FITS Newsletter Home

Table of Contents:

• Summary of the Horizon Report
• Going Paperless: The Possibilities that Moodle Offers
• Spring 2009 Upcoming FITS Events
• 2009 FITS Summer Workshop
• Staff Spotlight: Donnie Sendelbach, Director of Instructional and Learning Services and Director of ITAP

Contributed by Michael Gough, Instructional Technologist and Coordinator of START

The Horizon Report, a joint publication by the New Media Consortium, and Educause Learning Initiative, reports the results of an extensive and pervasive evaluation of emerging technologies and their uses in Higher Education. Each year, the report includes the top 6 technologies based on their impact on higher education.  They focus on two that are only a year or so away from wide scale option, two that are 2-3 years away, and 2 that are four to five years away from adoption. The report makes a strong effort to realize the effect the technologies have in education as well as to what extent these tools are being used by our students. This year, the six technologies showcased are Mobiles (smart phones), Cloud Computing, Geo-Everything, The Personal Web, Semantic Aware Applications, and Smart Objects. The first four technologies which are labeled as 1-3 years away from adoption will be summarized. If you are interested in discussing these technologies as well as those left out of this summary, FITS has scheduled a Horizon Report Reading discussion on Friday March 6th from 11:30 - 12:30 in Instruction Room A. We invite anyone interested to join us. A link to the report can be found at the bottom of this article.

Mobiles

Mobile computing has made it in the report for the third time in a row and this time has made the top of the list. There is little doubt that mobile devices with their multiple functions and third party applications have become a part of our culture. Smart phones such as Blackberries, and IPhones are already carried by many faculty members, students, and staff on our campus. With a community that is constantly more and more connected to the world’s information, instructors must decide how to embrace this connectiveness by building activities that utilize these technologies.

The FITS newsletter also has one article on this topic:

The Mobile Classroom and The iPhone/Touch
Contributed by P. Foss Classical Studies

Cloud Computing

The cloud is a term that has been coined to refer to a platform that runs applications across multiple servers. Many web applications you use today are a part of “the cloud.” Applications including google mail, google docs, Flickr, and YouTube, and Facebook all utilize the cloud as its primary platform as opposed to one single computer. The cloud has the advantage to allow us to move into a more collaborative, machine independent workspace sometimes at the cost of private ownership of the data.  Still, the potential of these applications for education has already been seen. Instructors have used wikis for example to allow students to collaborate on a project and track the contribution of each student. Others use blog systems such as wordpress or livejournal to quickly publish articles that are timely to the topic being taught.

FITS newsletter articles about cloud computing:

Two Web 2.0 Tools for Group Projects
Contributed by Michael Gough, Instructional Technologist and Coordinator of START

EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative’s “7 Things You Should Know About…” series
Contributed by Carol Smith, Interim CIO

Geo-Everything

A convergence of Geographic Information Systems into other technologies has sparked a sort of “Geo everything” as is described in the report. Now smartphones, cameras, and portable GPS devices allow for people to quickly grab coordinates and tie those with other data or media. Mashups between different data-sets have made trends in data easier to see over a given spatial range.

FITS newsletters of examples of Geo-Everything :

Romancing the Three Kingdoms in Google Earth
Contributed by Beth Wilkerson, GIS Specialist

