Welcome to the proceedings blog of the CIT/EdTech Conference of May 10, 2012 “Transforming Teaching and Learning”
Thank you for attending the 2012 CIT / Ed Tech Conference on May 10–we hope to keep you informed of future events that might be of interest to you. And we want to offer a special thank you to this year’s presenters who offered so many rich perspectives on teaching and using educational technology at UMass Boston.
Podcasts are also available on the UMass Boston iTunes U site
Check out the photos from this years event on our Flickr Gallery
Opening Remarks & Keynote
[youtube=http://youtu.be/hJl3LZ5awzU]
Awards
[youtube=http://youtu.be/0UBd8JEWIIA]
Presentations Sessions
1.1 Doing History, Doing Research: A Faculty-Librarian Digital Collaboration
Lynnell Thomas ( American Studies, UMassBoston) & Anthony Viola ( Reference Librarian, UMassBoston)
This panel highlights the collaboration of a faculty member and librarian who used the online database History Engine and a Library Research Guide to integrate traditional pedagogy and digital technology. The focus of the course was to guide students through the process of “doing history” by researching, writing and publishing historical “episodes” that make use of primary and secondary sources.
1.2 Thinking and Linking:Teaching with Hypertext
Alex Muller (English, UMass Boston) & UMass Boston Students: Melody Anderson, Brendan Holloway, Alexander McAdams
Panelists will share their rationale for teaching with hypertext and the projects they have individually developed using blogs, wikis, and web quests to enhance student engagement with course texts. After sharing their applications, the panelists will engage the audience in a discussion about potential uses and possible abuses of hypertext across content area and disciplines.
1.4 Blackboard: Game-Based Teaching and Cyber Math Talk
Dennis DeBay (Mathematics, UMass Boston)
Two presenters will discuss how BlackBoard and online discussions can be used to create game- based teaching and learning and improve quantitative reasoning and understanding. Game-based Teaching This presentation examines ways in which Blackboard can be used to turn your class into a game or simulation. Presenter: Janna Kellinger (Curriculum & Instruction, UMass Boston) Cyber “Math-Talk”: Creating virtual discussions to promote quantitative reasoning This presentation will explore how online class discussions are able to promote quantitative rea- soning and understanding and create a positive mathematical community with virtual academic discourse.
1.5 Online Graduate Writing Tutoring: The role of traditional face-to-face tutoring practices in online tutoring development, growth, and sustainability
Khaitan Allen, Cynthia Jahn, Michael LeBlanc, and Meesh McCarthy (Academic Support Programs, UMass Boston) and Ilana Lehmann (Counseling and School Psychology, UMass Boston)
Participants from the pilot and audience members will have opportunities to contribute observa- tions about how online tutoring development, growth, and sustainability can succeed, while essen- tial components from traditional face-to-face tutoring—including the active and consistent learning process essential to critical reading/writing/thinking, student retention and academic success, and community-building—are maintained.
1.6 Having a Dickens of a Time with H.G Wells
Stephen Slaner & Lizette Espinoza (Northern Essex Community College)
How can students come to grips with modern and postmodern adaptations of literary classics? This presentation explores the fate of War of the Worlds and A Christmas Carol in the 21st century.
1.7 Pearson Learning Technologies:E-books, iPads and more
Pearson Education will demonstrate the Pearson iPad app for e-books, provide information about full integration of Pearson Content into Blackboard integration for Fall 2012 classes, and show how MyLabs are working at UMass Boston and other institutions across the country.
2.1 Promoting Online Collaboration
Three presenters from a range of disciplines will consider the role of discussion boards and other online told in student collaboration and writing and learning via case studies, blended classrooms.
2.2 Camtasia: more time to teach what you want
James Dobreff (Classics, UMass Boston)
This presentation shows how the Camtasia system can significantly increase and improve the time you spend in front of your students.
2.4 The Benefits of Long Term Student Tutoring
Autumn Bullard, Melody Anderson, Ian Drinkwater & Whitney Nelson (UMass Boston)
This panel enumerates the long-term benefits of one-on-one tutoring as separate from less consistent drop-in methods.
2.5 Tools for Reflection and Community-Building, Face2Face and Online
Three presenters will share strategies for exploring a shared topic through Freewriting, bringing energy and connection to learning online, and helping a community of learners to take responsi- bility for defining the experience that they’ll have in a course or workshop.
Five Phase Format for Reflection and Discussion
Peter Taylor (Critical and Creative Thinking, UMass Boston)
This presentation shows how in 30 or 60 minutes students can deeply explore a shared topic through Freewriting (to get present and to begin to consider the topic of the session), Check-In, Dialogue Process (listening with structured turn taking that builds on what is said in the check-in), Writing to gather thoughts, and Closing Circle (http://bit.ly/FivePhase).
