Teaching with Technology
and Without
Portland State University (PSU) is taking students
beyond using WebCT, an online learning management system that includes
discussion boards, live chats, and Web pages. Stephen Reder, Ph.D., chair of
the department of Applied Linguistics, and his colleagues conducted an
intensive study about the needs of adult learners and discovered that
fundamentals like language can create barriers for people to learn. Students,
he said, arrive on the Portland,
OR, campus with different levels
of college preparedness; some are ready for the reading and writing
assignments, while others struggle with speaking and understanding English.
The study concluded that there was a need for
learning support outside of the classroom. Findings from the research suggested
a new type of application that could have a national reach. Reder secured
funding for a three-year demonstration project with a grant from the Institute
of Museum and Library
Services for the application Learner Web (www.learnerweb.org). This Web and
telephone application provides GED skills, college transition assistance, and
other basic topics.
“The Learner Web is a learning support system. It is
different than online learning. It can be used outside or in the classroom.
It’s flexible; it allows you to bring in tutors or helpers for the student by
telephone or online connections,” said Reder, adding, “I don’t think there’s
anything like this out there.”
For PSU, a campus of 24,999 undergraduate and
graduate students — a quarter of whom are nonwhite — having access to a variety
of tools for student learning is valuable. “Our students are diverse; the
confines of a 10-week course means everyone starts at same the time, but
students are not learning at the same rate,” said Reder.
For those who need additional assistance outside of
a classroom, they can use Learner Web to work at their own pace. Pages are
organized into regions and learning plans that have been customized by
instructors. Each step provides the students with a map to resources. These
might be a Website, a local live tutor, or a classroom course they are required
to take in order to complete the task. There are self-assessments along the
way, such as quizzes that instructors set up for the students.
PSU has a program called “Students First” that
focuses on topics and issues that often arise for the first-generation college
students. These students can access Learner Web for information about how to
read a syllabus, how to navigate the campus or how to talk to a professor.
Reder began the initial planning in September with
help from his PSU and national partners. The consortium, which consists of
organizations such as the Boston Public Library and New Jersey’s Division of Economic
Development and Continuing Education, among others, will develop the learning
plans and launch experimental training exercises in September 2008. “This is a
large effort of national leadership. PSU is centrally serving other education
institutions and programs. Our vision is to have a national roll out after the
testing is completed in three years,” said Reder.
Blogs, Web Pages, and More
There is another professor at PSU who is an ardent
user of technology and who regularly uses blogs,
Websites, multimedia presentation software, and other technological methods to
teach her classes.
Gayle Thieman, Ed.D., an assistant professor of
education at PSU, teaches instruction and technology to elementary and
secondary pre-service teachers in the Graduate Teacher Education Program. Her
courses are specifically designed to assist student teachers on how to use
technology as learning tools with their own students:
“This course is not about teaching them how to do
word processing, but I do teach them how to use a variety of software and
hardware with their students,” she said. For example, her students learn
how to develop multimedia presentations, which they can then use with the K-12
students they teach.
An e-learning tool Thieman uses regularly is
software called Inspiration that
helps learners to organize their thoughts. They create concept maps and
practice developing outlines that can be transformed into essays. “My students
can see their concepts on the screen and can get a clearer picture of how to
create an entire unit. When they make a mind map (a graphically enhanced
balloon-like outline) they see all the logical flaws and can easily correct
them.”
Blogs and Web pages are other tools Thieman uses in
her classroom. Her students are required to create individual Web pages and
practice posting a syllabus, unit plans, resource materials, assignments, and
URL links. “Web pages give students and parents an image of the individual
teacher. It’s very important to communicate with parents. All parents have to
do is check the teacher’s Web page to determine whether their child has
homework to do. It’s becoming more common for teachers to have their own Web
pages,” she said.
Creating blogs allows student teachers to pose
weekly questions to their students. The blogs encourage
more students to engage in class discussions. Blogs can also replace the
traditional current-events lesson in which students bring in newspaper articles
to discuss in class. “Typically, no one in class has read that article. Today,
the kids can follow the link online and read it from the blog the teacher has
created,” said Thieman.