GIS Day 2008
Contributed by Beth Wilkerson, GIS Specialist

The Personal Web

Because of the expansion of web 2.0 applications and cloud computing, it has become increasingly easy for one to create a personalized web space. RSS feeds can send up to date content directly to a home page and widgets that send and receive data without forcing the user to leave a page, allow for one to create a space that constantly feeds updated information to them. A good analogy might be to think of a newspaper as the old web. Perhaps before you had the newspaper delivered to your door, you went to a newsstand or a convenience store to get the paper, then you had to flip through it to find the information you like. Finally, to preserve relevant articles, you might cut them out and put them in a folder. You might multiply this several times with different papers to find relevant articles. The old web or web 1.0 works in a similar way, the act of going to the store to buy your paper is like going to a news site to look for articles, and cutting and filing articles is like saving the pages in your favorites or bookmarks in your browser. With web 2.0 and personal web technologies, imagine one newspaper that is delivered to your door, with articles that are all relevant to you from each of the papers you normally get at the newsstand, and instead of cutting and saving the most relevant articles, you can instantly put the article on reserve so that others can benefit from your find. The converging technologies of web aggregators, social bookmarking, and widgets are enabling people essentially do that with the web.  Personalized web aggregators act like that special newspaper with all the articles you are looking for, and social bookmarking lets you share your bookmarked or tagged articles with your collegues or students.

FITS event about the Personal Web:

Bring the Web to You with RSS and Pipes

Fits articles about the Personal Web:

RSS Readers
Contributed by Veronica Pejril: Coordinator, DePauw University Music Instructional Technology Center

For more details on the technologies highlighted, or to read about the semantic web and smart objects, read the horizon report by directing your browser to the following link. Please join us on to discuss the impact these technologies have or should have on teaching and learning at DePauw.

Link to the Horizon Report:

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/CSD5612.pdf

Horizon Report Discussion

Friday March 6th from 11:30 -12:30  (bring your own lunch)
Instruction Room A in the basement of Roy O. West Library

Contributed by Thomas S. Dickinson, FITS Faculty Coordinator

When I first began teaching in the public schools I was introduced to a time-honored ritual that every public school teachers knows: taking the papers for a ride. I would collect papers from students—quizzes, essays, homework—clip or band them together, drop them into the briefcase or backpack, and them take them to the car when school was dismissed. I’d take the papers for a ride home, where they often sat undisturbed in the briefcase or backpack. Sometimes they made it to the coffee table or the desk in the study; most times they just went back and forth, accumulating more and more miles like a frequent flyer does.

I have gone paperless, thanks to Moodle. I no longer take papers for a ride.

My move to paperless courses has its origins in my work as a distance education professor at another university. There, I taught masters and doctoral students in courses in curriculum, curriculum planning and instructional design. These students communicated with me via Blackboard through chats, discussion boards, electronic journals, uploaded papers and assignments and email. Since my students were physically scattered all over the world (I had Department of Defense teachers in Osaka, Japan, Peace Corps members in west Africa, and public school teachers in Atlanta, Georgia as well as students at the university who were taking both face-to-face and distance classes.) the medium of connection was electronic, not face-to-face interchanges or even paper presentations of their work.

During this time I came to depend on direct responses to student work, often using a variety of editing functions on various word processing programs to make comments on papers and projects in their draft stages as well as final submissions. Students used email and email attachments regularly but as time progressed I found that Blackboard, with its file submission function, provided a much easier avenue for responding to student work as well as storing completed items.

I also came to appreciate my students’ perspectives about distance education and finding materials on the course Blackboard site. I was constantly reminded to “put it up there” in relation to a link, a JSTOR article url, or detailed instructions.

When I came to DePauw I brought these distance education insights to my work with face-to-face classrooms using Blackboard. In the literature these classes are known as “hybrids”. As the campus made the transition to Moodle and discovered its amazing flexibility I began to consider how to make the leap to a totally paperless class. My efforts to move in this direction were significantly enhanced by the use of a Tablet PC that allowed me to use digital ink to mark student papers electronically in the same fashion that I would if I had paper copies.

My efforts then began to focus on the use of the Moodle feature “advance uploading of files”. This provided my students with the ability to upload multiple drafts of a course assignment. I could comment on multiple drafts as well as a final submission using the Tablet PC and digital ink and send the assignment back to the student, all the while maintaining a copy of the draft and the comments I had made. If I conference with a student, in a W competency for example, I could open both the students original work from Moodle and the draft containing my comments for review. New comments or additions can be added directly to a new draft that can be placed on Moodle at the conclusion of the conference.

