2014

Mollborn Incorporates New Research Methods in Sociology Course

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Mollborn Incorporates New Research Methods in Sociology Course Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/15/2014 - 00:00

Stephanie Mollborn, Associate Professor of the CU ��«��Ƶ Sociology Department, participated in ASSETT's Fall 2014 Teaching with Technology Seminar. She redesigned her course to cover general research methods. Watch her discuss her course here:

[video:https://youtu.be/3aRmd8Up8wo]

Teaching and Learning Challenge

The Problem

This semester, I need to create a new, high-quality required course in Sociological research methods that engages students in actual research and active learning, yet is conducted in a large-class format that can be taught by different faculty.

The Course's Big Idea

Sociological research offers a lot of tools to investigate questions about the social world. These tools have different pros and cons and need to be used in a high-quality way.

What's Needed

Students will need background content and tools to be able to conduct research and create questions about the social world. This is complicated by the fact that many students will be intimidated about using either qualitative or quantitative methods. The professor knows some of the needed technologies but will need to learn others within a limited time frame. The structural constraints are that the class needs to be taught in a large format of up to 125 students in a regular classroom.

The Goal

Instead of teaching passive knowledge from a textbook, I want to design the course around active learning and use of Sociological research methods. Students will conduct small-scale but high-quality sociological research of various types, and understand the appropriate uses of the different types. Assessments will be research projects, conducted in groups and individually. To achieve this goal, students will need to engage in collaboration, data collection and analysis, critical thinking, assessment, presenting work, and engagement with Sociological literature.

Plans for Implementation

This semester I need to create a new, high-quality sociological research methods required course that engages students in actual research and active learning, yet is conducted in a large-class format that can be taught by different faculty. This course should incorporate technologies to facilitate active learning in the large-class format.

Instead of teaching passive knowledge from a textbook, I want to design the course around active learning and use of sociological research methods. Students will conduct small-scale but high-quality sociological research of various types, and understand the appropriate uses of the different types. Assessments will be research projects, conducted in groups and individually. To achieve this goal, they will need to engage in collaboration, data collection and analysis, critical thinking, assessment, presenting work, and engagement with sociological literature. The class will be taught with up to 125 students, with the professor and a reader/grader. This will create some constraints for active learning and collaborative research that I need to address using technology.

I plan to implement the following technological tools, some new to me and some not, for the following purposes:

Lectures/Course Material

Clickers: For encouraging active learning and small and large group discussion in class. I already use this and feel comfortable with it.

VoiceThread: For students to create collaborative presentations of key course material.

D2L online assessments: To assess student understanding of this material through short quizzes administered outside of class

Group Research Projects

These research projects will allow students to collect original data using four sociological methods: surveys, interviews, observations, and content analysis. Each of these projects will have a short paper as its final product, in addition to the data they collected and the instruments they used to collect it. They will do most of these projects in groups, then pick their favorite project and build on it for their final course paper.

Google Drive and Google Hangout: For group collaboration on original research and collaborative editing of write-ups

Zotero: For group collaboration on literature reviews for research projects, for sharing the work of gathering relevant lit review/content analysis materials, and for group sociological analysis in content analysis project

Qualtrics: For fielding online and paper surveys for the survey analysis project

SPSS: For conducting simple data analysis for the survey analysis project

Timeline

I need to submit a course proposal in the next couple of months, but the course will not be taught until next fall. This gives me some time to work on the rather complicated implementation of multiple new technologies.

Indicators of Success

This is going to be the hardest part of my project. Because the goal is to create a completely new course that hasn’t been taught before in our department, there is no “control group,” or baseline, to compare to. The technological innovations will also be woven through essentially every aspect of the course, so I can’t compare student performance on technology-enhanced segments of the class with their performance on other segments.

