Teaching and Learning with Technology: The Seven Principles and Beyond

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Teaching and Learning with Technology The
Seven Principles and Beyond

• Stephen C. Ehrmann, Ph.D.
• Director, The Flashlight Program

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Thanks!

• 240 institutional subscribers to TLT Group
  services
• Annenberg/CPB and AAHE
• Washington State Univ., St. Edwards University,
  Indiana University
• AACU, AASCU, ACA, Ameritech/SBC Consortium,
  EDUCAUSE, ITAP HBCUs, League for Innovation...
• TLT Group Founding Sponsors
• Blackboard, Compaq, Microsoft, SCT, WebCT

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Workshop Mode

• I dont ask questions where I know the answer I
  ask because I need to know what you think
• Workshops goal
• Help you begin to learn to think about using
  technology (and, if you like, about assessing its
  use) in a particular sort of way

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Outline

• Your projects what youd like to accomplish in
  this session
• A few definitions working assumptions
• Activities patterns of using of technology that
  are most likely to improve outcomes
• Framing your strategy a few big steps and/or
  lots of little steps?
• Your choice
• Brainstorm about redesign course (of study) or
• Scholarship of teaching (seeing what youre doing
  when using IT this way)

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You

• Your project and/or what youd like to learn or
  accomplish in this session
• Anything youd like to ask, object to, etc.
  relative to the morning session?

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Flashlight (For seeing what youre doing)
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Tools
Methods
Consultants
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Our Definitions
Outcome
Activity
I.T.

• Learning
• Learning Outcomes (what, who, how well)
• Assessment inquiry for you about a particular
  setting (not just about outcomes but about how
  theyre produced and how they might be improved).
  Usually to help make a decision.
• Research also inquiry (by you) but about whats
  generally true. Often not directly related to
  decisions.

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Working Assumption

• When developing or teaching a course, thinking
  about local context (informed by assessment) is
  even more important than thinking about whats
  usually true (informed by research)

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Four TLT Goals

• How well (effectiveness) Learning the old
  stuff better
• What New stuff (often IT-related)
• Who New learners
• How much/how hard (effort, cost)

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Four TLT Goals

• How well (effectiveness) Learning the old
  stuff better
• What New stuff (often IT-related)
• Who New learners
• How much/how hard (effort, cost)
• Road not taken rethinking relation of goal 1
  and 3.

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IT, Activities, Outcomes

• Two TLT stories
• Videoworks at Dartmouth
• Doing It Again, Thoughtfully, at Reed
• Which one(s) likely affected outcomes for the
  average graduate whod taken that course
  (Dartmouth) or courses (Reed)? Why do you think
  so?

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2. Working Assumption

• Important outcomes for graduates are usually the
  result of repeated, evolving patterns of
  teaching-learning
• Think outside the (course) box Carol
  Schneider, AACU

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Patterns of Activity?

• What patterns of teaching-learning (with or
  without technology) are important to improve, in
  order to improve program outcomes? Criteria
• Outcome is important (to improve)
• Using or improving this activity probably could
  have a good and large influence on the student
  outcome

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1986 Activities?Outcomes
Educationally Crucial Activities

• Faculty-student interaction
• Student-student collaboration
• Active Learning
• Prompt Feedback
• Time on Task
• Higher Expectations
• Value diverse ways of learning

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Seven(?) Principles

• Faculty-student interaction
• Student-student collaboration
• Active Learning
• Prompt Feedback
• Time on Task
• Higher Expectations
• Value diverse ways of learning
• ??

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Seven Principles-Research

• For a book on the education research behind the
  seven principles, Zelda Gamson recommends
  Applying The Seven Principles For Good Practice
  In Undergraduate Education New Directions
  sourcebook 47, published in 1991 by Jossey-Bass.
  The chapter by Mary Deane Sorcinelli reviews the
  research literature.

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3. Working Assumption

• Research and assessment are useful for course
  development when applied to pattern study the
  patterns past in order to influence its future.

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Seven Principles

• Faculty-student interaction
• Student-student collaboration
• Active Learning
• Prompt Feedback
• Time on Task
• Higher Expectations
• Value diverse ways of learning
• These were spotlighted in 1986 because they were
  seen as unusual.
• Incentives Why would you make each of these
  ideas a hallmark of every course you teach?
• Disincentives Reasons why you wouldnt?

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T/L and T

• Which important patterns of activity are easiest
  to improve/increase/enrich if you or your
  students use technology to do them?

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1993 What Works?
Educationally Crucial Activities
Computers, Other I.T.

• Project-based active learning
• Collaborative learning
• Faculty-student interaction
• More flexible pace for learning
• Other activities attracting time on task
• Enhanced feedback
• Continual improvement of student work

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Aha!
Educationally Crucial Activities
Computers, Other I.T.

• Faculty-student interaction
• Student-student collaboration
• Active Learning
• Prompt Feedback
• Time on Task
• Higher Expectations
• Value diverse ways of learning

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Defn of Transformation?

• Important, qualitative change in

I.T.
Activity structure in use
Goal - Outcome
Other Resources
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Pause Two Possibilities

• A FEW BIG STEPS WITH BIG RESULTS grant,
  visibility, workshops
• (Lots of) small, easy steps (low threshold
  applications)

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Visions of Improvement
Foundation
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LTAs (examples)
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Handout on LTAs
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LTAs for our Patterns?
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Other IT-Supportable Patterns of Activity

• Something a student could do repeatedly over
  several courses, with a cumulative impact on
  skills, values, etc.
• Public accountability of student work (beyond
  faculty member) in order to engage student
• Doing it again, thoughtfully (to learn higher
  order skills of reasoning)
• Novice in the archive in order to learn skills of
  expert research
• Engines of Inquiry video, available through
  American Studies Association

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Other Impt TLT Patterns of Activity?