I had always used discussion boards on Blackboard so I continued to use forums on Moodle and my students profited from this form of communication and the feedback I could provide to them. The same has proved true with the use of the journal function in Moodle.

If you examine my course Moodle site you will find a wide range of information and assignments on each course site. I continue to remind myself of my distance education insight of “put it up there” and I continue to be additive with my postings. This semester, in a W competency class with weekly journal submissions, I have been using paintings and photographs as visual prompts for their journal. Each week I post a range of visuals that student can use as fodder for their journal.

I also post a range of optional information for students in each course. Some of these posts are of readings that parallel our current assignment. Others are suggestions for books or articles by authors that students have read in other courses but which touch on our work. As well, I post student presentations for the class to view and respond to.

My classroom instruction incorporates Moodle as a supportive element along with required texts and activities. This semester I am using a standard instructional classroom with desktop computer and projector. If I am working with a word processing program then I have the additional option of plugging in my tablet pc and using digital ink to illustrate particular points. I am also working in a seminar room that does not have a projection system but students, with their individual laptops, have access to the Moodle site individually.

So in the final analysis I use Moodle and the range of opportunities that it provides but I don’t print items and bring to class and I don’t ask students to do so. My students tell me that two things emerge from this stance: they always have access to everything; they don’t worry about losing anything. My students who travel as representatives of the university are particularly appreciative of the paper-less focus and the extensive Moodle site.

If you want to move to a paperless class, regardless of whether it is a “green issue” for you or you are just tired of “taking the papers for a ride”, I suggest that you proceed with a plan such as outlined below:

• Explore the “advanced uploading of files” and go “paperless” for one assignment that has multiple drafts or submissions; assess how this works both for you and your students.
• Try the journal element of Moodle as a continuing activity over the course of a semester. You might even want to split the class into paper journals and paperless journals and compare the two (including how much paper students used with traditional paper journals).
• Try a Tablet PC to see how you might use the digital ink feature in both your teaching and your grading. Try the use of the tablet and digital ink with a face-to-face conference to see what impact this has upon students.
• Keep a record or file of the paper you distribute to your classes for a semester. Are there items that would be difficult to provide on Moodle or are they traditional offerings such as journal articles and word processed documents.
• Talk with individuals who have gone paperless in your department or among your teaching colleagues. Further, talk with the FITS staff about how you might approach this goal.

I don’t take my papers for a ride anymore but I have access to them wherever I am.

By Lynda S. LaRoche, Assistant Director of Instructional & Learning Services and Moodle Support Coordinator

FITS will be offering a variety of events for faculty members this spring. The following is a list of events before spring break:

March 2 from 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. in Roy O. West Library, Instruction Room A
ELI Webinar: Creating Media as Learning: The Charms and Challenges of Digital Media-Based Assessment

March 5 from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. in the FITS Center of Roy O. West Library, Lower Level
Moodle Open Lab
An informal lab session where instructional technologists will be on-hand to discuss your Moodle needs. With progress reports being due on the 9th, this is a good time to address any questions you may have in regard to using the Moodle gradebook.

March 6 from 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. in Roy O. West Library, Instruction Room A
FITS Discussion: 2009 Horizon Report
Please join FITS as Tom Dickinson, Professor of Education Studies and Faculty Instructional Technology Support (FITS) Faculty Coordinator, and Michael Gough, Instructional Technologist and Coordinator of Student Technology Assessment, Resources & Training, lead a brownbag lunch discussion over the 2009 Horizon Report.

March 10 from 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. in Roy O. West Library, Instruction Room A
FITS Faculty Showcase
Please join your colleague Harry J. Brown, Assistant Professor of English, for a discussion based on his newly published book Videogames and Education: Humanistic Approaches to an Emergent Art Form.

