Course Design by Val Renegar

I have been thinking about Facebook and the things that we have been doing in 103 utilizing this forum.  One of the best things about this technology is that it was a happy accident.  when our students are using a technology and have become familiar with its functions, it is easy to incorporate it into a learning environment.  Facebook takes very little effort.  And that is in its favor.  I think that one of the things that I need to do a better job of is to stay abreast of the technologies that my students use frequently.  I work hard to understand what they do for fun or what they are paying attention to (Gossip Girl, Justin Timberlake!) , so this isn’t much of a stretch and I am not sure why I didn’t make this connection earlier.

Perhaps one of the reasons that the learning curve for the blogs was a bit steep in my class last year was because my students aren’t big blog readers.  I find this forum really easy to access, but probably because I read a lot of blogs (usuaully about food…or cheese…or cute animals…or living in Paris)  so I understand what a blog is suppossed to be (and what it doesn’t have to try to be).

So, i am going to be on the lookout for more technologies that come easy to our students and try to be more aware of how they are using their time in virtual space.

The other thing that I want to be more mindful of is this issue of access to technology that we talked about  at the lunch on wednesday.  Many of my students don’t have easy access to a range of technologies.  they all have a cell phon, but less than 50% have a lap top.  and I even have a couple of students with either no internet access at home, or dial up access.  I am going to try to be more mindful of these difference sand try to provide better information about University computing resources.  i am also going to try to remember to ask more questions about what kinds of tech they do have access to, so I can sense when tides are turning.

Elite colleges and Universities issue students laptops (and sometimes also ipods) as incoming first year students.  Can you image how different that would make things?  If you knew, for certain, that everyone had equal access?  ah….

I think that today’s learning stories meeting went really well. All of the presentations were interesting, gave me some things to think about, and raised important questions. After the meeting was over the Comm folks were sitting around talking to Suzanne and Patricia said that she hoped we could have a meeting of the CDI folks this summer. What a great idea! I have talked previously about how much more I have taken away from this CDI experience over my other pICT experiences as a result of being part of a learning team, but the other really tangible difference in this go-round has been the smaller size of the cohort. My first year there were like 30 or 40 folks, but this year there were only 11 or so. So much more manageable and accessible for me! I think the smaller size has made us all feel more a part of a learning team, even for the folks working on solo projects. I think the other real advantages to having a summer workshop for the 07 folks is that it would allow us to start talking about assessment and all get on the same page before moving forward. The overlunches have been just great, and I really like connecting with folks, but it is hardly ever everyone at once. So, I hope we can get the group together again to talk about iteration 2 and 3 and have some time to derive support, strength, and ideas from one another. Every time I attend one of the CDI/pICT events I reminded that our whole is usually greater than the sum of our parts and I am looking forward to that opportunity.

Thanks, Brian and Suzanne for the insightful comments. I have been thinking about Brian’s point about how little we actually get to draw on each other’s collective resources and how difficult it is to find time to get together and work on projects to help elevate our teaching. I agree that I benefit just from the synergy of simply interacting with other people and the energy that we bring to the collaboration.

But this gets me to thinking about the larger issue of time and how much time it is that we have that can be devoted to projects that center on teaching. The reason we don’t get together more, or have more time to work on our projects, is because our group members are all involved in other kinds of research projects. Kurt and I have have had a number of conversations about priorities and it seems to me that there is a real divide between people whose job is primarily about teaching (lecturers) and those who are expected to be conducting research, doing service, and teaching. The advice that assistant and associate professors get from pretty much everywhere is that you must spend your time on research. As long as the teaching is solid, time spent working on improvement would be much better spent writing articles for submission to journals, etc. I know that some people turn their teaching experiences into academic publications, but for most of us that isn’t realistic or a coherent part of our larger research agenda.

so, my quandary is, how can teaching innovation become more relevant for tenure track professors who depend on research for promotion? It seems that teaching will always be low on the totem pole as long as these other demands are ebing held in higher regard. Is the pICT program something that benefits our lecturers more than t/tt faculty? what can t/tt faculty gte out ofthis program that can be implemented quickly and without the significant ramp-up time that trades off with research time? Would it make sense to have a different program for the two groups? The demands and expectations are so vastly different (to me) that I have a hard time seeing the time that some lecturers put into their projects as realistic for me, or others at a similar place in their career. Its; frustrating that this kind of work counts for so little in the big scheme, when it feels really important to me.

I don’t have any answers yet, but this is what i have been dwelling on….

I was a pICT fellow in 2005, and I worked on incorporating blogs into my course on critical/cultural research methods. I really enjoyed the weeklong workshop, but found that after that experience I was mostly on my own in terms of trouble-shooting, implementation, and assessment. There were folks for me to seek out and resources available, but on the whole it was a solitary experience for me.

When the call for the 2007 fellowship was released, I approached two of my colleagues about working together as fellows as a way of improving our large lecture class on public speaking. This is not my class, but it is so large that I figure more heads are better than one. I have enjoyed the experience of working with others far more than I enjoyed working alone. (And I am kind of a loner, so this was a surprise to me.) I think there is something about the initial difficulties of working with new technologies and the learning curve required in mastering some of the programs that we have been working with that are just better handled by a team than solo. The meetings we have with our consultant also create this kind of team mentality. I think one of the reasons that this experience has been positive for me, is that I feel like I am not only part of a cohort but also that I am part of a learning team. I would highly recommend future fellows pairing or grouping up in this way, too.