The articles say that in order to get the students engaged, you have to figure out how to change your assignments in ways that will include technology, but will not take away from the teaching. The idea is to take the technology that the students are using and put them into the assignments. For example, Byrne states that most students know about blogs and wikis. Bring them into the assignment. He states that he did an assignment for the students to make a blog on Africa. He also mentions that he has a "Google Jockey." The Google Jockey would take the questions, the vocabulary, the discussion for the day and Google everything about it, bring it to class, and present it to the class.
I went to the AIKCU conference yesterday at Center College. The first session was about a workshop for faculty members. At the workshop, professor came in and talked about their non-traditional assignments. The teachers talked about going "beyond the research paper." Building websites, videos, etc. to get the students engaged. However, the technology needs to enhance the content. If learning the technology takes more time than it is worth and does not back up the intent behind the assignment.
The other important points from session one was that the faculty do not know all the library services available. The faculty need to use librarians and technology people to look at the assignments so that the they know the services and if the time to learn the technology will be worth it. Also, sometimes the assignments will make sense to the teachers, but the assignments will be like Spanish to the students. A student might be told they cannot use the internet, but they do not understand that the "internet" does not mean "database."
Some ideas that were expressed and I have seen in other articles is the idea of how to get people/students into the library. Carnivals and vendor like booths were the library can be collaborative, different, and fun to the students will bring them in. Once the students are there, keep it fun and teach them about resources. Make it a game on teaching them information literacy.
Session 4 was about the future of technology and higher education. Don Tapscott was introduced in a video. Here are three that I have listened to and are very good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kj_1iS89SU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NebH50yjUYE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qujFJuj1S6I
The second video has the clip from the presentation. The ideas were that students coming into the school think differently and are using technology in ways that the schools are not prepared for. Tapscott states that the structure for earning is based on the lecture and that is not how the students are learning. The students are more collaborative and smarter in searching out and filtering information. The point is how can the technologists and librarians use this information to change the way we give and look at technology for the students. Partnerships are important for this process because all will have to work together with the administration and teachers to change the way the higher education model works. The older generations need to learn technology and bridge the gap between the expectation and abilities of the older generation and the students coming into the school.
The other idea is that the traditional models we have will have to be rethought. From a podcast here: http://librarybeat.org/longshots/play/230
This library is using Netflix as a model for the library. They are having people sign up and pay to heck out books with no due dates and fines.
The questions that I have for myself after the past three days are:
- How do you come up with ideas that make instruction interactive?
- Where can trend and new models change and work in the library, like the Netflix?
- How do you shape instruction to be interactive to the students?
- What tools should be used?
- How can the assignments be shaped to include technology?
I am in the NetGen myself, but I have only experienced the traditional model of teaching. At least, the one where you write papers and take exams. I have experienced the collaborative and discussion model of learning. Berea and IUB have both been like that. However, I have not experienced that much of a change, especially when it comes to the assignments. The exceptions would be my IS classes and GSTR 410 at Berea. At Berea, I was given the option to open up what I could do with the assignment in terms of "beyond a research paper." All my IS classes have group projects that involve some kind of real life situation, collaboration, and more of a technical assignment with not many limits as to what you use to get the project done.
However, I have not been able to experience the creation of assignments like these or much experience with a classroom that thinks and has assignments outside the norm. I do not think that the message from session 4 is quite as bleak as they all make it out to be. The schools are adapting and the teachers know that the students are different and learn differently when they come in. Most of them are changing and adapting.
I have had a paradigm shift this week. I have gone from someone that thought they would never teach, unless it had a specific context or one-on-one. I have always been one of those people that would teach someone something if I had enough confidence in what I knew and my ability to teach others. I did not think that I would ever teach at the professional level, outside dancing. By reading, listening, and thinking back on my experiences and learned about myself, I have changed my way of thinking. I now am on the track of having the confidence to teach anything. I have the skills and tools to take the context and shape a lesson around how to get from one point to another. I am not as nervous about teaching library instruction and I hope that I can continue to build that confidence. I have been able to see that not everyone knows what they are doing. That it takes practice and I can build and prepare myself to teach almost anything. I hope I can take that with me into the future and use it in the Library, in dancing, and wherever else I might be able to teach. I think the thing that shared me the most was the thought that I would not be able to prepare a lesson. However, I have learned that there are no right or wrong ways, but experience and reshaping just like "most writing is editing."
Here are some slides from the AIKCU conference on web2.0 tools:
http://www.slideshare.net/Vince123/whats-new-in-web-20-nh
0 comments:
Post a Comment