Striving towards Embodiedness in a Virtual Learning Environment
Felicia Sullivan (Curriculum & Instruction, Critical and Creative Thinking, UMass Boston)
Starting from the example of problem-based scenarios using VoiceThread, this session is a facili- tated discussion of the strategies and challenges of bringing the energy and connection of face-to- face learning online.
A Tool for Reflecting on Past Experience to Set the Stage for New Learning
Jeremy Szteiter (Critical and Creative Thinking, UMass Boston)
We’ll describe a simple tool for helping a community of learners to take responsibility for defining the experience that they’ll have in a course or workshop, right from the time it begins.
3.2 Online Resources and E-Learning Research/ Focus Group on eLearning Research Areas
Alan Girelli (ITEdTech& Learning Commons, UMass Boston)
UMass Boston’s Center for Innovation and Excellence in eLearning can provide support for faculty members, staff and students pursuing research on eLearning practices, but the research agenda must come from the practitioners. This combination panel discussion and focus group will tease out research interests and needs, explore support for research, and review the Center’s data gath- ered from eLearning stake holders from across the UMass system.
3.4 Writing and Reading with Social Media
Kat Gonso (Northeastern University)
The presenters share strategies and experiences with social reading networks and technologies and pedagogies for creating a transparent classroom.
The Transparent Classroom: Eliminating Secrecy and Shame from Student Work
This presentation addresses and problematizes student work that is transmitted from student- to-teacher with little interaction from peers. Through an interactive discussion, participants will explore the curriculum, techniques, technologies, challenges, and rewards of creating a transparent classroom, an environment where all student work and teacher feedback is made accessible to all students at all times.
Social Reading Beyond the College Classroom: Using Goodreads to Facilitate Online Book Discussions
Christian deTorres (IT EdTech & Learning Commons, UMass Boston)& Apostolos Koutropoulos (University College, UMass Boston)
Social reading networks let students share book discoveries and reviews, thus exposing otherwise hidden reading and connecting them to a larger world of active readers.
3.5 Transformative Encounters: Institutional Context, Faculty Collaboration, and Effective Teaching
Tim Sieber (Anthropology, UMass Boston), Denise Patmon (Curriculum & Instruction, UMass Boston), Marjorie Jones (Education, Lesley University), & Arlene Dallalfar (Division of Interdisciplinary Inquiry, Lesley University)
Drawing from chapters in the recently published (2011) anthology Transforming Classroom Cul- ture: Inclusive Pedagogical Practices, edited by Arlene Dallalfar, Esther Kingston-Mann, and Tim Sieber, each presenter will address their successes in fostering student learning and the impor- tance of institutional support in using the learning process as a catalyst for transformation in both the individual student as well as educational community they are a part of. The presentations focus on elucidating the CIT model of faculty peer-led development, its impact on teaching practice, and its influence on other New England colleges and universities partnered with UMass Boston as part of the New England Center for Inclusive Teaching.
4.2 Students as Co-Authors and Publishers: Group Authorship in the Cloud
Eileen McMahon (Communication, UMass Boston), Erin O’Brien (Academic Support Services, UMass Boston), & Neenah Estrella-Luna (Sociology, UMass Boston)
Cloud based applications like Google Docs, blogs and Wikispaces make it easy and worthwhile for groups of students to collaboratively research, develop, write and publish their work on the web. This panel will showcase two collaborative writing projects designed to increase literacy skills that have been unfolding in UMass Boston classrooms using digital tools available to all UMass Boston faculty.
4.5 Differentiated Instruction and Rubrics
Two presenters discuss differentiated instruction and rubrics.
Joseph Ryan & Ke’Anna Skipwith (Northeastern University)
Differentiated Instruction in a Management Classroom: a case study The presentation addresses how to differentiate instruction for a required management course. Presenter: Elana Elstein (Management & Marketing, UMass Boston) Rubrics as a Communication Tool Instructors and students should always strive for fluid communication in their online course ex- periences, especially when concerned with expectations and criterion for papers and projects. This presentation will introduce instructors and students to rubrics as a communication enhancer for these types of activities.
4.6 Building on Student Identities to Develop a Social Justice Lens
Suzanne Buglione & Jennifer Safford-Farquharson (Community Build & Worcester State University)
Developing a Social Justice Lens is critical for students in many disciplines. This interactive work- shop will share techniques for building on student’s identities to shape and foster this lens.