Staying with Tradition
Not everyone in the higher-education community
embraces e-learning or today’s technology. Darlene Shipp, M.S.N., an assistant
professor and a 30-year veteran nursing professor at Allen College in Waterloo IA,
doesn’t much care for computers and isn’t particularly interested in
communicating on e-mail. She prefers teaching in traditional classrooms or
using the telephone when she needs to relay messages to her students.
“Nursing is all about interacting with people.
Technology has its place and I use it when necessary, but students need a
combination of technology and face-to-face interaction,” said Shipp, who
teaches obstetrics at the private rural school of 450 students, 94 percent of
whom are women. There are 30 full-time faculty members at Allen College.
She will occasionally use a PowerPoint slide show to
demonstrate diagnostic tools or technology that’s used in neonatal units, but
as a general rule, she prefers her students take notes. “They need to think for
themselves and learn how to pick main concepts out from a reading,” she
observed. Providing an outline of concepts in a PowerPoint keeps students from
processing, she said, and stymies their learning.
Shipp still occasionally uses transparencies on
overhead projectors in her classes, and she encourages group work in and
outside of class. Like her colleagues, she posts her syllabus, grades, course
outline, and daily assignments on a WebCT (a Blackboard Web-based learning
management system), but that’s the extent of her technology use.
After more than a quarter century of teaching at a
higher-education institution, Shipp says she’s seen a change in the students
that concerns her: “I see differences in how students interact. They’re not
always aware of their body language and how it comes across to their patients,”
she said. She adds that today students can receive their entire education
online, and there’s a danger in that: “It’s a wake up call when they have to
actually be face-to-face with others and cooperate in the workplace and in
life.”
Online Courses Emphasize
Participation
Lisa Brodersen, Ed.D., an associate professor in
nursing at Allen College, is the polar opposite of Shipp.
For the past two semesters she has taught only online courses. “There are some
people who think that not every course can be taught online, but I think the
didactic portion of any class can be taught online if its done correctly.”
There are certain things faculty must do to help
their students succeed with online learning. “I require them to do things that
demonstrate that they’ve read a textbook chapter by posting comments on a
discussion board,” said Brodersen. She teaches Introduction to Nursing Research
courses and assists in a Health Promotion graduate course. Each week, students in the research course complete learning
modules that include readings from a textbook and research reports. The
discussion portion of the class requires that students write about the report.
Correct grammar and spelling are part of the grade.
Brodersen said the advantage of the discussion
boards is that all students must participate in group discussions, unlike
face-to-face classes in which more vocal students may dominate group
discussions. She requires that students reply to one or two of their peers and
rate their peers’ work. There’s a deadline for posting responses; students have
a week to complete their assignments. She grades only two discussions per
semester for each student. “I randomly select discussions; they don’t know
which one I’ll grade.” Daily checks ensure that students have posted responses.
“I don’t always read everything. I just look for the post. Sometimes I’ll check
and deduct points if they don’t do complete work,” Brodersen said.
Discussion boards are only one form of e-learning
that Brodersen utilizes. She also regularly uses WebCT CE6 to teach online or
to enhance traditional classroom courses. Software like PowerPoint and Excel are
helpful to demonstrate information online, because her students demand it. “In
the traditional classroom, students expect some type of a presentation that
involves more than a person standing there talking to them. They expect the
professor to use overheads or PowerPoint,
and to provide them with a note-taking handout.”
Student Proficiency
Not all students are proficient in technology at the
basic level, faculty members say. Many students know how to use a cell phone or
play a video game, but many don’t know how to use a WebCT or attach a document
to an e-mail message. There are learning curves for all users, whether they are
first-generation college students or veteran faculty members. Regular software
training and outside-the-classroom online-learning support are methods some
colleges and universities use to assist learners. Face-to-face classes and
group work continue to be effective methods of teaching, particularly for
courses in nursing that are preparing students for people interaction.
Rhonda Morin is an
Oregon-based writer and editor. She’s the former editor of the Thomas Magazine, a New England
college publication, and an associate editor for a computer trade publication
and an academic journal. She can be contacted at 503/206-4298 or
[email protected].