Texas Community College Teachers Association

Texas Community College Teachers Association

The 61st Annual ConventionFebruary 21-23, 2008

Dallas, Texas

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Communication

It is fundamental that we begin with an analysis of models of communication and likely that we must digress into models of meta-communication as well. I begin therefore, with five influential models of communication: Aristotle, Shannon, Schramm, Katz & Lazerfeld, HRW.

(384-322BC) Greek Philosopher. A pupil of Plato, and a tutor to Alexander the Great,in 335 BC. He founded a school and library (the Lyceum) just outside Athens.His surviving written works, in the form of dry lecture notes, constitute a vast system of analysis, convering logic, physical science, zoology, psychology, metaphysics,eithers, politics, and rhetoric. In reasoning, he establishd the iuductive method. In metaphysics, he reached against the mystical speculation of Plato, whose Theory of Forms he rejected; for him form and matter were the inseparable constituents of all existing things. As an empirical scientific observer he had no rival in antiquity.The science in which he was most at home was biology, describing corrctly the stomach of ruminants and the development of the chick embryo, and classifying animals by means of a scale ascending to man (without implying evolution). His work in this field was not fully appreciated until the 19th c.: Darwin ackoledges a dept to him. His influence in all fields has been immense: from the 9th c. it pervaded Islamic philosophy, theology, and science, and after being lost to the West for some centuries, became the basis of scholasticism; in astoromy, his rejction of the idea of the plurality of planets was a serious handicap to later thinking. An ancient tradition describes him as bald, with thin legs, small eyes,and a lisp ,and as being noticeably well-dressed. A number of extant statues (e.g.one in the Vienna Museum) probably represent him.



Poiesis



Praxis





Types of Episteme

But first... about “thin slicing”

Ratings of three ten-second video clips of university instructors predicted end-of-year course evaluations. So did three two-second clips!

– Natalie Ambady & Robert Rosenthal (1993). Half a

minute: predicting teacher evaluations from thin slices of nonverbal behavior and physical attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 431-41.

– Malcolm Gladwell (2005). Blink: The power of thinking without thinking. New York: Little, Brown & Company.

Web 2.0, Communication,

Technology and Post-Secondary Education

John MittererDepartment of Psychology

Brock [email protected]

Goals

I have two major goals for today’s talk:

• To share some of my ideas about teaching and technology (with a focus on Web 2.0)

• To share some examples of how I have used technology to put these ideas into practice in my courses at Brock University

Relax

Explore technology a bit at a time; find your own best practice



On communication: The sender

It is my deep conviction that many teachers who are labeled “poor teachers” are neither neglectful nor malicious.

Sender

The Message

Rather it is because they spend their entire, and often considerable, instructional effort honing the message. The result can be “professorial”, beautifully crafted and unarguably profound. This attitude can honestly be derived from a Platonic focus on “truth” rather than a Sophist focus on “rhetoric”.

Sender Message

The Message

The transmission perspective: Effective delivery of content– Daniel Pratt (1998). Five perspectives on

teaching in adult & higher education. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishers.

Sender Message

The Message

One unfortunate aspect of this exclusive focus on the message is a neglect of the sender. It turns out that the sender is also important. It matters how you teach (rhetoric) as well as what you teach.

Sender Message

The Medium

Another unfortunate result is a neglect of the medium. Consider the medium as well as the message (Marshall MacLuhan). Trivially, can the message even be perceived? Less trivially, does the medium match the content of the message?

Sender Medium/Message

QuickTime™ and aCinepak decompressor


The Receiver

Ultimately, and much more importantly, how you present yourself and how well your medium/message is crafted are necessary, but not sufficient, conditions for effective teaching. Concern for the impact your message has on your audience is of fundamental importance. Teaching is a form of communication.


Receiver

The Receiver

In the end, you were mainly repelled because I presented the message without regard for the receiver. I neglected you, my audience. According to the old saying “If there’s no audience, there just ain’t no show”.


Receiver

The Receiver

At the heart of teaching as communication is respect for the student. I failed to respect you in my opening parody and you reacted quite strongly. And within seconds! I think that is what Ambady was measuring. I believe Plato knew this. The Socratic method is as much about the learner as it is about the teacher.


Receiver

The Receiver

Failure to respect the receiver leads, in turn, to the receiver’s failure to respect you, leading in turn, I passionately believe, to most problems of motivation, morale and disruptive behavior.

Conversely, your respect invites the receiver’s in turn. And that respect invites identification, empathy, and commitment to the material.


Receiver

On pedagogy: Active learning

The most direct way to express our respect for our students is to design our courses as a form of communication. No, I do not mean “water down” anything. I mean connecting.

On pedagogy: Active learning

Think Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development - that “space” between what the student can do on her own and what she needs you to do for her. I believe this notion to be a restatement of the Socratic method.

• The ZPD is the “construction zone” where learning occurs. Teaching “scaffolds” the student, who must do the constructing. “Guide on the side”, not “Sage on the stage”.

