Running with Scissors

I just realized it has been almost 2 weeks since my last posting – just wanted to say that I’m not dead – just don’t have much to say right now. The last few weeks my mind seems to be focusing on the mundane – the day-to-day. Sometimes the mundane is a good break for me – recharges the batteries.

I’m starting to think that I have a blogging cycle that looks a bit like the profile of a rollercoaster. Ideas come in bunches, and then the postings come that way too. I’m trying to figure out how to level the profile out a bit, but this doesn’t seem to work for me.

If I make a list of things to post about, by the time I’m ready to write, the list seems stale to me.

If I make postings and hold them back for later release, I’m too tempted to read them, revise them, or simply not post them.

Maybe its just “writer’s block.”

Maybe I just need to post about the Orioles soon. Or maybe Tears for Fears? :)

A recent editorial in Campus Technology written by Katherine Grayson titled “Podblasting” has many good things to say, but seems to miss the point in the end.

The main point of her editorial is to defend the use of podcasting to record lectures and make them available to students. She notes that the main objection to using podcasts in this way is that students will not come to class if the lecture is online. She goes on to say:

“With all of this experience with technology on campus behind us, why does irrational fear of technology still persist? Why do so many still worry that kids will opt to stay in 6-by-8 foot dorm rooms for four years, rather than mingle with peers and experience live interaction in the classroom or lecture hall?”

But I think simply recording lectures in many cases WOULD give students reason to stay home. Why? If all that is happening is the age old method of professor dispensing wisdom in 50 minute bites via the lecture, why does the student NEED to be there? If little interaction is taking place during the live class, what does the student actually miss if the lectures are podcast? Not much I would think. In fact, maybe learning this way would be improved via podcasting since students could have record of what was said and review it as needed.

But here is where I think the editorial really misses the point – maybe a full class lecture is not the best way to spend the class time an instructor has with students. What if those lectures were delivered via podcast and a discussion of the lecture was the center of the class meeting instead? The time that students and instructor spend together could be used for deepening the understanding of material instead of simply delivering it. My guess is that if the class was set up this way, no students would be missing the class meetings – the discussion could be so valuable and rich that they would want to be there – they would be fully engaged.

I love it when technology becomes “invisible.” This means that the focus changes from “what buttons do I press to make this work?” to “this is what I use to do something.” That something is a task, like “collaborate with my students (a wiki),” or “journal my professional progress (a blog),” or “gather things I want to read (Bloglines),” or “organize my bookmarks (del.icio.us).” Once we turn this corner in our minds, the technology is invisible.

Most of the faculty that I work with have achieved this in some areas, like email or web browsing. But if we talk about some other things like wikis or blogs, we are not there yet.

The question is how to get there?

Iteration is one path to this deeper understanding of these tools. For example, if you start with a wiki to post some things, then the next time you have students post some things, then the next time you have some collaborations take place – this all starts to build to where the technology begins to vanish. The things we do or the things we create move to the center – the buttons recede.

Another path to invisibility is “tool changing.” For example, if a wiki software package is used but ends up having some limitations in what we want to accomplish, we can switch to something else. The focus becomes on what we want to accomplish instead of what tool is used – invisibility of technology is achieved.

Why is this important? I think this is at the core of getting faculty to see what instructional technology is and what it can achieve in their teaching and learning. I believe the perception of what Instructional Technology entails is not accurate in the minds of some faculty – they equate it with PowerPoint, or they simply fear the buttons.

Maybe the way to begin this shift in perception is by simply relating their experiences with technologies that they already see as invisible, like email and web browsing. Then the iterative process can build the skills and make the great vanishing of technology happen.

This whole thing may fall under my “half-baked idea” category – things that are starting to become clearer to me but are maybe still just beyond my grasp. Anyone else have any ideas on this?

I recently got to see several new uses of Flickr – the web-based photo service. Alan Levine and Brian Lamb used Flickr to make their “Beyond the Blog” presentation at the recent ELI national conference. Andy, Gardner, and Steve were on hand for the presentation at the conference and gave us a rundown of the event last week.

Well, something sunk in.

Just yesterday my colleague Jim Groom made use of the technique as well with much success.

Well, in the spirit of stealing a good idea, I submit my own humble use of Flickr – this time for training. I have some new instructional equipment that was recently installed in two classrooms in Monroe Hall and the faculty needed some training on how to use the new systems. I used Flickr to create a quick screenshot demo of the switching software for the new equipment.
I really like how you can make notes fairly easily right under the photo. I also like how you can make note boxes directly on the images as well (excellent for making notes on what each button does). Now I just need to wait on the reviews to see how I did.

I’m a big believer in using a wiki for teaching and learning. The social and collaborative processes that can result are very powerful. I have followed and supported Steve Greenlaw’s work in this area for some time now, but I must admit, I’ve had a terrible time getting my head around the whole concept of use outside the classroom until recently. Now all of a sudden I find myself using a wiki for delivering training, keeping meeting notes, tracking projects, storing support documents, posting a calendar of events – all of a sudden it just feels like I could do almost anything/everything this way.

I wonder why this has just hit me so hard, so suddenly? Why didn’t I “get it” before? I guess that is not as important as putting the tool to good use!