Emphases and Avoidances Recommended by an Experienced Laptop Campus

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Emphases and Avoidances Recommended by an
Experienced Laptop Campus

• By David G. Brown, Wake Forest University
• with the Engineering Faculty
• at the University of Moncton
• on September 25, 2000 300 PM

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How the Laptop Program Has Changed Wake Forest
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THE WAKE FOREST PLANF96 IBM 365XD, 16RAM,
100Mhz, 810MB, CD-ROM, 14.4 modemF97 IBM 380D,
32 RAM, 130Mhz, 1.35GB, CD-ROM, 33.6 modemF98
IBM 380XD, 64 RAM, 233 Mhz, 4.1GB, CD-ROM, 56
modemF99 IBM 390, 128 RAM, 333 Mhz, 6GB,
CD-ROM, 56 modem F00 IBM A20m, 500 Mhz, 11GB,
15ActMatrix, CD-ROM, 90 modem

• 4030 New People
• 75 Faculty Trained
• 85 CEI Users
• 99 E-Mail
• 15 Tuition
• 1500/Yr/Student
• 4 Year Phase In
• Pilot Year
• Plan for 2000

• Thinkpads for all
• New Every 2 Years
• Own _at_ Graduation
• Printers for all
• Wire Everything
• Standard Software
• Full Admin Systems
• IGN for Faculty
• Keep Old Computers

Order at--- http//iccel.wfu.edu
ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2000
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Browns First Year Seminar

• Before Class
• Students Find URLs Identify Criteria
• Interactive exercises
• Lecture Notes
• E-mail dialogue
• Cybershows
• During Class
• One Minute Quiz
• Computer Tip Talk
• Class Polls
• Team Projects

• After Class
• Edit Drafts by Team
• Guest Editors
• Hyperlinks Pictures
• Access Previous Papers
• Other
• Daily Announcements
• Team Web Page
• Personal Web Pages
• Exams include Computer
• Materials Forever

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 1999
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Computers Enhance My Teaching and/or Learning
Via--
Presentations Better--20
More Opportunities to Practice Analyze--35
More Access to Source Materials via Internet--43
More Communication with Faculty Colleagues,
Classmates, and Between Faculty and Students--87
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Computers allow people----

• to belong to more communities
• to be more actively engaged in each community
• with more people
• over more miles
• for more months and years
• TO BE MORE COLLABORATIVE

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2000
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With Ubiquity---The Culture Changes

• Mentality shifts-- like from public phone to
  personal phone.
• Teaching Assumptions shift-- like from books in
  the public library to everyone owns a copy of
  his/her own.
• Timelines shift-- like from our class meets MWF
  to we see each other all the time and MWF we
  meet together
• Students sense of access shifts-- like from
  maybe I can get that book in the library to I
  have that book in my library.
• Relationships shift-- like from a family living
  in many different states to all family members
  living in the same town

Wake Forest University
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Chemistry-- Dartmouth, Millsaps, Reed, Wake
Forest, Worchester Tech Physics-- Vassar,
Arizona, Washington and Lee, Michigan State,
, Whitman Business and Economics--- Vanderbilt,
Kansas State, Wake Forest, Middlebury Fine
Arts-- Tufts, Reed, Connecticut, Williams,
East Carolina Writing and Literature--Johns
Hopkins, Northwestern, Missouri-Rolla,
Language--- MIT, Smith, California-Davis,
Texas-Austin, Northwestern
Biology and Medicine---Oberlin, Virginia,
Johns Hopkins, Texas-Austin, Hendrix International
and Politics---Tufts, Oregon Computer Science
and Math---Harvard, NYU, American, Washington
State
93 Essays 36 Universities 26 Disciplines
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WHY COMPUTERS?the faculty answer

• Interactive Learning
• Learn by Doing
• Collaborative Learning
• Integration of Theory and Practice
• Visualization
• Communication
• Different Strokes for Different Folks

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The Big Five
1. Repetition 2. Continuous Communication 3.
Controversy and Debate 4. Different Strokes,
Different Folks 5. Outsider Involvement
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The Low Hanging Six

• Email Listservs
• URL addresses (in syllabus)
• Annotations within word processed documents
• Powerpoint lecture outlines
• Mini-movies that show successive computer screens
• Practice quizzing prior-to-class (via WebCT)

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LESSONS LEARNED

• Early investment in extensive multimedia may be
  more fun than useful
• Chat sessions are rarely productive
• Threaded discussions work only when the topic is
  narrowly defined, controversial, and the response
  is time limited and graded
• Powerpoint is often abused and overused

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Lessons Learned

• First Focus Upon Communication
• Undertake achievable goals
• Contact becomes Continuous.
• Students expect messages between classes
• Team assignments increase
• Papers Talks often include visuals
• Departmental clubs thrive
• Student Portfolios Emerge
• Students teach faculty

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2000
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Lessons Learned

• Computer challenged students learn basic skills
  quickly, without special classes
• Disciplines use computers differently
• The Internet is the place to put electronic class
  materials (WebCT)
• Start with Learning Objectives, Not Technology
• If Email is always up, everyone will be happy

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2000
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Lessons Learned

• Greatest benefits are what happens between
  classes, not during classes.
• Greatest gains from computing come from some of
  the simplest applications
• Standardization speeds faculty adoption and eases
  the pressure upon support staff.
• Standardization saves class time.
• Student groups are larger and more active.

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2000