SITE 2008 Conference Notes– Las Vegas, Nevada

 

A: Tuesday March 4, 2008

  • Introduction to SITE2008 – billed as the friendly society

 

Analyzing Instructional Artifacts as a Strategy for Evaluation and Professional Development – Keynote
Barbara Means, Center for Technology in Learning

  • Technology is just one aspect of preparing students for the 21st century
  • Not sure I agree with her focus on jobs and competitive effectiveness – I really believe that students need to focus on collaboration and environmental sustainability
  • Fred Newmann’s work on “authentic instruction”
  • http://pdonline.ascd.org/pd_online/diffinstr/el199304_newmann.html
  • Criteria for Writing – construction of knowledge, elaborated written communication, connection with students’ lives
  • Criteria for Mathematics -
  • Note – reproduce versus construct knowledge, real world connections
  • Microsoft Innovative Schools Program
  • http://www.microsoft.com/education/innovativeschools.mspx
  • Dimensions of Teachers’ Assignments in Innovative Schools
  • Knowledge construction, creative problem solving, global tools and perspectives, collaboration, self-regulation
  • Sample decision rule for assignment coding – flow chart for decision maker who is doing the rating

 

Exploring of Blog Users’ On-line Experience and Attitudes toward Computers

Horng-Ji Lai – National Chi-Nan University, Taiwan

Some interesting statistics

  • Computer usefulness – only one that had statistical significance
  • Computer anxiety
  • Computer liking
  • Computer confidence
  • Grade 4 – gender digital divide begins to occur
  • Blogs- ultimate form of self-expression – potentially more suited to women than men?

 

Electronic Portfolios Forum

E-Portfolio Rationales: Format Can Make a Difference

South Dakota State University

  • End of program portfolio – exit portfolio
  • Graded before the end of program oral exam
  • Program, student, reflection and learning experience
  • Rationale – students can provide any artifact that they want – but need to justify what and why the artifacts that they use
  • Reflective professional
  • Note to Norm: Importance of a portfolio that runs through an entire program and has the ability to be sustained – once the student leaves the institution
  • Core of teachers involved in the portfolio process
  • Foundational course – begin the portfolio process

 

Learning Effects on Student Collaboration in Electronic Portfolio Construction: An Action Research

Georgia State University

  • Focus on the process of students creating an e-portfolio – similar to my course
  • Portfolio is an individual process – what role can collaboration play?
  • Need set of slides that outlined portfolio process – see if I can get these slides
  • Mean differences between individual and collaborative portfolios was significantly significant – collaborative produces better results
  • Student perceptions and final reflective paper
  • Collaboration – working together to get things done, solve problems, part of life
  • Importance of providing students with “practice” opportunities for peer review feedback
  • No significant impact on course work
  • 30 minutes of class time per week – MS Front Page tool used to construct the portfolio

 

Are Electronic Portfolios a Good Idea for Teacher Education?

University of Nevada, Las Vegas & Arizona State University

  • Prior studies – issues of adoption and implementation, student voices, faculty perspectives – all available at the following site:
  • http://coe.nevada.edu/nstrudler/epstudy.html
  • 6 case studies selected for longevity and breadth of use – two to three day site visits
  • Purpose – assessment for learning (student learning/reflection) or assessment of learning (accreditation/program review)
  • Faculty satisfaction strong – when the faculty “bought” into the process
  • Accreditation was driving force for prior adoption
  • Data aggregation and disaggregation is a key factor
  • How are institutions using portfolios for accreditation?
  • Yuck – I hate standardization when it comes to portfolios – this is all about individualization rather than conforming to standards
  • Use of EPs in 2007 appears far more widespread than in 2003

 

 

Research & Evaluation SIG

  • Collaborative research potential

 

Online Personal Learning Environments – Structuring Electronic Portfolios for Lifelong and Life-Wide Learning

