How’s it going 2008 Fellows?

It’s the middle, ok more than middle of the summer and Faculty Fellows have been beavering away at their projects. I emailed them to check in and hope some will share with comments here.

Ed Media/Academia meets Instrusty Summit

Conference Notes

I generally focused on topics around web 2.0, virtual environments, and gaming. Connections to the people behind some of these presentations you’ll find in my Twitter and Facebook friends.

Here are my notes for EdMedia. I have too a CD of the proceedings papers and abstracts for anyone to use.
(World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications)
I also attended a small conference on the visual web and Academic Meets Industry a summit where academics and the gaming industry talked about big picture trends and issues. Here are my notes

Games for education and the industry

  1. There are already gaming platforms available that can be used to redesign curriculum
  2. Inquiry/problem based design are two approaches
  3. Example of a Computer Science game-based curriculum is at RIT
  4. Games are successfully used in Language learning, training, fitness,health,
  5. Hunter Hoffman uses games for young burn victims. Instead of morphine, they play immersive games while getting treatments
  6. A great game can become a cultural phenomenon.
  7. There is way too little assessment or evaluation of the outcomes of games for learning.
  8. It’s also not clear that they are effective, educational games tend to take the fun out of the game. And there’s some evidence that the learning that does happen, takes place during associated activities

The Talent Crunch

  1. It’s hard to find students with the STEM skill
  2. Students who are trained in “traditional” computer science, the arts and graphic design are better prepared than students who are in poorly designed game design curriculum. “IF students don’t have the core competencies in art, cs and design, they can only go as far as the tools will take them.
  3. There’s a concern in academia that the industry is too focused on vocational training
  4. At the same time, there are no good models for educating students to work in this industry. Looking at film schools and art schools is useful.
  5. Some companies like Electronic Arts have their own curriculum to train new hires.
  6. Everyone agrees that industry needs to be more actively involved in working with academia to meet the demands of industry
  7. Although engineering leads designs, the field is very creative, with artists, cinematographers, composers.
  8. And while technical and creative skills are very important, communication skills are considered extrememely important.
  9. Casual games see the largest and fastest growth
  10. High Definition may detract from storytelling which is the kingpin in good game design
  11. Universities can provide a context that adapts to the shifts in Industry and technology and as such developing students core competencies in CS and the ARTS is a good strategy.
  12. It is very difficult to say what technologies will take hold and how they impact the field.

New Faculty and teaching and learning

 Simon Marshall posted about the challenges of prioritizing teaching and learning for new faculty.

One glaring omission in our preparatory training is that no formal pedagogical training is required (remember, “recommended” and “required” yield very different behaviors from faculty too!).

With RTP, research and grant writing, it’s a wonder they can attend to teaching at all. Having a course design institute or curriculum available at the onset of a teaching career seems obviously logical, yet it happens a few institutions. At the same time, many new faculty have teaching experience and some even have training.

They don’t do faculty development per se at Claremont. Instead a course on course design is recommended to all graduate students. Ok, it’s recommended, not required, but it’s for credit. It’s intense and practical.

I’m sure there are other ways to approach it as well. Professional development is after all a part of every organization.

Research/Teach? Faculty/Lecturer?

Working with faculty and lecturers, we have the opportunity to see how their professional landscapes often differ. Or do they? All of our Fellows are committed to teaching regardless of their professional status. That’s a given. But how what we do map onto the RTP process? Or time commitments, when for example lecturers teach at other institutions as is the case with several fellows? Join the conversation HERE.

Talking about teamwork over on Val’s blog

Fellow Val Renegar started an interesting conversation about teamwork. She, Kurt Lindemann and Brian Spitzberg from the School of Communication are working together to redesign Comm 103 which Kurt teaches. We all had some insightful things to share. Join our conversation here. They’ll be presenting their redesign at our April 30th Learning Stories Luncheon.