I attended the Emerging Learning Design 2011 Conference yesterday at Montclair State University. Here's a recap of key themes and ideas.  

Pedagogy First

Intellagirl kicked off the conference by reminding us that pedagogy comes first, technology second, and gave us a framework for assessing technologies for use in education. She urged us to tinker with new tools and understand what the creators of those tools had in mind from a design perspective and then see how those goals map to our own educational objectives.Smith-Robbins Dissertation Defense Slides  See slide 27 here, to learn more.

Thinking of Teaching Online?  Another Take.
I wanted to hear how other folks are talking to new faculty about teaching online, so I attended Suzanne McCotter's Beginning Pedagogy for Teaching Online.  McCotter is the Associate Professor, Counseling and Educational Leadership at Montclair State University.  She said that students are ready to learn online teaching, and know how to interact.  I think a more accurate statement might be that some students are ready to learn online, but in general, I'm skeptical that generation is really an issue.  Mark Bullen sums this up well here:    Still, the idea that online teachers need to foster a sense of safety and community resonated.  I liked how she puts students in her asynchronous class in small discussion groups and then appoints a leader and someone to summarize the discussion for the larger class.  I am thinking I may give this approach a try for the research process and methodology course I'm teaching this summer.  

Mobile Transforms Teaching?
I was somewhat fearful of attending Apple's sponsored presentation on Mobile Pedagogy in today's classroom by Jon Landis, but it turned out to be one of the day's most interesting sessions.  He notes that mobile devices with high speed connections will soon outnumber desktop devices and that approximately 63 percent of college students have smart phones.  He chafes at the notion that smart phones aren't allowed in K-12 environments and are merely tolerated in higher education.  He then goes onto argue that technology is changing, or should change how we teach.  He contends current educational models, whether in k-12 or higher ed, are predicated on information scarcity.  Information is not scarce, it's abundant and therefore the educators role changes from being an information expert to a concept shepherd.  (This idea echoed Intellagirl's idea that as educators we model the practices of master learners.) His pitch goes something like this:

Content should be consumed by students outside of class.  Classes should be experiential.  When more materials are available to students and classes focus on doing and discussing instead of content dissemination that attendance goes up.  

He closed by making an ethical case for introducing innovations in education.  Landis slipped a disc 20 years ago.  A surgeon repaired it but it required a 3 inch incision and a 3 day stay in the hospital.  Some 10 years later (facts are placeholders to retell the anecdote), same surgery, 1 day in the hospital and a 1 inch incision.  A friend had the same surgery (coincidentally, so did I) just this year. 1/2 inch incision and it did not require an overnight stay.  The same doctor performed all three surgeries. If that doctor used the same tools or techniques, he would be sued for malpractice.  Why are educators allowed to use the same methods?  He argued that it's unethical to stick with the same methods.  He urged participants to pick a single thing in their teaching that's not working and see if there's a way it could be improved.  

Let's Augment Reality

NYU's Craig Kapp presented on augmented reality.  He demonstrated how symbols could be embedded in textbooks to augment and update them.  If that sounds abstract, imagine a children's book where holding the pages up could produce a 3d image on screen that kids could then interact with through the computer's web cam.  Zooburst is an augmented reality authoring environment that lets people create their and share their own books.  He also demonstrated how to use QR codes to conduct real time simple surveys in class. When you see a QR code, you see a link to the virtual world. 
In sum, we're carrying around tremendous computing power that gives us new ways of seeing, connecting and learning.  More about Craig's work on his blog.

This year's presenters were invited.  The call for presentations is scheduled for September of 2011.  I'd like us to be there to talk about online learning.  

Friday's Times reports on a study from Science, their headline, "To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test."  http://tinyurl.com/4fq9xo2   The study, originally published in Science, http://tinyurl.com/4hmno3j, compares testing to concept mapping and other study methods.  Researchers found that students who took a test, did better at retrieving information than students who created visual maps of what they learned.  How did the study measure what students remembered?  By having students complete short answer tests and later, create concept maps from memory.  Undoubtedly, tests can help us remember material.  A more important question is, will tests help apply knowledge in context and to real-world experiences?  I fear that these results will be grist for those that are vested in using test scores as proof of student achievement.  I appreciate the challenge of measuring student progress.  Somehow, you need to assess student performance.  To me, the test is often just a measure of how students did on that test and not a demonstration of mastery or how that knowledge could be applied.  

