DAY 1 | Thursday, May 22nd
Day 1 Keynote Speaker, Janice Gobert: 10-11:30am
Technology-Based Science Learning and Assessment
Concurrent Sessions 1: 11:45am – 12:45pm
Developing Hybrid Tools for Student Success in English and Math
Sara Hilinski, Elaine Pascale, Jill Eisenberg and Jeanne LeSeur
Technology Intermediates
60 minute Demo/Interactive Session
It is often thought that students with strong general academic skills are best suited to online or hybrid courses, which frequently require more self-direction than face-to-face classes. It may then seem counterintuitive to offer online developmental courses. However, CLAS has over several semesters developed multiple online and hybrid courses and labs for underprepared students in English and Math. In several cases, the developmental online or hybrid instruction is pursued concurrently/as a co-requisite to a traditional, non-developmental course. The presentation will examine the benefits and challenges of modifying traditional courses for a hybrid environment. Student feedback will be discussed. Data from pre- and post- assessments will be reviewed. Learning activities on several platforms, including BlackBoard, Connect, and XYZ, will be shared. We will discuss how effectively online and hybrid instruction can meet the needs of underprepared students.
What an Online Syllabus Can Do That a Paper Syllabus Can’t
Gerald Richman
Technology Beginners
60 minute Demo/Interactive Session
An online syllabus can provide links to Course Objectives, discussion questions, and homework assignments. provide links to online course readings available on the open internet or through the Sawyer Library databases. provide links to online Course Packet Readings (which students do not have to pay for) or Library Reserve Readings (which are available 24/7/365). provide links to webcast and podcast lectures by prominent guest speakers for students who were unable to attend required out of class events or who wish to review the lectures. provide links to podcasts by instructor for missed classes or to supplement class discussion. provide links to online audio and visual resources for use in and out of the classroom. The resources of an online syllabus are available for use by the instructor in the classroom and by students anywhere in the world at any time.
Using Lecture Capture to Help Students Improve Their Metacognitive Skills
Linda Bruenjes, Katherine Carey, Taryn Mancarella, Sarah Wojiski, Tes Cotter Zakrzewski and Kevin Shea
Technology Intermediates
60 minute Demo/Interactive Session
In their article, Applying the science of learning to the university and beyond: teaching for long-term retention and transfer, Haker and Halpern (2003) remind us that what professors do in their classes matters far less than what they ask their students to do (p. ). At the same time, faculty worry that when left to their own devices, students often mis-assess what it takes to deeply understand a particular topic. Our presentation hopes to illustrate, as researchers (Ambrose, et al) suggest, how carefully constructed student centered learning activities can potentially help students understand how to monitor their own learning. Lecture capture has the potential to help students improve their metacognitive skills by offering face-to-face student learning opportunities outside of the classroom. By providing them with tutorials, lectures, and self-assessment opportunities, faculty can potentially help students create individualized learning plans, recognize their level of understanding, and choose appropriate learning strategies. MCPHS University and Wentworth Institute of Technology have both begun Echo360 Lecture Capture pilots, where a small number of faculty from both campuses have generated pre-lab and pre-class recordings, just-in-time tutorials, and classroom lectures. Students have also recorded presentations to share with their peers and instructors through appropriate Blackboard courses. Join our session to hear how faculty are beginning to use lecture capture to post learning objects and create richer learning opportunities inside and outside of the classroom and how students have responded to these opportunities. We also invite you to share your thoughts about where this tool might fit into your plans to help students become lifelong learners. Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M.W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M.C., & Norman, M. K. (2010). How learning works: 7 research-based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Hakel, M.D., & Halpern, D. “Applying the science of learning to the university and beyond: teaching for long-term retention and transfer.” Change July-Aug. 2003: 36+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
Big Data Solutions for Higher Education
Rob Peglar
Technology Intermediates
60 minute Roundtable
Students and scholars rapidly create and share information in many different ways. In addition to books in brick – and – mortar libraries, vast online repositories of education materials, scientific findings and academic research, needs to be instantly available to deliver high quality learning experiences for students. During this interactive discussion you will learn the Big Data trends, and case studies including specific challenges and benefits achieved for improving the learning experience.
Concurrent Session 2: 2:00 – 3:00pm
Using iPads to Increase Scientific and Critical Thinking: A Result of a Faculty iPad Pilot Project at MCPHS University
Sarah Wojiski and Li Chen
Technology Intermediates
60 minute Demo/Interactive Session
Developing higher-order cognitive skills in the areas of problem solving, and data analysis, interpretation, and evaluation is key to teaching our students to be independent critical thinkers. Often, faculty struggle with finding time to teach and develop these skills, while also meeting content-driven course goals. Using iPads to develop and record lectures, tutorials, and other course materials for students to view both inside and outside of class time allows faculty to spend more time during class on interactive case studies, problem solving sessions, critical thinking skills and evaluation of primary literature. In this session, participants will learn how faculty-provided iPads have significantly increased overall class time spent on development of higher-order cognitive skills and how this technology has influenced student learning both in the classroom (by allowing more class time to be spent on critical thinking and applying and connecting principle knowledge with real life phenomena) and out of the classroom (by allowing students to take more responsibility for and ownership of their learning). Such influence has not only helped to develop critical thinking skills through a regular face-to-face classroom, but also through the online environment. Faculty participating in the iPad pilot project at MCPHS University will share their experiences in using various apps to develop teaching tools for their classes and how using the iPad has provided greater opportunity for teaching critical thinking. We will also discuss how the iPad has changed teaching and learning habits and experiences, for both faculty and students.
