not share this information with other members of the class). I asked them to identify the best and worst presentations and explain why they felt that way. The survey also solicited their opinion of the readings. This section included questions on whether the readings were relevant to the material covered in class.

I found the results this survey extremely valuable. I had hoped to use the Quiz or Survey feature of D2L but ran out of time at the end of the semester and was reduced to writing the questions on the board.

I summarized the results of the survey to the class without being specific as to which presentations were being critiqued. I found it interesting that although the students universally disliked excessive text or numerous bullet points on slides, they nonetheless employed them in their own presentations. In-class discussion elicited that the majority of students did not know about the Presenter Feature of PowerPoint and had included so much text because they were afraid they would forget the information. There also seemed to be an aversion to the concept of using notecards.

Switching my computer to duplicate mode, I reviewed some of the alignment and auto-formatting features of PowerPoint to the class. Strangely, although they had been using this technology since 7th Grade, many of the students were unaware of these shortcuts. I intend to find a screencast that will summarize these features and make the link available to future students before they give their presentations.

Indicators of Success

The students stated that they would like in-class discussions or quizzes based on the readings and terms — something I find difficult to reconcile with the fact that they do not access the materials. Nonetheless, since my policy of deriving 10% of the test from the reading has not proven sufficient incentive, I'll try their suggestions next year. Having witnessed a successful review session that employed a computerized Jeopardy game, I plan to initiate informal "games" or oral quizzes (with edible rewards) throughout the semester, to test whether students are familiar with the anthropological terms discussed in class and readings on D2L. These low-stakes activities will also allow me to identify materials that I need to cover more closely.
I also propose to develop timed quizzes on D2L to assess the students' familiarity with the reading using the model employed by quantitative tests like the SAT. The results of these small quizzes would factor into the students' grades. After all students had taken the quiz, I could post the correct answers to be used as part of the study guide for the mid-terms and final.
In spite of the technical difficulties encountered during Spring 2014, I still believe introducing the students to Zotero during their freshman year will provide them a valuable research tool. This summer, I plan to learn more about Zotero so that I will feel more confident in sharing it with the students. I also intend to experiment uploading the program using both the Mac and Windows formats (any foreign students with alien keyboards will have to go to OIT for tech support, as this is clearly beyond my expertise).I intend to work with the Norlin Library staff to more clearly define how I anticipate the students to use Zotero. It may be possible to do some type of work-around during our fieldtrip to the library, should we encounter similar internet difficulties. I also would like to set up a few exercises for the students that will allow them to experiment with using the program before they need to draft their outlines. The use of Zotero will result, at a minimum, in correctly formatted citations. My ability to monitor the pace of students' research should result in a more in-depth analyses. I will also be able to identify non-scholarly sources and more promptly guide the students in finding alternate sources. This monitoring will require more of my time, but I'm confident will result in better analysis by the students.
In the future, I intend to integrate more role-playing into the classroom experience as means of stimulating curiosity and introspection regarding the information covered. Small groups of students will be assigned to imagine themselves in a particular time and place covered by either the reading or class notes and asked to perform a task (e.g., Stonehenge, ca. 2400 BC, erect the Bluestones). Having tried this exercise during Spring 2014, I found the students interested in participating and innovative in their solutions to environmental and technological limitations. As a theoretical form of experimental archaeology, the students engaged more directly with the material. Asking them how they would confirm their solutions archaeologically stimulated classroom discussion. Weeks later, when the students took their mid-term, everyone performed well on questions related to this topic.
Earlier in the semester, I plan to conduct a more-detailed, anonymous on-line survey of the students' response to the class on D2L. I learned a great deal from the comments shared this semester. The students' suggestions were surprisingly thoughtful and direct; I learned far more from the digital responses than I have in previous years from asking the same questions on paper versions of D2L.

Reflection

Although I was depressed by my "failure" with Zotero, the students did not hold me responsible for the technical difficulties. And, although no one seems to have used Zotero while writing their outlines, they were made aware that there was a free citation management tool that they might use in the future. Perhaps, in the future, when their writing and research assignments become more elaborate, they will remember that there are resources through the CU Library that can help them.

As part of this seminar, I believe I have learned a significant lesson — to step away from the podium and let the students take a more active role in the classroom. Like my students, I have been introduced to a number of possible alternative strategies for communicating about ancient civilizations; I just need to check them out.

Off

Traditional

White

Albert Nominated for ASSETT Outstanding Teaching with Tech Award

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 06:00:00 +0000

Albert Nominated for ASSETT Outstanding Teaching with Tech Award Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/14/2014 - 00:00

CU ��«��Ƶ Program for Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) instructor Michelle Albert believes in preparing students to write, "... in the 21st Century! ... This is what I like best about teaching." Last year, students nominated Albert for an ASSETT Outstanding Teaching with Technology Award for her teaching of Writing 1100. The class is designed for first year students who could use extra help with extensive writing and is capped at 15 students. "Good writing needs small group work and one-on-one ..." says Albert. "[Students] feel like they can experiment and explore and try new things and know they'll get support." In nominating her for the award, one student wrote: "[Albert] introduced me to Google Docs, iMovie, Prezi, Wordpress, and she really made it a successful class and gave me a lot of confidence in my writing abilities."