March 13-15
Teaching with Tablet PCs in Varied Disciplines Workshop (registration is now closed)
This workshop will explore Tablet PC usage across disciplines and will consider pedagogies that are appropriate when only faculty members have access to Tablet PCs, as well as pedagogies that make sense when Tablet PCs are available to each student in a class. The program will consist of presentations by those who already have experience with Tablet PCs, hands-on demonstrations, discussion among workshop participants, and opportunities to build a community of practice. The workshop will be held at DePauw starting with dinner on Friday, March 13th, and extending through noon on Sunday, March 15th. Additional information may be obtained by contacting Michael Gough (michaelgough@depauw.edu or x1093).

March 18 from 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. in Roy O. West Library, Instruction Room A
Bring the Web to You with RSS and Pipes
RSS Feeds allow you to customize the Web, improve productivity, and search for data as it is created. When combined with Yahoo Pipes and Web aggregators, one can create a powerful real time research portal that can save hours of time searching multiple news sites, blogs, podcasts, and databases. After the demonstration, ideas of how to leverage these technologies for teaching and learning will be discussed. This event will be facilitated by Michael Gough and Veronica Pejril.

A full list of spring FITS Events is available at http://www.depauw.edu/univ/fits/events/events.asp. If you have an idea for an event or if you are interested in learning how you can present at a FITS Faculty Showcase, please contact Lynda LaRoche (llaroche@depauw.edu or x6600).

Click here to view the 2009 Summer Workshop website

By Lynda S. LaRoche, Assistant Director of Instructional & Learning Services and Moodle Support Coordinator

FITS will hold its 11^th annual summer workshop on May 26 – 29 and June 1, 2009.

As in the past, the workshop offers a series of plenary sessions, discussion groups, and mini-courses. Participants will have plenty of time to work on projects and receive one-on-one help from instructional technologists and ITAP students.

If you would like to consult with a FITS staff member for hashing out any ideas or projects for a suitable proposal for the week-long workshop, please feel free to contact us.

• Tom Dickinson, FITS Faculty Coordinator, x4817 or tdickinson@depauw.edu
• Michael Gough, Instructional Technologist and Coordinator of START, x1053 or michaelgough@depauw.edu
• Lynda S. LaRoche, Assistant Director of Instructional and Learning Services / Moodle Support Coordinator, x6600 or llaroche@depauw.edu
• Veronica Pejril, Coordinator of mitc / Part-time Instructor of Music, x4389 or veronicapejril@depauw.edu
• Donnie Sendelbach, Director Instructional and Learning Services and Director of ITAP, x4364 or donniesendelbach@depauw.edu
• Beth Wilkerson, FITS GIS Specialist, x6554 or bwilkerson@depauw.edu

A detailed call for proposal will be sent out after spring break.

As a graduate of Grinnell College, Donnie Sendelbach had long advocated liberal arts education before starting the position of Director of Instructional and Learning Services and Director of the Information Technology Associates Program at DePauw University in November 2008. Before working in instructional technology at Lake Forest College, Lawrence University and Bard College, Donnie taught courses in Russian language and literature along with English as a Second Language for several years.  With an Ohio State Ph.D in Slavic Literatures concentrating on Boris Pasternak’s poetry and prose, Donnie, despite living in Indiana, will always be a Buckeye!

With her new position at DePauw, Donnie can blend her passion for teaching with innovations in technology to facilitate teaching and learning both within and beyond the classroom. She looks forward to continuing to meet faculty, staff and students as she shapes a vision for instructional technology on campus.  She enjoys the intellectual rigor that DePauw offers along with the pedagogical creativity, including the use of instructional technology.  After endeavoring to recreate a program similar to ITAP on other campuses, Donnie perceives many opportunities for growth within ITAP while tightening its academic components.

Fun fact: Donnie enjoys wine tastings and spicy ethnic food—and she’s looking for suggestions in Central Indiana!