Using GIS to Enhance Teaching and Learning
Rebecca Paynich
Technology Intermediates
60 minute Roundtable Discussion
Using GIS in the classroom allows instructors to enhance the teaching and learning of general education learning outcomes such as information literacy, applied technology, and quantitative literacy as well as field specific learning outcomes. A variety of GIS (both open source and proprietary) applications can be utilized to create on-line or face-toface activities and assignments permitting students to apply theory to practice and engaging them to think about old problems in new ways. For example, a public health course could employ the mapping to create visual representations nationally or globally of the spread of or incidence of disease. A business course could use mapping to track the temporal and spatial growth of like businesses and compare and contrast their growth patterns. A criminal justice class might use GIS to compare crime rates across space and time alongside analyzing other social problems to identify key patterns. In addition to exposing students to the world of GIS and using spatial analysis to enhance field specific learning outcomes, general education learning outcomes are also further enhanced in the process. Furthermore, GIS allows for creative ways to illustrate the importance of the liberal arts in higher education. Participants will walk away with a deeper understanding of GIS and it uses hybrid, blended, and on-line teaching.
Making Teaching More Natural Using Google Docs, Folders & Forms
Roben Torosyan
Technology Intermediates
60 minute Demo/Interactive Session
It can be challenging to use many tools for many purposes ourselves as professors. It can be just as hard if not more so to get our students to use them too. For most, however, the simplicity of Google Docs can get students literally on the same virtual page with us (and save students time creating team projects). With Google Folders, material sharing is as easy as sharing a link. Google Forms lets you get to students personally, survey what they learn and don t learn (and what students are learning that we are not teaching), see what they can do or create, get open-ended feedback on-the-spot (and give it), make that feedback instantly visible, clarify misconceptions, and change track as necessary, in real time. Outcomes to expect: You ll engage in a live activity, start a gmail account, create your own simple questionnaire, see feedback displayed as it is given. Material takeaways, all shared with one short link (goo.gl/V8vZdR), include a shared classroom doc, survey of student access to a mobile device, shared extra credit material folder, final portfolio reflection student survey, for your own use– all using free and simple apps. To make the most of this session, bring a device with wireless access. (And for a self-paced online guide, see Jim Julius’s overview of teaching with Google Apps: https://sites.google.com/site/gawfmf/googleoverview)
DAY 2 | Friday, May 23rd
Concurrent Session I: 10am-11am
Technologies in the Classroom and the Blended System of Teaching within the Western European Traditional Learning Model
Alexandra Rengel
Technology Intermediates
60 minute Roundtable Discussion
Students from some non-European countries may notice a substantial difference between the educational style employed in their own countries and the methodology generally used in Europe. The traditional European teaching model includes a hierarchical vertical method of teaching that focuses on the professor spending the majority of the class time lecturing without much interaction with students, and where little or no technology is utilized. The students, in turn, are expected to simply regurgitate the professor s lectures during their final exam in order to do well in their classes. For an American educated professor that generally uses the blended model of teaching and employs various technologies and teaching tools in the classroom such as the Socratic method, power point presentations, file sharing programs, a Blog, etc., teaching in Western Europe to mostly European students is a challenging experience. The response from European students accustomed to the European system of learning is surprising, as the students are at first very hesitant to trust this apparently new system of learning and appear to reject its worth. It might be that their reluctance to accept the freedom and flexibility that technologies and the blended system of learning provides them occurs in part because that freedom is accompanied with the responsibility of being active learners with a larger role in their learning process. However, over time, the transformative potential of technology properly utilized in the classroom within the blended system of teaching takes root as students come to embrace their new tools for learning and display a genuine appreciation for the more collaborative and involved educational model. This round table discussion will address the challenges of implementing a new system of teaching and learning that includes new technologies within the more traditional European educational context. Moreover, the presenter will discuss her experiences as a professor in Europe and the differences both cultural and systemic that exist between US and European higher education with blended learning as the subtext of the discussion.
Classroom Game Design
Mish McIntyre
Technology Beginners
60 minute Demo/Interactive Session
Game designers traffic in the space of possibility. They design systems that define rules and thus give rise both to play and to a sense that anything is possible. (Salen, Torres, Wolozin, Rufo-Tepper & Shaprio, 2011) Gamification is the use of game elements in non-gaming contexts. It s the new buzzword in more than a dozen fields of study including ntrepreneurship, psychology, education, design, science, history and technology. However, it takes more than the manipulation of badges, points or leader boards to create rich learning experiences. Educators such as Jane McGonigal, Lee Sheldon, Jesse Schell, Katie Salen and Karl Knapp use game design to create complex learning systems that drive student curiosity and discovery.
