2009 UNC TLT Conference

This year the 10th Annual UNC Teaching & Learning with Technology Conference was held online only (and free to attend!) There were both synchronous and asynchronous sessions. Here is a summary of the sessions I found worthwhile:

Reusable Multimedia Resources to Enhance Information Literacy
(NCSU librarians)

Info Lit: how to use a tool or do a process VS. giving more context to understand the tool process or concept. (EX: how do I identify a peer reviewed journal? vs what is a peer reviewed and why is it impt? OR can I use wikipedia in my research? vs how does the info get created in wikipedia?) Teach the "back story" - instruction about how info is created, vetted, stored, accessed and used.

NCSU Libraries e-learning resources project: suite of online learning materials, stand alone for instructors or librarians, and share among other institutions. These are generic videos so can be used across disciplines and at other campuses --> anyone can download the zip file and host on their own site!

• Peer Review in 5 minutes: 1) understanding the big picture of peer review process 2) why peer reviewed articles are different peer review 3) what happens on college campuses. 4)Knowing where to go for help.

• Lit Review for Grad Students: 1)what is a literature review? 2)What purpose do literature reviews serve in research? 3) What should a student expect as part of the process of conducting a literature review?

Enhancing Student Learning Through the Use of NetOp School
(UMC-P Sharon Bell, Ollie Bishop)

View the Windows Media Video of the presentation.

• To capture students' attention in a lab setting, fostering critical thinking, and enhancing collaboration in an active learning environment technology, try Net Op School
• During class, students participate, collaborate in teams, and take responsibility for their own learning.
• The professor facilitates discussion while solutions are critiqued.
• The success of this teaching approach and use of this active learning classroom environment is not discipline specific.

Expanding Library Instruction Online: Using Elluminate to Reach Both On-Campus and Distance Education Students
(NCSU libraries)

Already working with de students for course specific or program specific workshops, but would students attend an online library workshops regardless of whether they are on campus students? YES!

How to get started/factors to consider:

• cater to de and on campus students, esp grad students across several depts rather than a specific class.
  
• timing is important! not late in the semester; try fall and early in the semester.
• don't send long emails w/ too much info - they wont read it!
  
• give meaning to the workshops.
• faculty are interested and supportive of this - get leverage from them.
• most workshops ended up being weekdays 7pm for 1 hour 15min max - best for working students and even on campus students.

Judge Success of Project:

• reach different types of students.
• same number of more students than f2f equivalent.
  
• positive feedback - created a survey to take after they attend.
  
• reuse the archival workshops - others can watch it later.

Second Step:

• create web pages w/ workshop descriptions and info, tech info, registration (which is beneficial to know how many are planning to attend)

Promotion:

• through classes, email, flyers, e-board, blog...

Who attended:

• Majority were on campus students actually!
• Majority were grad students, esp doctoral students.

Lessons Learned

• critical to partner with faculty and other student support staff to market workshops.
• hard to find good scheduling time for everyone.
• web based content guides is very impt and helpful.
• make it easy to join - if its complex for a group then just let them click a link and join.
• re-use archival sessions instead for individual students or a class.
• know that students dont come in masses.
• why not create a library online of these links to recorded sessions in one place for others to grab and use?
• use ellumniate to record shorter sessions, in place of a jing/camtesia tutorial.

Course Management with Social Networks
(JD Knode, Methodist U and Steve Knode, U of MD)

• Using Nings instead of BB for class. More flexibility! More collaborative work!
• Add photos or videos. Chat/threaded discussion. Each person has a page of their own to tweak and personalize. They have their own blog too.
• Small groups can be created w/in the ning - with their OWN tools to discussion collaboratively and collect docs etc.
  
• Invites tool to ask people to join network. Can keep it private.
• Privacy/wavier/permission - asked students to try this and experiment w/ this tool and they were all ok it and w/ sharing this experiment with others.
• You can set parameters on what students can and cant add to their pages in the ning. They can set who can see what they post as well.
• Went through all the customization and aspects of using a ning.
• Can set up notify to email you when changes occur in areas you specify so you dont have to log in all the time to check.
• Don't have to be a techy person to use the ning. Its easy and simple to drag and drop to set things up.
• This doesn't have to be a class ning, it could be a group, committee, organization or people with common focus.

Effective Screencasts for Maximum Learning at a Distance
(East Carolina U)

CAMTESIA INFO:

• Provides editing features similar to ones available in movie editing programs such as Windows Movie Maker and Apple’s iMovie. May edit the screencast from either a timeline or storyboard.
• At any point in the screencast, you can delete video and audio content or can insert new video, graphics, or audio clips. Also can even out volume levels and remove noise.
• Can add a quiz with multiple-choice items; fill-in-the-blank items; and short answer items.
• Camtasia will grade the multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank items.
• Developers may publish a screencast in any combination of these formats: Web & blog (MP4); Flash (SWF); iPod/iPhone/iTunes (M4V); CD/DVD/lossless export (AVI); Silverlight-compatible (WMV); QuickTime (MOV); RealMedia (RM); Animated GIF; Audio only (MP3)
  

On February 20 and 21, 2009 I attended the 2009 Lilly Conference on College & University Teaching with Amy Harris and Mike Crumpton. They may submit their own summaries, but as we went to different sessions, I’ll hit just a few highlights. Lilly is a series of conferences and institutes held all over the country to promote excellence in college teaching. The Lilly South conference is hosted by a consortium of local universities, colleges and community colleges. The UNCG Teaching and Learning Center coordinates most of the UNCG efforts. I had never been before but I’ve always heard good things about it. UNCG faculty qualify for a mini-grant to cover the cost of registration (about $400), so you shouldn’t let the opportunity pass you by. Most of the materials will be available from the conference site.

The theme of the conference was Millennial learning, but many of the sessions were focused on technology or active learning techniques (not specific to millennials). While little of the tech was innovative or new, the sessions were good about exploring possibilities a bit more in-depth. For instance, I attended a session on using clickers in the classroom to encourage deep and critical thinking. Most of my exposure to clickers had been at a superficial assessment level. This session explored ways to encourage deep engagement with the material by combining the use of clickers with small and large group discussion. For instance, before doing a demonstration, the instructor could have students predict what would happen using the clickers to vote. Then they could ask students to pair up and discuss their predictions, vote again, and finally do the demonstration. I love this approach because it transfers intellectual authority to the students before being claimed by the professor.

I also attended two sessions on theories of teaching. Barbara Millis from the University of Texas, San Antonio discussed cooperative teaching techniques, such as think-pair-share and other forms of group work. Todd Zakrajsek from UNC discussed various theories of social psychology and their relation to teaching. Both were wonderful speakers. My favorite factoid from Zakrajsek’s talk was a chart in Bligh’s What’s the Use of Lectures demonstrating that as the time of a lecture increases student heart rates decrease significantly. The reinforces the reality that people can only take about 15 minutes of lecture at a time. Zakrajsek gave suggestions for classroom activities that can engage students with the material and promote student learning, such as various forms of pair-shares.

Finally, I attended a session on classroom communication and immediacy in teaching given by Kim Cuny and Erika Lytle of UNCG’s Speaking Center. Immediacy is the perception of closeness both physical and psychological. Teachers with higher immediacy tend to have increased student learning. Although environmental factors in a room can interfere with your immediacy (too hot, too uncomfortable), there are nonverbal techniques a teacher can adopt (good eye contact, pleasing facial expressions) that can increase your immediacy. I hope Amy will invite Kim to come over to our library and give a workshop. All teaching librarians could benefit from these techniques and reminders!