Soon, Watson, an IBM Supercomputer, http://tinyurl.com/6dpgpz9 will face off against the best human Jeopardy contestants.  You can bet that these contestants practice by playing the game, by testing their knowledge over and over as does Watson.  They will undoubtedly have mastered a range of content to be successful in their quest.  There's speculation about who will win.  I hate making predictions, but my hunch is that Watson will give the humans a run for the money, and like the Chess super-computer, Deep Blue, http://tinyurl.com/9jo4r eventually win. To me, a victory like this is not a triumph of machine over man--but a celebration of our humanity.  Those engineers at IBM programmed Watson to learn and compete. That kind of accomplishment is a real demonstration of mastery.  The tests, like Jeopardy, are games.  They can be interesting, and do show some mastery of a subject, but the real measure of success is what can be done with what we learn.  So I say, let's have students writing computer programs, or explanations of experiments as alternatives to tests.

You decide.  Egads, even mattresses aren't safe.  

 Sources:  Housing Fades as a Means to Build Wealth, In Striking Shift, Small Investors Flee Stock Market, What Spreads Faster Than Bedbugs? Stigma.

Anna Bongiovanni 

1910 - 2010 

I am still coming to grips with losing my grandmother.  In celebration of her life, I offer three stories.  

1) The scene: a grand house on Second Avenue in Spring Lake New Jersey, around 10 am.  We are getting ready to go to 11 o'clock mass at Saint Catherine's.  My sister, Teresa and I are hungry.  The rule is, no food before Sunday Mass.  The kitchen is not quiet though.  The pot of red sauce has been simmering since before I got up. "There he is! Good morning, little Ted," she says, "meatballs"  She spoons out a couple meatballs, some sauce, along with a generous piece of white italian bread."  I am a happy, no longer hungry kid.

2) The scene: a new house, now on South Boulevard, still in Spring Lake.  I had returned home from my Peace Corps service and was living with Nanny while I commuted to a job in New York City.  Nanny, now in her eighties, wakes up before me to give me a ride to the station, every morning.  It's a Friday evening, and I'm on the way out to meet some friends.  She's sitting in her chair, working a crossword.  I tell her I'll be home later.  "Be good," she says, and with a wink, "and if you can't be good, be careful."  I give her a kiss on the cheek, and head out.  

3) The scene:  The Geraldine L. Thompson nursing home, Allenwood, NJ.  May 2010. I did not know this would be my last visit.  Nanny is in the so called, "day room," seated at a table, picking over her lunch.  "The food's not so good here," she said.  And then I got the details on everyone in the room.  "See him?  He works here.  He's 55.  Not married.  Friendly, but talks too much.  That woman over there?  I don't know why, but she hates me.  You should see how she looks at me.  This poor woman," she gestures at the woman seated next to me, "her daughter comes in and leaves in three minutes.  That's not right."  The doctor comes by and checks her blood's oxygen level. "He's ok."  He asks "how you feeling Annie?"  "Allright, alright but I'd rather be home."

And I am hoping that she is--reunited with her husband, and all the friends and family she survived.  Nanny, rest in peace.  We love you.  We miss you.  We will never forget you.

May is bike month in New York City.  Though I commute every fair weather day with my trusty Brompton SL-2  with a serious assist from New Jersey Transit, I have been wanting to ride all the way from home to work since moving out here just over four years ago.  With the help of John Feinberg's excellent cue sheet,  my GPS-enabled smartphone and some tired legs, I made it from Glen Ridge to Cooper Square in about two hours and forty five minutes.  (This sounds more like a marathon personal record dream time to me, than a bike ride, but I digress.)  

The route primarily traverses residential,  industrial areas and the occasional patch of nature.  Highlights include the now-defunct New York and Greenwood Lake  Short Rail, and the New Jersey Naval Museum, which is home to the USS Ling, a World War II Submarine.  I was surprised to see a loon diving for food in Leonia, and to learn that the south side of the GWB is closed to pedestrian traffic.  The north side is open, but involves what seemed like an interminable number of stairs after the 2 mile climb through Fort Lee.  I don't think I was ever so happy to see the Hudson.  I thought of hopping on the subway at 181 Street, but savored the decline all the way down the West Side, which was all dressed up for Fleet Week. 

For those contemplating the trip from Glen Ridge, here's a link to the modified cue sheet. 

And the Google Map.

Happy riding!