As she designs her classes, Albert considers, "What does it mean to be literate in the 21st Century? ... What literacy practices do students need to be able to use to communicate effectively now?" So guides her courses: "The emphasis is ... on composition meant to be read in a multimedia environment," says Albert. She explains that, "One of the PWR's overall goals is to ... learn write for a variety of audiences." Therefore, Albert coaches students in making digital creative presentation choices. She says that she is, "... helping [students] develop useful academic skills that they can use in the rest of their college career ... I think that it's a crucial skill for students to leave college knowing how to compose in various digital environments." Albert encourages students to create their own YouTube videos, Prezi presentations, or Wordpress websites when appropriate: "In the intro class [Writing 1100], I introduce [students] to Prezi and web design tools ... and show them a range of tools and have them choose a tool for their purposes." When students are deciding which medium to use in their own writing, she asks them to consider: "'What am I interested in? ... What audience are you appealing to, and why?'" Albert tells students that, "A public audience can be real if you choose," and students often choose to create websites or YouTube videos that they share publicly.

Creating Class Websites

Albert also creates her own class websites to communicate assignment guidelines. "I use Wordpress for my class management tool," says Albert. "It helps keep the class clear and organized."

Albert's class websites also serve as the venue for her students to share their writing online. Albert assigns topics for blog posts, and, "[Students] can all write posts and comment on each others' posts." Keeping in mind the digital environment, she may set a minimum number of hyperlinks for students to include in their writing. On creating a class website, Albert explains, "It takes time and saves time;" class websites require the instructor to spend some time before the semester to set up, but they also help students keep track of what's due when! She still uses D2L for confidential correspondence about grades, attendance, and personal feedback.

When Albert is not teaching students, she serves as the PWR Information Literacy Coordinator. Albert shares best practices for teaching with technology with the department. "I design materials to help professors integrate those digital literacy tools into their classrooms." She leads, "... new faculty trainings," and ongoing instructional sessions about information literacy for instructors. Albert says that she enjoys balancing this coordinator position while teaching small writing courses: "I like the combination, and they both inform each other ... I can learn a lot about where students are coming from and what they know and don't know. I like variety."

Off

Traditional

White

2014 Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology Conference

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 06:00:00 +0000

2014 Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology Conference Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 08/13/2014 - 00:00

More than 400 people attended the two day August 2014 Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology (COLTT) Conference at CU ��«��Ƶ. Presenters explored a range of teaching with technology topics and programs, including: PhET interactive science simulations, alternative formats for students with learning disabilities, e-books, MOOCs, digital gaming, podcasts, YouTube, Learning Management Systems, and the psychology of learning with technology. Participants represented Adobe, CU ��«��Ƶ, CU Denver, CSU, Front Range Community College, Regis University, Red Rocks Community College, Metropolitan State University, and the Air Force Academy. ASSETT sponsored 26 scholarships for CU ��«��Ƶ College of Arts and Sciences faculty to attend the conference. ASSETT staff spoke with participants about ASSETT programs.

CU ��«��Ƶ Physics Professor Steven Pollock gave the keynote speech at the 2014 COLTT Conference. Pollock is the 2013 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support for Education National Teacher of the Year. He is active in CU ��«��Ƶ's Physics Education Research (PER) Group, through which Physics professors conduct research of Physics teaching. Pollock said that the PER has found that students achieve a better understanding of material in an interactive environment. He also said that the PER has found that Learning Assistants (high performing undergraduates) achieve higher content mastery after they lead interactive learning sessions with lower level science students. Pollock said that if these LAs pursue careers in K12 education, then they exhibit stronger science knowledge than they otherwise would. Additionally, he suggested the implementation of SCALE UP (Student Centered Active Learning Environments with Upside down Pedagogies) classrooms, which would feature round tables so that students would face one another in optimal position for small group discussion.

Presentations

ASSETT hosted one of the more than 70 sessions at the 2014 COLTT Conference. ASSETT Teaching with Technology Consultants Jacie Moriyama, Amanda McAndrew, and Nisha Azimova spoke to a full house during their presentation, "A Technology Roundup: Feedback Tools for Students." The consultants presented various formative assessment technologies, including screencasts, Camtasia, Voicethread, Jing, iAnnotate, Screenr, and SnagIt.

Additionally, Angela Galik of Red Rocks Community College presented research about the pros and cons of our growing dependence on electronic devices for learning during her 'Tech and the Brain' session. Galik explained our generational shift from deep attention (thoroughly reading one book without doing anything else) to hyper attention (changing focus rapidly, such as stopping work on a project to respond to an email because of the flashing alert in the corner of the computer screen). Galik discussed the stress responses involved when we try to balance these distractions while maintaining productivity.

Off

Traditional

White

Presentation Technologies

Hybrid French Language Course Development

Learning to Teach with Hybrid Methods

Implementation of Hybrid Teaching Methods in Undergraduate French Language Courses

Consistency Among Traditional, Hybrid, and Online French Language Courses

Off

Lonnie Pearce's Students Map their Thinking with Prezi

Off

Jany Implements VoiceThread Thanks to ASSETT Teaching with Tech Seminar

Off

Students Nominate Linguistics' Steve Duman for Excellence in Teaching Award

Off

Alina Van Nelson's French Students Upload Presentations to VoiceThread

Off

CU ��«����Ƶ Grad Students Teach with Technology

Off

History Professor Yonemoto Nominated for ASSETT Teaching Award

Off

Anthropology Intructor Inga Calvin Engages Students with Zotero

ANTH 1190 Origins of Civilization Upgrade

Strategies employed in previous semesters

Results of previous strategies

Rationale for trying to integrate new technologies

Off

Albert Nominated for ASSETT Outstanding Teaching with Tech Award

Creating Class Websites

Off

2014 Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology Conference

Presentations

Off

CU ��«��Ƶ Grad Students Teach with Technology