For this reason, I plan to take the approach I used in my earlier scholarship of teaching and learning: subjective student assessments. I will occasionally ask students to write a “minute paper” giving me feedback on how they think use of certain technological tools or pedagogical strategies (which include technology) are going, and how they are learning in this course. This will be supplemented by clicker questions gathering anonymous feedback from the students on different aspects of the course and on their understanding of different concepts. Finally, in the course FCQs, I will ask students to address in the open-ended comments how they think the course went and about the use of technologies in the class. This multimethod assessment can’t get very well at comparing objective measures of students’ learning, but it does provide both depth and breadth of subjective assessments at various time points in the class. This will help me improve the class for its second offering.

After the session on assessment, I have also decided to add teacher reflections as an assessment component. This is likely to add an additional perspective that will complement students’ subjective assessments. Both my teaching assistants and I will participate in these reflections, independently and collaboratively.

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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]

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Academics Online Week

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 06:00:00 +0000

Academics Online Week Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/26/2014 - 00:00

Instructors just finished five days of discussion and learning about sharing their research online. ASSETT and University Libraries hosted five Academics Online Week panel and discussion sessions each afternoon during the week of September 15 through 19. They discussed how and whether to publish research online, including in open access journals. One day, attendees learned about several research sharing platforms, including: Academia.edu, M endeley.com, Z otero.com, W ordpress.com, S lideshare.net, and even T witter! University Libraries introduced Scholar.colorado.edu, a new repository that will launch in October! Instructors and speakers weighed the benefits of creating a greater online presence to become more discoverable, while understanding rights as authors. Find more resources at this MindMap and at this Google Doc!

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New Tech Maps the Past

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 06:00:00 +0000

New Tech Maps the Past Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/24/2014 - 00:00

High tech devices fly high when it comes to archaeological mapping. Professor Gerardo Gutierrez of the CU ��«��Ƶ Anthropology Department has found that the right technology can free up hours of work for the archaeologist. Gutierrez has received two ASSETT Development Awards to purchase state of the art mapping technology for his students to learn to use. With matched funding from the Department of Anthropology, Gutierrez purchased two total stations, one Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and related mapping software. Taking aerial pictures with UAVs is a great improvement over more traditional mapping methods. Until recently, an archaeologist relied upon total stations, which require hours in the field to take measurements of hundreds of points.

Gutierrez used the equipment that he purchased to conduct mapping research with his students this past spring. They found that mapping with UAVs is more affordable and faster than is mapping with the more traditional archaeological tools. Even the initial purchase of a UAV has become more affordable in recent years: "New digital photogrammetry is emerging very fast," says Gutierrez. Also, the UAV is smaller, more compact, and lighter in weight than is a total station.

With the ASSETT Development Award funding, Gutierrez was able to purchase software that interprets the photos from the UAV camera. He noted that the software, "... generates high resolution georeferenced orthophotos (up to 5 cm accuracy) and exceptionally detailed Digital Elevation Models. This software enables students to process thousands of aerial images on a desktop computer to produce professional photogrammetric data." Gutierrez and his students (CU ��«��Ƶ students Grace Emy, Alyssa Friedman, Melanie Godsey, and Machal Gradoz) found that it takes 27 times longer to gather data mapping with a total station than with a UAV. They created a training model for others to use when learning to map with total stations and UAVs. Gutierrez and his team found that even training others to map with UAVs takes much less time--3.5 times less time--than training someone to use and interpret data from a total station or a LIDAR system (mapping data taken from a piloted aircraft). They submitted these findings to the journal, Advances in Archaeological Practices for the Society of American Anthropology.

Gutierrez led one of the four GIS ArcMap workshop sessions this spring, which were also funded by ASSETT Development Awards! He partnered with Classics Department Professor Elspeth Dusinberre. Further, Gutierrez has taken his equipment training across borders through a partnership with the Insitituto Nacional de Anthropologia e Historia (INAH), the Mexican government's Cultural Resource Management agency. Gutierrez trained Mexican archaeologists in using such equipment to create archaeological maps.