Active learning

Another way to think about it is in terms of Donald Norman’s distinction between experiential cognition and reflective cognition.– Donald Norman (1993). Things that make us

smart: Defending human attributes in the age of the machine. Reading, MA: Perseus Books.

• We want to encourage reflection and all other forms of active processing. Students who are actively processing will be much more likely to construct the knowledge you want them to construct.

Active learning

The ultimate goal of the educational system is to shift to the individual the burden of pursuing his or her education

- John W. Gardner

The Social Context

And let’s not forget the social context of education.

The teacher needn’t be the only sender; communications might flow in many directions.

This is why, more and more, I view teaching as the fostering a community of inquiry and a form of cognitive apprenticeship.


Receiver

Social Context

The Social Context

Some important features of communities of inquiry/apprenticeships:

• Socially situated workplace • Multiple levels of expertise, from the

master down to the lowliest apprentice • Inspectable intermediate, as well as final,

work steps• Socially valued work

– Randy Garrison & Norman Vaughan (2008). Blended learning in higher education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

– Van Weigel (2002). Deep learning for a digital age. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Instructional technologies

Nowadays the phrase “instructional (or “educational”) technology” is synonymous with “computer technology” - especially actual computer hardware.

This usage makes it possible to claim to teach “without technology”, if you do not use computers in your teaching.


Ironically, this usage has turned computing into a modern “Trojan horse of pedagogy” - instead of bemoaning the effect of “technology”, we educators should welcome it with open arms.

It is normally only around computing that most institutions of higher education are, nowadays, motivated to ask the right (i.e. pedagogical) questions - “How does technology impact on student outcomes?”

"Technology is simply a way of doing things.”– Ursula Franklin (1990), The

Real World of Technology. CBC Massey Lectures Series. Toronto: CBC Enterprises.

From the Merriam-Webster: “a manner of accomplishing a task especially using technical processes, methods, or knowledge”


A college course IS a technology. The lecture IS a technology. So is a grade three class.

So is writing. Or chalk, overheads, speech patterns, essays, multiple choice examinations, etc, etc, etc.

Concern for teaching as a craft motivates us to ask over and over again: Are these tools, old and new, being used to best advantage?


"The computer is by all odds the most extraordinary of all the technological clothing ever devised by man, since it is the extension of our nervous system.”– Marshall McLuhan (1968). War

and Peace in the Global Village. New York: Bantam.

Digital technologies

The computer is a “metamachine” or “metamedium” which represents a logical endpoint of our Western epistemological tradition. Because they empower us to explore the digital, computers will revolutionize not just education but EVERYTHING.




The digital offers an infinite suite of tools, a “Swiss army knife of the mind.”

We owe it to our craft as teachers to continuously reinvent it at every level. This means that we must rethink teaching and learning in light of the digital. The possibilities are infinite.




My own pedagogical stance is to ask how to use the new digital tools to foster the development of communities of inquiry and cognitive apprenticeship, especially when we are dealing with large classes.


And What of Education?

In some ways pedagogy has not advanced beyond the “Socratic method” (would Socrates be a blogger if he lived today?)

If nothing else I think we can agree that we need to get away from teaching “facts” and move on to inquiry, critical thinking, discovery learning, and reflection at all levels of education.



Pedagogies of uncertainty

In this regard I recommend reading Lee Shulman, outgoing President of the Carnegie Foundation, who notes that students at all levels must learn how to act under conditions where knowledge is limited yet actions must be taken (practice, theory, ethics).“– Shulman, L. (2005). Pedagogies of

uncertainty: Teaching for understanding, judgment and commitment. Liberal Education, Spring.



And What of Education?

2002 APA Task Force on Undergraduate Psychology Major Competencies

• Goal 1. Knowledge Base of Psychology• Goal 2. Research Methods in Psychology (PSYC 1F90

research project)• Goal 3. Critical Thinking Skills in Psychology (Beyond

scientific method)• Goal 4. Application of Psychology• Goal 5. Values in Psychology• Goal 6. Information and Technological Literacy (Web

1.0 & 2.0?)• Goal 7. Communication Skills (Including digital tools)• Goal 8. Sociocultural and International Awareness• Goal 9. Personal Development• Goal 10. Career Planning and Development

Web 1.0

Web 1.0: The Web as a giant library (infotater)

“All information at all places at all times”– Godfrey, D. & Parkhill,

D. F. (Eds.). (1980). Gutenberg two. Toronto: Press Porcépic.



Web 2.0

Web 2.0: The Web as a giant conversation (P2P)

• Individual control over the means of production

• YouTube, MySpace, Blogger, Wikipedia



Web 2.0 Participation

Empowering individuals

• United Flight 93• “Internet Patients”• Doe Network• Sousveillance







QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.





Communities of inquiry

Faculty-generated (Is this Web 2.0?)• Biome (Corey G0ldman)• Social, cognitive, & teaching presence

Student-generated• WikiYork (Rene Suarez)• Social loafing arises; social presence

predominates.




