Call for tech-sanity

Here is a small rant placed on InsideHigherEd today:

Despite the seeming validity of the statement, getting an iPhone won't necessarily "seal the deal" for enrollment. One or two out of a Freshman class, maybe, but these are niche schools to begin with. If you are a Church of Christ member, depending on your degree of conservative evangelicalism, you will go to ACU (insert school of choice here) because of your desire to be around like-minded folk. ACU happens to be on the moderate end of this radical group (Pepperdine is the most liberal; Harding conservative).

That aside, educationally I applaud this move. Where Duke was a little early (audio-based), the iphone is perfectly suited for web-based integration with BlackBoard, web-apps, etc. Instead of bemoaning the move, how about exploring the possibilities offered to address (read: be seen as relevant) the digital natives. Like the dot-coms, some ideas will fail miserably. Others (whoever heard of Google 10 years ago) may very well revolutionize.

So, let's discuss how we can use technology to teach, eh?

teaching on the cutting edge

I noted in my last post that ACU is going to give away an iPhone to incoming freshmen. InsideHigherEd.com has an article about Duke's foray into giving away iPods. What follows is the bulleted conclusions from Duke along with my professional, Instructional Designer opinion.

More than 600 students were in courses using the iPods each semester of the academic year that just concluded. A decent pool of students, but back in 2005 I don't think that the iPod had video capacity. This means that the school was relying solely on audio content. One sensory approach will have limited appeal/success.


Use was greatest among foreign language and music courses, although a range of disciplines used the devices. These courses will have the most accessible audio content (remember those language labs with the cassette players?)--and of course music. I can see a real boon for both of these areas.


While audio playback was the initial focus of most of those involved, students and faculty reported the greatest interest in digital recording. I don't really know what this bullet point is trying to say...Did the experiment result in more illegal downloads (hey, I have the hardware, let's get Kazaa!) or did they want to move to the newer iPods with the video screen (music videos!). Again, content, or the lack of, would be the killer (see below).


The effort was hurt by a lack of systems for bulk purchases of mp3 audio content for academic use. iTunes debuted in January, 2001. In that four years, music had begun porting, but podcasting, especially academic podcasting, was of limited appeal. It was like downloading a sermon--lots of audio of some guy talking about something or the other. Not really dynamic.


There are many “inherent limitations” in the iPod, such as the lack of instructor tools for combining text and audio. Here is the real heart of the experiment--and I think this point is mistaken. It was not so much that there was limited tools, but a profound lack of understanding or insight in how to use the tools that were available. Or, more to the point, how to envision digital instruction (see more below).


Some recordings made with the iPod were not of high enough quality for academic use. Speaking into a computer mike is the audio equivalent of using a webcam for broadcasting video. It is overreaching the mediums capacity.


The project resulted in increased collaboration among faculty members and technology officials at the university, and the publicity about the project led to more collaborations with other institutions. Don't overlook this benefit. Anything, and I mean anything, that gets faculty talking to the gear-heads is a good thing. Anything that encourages faculty to question how to present material is a good thing. I think this point would have made the whole experiment worth the cost--and to ACU, here is where you need to focus your attention.

If you are thinking about moving to the present-future, keep some of this in mind. Your students will know how to use/envision the hardware much better than you. Ask them what they might like to see (RSS feeds on assignments?; meeting notices for study groups?; better integration into a digital platform like BlackBoard?--I got more).

The kernal of the problem lies in content. The old-line book, pencil and lecture will not be enhanced by an iPhone, and if that is all the instructors will do, then they are wasting their mission money.

If, though, ACU continues along the line they are, then I feel that this experiment will produce measurable results.

For example, perhaps in anticipation to the general announcement, ACU has positioned their website to accommodate lurkers (like myself). Clicking the visitor option, you are taken to ACU's presence in iTunes.

The content available, which I am sure to grow, includes both audio and video options. For example, the theater department includes a fairly good "Staging Shakespeare" which, while a static slideshow montage moving behind a sit-down interview, the quality and content is, on the whole, interesting. And, it looks as if it could be created with standard Apple applications.

A similar selection can be found in Kyle Dickson's Brit Lit course. His approach, which I think is both smart and appropriate, is to encourage the students of a given section to create the content--group projects that are digitally updated. Again, taking spoken audio the student presentations provide voice-over for slides (images I am sure are not in violation of copyright). The engagement factor, though, comes from how the students are encouraged to approach the material. One example had a discussion of 18th century fashion presented by two, modern fashionistas (think red carpet commentary). Upbeat, engaging, it was a strong student production. It was also, even for this watcher, engaging.