Gutierrez says, "We are really grateful for the assistance of ASSETT. Without this funding, we wouldn’t have been able to do any of this."

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ASSETT Development Award Funds GIS Archaeology Workshops

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 06:00:00 +0000

ASSETT Development Award Funds GIS Archaeology Workshops Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/28/2014 - 00:00

Dr. Elspeth Dusinberre of the Classics Department hosted a series of four ArcGIS Archaeology workshops with the help of ASSETT Development Award funding and funding from the Arts and Sciences Fund for Excellence. The participants learned how to measure Earth’s topography and make maps using ArcGIS, total stations, and (best of all) drones!

The classes were well received, and they were so popular that they had a waiting list! The attendees were diverse–from first year students to faculty members. Because of the funding that Dusinberre received, the course was free for participants.

Participants met for four two hour sessions. Each session was led by a different faculty member with different areas of geographic and historic expertise.

In the second session, students learned how to use total stations–the traditional surveying equipment in which an electronic distance meter finds the distance to three different points.

The third class focused on learning how to use a drone–a Phantom Vision Plus Quadcopter to be specific! Baxter explained that drones are useful for surveying purposes because they can take accurate aerial photos and create digital elevation models–3D images of Earth’s topography.

Baxter explained that the sophisticated technology offered in the workshops is not always readily available to archaeologists and their students. The workshops served as a unique opportunity for archaeologists and archaeology students to use sophisticated mapping equipment. “The idea was to fill that gap and introduce students to how they can use that technology in an archaeological context,” says Baxter.

“They all received a certificate, and in general, I think had a pretty good time,” says Baxter.

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Tweeting in Tyler's Crime and Society Courses

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 06:00:00 +0000

Tweeting in Tyler's Crime and Society Courses Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/28/2014 - 00:00

Tweet for homework? This spring, CU ��«��Ƶ students nominated Sociology graduate student Amanda Tyler for an ASSETT Outstanding Teaching with Technology Award for her teaching of Sociology 2044, Crime and Society. One student wrote, "We used both Clickers and Twitter to enhance learning and incorporate current events into the curriculum." Tyler spoke with ASSETT about how important it is for her to involve students in class discussions: "... I work toward creating an environment where students are able to discuss class material, even when the class has a large number of students. Clicker questions are a great way for me to engage my students in conversation." She says that she uses Clicker questions to poll students about their opinions and start discussions. Tyler explains that when students don't have to worry about whether their answers are right or wrong, the class can better engage multiple opinions. Also, Clicker questions help her gauge her students' understanding of material.

Using Twitter in Class Discussions

Additionally, Tyler creates class Twitter pages as venues for student participation. She embeds the class Twitter page feed onto the D2L course page and asks students to Tweet current event news stories or videos about class topics and write their own discussion questions for homework. Tyler says that she believes that Tweeting provides an opportunity, "... For students to apply course material to their everyday world." Tyler truly involves students in class discussion when she uses students' Tweeted questions as the class's Clicker questions. "Students often Tweet insightful questions that engage their peers in further discussion, so I like to highlight these questions in my lecture slides," says Tyler. In class, she projects the class Twitter feed onto the board and often invites students to Tweet their ideas during lecture. Tyler says that she finds that giving students the opportunity to join the spotlight motivates them: "I think Twitter makes class more fun! I believe that when students have fun learning, it is more likely that they do their homework, and they will want to attend class." Tyler says that she hopes that Tweeting may even help students better remember course material: "They might visually remember a term they learned in a Tweet, which will stick with them later ..."

Case in point: one day during a discussion about the value of eye witness testimony in court procedures, Tyler staged a mock eye witness activity. A colleague came into the classroom and quickly left again. Tyler asked her students to Tweet to the class Twitter page what they remembered they saw. When the students' realized how few of them had accurately remembered what the man had been wearing, they better understood the validity that is often lacking in eye witness testimonies.