Faculty-generated (Is this Web 2.0?)• Biome (Corey G0ldman) http://biome.

utoronto.ca/ • Social, cognitive, & teaching presence

Student-generated• WikiYork (Rene Suarez) http://wikiyork.

org/york/index.php?title=Main_Page• Social loafing arises; social presence

predominates.



http://biome.utoronto.ca/



http://wikiyork.org/york/index.php?title=Main_Page








Faculty-generated (Is this Web 2.0?)• Biome (Corey G0ldman) http://biome.

utoronto.ca/ • Social, cognitive, & teaching presence

Student-generated• WikiYork (Rene Suarez) http://wikiyork.

org/york/index.php?title=Main_Page• Social loafing arises; social presence

predominates.













Web 2.0 and pedagogy

Can the immense draw of participating in a global conversation be harnessed for pedagogical purposes (see e.g. “serious games”)

Can Web 2.0 tools foster/support communities of inquiry?

Can we instructors “officially” find value in explicitly using these tools? E.g. YouTube

YouTube for classroom display (Milgram, Zimbardo, etc.)

A Shocking Discovery

QuickTime™ and a decompressor


A Web 2.0 example: Wiki

Wikis as effective tools for collaborative writing.– Giles (2005). Special report: Internet

encyclopaedias go head to head. Nature, 438 (December 15), 900-901.

COSC/PSYC/PHIL 4F70 An introduction to cognitive science

PSYC1F90 Wiki?But see Turnitin.com & peer review



Another example: Blogging

Blog - Web logPersonal journals in my Psychology of Men

coursePSYC1F90 blogging



Inquiry

A self-directed, question-driven search for understanding

• Formulate a question• Plan an inquiry• Do research• Assess the result

– Jenkins & Hudspith (2001). Teaching the Art of Inquiry. STLHE Green Guide.

Web 2.0 and inquiry

Motivating scholarship and inquiryScaffolding the process (formulation,

research, evaluation)Social construction - discussion lists, wikisSocial expression - blogs, wikisSocial process support tools - Del.icio.us,

Otavo (http://otavo.com)

We need more tools to support inquiry on the web

An extreme example?

In May 2007, 1,300 educators held an international conference to discuss the use of the virtual world Second Life in education. (http://slbestpractices2007.wikispaces.com/)

What makes this conference so remarkable is that the educators met online in Second Life.





Some older technologies

Seminars provide multiple levels of expertise:

• Brock’s (traditional) focus on seminars

• Student seminar leaders - 3rd & 4th year undergraduates provide perfect intermediate levels of expertise for both modeling and coaching

Seminars

Socially situating the workplace with software like WebCT:

• Hybrid seminars - modeling academic discourse in a social context, in both spoken and written form

• Expanding the social context Seminar (& course) threaded discussions and email.

Essays/Projects

Highlighting intermediate products and socially meaningful work :

• Plagiarism checking via turnitin.com/ - educating students

• Peer review via turnitin.com - intermediate, public products

• Student pseudojournals such as BURP & BJP - socially meaningful work

BJP

Web distribution and archiving of journal in PDF format

E-mail management of communications, including submissions

Peer review mechanism

Course notes

• Powerpoint notes pages• Directing attention

through the course outline

• Preventing students from writing everything down

• Modeling good organization of notes

• But NOT duplicating lecture

Publisher/collaborative materials

And yet more raw materials:

• Providing teachable moments through learning objects

• Merlot, CLOE, etc...• Publisher’s online

materials • Scorable multiple

choice tests for formative evaluation

Lecturing/Teaching

I have treated the “live” lecturer as fundamental ever since I theorized lecturing as performance art. The MAIN goal is NOT “covering content” (information transmission) but rather modeling and fostering autonomous learning & motivation.

Lectures

Of course the lecturer still uses tools (voice modulation, gestures, chalk, overheads, mp3s, digital projection, etc.) and it is incumbent on the lecturer to keep exploring the possibilities.

• Powerpoint• Digital video and audio• Class opening music & screensavers

Lectures

One more teachable moment from my lectures...



Research participant pool

More apprenticeship:

Experiences in psychological research

• www sona-systems.com

Examinations

(Re-)integrating examinations as learning opportunities - guarding the formative value of summative evaluation:

• Short-answer• Multiple choice (with David

DiBattista) - e.g. Scantron vs IF-AT (ASCEND Educational Consultants)

• Educating students about multiple choice

The IF-AT

Closing

I believe that expressing well thought-out educational objectives through the application of new media IS the only way to go.

Digital technologies do not absolve us of our responsibility to our craft, instead they empower us in astonishing new ways.



NOTE: Do not be afraid of your students!

Many thanks to: Tamaris Kozar, Laurie Hollis-Walker, Lena Malloy, Jamie Dohn, Yurii Kuzmin, Dan

Shakhmundes, Leanne Gosse, Catharine Milner, Claudia Megna, Amanuel Tewolde

Closing

Web 2.0, Communication,

Technology and Post-Secondary Education

John MittererDepartment of Psychology

Brock [email protected]

Documents

Texas Community College Teachers Association