• Criteria for the triad
• Important outcome (to improve)
• Activity, if improved, could improve that outcome
• Technology, if used well and repeatedly, could
  enable enough change in the activity to improve
  the outcome
• Asheville slides

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A Thought Abt Time

• If you or your students need to spend more time
  using technology, sooner or later youll need to
  spend less time on something else. If its not
  worth reallocating, dont do it.

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A Choice

• Individually or in small groups, brainstorm about
  how such patterns could figure in redesigning a
  course of study to make major improvements in
  outcomes
• Scholarship of teaching role of assessment in
  seeing what youre doing when using technology
  this way

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Scholarship of Teaching

• Seeing what were doing Inquiry that benefits
  not only you but also colleagues
• Assessment can be scholarship of teaching if, for
  example
• Colleagues can use your methods
• Your discovery alerts them to possible phenomenon
  (existence proof)

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Helping ALL Students Learn

• Paideia (Mildred Henry and Joe Katz)
• Begin by assessment of student differences that
  are important for learning in your course
• Create study group that helps you see student
  differences
• E-mail, interview or focus group weekly
• Whats exciting, productive, confusing this week?

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Scholarship of Teaching

• Options for our triad
• Student-student collaboration online
• Faculty-student interaction and the roles of IT
• Active learning and valid assessment using
  online materials and quizzes to help assure that
  students come to class prepared (rather than the
  lecture repeating the reading/homework)
• Inquiry and information literacy
• Presentation materials (e.g., PowerPoint,
  Blackboard materials)

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Scholarship of Teaching

• Scanning
• Proving cause and effect
• Tracking
• Diagnosis

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Flashlight Online

• http//flashlightonline.wsu.edu

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Evaluating the Workshop

• Small groups Please agree on one answer to each
  of the following questions
• When Flashlight runs its next 90 minute workshop
  for faculty, be sure to do _____ the same way
  again.
• Next time, spend less (or no) time on _______.
• Next time, spend more time on ________ (could be
  something we didnt do at all this time.)

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Free Resources

• http//www.tltgroup.org/programs/flashlight.html
• Lots of free articles, case studies, narrated
  slideshows explaining ideas. Click Resources
  button.
• F-LIGHT
• E-mail to listproc_at_listproc.wsu.edu
• SUBSCRIBE F-LIGHT your name

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Thanks

• Questions? Comments?
• Please send me e-mail and give me suggestions how
  to do a talk like this better Ehrmann_at_tltgroup.or
  g

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Good Workshop?

• I prefer events where the leader doesnt lecture
  much most of the time in the workshop is spent
  with us working on problems, talking, producing
• I prefer workshops where we get meat from the
  presenter talk, handouts, direction. Before we
  work, I want a clear explanation of the
  underlying ideas even if it takes a while.

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Research on TLT

• The technology works!
• Kulik

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Research on TLT

• It's not the technology, stupid!
• Kulik, and Clark

Educationally Crucial Activities
IT
Youve seen one presentation, youve seen em
all
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Research on IT for TLT

• It isn't the technology, yet it is
• Kulik, and Clark, and Kozma

Educationally Crucial Activities
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Using Technology Triads
Activity structure in use
Goal - Outcome
I.T.

• The smallest number of elements to consider if
  youre trying to use technology to improve
  outcomes

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Examples of Improvement?

• With your neighbor, list at least 5 examples that
  are either widespread, or could be (like the
  Dartmouth example, they suggest an improvement
  that could be easily adapted elsewhere)
• (Then well sort them into groups)

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ENFW

• Evaluation Not For Wimps
• Dangerous questions Look for studies that may
  well feel scary to pursue, but that are even more
  risky to leave undone.

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Tool Kits Study Packages

• Flashlight Online (Current Student Inventory)
• Faculty Inventory
• Cost Analysis Handbook
• Support for Course Management Systems
• Online support services
• Template for web-based courses in nursing
• Feedback for faculty on their use of PowerPoint
• Interpersonal interaction, IT, and engagement
• TLT and program quality (institution-wide)
• Tutorial (draft) for faculty studying their own
  courses
• Study-Specific Support (draft)
• Template for assessing student multimedia projects

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Flashlight Online

• Key features
• Search database of almost 500 validated items
• Write your own
• Use your web editor to tailor
• Administer on paper or online
• Analysis (easy download your own stat package)
• Publish your own surveys, or use others as your
  first draft
• Share data across institutions
• http//flashlightonline.wsu.edu

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Flashlight is Growing!
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Criteria for a Worthwhile Triad

• Outcome improvement is so crucial that it can
  power everything else.
• For this triad, improving IT can play a
  cumulative, important role in improving activity
  and thus outcomes
• Caution IT is just the yeast, not the whole
  recipe
• Improving the Outcomes of Higher Education
  Learning From Past Mistakes
• Worth pursuing long enough to improve outcomes (5
  years? More?)
• Some aspect of this triad is already a strength
  and perhaps also a worry

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Example of a Triad
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Poorly Described Triad
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Nope

• Reference, What Outcomes Assessment Misses

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Well-described Triad
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And Another
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And Another
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