In order to give students participation credit for their Tweets, Tyler assigns specific hashtags to each week's Tweets and periodically asks them to submit screen shot logs.

Tyler looks forward to a career in teaching at the college level: "Teaching is one of my greatest passions! It always keeps me on my toes. I am constantly researching and thinking about new ways to engage my students. Being nominated for this award is an incredible honor!"

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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.

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Williams's Students Create Tumblr Pages

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

Williams's Students Create Tumblr Pages Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/15/2014 - 00:00

CU ��«��Ƶ Ethnic Studies Assistant Professor Bianca Williams encouraged her students to use Tumblr to archive the cultural multimedia that they found in their research.

Teaching and Learning Challenge

One of the gifts and strengths of teaching Africana Studies and Anthropology courses is the opportunity to have students connect the theories of race, gender, and sexualities they learn in the classroom to their everyday life experiences. During the semester (and sometimes long after they have left my courses), students frequently send me music videos, films, YouTube tutorials, blog posts, email discussions, and various forms of narrative media connected to the topics we have discussed in class. Through these digital links, students show that they are making connections between practice and theory, and finding ways to apply the tools learned in the classroom to the other lenses they utilize to make sense of the world.

My project during the Teaching with Technology Faculty Workshop was to create an exercise that encouraged students to curate the various Internet and multi-media sources they found that connected to the themes and topics of my “Black Women, Popular Culture, and The Pursuit of Happiness” seminar course. Instead of sending dozens of emails to share these resources with one another and having to comb the Internet or our inboxes to find these sources at a later date, I thought it would be more effective to create a digital archive that students could tailor for themselves and potentially share with their classmates. For example, one of the texts we used in the course this semester was Beyonce’s latest multi-media album. Within five days of the album release, there were over thirty blogs posts, video commentaries, TV episodes, and pictorial editorials dedicated to the debate about whether the album and its creator were legitimately part of a (Black) feminist movement. In a project like this, a student could gather all of these digital materials in one place, creating a database for anyone interested in this topic (and the ever-changing contours of the discussion), while creating a great archive for them to draw on as they wrote a final paper on the topic.

“Black Women and Happiness” provides an introduction to Black feminist thought while discussing how race and gender influence one’s definition and pursuit of happiness. In the course, students explore personal notions of happiness, while also examining the social, political, and economic factors that influence one’s access to happiness. I wanted to create an exercise that allowed students to engage in a form of authentic learning, where they could apply the theories of gendering, racialization, and happiness from the course to the media they consume and produce in their own time. By discussing how they were curating their archives, I hoped that this would lead to even more student engagement with both me (the professor) and between peers. Additionally, participating in this exercise would assist students in growing a sense of information literacy, encouraging them to pay careful attention to various modes of storytelling and narrative production, while assessing evidence and audience.

Plans for Implementation

Initially, I thought that this project would result in a course webpage or some other localized archive of multi-media texts. While some suggested that creating a simple folder on D2L or Dropbox would suffice, I was aiming for a more dynamic, interactive space where students could collect sources, put them into conversation with one another, and share them with others interested in the same topic. After reviewing a few online curating tools such as Pinterest, Storify, Evernote, and Scoop.it, I decided to use Tumblr for this exercise. Tumblr’s interface seemed user-friendly and had clean lines; it connected easily to Facebook, which students already utilized quite a bit to find and share their multi-media resources; and many of the students in the class reported they already had personal Tumblr accounts, which meant the technological learning curve would be non-existent for most.

I did not have the opportunity to introduce this exercise to students at the beginning of the semester. However, the seventeen students in this upper-level undergraduate and graduate course were excited about the prospect of completing a digital archive connected to a course theme for extra credit. This allowed students to create a digital archive as they searched for outside resources for their final papers on race, gender, and happiness, and to use their Tumblr pages as capstone commentary on what they had learned in the course.