Helen Barrett

  • What happens to electronic portfolios once learners leave an institution?
  • Can learners continue to maintain their own “digital documentation of development” throughout their lifetime (Do they even want to)?
  • Has the process of reflective practice become a “habit of mind”?
  • Working versus presentation portfolio
  • Bectca, 2007 – every high school student in the UK will have a portfolio at the end of 2008
  • Multiple portfolios to present for different purposes
  • Beyond the Electronic Portfolio: A Lifetime Personal Web Space (LPSWS) – Educause Quarterly, 2004 (Cohn & Hibbitts, 2004)
  • http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/BeyondtheElectronicPortfo/39884?time=1204665732
  • Vannevar Bush (1945) – “As We May Think” – memex device (microfilm)
  • Digital Archive for Lifelong Learning (Barbara Stauble, Curtin University of Technology, Australia)
  • Process & Web 2.0 Tools – purpose, reflective journal, feedback, audience
  • People, process & technology
  • Ownership of data – institution vs learner centred data, time-limited vs lifelong
  • Virtual storage on the Web – google (G drive) – 6GB of storage for free
  • Web 2.0 tag cloud
  • Reconceptualizing e-portfolios  using RSS feeds – digital archive for life with tags – institutional portfolios organized like del.icious.us
  • Recent changes in technology – Web 2.0 – from read-only to read/write
  • Pedagogy of interaction – ePortfolio 2.0 – invites collaboration
  • Microsoft MyLifeBits Research – an experiment of lifetime storage – Gordon Bell’s life work at MS – voice, video and text annotations
  • My Life Hits versus My Whole Life
  • Lifelong Life-Wide Scenario
    • Early childhood portfolios
    • Children enter school – children take on responsibility (3rd or 4th year students)
  • Key Learning Community – Indianapolis, Indiana
  • Navigation 101 – Washington state
  • Personalizing & goal setting – so important to portfolio development
  • Higher Education – institution, assessment centred
  • Portfolios in the workplace?
  • Logistics – lifelong, lifetime environment – OpenID, Tags, Portfolio Specifications
  • ePortfolios should be:

1.      portable

2.      personal

3.      generic

4.      Web 2.0

5.      MIS free

6.      Light

7.      Lifelong

8.      Accessible

9.      Credible (Tolley, 2008)

 

Jeremy Hiebert, 2006 – PLE diagrams

·         Challenges – security, quality of artifacts, socio-cultural issues (age & social technology adoption – Forrester – Age is a Major

·         Google docs and Google pages

·         ePortfolio Mash-Up – small pieces, loosely joined

·         every day-ness in this process

·         Research agenda – dynamic celebrations of deep learning

 

 

B: Wednesday March 5, 2008

 

Investigating Deep and Surface Learning in Online Collaboration

Petrea Redmond, Australia & Jennifer Lock, U of C

  • Shifting ICTs from cute to core\
  • USA – National Educational Technology Standards for Students and Teachers
  • ICT Program of Studies – mandated program of studies – teachers as designers of learning environments
  • ICT as integral (authentic) to teacher education programs
  • Online collaboration – Judy Harris (1999) framework
  • Deep learning experience (Henri, 1992)
  • Interesting how they selected framework from women versus men (e.g. CoI framework)
  • Miriam Case Study Approach – focus on process rather than product
  • Teacher education students at U of C and Australia
  • Phase One – online introductions and video conference session 0 A shared experience to trigger ongoing learning – common book reading
  • Phase Two – discussion about key questions - get students to develop inquiry questions based on reading and experience – dialogue about ICT integration, diversity and special education
  • Phase Three – video conference to wrap up the experience – get students to develop an action plan based on experience, discussion and scenarios
  • Data – online discussions, student artefacts, focus group interviews
  • Content Analysis – five dimensions – participative, social, interactive, cognitive, metacognitive (Henri, 1992)
  • Total of participants = 57
  • Question – can we have a critical discourse online?
  • Note – the short concurrent session format – adds to a lot of disruptions
  • Building capacity through finding one’s voice and shared understanding through discussions
  • Good way to finish a presentation – ask a closing question to stimulate participatng

 

 

Yes . . . But . . The Unintended Effects of Accountability Policy on Technology Infusion and Innovation

University of Virginia

  • No Child Left Behind and How People Learn
  • Project LOGgED On
  • Online case based format
  • Laptop initiative – facilitate online testing in the USA
  • Session was a rant against standardized testing and Federal programs

 

Teacher learning beyond knowledge: an ecological model for fostering pedagogical innovations with ICT

Nancy Law, The University of Hong Kong

http://sites.cite.hku.hk

  • Role of ICT in education – transformational – philosophy of teaching & learning
  • Note about conferences – focus on quality versus quantity
  • Findings from International Studies – IEA – SITES
  • http://www.sites2006.net/exponent/index.php?section=1
  • Students moving to inquiry-based, collaborative work
  • 6 dimensions of change identified – only 1 dimension involved technology

1.      Curriculum goals – shift to higher order thinking

2.      Teacher’s role – design learning tasks, provide resource for learning

3.      Student’s role – determine learning strategies and schedules

4.      ICT used – general software for classroom presentation

5.      Manifestation of learning outcomes – multiple ways to assess learning outcomes

6.      Connectedness – partial involvement of outsiders – multiple ways of involving outsiders in the curriculum process

