Web 2.0 Presents Cultural Tipping Point for Educators

Trent Batson's excellent article about how Cloud computing offers new faculty innovation opportunities, is one of the best written to date, and pinpoints the perils and the promise of IT trends in education today. This is a must-read for any educator who wants to understand the impact of emerging technologies on pedagogical best practices and the corresponding dilemmas faced by IT administrators.

Research has confirmed Batson's claim that, "We are as prisoners who have spent our lives in prison and cannot bear not having four walls around us, or those bars on the windows of our curiosity." Therefore, the mindset – not the machine – is more of a challenge to tech integration today.

Here's the summary breakdown of Batson's report:

• Web 2.0 is a global renaissance of unprecedented flowering knowledge
• Old-think prevents our seeing the opportunities before us as educators
• History proves that faculty took the lead in tech integration historically
• Continuous change (i.e. Web 1.0 to Web 2.0) is both tantalizing and frustrating
• Unlike changes in automobile innovations that took 91 years, Web 1.0 to 2.0 took only five years!
• As a result, IT depts are too busy making admin changes, to help faculty with pedagogical needs

Conclusion: "It is therefore time for faculty and academic leaders to assume permanent, campus-wide, and official leadership to transform higher education to fit the cultural learning trends and opportunities of today."

CoTESOL Convention Nov. '10

This past November I attended the annual CoTESOL (Colorado Teachers of English to Speakers o f Other Languages) Conference. There were many workshops and presentations available to participants. In addition to visiting the publishers’ exhibits, I also attended nine other sessions. Some of these sessions I found very disappointing perhaps because I have high expectation of other teachers to present their materials and findings in fun and engaging ways. Sadly, I found this not to be the case for more than a few sessions. That said, there definitely were some engaging presentations.

I was quite impressed with the presentation by McGraw-Hill’s Pierre Montagan. The new use of technology in the publishing industry is astounding and I felt I had a glimpse into the future of classroom textbooks. McGraw-Hill’s new program called CREATE allows any registered educator to have access to all of Mc-Graw’s materials and lets a teacher cut and paste any relevant chapters, articles, charts, graphs, etc. into their own custom made textbook. If, for example, a teacher normally uses one textbook for their course, but is unhappy with a few chapters and how the material is presented, they can keep their favorites and replace others with chapters they like better. They can design their own textbook with the most current articles, charts, chapters and research and easily update their book each semester with the freshest content. Pretty amazing.

I also really enjoyed two presentations by the same group from the University of Utah. The first session called “Dramatic English –from understudy to star” used great examples and video of ESL students using theater and drama to improve their English. It was enlightening to see the students open up once they were playing a character. Their tone and inflection noticeably changed when their scene was set depending on whether their character was angry, suspicious, guilty, etc. The students were given “contentless scripts”—scripts that were neutral in their words and could be adapted to the situation depending on if the characters were told to be happy, sad, excited, etc. Their second presentation, “Perfecting pronunciation through puppet performance” was similar (using theatre and drama), but rather than having students stand up and perform they used hand puppets to play the character. This appeared to be especially beneficial for the shyer students to try out their acting chops. Since the student is hidden behind a screen they were more apt to try different voices, tone and emphasis that they often don’t try in other classes in front of their peers.

I found that the most engaging sessions—aside from the University of Utah—were hosted by publishers. Their enthusiasm was much more palpable than from many of the teacher-hosted workshops. They were better prepared, engaging and fun, but I suppose that is how you’d need to be if you’re trying to sell something. Hopefully, more teachers will adopt these traits if they really want to “sell” education.

TYCA-SW 2010 Conference, Connecting the Dots: Teaching Traditional Writing in this Anything Goes World

I recently attended the 45th Annual TYCA-SW Conference in Laredo, Texas. The Two-Year College English Association is one of the constituent groups of NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English). I've been attending the regional conferences for several years, but this was my first trip to the Southwest's Regional Conference (I formerly taught in the Midwest, so I attended their conferences). Like my past experiences with TYCA regional events, this one proved to be well worth the time and energy. Not only did I get the chance to meet and converse with two-year college English faculty from across the southwest, but I also was inspired by the great work my colleagues are doing.

On the national level, TYCA representatives are advocating for people like me and institutions like CMC. Sandie McGill Barnhouse, the current TYCA National Chair, and David Lydic, TYCA National Regional Chair, shared many great ways for us to get involved. The National Gallery of Writing is one way that we can make our voices heard. Perhaps you are working with a writing project in your classes, and you'd like to have your students' voices resonate outside the classroom walls. You can start your own gallery!

If you are a member of NCTE or want to know what's happening in the English discipline, you may want to check out the newly developed Connected Community. And, having checked it out myself, I can tell you that you don't have to be an English teacher to find valuable teaching resources here. Subscribe to one of the discussion forums, read an article about bullying in schools, share a teaching resource. We're all connected!