Three weeks before the last day of class, I handed out a worksheet describing what I was looking for in this Tumblr assignment that interrogated the connections between race, gender, and happiness. Students were to curate Internet images, videos, or any other form of media to create a page that comprised a consistent commentary on a theme from the course. A week later, students complained that choosing one theme was either too rigid or too overwhelming for them. Subsequently, I decided to spend some class time discussing the assignment and figuring out how to make it successful.

Ensuring that students engaged in a conversation with one another, we spent time discussing the ten words or theoretical concepts students felt encapsulated the most important ideas from the course. These ten words acted as a word bank that guided students in their digital archive creation. For each source (image/video/etc) included in their archive, students could provide commentary in one of two ways: (1) write a brief paragraph (5-7 sentences) describing how they felt the source connected to one of the words from the word bank; or (2) post a short introductory video (5-7 min) that described the concepts they used and how these connected to the content on their Tumblr. The Tumblr page had to be comprised of at least seven pieces of content, and the link to the Tumblr had to be emailed to me by midnight on the last day of class.

Indicators of Success

I would say that the digital archive exercise was partly successful. The preliminary in-class discussion which created the word bank was very successful in that it (1) permitted us to engage in a brief review of course concepts as an entire class; (2) displayed which ideas students thought were most important, and allowed them to discuss where they had seen the concepts in practice outside the classroom; and (3) acted as its own capstone conversation right before they wrote final papers. We had a wonderful discussion about the different ways race, gender, and happiness are represented and included in visual media (like photography and graphic design) and auditory media (such as music and slam poetry). After this introduction to the exercise and the class discussion, many students were enthusiastic about the opportunity to complete the extra credit assignment.

However, when the assignment was actually due, only four of the seventeen students decided to complete it. This was understandable, as the assignment was extra credit. Additionally, the students and I had just completed a particularly productive, yet emotionally-trying semester discussing individual and collective experiences with mental health crises, and exploring connections between power and access to happiness. Many students experienced a tough time synthesizing their personal narratives and the theoretical concepts into an eight-page paper, and spent the majority of the time at the end of the semester focusing on this paper, which was a significant portion of their final grade. However, at least six students began the Tumblr exercise, stating that this initial process of curating helped them make their papers more focused. In this way, the Tumblr assignment acted as a funnel and sifter for personal brainstorming and theoretical mindmapping for their final papers. Thus, many of the words in the word bank, and the sources they wanted to include in their digital archives showed up not only in their final papers, but also in their class presentations.

The four students that actually completed the assignment created Tumblr pages that were provocative and introduced me to several mainstream media sources (such as T.V. shows and music videos) that provided useful commentary on race, gender, and happiness. Their Tumblr pages included poetry, GIFs, short video clips, images of paintings, and photography that connected to the key words from the course they wanted to highlight. I will be using some of these resources in future semesters when I teach this course. The order of the resources, the quotes from texts, and the brief paragraphs describing how they viewed the Tumblr’s contents as connected showed that the students were using the tools from the course to analyze their consumption of multiple forms of media content and venues. Through the layout of the Tumblr page, and the choices made during the process of curating, I gained some insight into how the course affected students personally, which is also useful information. Additionally, a couple of students shared their Tumblr pages with friends and students not in the class, using the page as a way to introduce others to the theoretical concepts of the course. I thought this was a wonderful way of authentically learning, and passing on the knowledge to others not able to be in this particular seminar.

Reflection

I would definitely use this digital archive exercise in the classroom during a future semester. Next time, however, I would carve room in the lesson plan to introduce the assignment at the beginning of the course, and use it as a tool throughout the semester. This way students could begin curating earlier, observing how their interpretation and analysis of the pieces change as they progress through the course. Also, this would permit students more time to gather a deeper archive, and organize it in a way most useful for them. Last, just as they engaged in a peer review for their final papers, I would have students engage in a peer review process for their Tumblrs also, allowing their peers to provide feedback and additional sources that may add to their digital archive.

