Research/ articles from the Chronicle

Here's an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education. This article, titled, "Wake Up and Smell the New Epistemology," was sent to Ben by Dr. Steve Vaitl in the Science Division. It provides an interesting view of today's student and argues for a new approach to teach. Let us know what you think.

The Chronicle also has multiple articles on clickers. It looks critically at the applications and pro and con of clickers, also the crucial importance of peer discussion in their use.

A lot of us here would like to hear about the experiences of actual in-class teachers with this technology.

Writing over screen captures with Paint

Jennie asked some good questions in my earlier post on email. As for the Yellow "writing" I put over screen captures to explain the steps for doing things. I start by taking a snapshot of computer screen (screen-capture) by hitting the "print screen" button located on the keyboard between the letters and the number pad. Toward the top - but not in the row of "function" keys.
I then open the Paint program - it's on all PC's - or ought to be. Look into the Accessories folder. Paste into a new project (hit control V - or go to edit and find Paste). Once in Paint, click on the pencil and open your colors palate.

You'll get a pop up or you can use the palette at the bottom of the page (which I always overlook - don't know why).

Actually - to make things easier to see - I've been using the air brush today - more than (or rather than) the pencil. It gives you a fatter line that's easier to see. That's the button just below the pencil.
Thanks for asking.

Upcoming conference: NISOD

The National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) invites you to register for their 31st annual International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence, which will be held on May 24-27, 2009, in Austin, Texas.

Make sure to register by April 30th to take advantage of the early-bird discount.

General session information is available, and there's time to submit a proposal until Friday, Jan. 23rd.

upcoming conference - KCWE call for proposals

The Kansas Council for Workforce Education (KCWE) is seeking proposals for presentations for the 2009 Career and Technical Education Summer Conference on August 3-5, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Wichita, Kansas. The conference theme is "CTE: Driving Student Success." KCWE members are encouraged to submit proposals with broad appeal on topics of interest to our membership and other CTE educators. Presenters will lead 50-minute sessions. The deadline to submit proposals is February 20, 2009.
Proposals should include:

• Your name and contact information. Include your institution, academic department, business address, business phone number, fax number, and e-mail address. If you will have co-presenter(s), please send the same information for your colleague(s).
• Title and a brief summary/description of your proposed presentation. This should be suitable for inclusion in the conference program. Keep in mind that the most successful sessions have been interactive, hands-on presentations.
• A description of AV equipment you will need.

Proposals should be sent to:

Bill Osborn (KCWE President Elect)
Associate Vice President of Instruction
Johnson County Community College
12345 College Blvd.
Overland Park, KS 66210-1299
913.469.3868 (office)

Any further questions contact Ben Hayes at (913) 288-7224

Using Email to Welcome Students

The in-service theme was Making Students Feel Welcome. Do that by sending them an email today - before you actually meet - and attach your syllabus to the email. Groups already exist in Groupwise. For additional how to click here.

Please insert hyperlinks to The KCKCC Writing Center or to the Math Tutoring Center in your syllabus and email the links. The process works similarly in MS Word and/or Email programs.

Never inserted hyperlinks before? You aren't alone - but it's easy, clear, and scores cool points with students. Here's how in Email: (1) click on View/ HTML. (2) Notice a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) tool bar appears.

Next: highlight text that you what to become a link (3) and then click on (4) the earth (as in "world wide") that has chain "links."

You'll get a pop-up window that asks for the web address you'd like to direct people too. Enter the address and it's done. The result is shorter, less visually busy, and should work better with ADA compliant mechanical readers.

Team-based learning

At the Sp 09 In-service, several of our faculty presented on Team-based learning (TBL) and how they've used it in designing significant learning experiences for their classes. Most notably faculty recounted how it has improved attendance and engagement while bringing up performance. Since the presentation I've had phone calls, email and several personal requests in the halls for more information.
We plan on interviewing our faculty and getting their insights (either on video of podcast) - because they are the experts on applying the methods to our unique environment. In the mean time.

Further information on TBL - see particularly videos on

1. understanding the difference between groups and teams,
2. understanding the Readiness Assessment Test -
   
3. rubrics / assessment -a) setting grade weights. b) assessing course and team effectivness
   

email

Research shows that connecting with students before the first class improves retention (Lorenzetti 2008). Here, email groups are created for every class automatically before the first meeting making it easy. Why not email a greeting and attach the syllabus before you physically meet? Details on how at the end of this post.

Of course, email has changed the teacher/student dynamic. See the following.

• Does email curb productivity? (NPR text and audio)
• UNC Chapel Hill investigated Email in Academia re: expectations, use and instructional impact in Educause. Faculty and students have different expectations (BTW: a blog might bridge the gap). Another study compares synchronous and asynchrous communication .
  
• A service to send self destructing private notes through email .

On a lighter note - but still relevant and revealing (from the Chronicle of Higher Ed.).

• Professors list "favorite" emails from students part1, part 2
  
• 3 of the funniest email from students and what they say about technology

Regarding expectations - email is often said to be as private as sending a postcard through the mail (e.g. employers have a legal right to read mail sent through a company server or from a company computer). This may complicate discussions regarding FERPA and sending grades through email.

How to:
And if you haven't used the pre-established class groups set up via Groupwise, go to the address book, make sure your are in the Novell groupwise address book - (See yellow arrow - note: not the frequent contacts where it might try and take you first) and at the top the classes start in alphabetical order by 4 letter abbreviation ( e.g. if you teach an English class and the class number were 00990**** - - you'd scroll to where we put the green arrow - ENGL00990*** and click).

Using this option maintains student privacy. Everyone gets the same message - but they don't see individual email addresses. Mail is sent to their KCKCC email account - Remind them to check that.

Lorenzetti, J.P. (2008) 14 ways faculty can improve online student retention. Recruitment & Retention 22 (12)