More to come.

My Alma Mater, on the Cutting Edge?

I am not sure if the Rapture is immenent, but my close-minded, Damn-you-all-to-Hell Alma Mater is actually showing some progressive signs.

I am shocked, I tell you, shocked to read this blog posting touting the incoming class's snag of significant technological swag.

When I was a Freshman, all I got was community service for sneaking a girl into the all-boys dorm...to watch a movie. A girl I didn't have any designs on even.

But, so much was expected of me and my kind, so they needed to be harsh.

F@*& Off 2007!!!

I have very little good to say about the last year. It started with sheer and utter joy (we were pregnant) to then suddenly go horribly awry.

A few things I have learned over the last year:

• Few (at least if your friend group is made up of liberal-leaning folk) consider 7-8 weeks long enough to warrant full-frontal grief over the loss of a child. Hell, most don't even consider it a child, so why all of the fuss. This can make one's honest expression of pain even more isolating
• Hospitals are geared toward control. The doctors have all the control (or, by extension, the administration). Why no cell phones? It is not that cell phones would interfere (they don't in planes either), but that a central switch-board allows for centralized control. Don't believe, try to find out, from a distant town, how your loved one is doing. Or, better still, find out how or who messed up the treatment.
• Doctors are not sued enough. I don't care what you say about tort reform, the act of suing over malpractice keeps us all safer. I don't let the mechanic off the hook if my brakes suddenly don't work. And, one would think in a world where Wal-Mart can alter their first-in-the-door display in reaction to real-time buying patters (true), why can't medical professionals all be on the same page with medications?
• Sometimes when one travels for a living, that the travel has to stop for the living. There is a finite and doing so.
• Air travel does not have to be an painful as it is. Centralized control is needed. Reagan was wrong.
• Sick, old ladies often outlive everyone's fear of them dying. Then, one day, they pass on. I had two this year.
• One's grandparents should not die before they have met their great-grandkids. Being a grand-parent establishes a completely different dynamic than a parent, and this needs to be shared with ones own children.
  
• Creditors have begun using multiple numbers to circumvent caller-id. It is best to judiciously use voice-mail when behind one bills
• Institutions of higher learning are not "lean" enough to meaningfully respond to current societal needs. Perhaps they will form a committee to investigate this further. It will meet monthly, for an hour, over lunch.
• LinkedIn is a social network group that offers little to no honest appraisals of its constituents--much like high school.
• Small-town educational opportunities for ones kids continually disappoints.
• It is still not in my interest (although I still have interest) in finishing my dissertation. I don't know how to reconcile that.
• A white Christmas is more enjoyable than a non-white one. The snow adds to the overall charm.
• Children are worth every spare moment.
• I am still looking for the end to this Third Great Awakening. I am hoping that the religious climate goes back to sleep. We could use the break.
  
• I am still not excited about the role of America on the world stage. The next ring-leader (read any way you wish) doesn't look to offer any great hope on this.
• One needs, when one lives in a small town, to travel to a big city at least twice a year. Otherwise, the choice to live where one does becomes more of a sentence than a decision.
• We haven't figured out how to start a school without a boatload of capital.
• A year does not lighten the pain of losing a tubal child.
  
• My state encourages malpractice by capping damages. It forces only the small number of "glory" cases to be sought (infertility, losing a limb, etc) to the fore. Others, serious but less "showy" are, for a lot of lawyers, not worth the effort--low return on effort, hard to convince a jury, conservative peers, etc...
• A prophet (or a very educated person) finds no honor in her hometown.

So, to 2007, I burn you in effigy. I wish that you come to an end and that a new beginning may actually take place. Begone from me. I have no use for you. You have brought little joy.

creation museum open in OH

The new $27 million Creation Museum is open. Let's all go see. Salon has an interesting write-up about it, but the most entertaining part is the comments.

Some paraphrasing:

• Eve is a babe
• Adam trims his beard
• Bears have canine teeth so must have eaten meat
• The grand canyon seems to have taken longer to create than a flash flood would account for
• A day seems awfully busy if only 24 hours
• Christians aren't supposed to make money
  
• Eve was a babe.
  

Being raised in a fundamental house (Baptist mom, Church of Christ dad), I know the thinking behind the museum all too well.