I conclude from the low percentage of participation in the Tumblr extra credit assignment that it was not a complete success. However, on the last day of class, students decided to create a private Facebook group for the course, allowing those that wanted to continue a conversation about the course themes and topics, and share media resources they came across that they felt were important. Students asked that their peers who had completed the Tumblr assignment jump start this discussion by posting some of the images, videos, and other sources into this Facebook group, or posting the link to their Tumblr pages. I counted this as a success.

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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.

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Kan Archives Language Sound Bites with ASSETT Development Award

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

Kan Archives Language Sound Bites with ASSETT Development Award Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/14/2014 - 00:00

Research team from left: Wes Song, Dr. Pui Fong Kan, Allina Robertson, Shirley Cheung, and Fan Yin Cheng

Last year, CU ��«��Ƶ Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Center Assistant Professor Pui Fong Kan received an ASSETT Development Award to create web based resources for pathologists who treat patients who are multilingual and are having trouble communicating in English. Pui Fong explains that having a go-to database to learn more about a patient's primary language can provide helpful insights about the reasons patients may exhibit difficulty communicating in English.

The Idea

Pui Fong said that student input has made this project possible: "This project started in class. I was talking about how the resources available to bilingual speech and language pathologists are limited." Allina Roberts, a Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences graduate student, came up to Pui Fong after class that day and said, "We can do this!" Roberts introduced Pui Fong to Wes Song, an aspiring programmer, who happened to be looking for a goodwill project. Song volunteered to develop the website as his class project for a Refactoru.com web development class. Roberts now conducts research for the project.

Pui Fong would like the website to offer comprehensive sound bites of different languages' syllables, consonants, and dipthongs. The team will invite peer institutions to contribute their expertise about the languages of the world. Pui Fong and her team explained how time consuming and overwhelming it can be for a clinician when trying to research and learn about a client's first language. Pui Fong's team envisions that with access to their website, speech therapists will be able to more quickly learn about clients' languages. Such knowledge will help therapists determine how to help different speech clients communicate in English. Pui Fong explained, "We are working with a diverse population ... Sometimes [speech patients] make errors in the second language, but they are just in the process of learning two languages; they don't have a problem ..." The team would also like the website to offer some, "... resources about bilingual children." The team's goals are to finish the website and invite other speech therapy clinicians, researchers, and linguists to contribute to it.

Right now, the team is working on the first phase of the website, and Song is rushing to complete the rest. He is setting up the website so that approved users would be able to add new languages and tables of consonant or vowel sounds. Song said that he is incorporating Web 2.0 to make the site more responsive and easier to use: he is using Javascript, CSS, and HTML to code different parts of the site.

Pui Fong views the project as a team effort, and says, "We want students to be able to participate and contribute." Indeed, also working on the project are: Fan Yin Cheng, a visiting Research Assistant in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, and Shirley Cheung, an Honors CU ��«��Ƶ Senior in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. Pui Fong appreciates the input that she receives from her team, "As this project continues I realize that [Song] has some interesting ideas, like mobile devices." The team would like to offer the website on tablets and iPads for their portability. Pui Fong says that she would like to include even more students in the project this year.

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2014

Mollborn Incorporates New Research Methods in Sociology Course

The Problem

The Course's Big Idea

What's Needed

The Goal

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Group Research Projects

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

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Academics Online Week

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New Tech Maps the Past

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ASSETT Development Award Funds GIS Archaeology Workshops

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Tweeting in Tyler's Crime and Society Courses

Using Twitter in Class Discussions

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History Professor Yonemoto Nominated for ASSETT Teaching Award

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Williams's Students Create Tumblr Pages

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Anthropology Intructor Inga Calvin Engages Students with Zotero

ANTH 1190 Origins of Civilization Upgrade

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Kan Archives Language Sound Bites with ASSETT Development Award

The Idea

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