  • Disruptive uses of IT – for sustainable change, require changing the ecology
  • What does it take to change – TPK framework – technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (Mishara & Koehler, 2006)
  • Other stuff – technological sophistication, learning goals, role of teacher, role of learner, assessment, connectedness
  • Interesting that the CoI framework has not reached the K to 12 sector – makes sense though as Randy developed the framework for adult education – LOTS of room for me to adapt this in the K to 12 context J
  • Learning needs to become “habits of mind” – become ingrained in values and beliefs on an individual
  • Five Commonplaces of Education – Irene’s work
  • International handbook of information technology in education (2008)
  • Web site?
  • Need to focus on learning processes rather than on content acquisition
  • Not able to replicate the work of others – need to adapt frameworks to your own context (Dewey’s message)
  • Network-based knowledge building model of teacher learning for sustainability & scalability of pedagogical innovations
  • Knowledge building community – teacher, student change
  • ICIT at OISE – focus on collaborative inquiry
  • Challenge of making models – scalable and sustainable
  • Galileo Network – need to learn more about this model
  • KBTN – university mentors, seconded teachers, teacher associate (really based on the Galileo Network)
  • Key message – outcomes and processes for teacher learning must be designed to go beyond knowledge – combination of George’s work on connectivism and Galileo’s network
  • Examples of disruptive technologies today – Web 2.0 applications
  • Innovative dilemma – destabilizing economies – need a safe place to grow

 

Video Case Studies for Pre-Service Teacher Education

 

Electronic Journaling for Pre-Service Teacher Education Program

  • A small cohort of pre-service language teachers (French)
  • Notion of reflective practice
  • Critical and constructive thinking by Dewey
  • Reflective practice by Schon (1983)
  • Double loop learning Argyris (1998)
  • Pass on Jenny Moon’s stuff to Martine
  • Experiential process of reflection through the use of communication and information technology
  • Electronic Documentation of Learning (eDOL) Community site – Drupal platform
  • Impact on Partner teacher – forces them to become more reflective
  • Able to reflect in French
  • The “power” of journaling when students are out on their practicums – sharing their experiences, challenges and solutions

 

 

 

 

C: Thursday March 6, 2008

 

Pre-service Teacher Perceptions of ICT Learning Outcomes
Arizona State

·         Low income schools – computer used for remedial activities

·         Transform teaching practice through the use of technology

·         Critical pedagogy framework – relationships of power in the classroom- social and cultural capital

·         Methodology – 19 participants – focus groups – students drawing themselves in their future classrooms – focus group conversations – follow-up interviews – some students produced video – their vision of technology in the classroom

·         Findings – teachers engage in co-construction of knowledge with students, pedagogy should actively engage students, problem solving focus, classrooms should have centers of learning, technology is necessary, external experts?

·         Element of risk involved in teaching – especially when one is using technology

·         Next steps – follow students into the field – see what they end up doing with technology in their own classrooms

·         No guidelines for student drawing or narrative in the focus groups

·         Challenge of using SMART Boards for more than presentation purposes

·         Insight Idea – getting students

 

Digital Storytelling & Popular Culture

University of Houston

 

TPCK and Technology Integration: An Open Forum about the Handbook

AACTE Committee on Innovation and Technology

  • http://tpck.org/tpck/index.php?title=TPCK_-_Technological_Pedagogical_Content_Knowledge
  • TPACK in Literacy Education – Denise Schmidt
    • Language structure, vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, composition
    • Writer’s Workshop
    • Kidspiration
    • Drafting, revising and editing
  • TPACK in Mathematics – Maggie Niess
    • Probability simulation application
  • TPACK in Social Studies Education – John Lee
    • Social studies – preparation for democratic life (Dewey, 1927)
    • Challenge
      • Avoid using technology to “transmit” and “reproduce” information – use it as a tool for students to “construct” and “reflect upon” their own knowledge
      • Avoid using technology as an “add on”
    • Examples – communicative tools, collaborative tools, interactional tools, media production tools, digital geospatial information, distributed authentic historical resources
    • More examples – google earth, geocacing, community based mapping (map who does not vote)
  • Comments
    • Iceberg metaphor – getting under the surface – what’s really happening below – the support network
    • Old stuff – affordances, constraints, features, tool applications, infusion, diffusion
    • New stuff – curriculum content, multiple pedagogies, T,P,C interdependence, complexity, contextual influences
    • Web Learning Structures
    • http://faculty.mwsu.edu/west/maryann.coe/coe/structures/structures.htm
    • Good question – is the pre-service technology course taken before or after the methods (program of studies) course
    • Habits of mind – get our students to think like “teachers” – not just content experts
    • Make take away from the conference – focus on process rather than content