Schools, like New York s Quest to Learn, are bringing educators and designers together to create new curricular platforms utilizing game design principles. There is no magic lesson plan to create a perfect interactive classroom environment, but there are design elements and guidelines that will help you explore your own classroom adventures, developing the curricular scaffolding to reach the highest-levels of Bloom s Taxonomy. Salen, K., Torres, R., Wolozin, L., Rufo-Tepper, R., & Shaprio, A. (2011). Quest to learn: developing the school for digital kids. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Retrieved from https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/freedownload/9780262515658 Quest to Learn.pdf
Scaling Up Seminar-Style Discussions with Prezi
Robert Cowherd
Technology Experts
60 minute Demo/Interactive Session
Just as the very small class size of the Oxford “tutorial” method has given way to seminar classes of a dozen or more students, instructors increasingly find themselves challenged to achieve a similar level of engagement in ever increasing class sizes. This lecture demonstration presents a method of integrating a set of widely available online tools to incentivize individual student effort, facilitate dynamic groupings of collaborators, and stimulate lively debate in larger classrooms of several dozen students. Familiar components including lectures, readings, and reading responses are moved online to free up precious face-to-face time in the classroom for discussion, collaboration, and debate. Students develop evidence-based analysis and interpretation of the given topic and stake a position using a web-based tool called a Prezi. Prezi s scalable two dimensional field allows students to locate evidence relative to reference points established by the instructor and in relation to the positions staked out by other students. Before class, students identify like-minded collaborators and prepare for effective engagements with clusters of students wielding contrary evidence in support of opposing views. By the time they meet in class, the collaborations and contestations have been lined up. In class, the Prezi platform allows the instructor to facilitate the unfolding debate and discussion with a greater sense of continuity and orderly flow increasing the chances that most students will be heard from at some point in the larger flow of exchange. Several decidedly old-school techniques are combined with specific computer-based tools recently available to students through a variety of platforms. Students respond with a significantly greater degree of engagement anticipating the moment-of-truth engagement with classmates in the marketplace of ideas online and in the classroom. The approach activates the kind of skills and experiences that anticipate the challenges of 21st century careers.
Concurrent Session II: 11:15-12:15pm
Digital business transformation and the Evolution of IT
Vala Afshar & Ali Kafel
Technology Beginner /Intermediates
60 minute Demo/Interactive Session
Colleges and universities face economic, technological & market forces that challenge the traditional ways they recruit students, raise money & deliver services. Rapid growth in BYOD, Apps, online education and an explosion of new competitors, such as MOOCs, have forced schools to boost fundraising & seek new means to attract students. Despite challenges, the current period of transition creates opportunities for institutions that learn to embrace change.
Success demands CIOs and IT staff to adapt and become a strategic partner to the institution. This requires IT to rethink how they use technology and their relationships with users to be customer-focused and open. IT must align priorities to support the institution’s overall strategic plan, including issues such as ROI analysis on investments and increasing business efficiencies that help with student satisfaction and retention
Hear from a thought leader on the evolution of the CIO and CMO relationship in transforming businesses and other institutions to change, innovate and grow.
Collaborative vs. Group Work: Best Practices for Successful Instruction and Learning
Frank Potvin
Technology Intermediates
60 minute Roundtable Discussion
By blending research on teaching and learning, the instructor will address the pros and cons of group work versus collaborative work in the online and hybrid classroom. He will present some practical tips, as well recommend social networking tools, for making collaborative and group work efficient for the instructor and fair and effective for the learner. Finally, the presenter will offer some sensible, practicable solutions for becoming a little more tech savvy.
Flexing with Technology: Using Your LMS and Hybrid Flexible Pedagogy
Lance Eaton
Technology Intermediates
60 minute Demo/Interactive Session
This session will identify and discuss the merits of different technological tools needed to implement a hybrid-flexible course. A hybrid-flexible course is on designed so that the student can take the course entirely online, entirely face to face, or to move back and forth between the two environments as they see fit. Within this presentation, attendees will have an opportunity to see what a hybrid flexible course can look like and how it operates from both student and instructor perspectives. Additionally, they will get introductory explanations about the tools needed to maintain a hybrid flexible course.
Day 2 Keynote Speaker, Gary Beach: 1:45-2:45pm
2030, A Look Into the Future of Suffolk University
William Gibson, the noted science fiction futurist once said, “the future is already here, it is just unevenly distributed”.
Gary Beach, publisher emeritus of CIO Magazine, and author of the recent bestselling book “The U.S. Technology Skills Gap”, will close the 2014 Technology Symposium with a provocative, and interactive, look into how currently available technology will thoroughly disrupt the academic and business models of Suffolk University by 2030.