One of the other valuable insights from the conference came from Marlea Trevino of Grayson County College, who presented on her research into the composition backgrounds of non-native students. Trevino reminded us that many of our non-native students come into our classes with little to no knowledge of rhetorical concepts we practice in composition, little to no practice in critical thinking, little to no practice in using technology to compose and research. They also may be disconcerted by the level of informality in our classes as well as with discussions that require opinions on issues or peer critiques. Instructors need to be mindful not to make assumptions about what our non-native (and native) students have already learned. We need to have patience and give our students opportunities to share differences rather than demand assimilation. Trevino recommended the works of Jeffra Flaitz, who has written widely on working with non-native students.

Thank you to the CMC College-Wide Professional Development Committee for taking the time to review my application for funds and then granting me the opportunity to participate in this conference.

What I'm doing...

Hi, again, everyone!

Since I'm new to the blog, I figured that I'd show you what I'm doing in one of my classes. This is for a math class that I'm teaching online this fall (I've taught five years online, but this is the first time I've had an opportunity to teach an online class for CMC). I'd love to have any feedback that you would care to give me, as I'm determined to keep improving my work!

Here's the link: http://web.me.com/stevendeb1/online_college_algebra_at_CMC/Home_Page.html

Have a great day!

Steve

New to this Blog...

Hello, Colleagues!

While I've been doing work online with my own website and blogs for a long time, this is my first connection with the CMC blog... I have to thank Suzanne Thompson for inviting me to participate! I'm going to check out what my learned colleagues have already contributed, and then I'll try to add a contribution from my meager skills to the mix.

I hope you all had a great summer, and are looking forward to the Fall term as much as I!

Steve

57th Annual American College of Sports Medicine annual meeting and the Inaugural World Congress on Exercise is Medicine

The above long title actually represents two meetings combined, held in Baltimore during the first week of June. Thank you, Roaring Fork Campus, for making it possible to attend. How does a meeting about sportsmedicine and exercise affect CMC? At CMC, the wellness requirement of at least two credits for graduation is a quiet, yet persistent program staffed by adjunct faculty. Are we addressing students’ lifestyles in a meaningful way through these efforts? What are current national fitness norms and trends? At this meeting, national and international health organizations were represented, to report the state of affairs, along with new developments and research are on the horizon. The meeting encompassed a large and diverse group ─ addressing health and fitness from all viewpoints, ranging from scientists and physicians, to national leaders and the Surgeon General, and even a consultant from reality TV.
During the keynote lecture, Jeffrey Koplan of the Emory Global Health Institute spoke about “Physical Activity, Health, Health Care Reform and Lifestyle Reform Revisited.” He set the stage by talking about how lifestyle reform begins with changing social norms. If we don’t take physical activity seriously, we won’t invest in it. New health care legislation is being enacted: translating it into practice is needed for us to find out the wellness and prevention services that will be reimbursed. He pointed out that a doctor’s personal habits are most influential factor in shaping patients’ habits.
Surgeon general Regina Benjamin also talked about behavior change in the context of a social and lifestyle network. In recognition of the importance of social support, she told the audience about her goal to hike the Grand Canyon within the coming year.
Dr. Miriam Nelson, a fellow of ACSM, spoke about the factors of both genetics and lifestyle in determining an individual’s health and fitness. With personal factors in the center of a sphere, other lifestyle influences surround an individual, with the outer layers successively including social environment, micro-environment, and macro-environment. A persistent theme is that we cannot look at health practices in isolation. Behavioral and health choices emanate from a complex system, in which one’s environmental setting is a key component.
Many Americans are not aware of the U.S. National Physical Activity Plan, from the National Coalition to Promote Physical Activity . Issued in 2008, it includes certain strategies that apply to schools. Most pertinent to CMC are Strategy 6, “Encourage post-secondary institutions to provide access to physical activity opportunities, including physical activity courses, robust club and intramural programs, and adequate physical activity and recreation facilities;” and Strategy 7, which reads, “Encourage post-secondary institutions to incorporate population-focused physical activity promotion training in a range of disciplinary degree and certificate programs.”
Another document that may not be well known is the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans issued by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. It addresses scientific evidence for the health benefits of physical activity, recognizes a dose-response curve of fitness improvement, and includes the minimum amounts of regular activity needed to obtain these benefits. For adults aged 18-64, the benefit threshold is 2 hours and 30 minutes per week of moderate intensity, or 1 hour and 15 minutes per week of vigorous intensity, aerobic exercise. Episodes should be at least 10 minutes long and dispersed throughout the week. Additional health benefits are gained by increasing up to 5 hours per week of aerobic exercise of moderate intensity, or up to 2 hours and 30 minutes of vigorous intensity, or some combination thereof. Adults also need two or more days per week of muscle strengthening activities. For those reaching these thresholds, strong evidence is available for improved cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, decreased risk of specific syndromes and chronic diseases, better weight control , fall prevention, and depression reduction.
Many speakers addressed the frustrating observation that fitness in the U.S. shows little or no improvement over the past ten years of concerted national effort, despite increased information and initiatives directed toward change. Among other things, speakers stated that 65% of American children have a television in their bedroom and that modern man spends more that 91% of waking hours sitting.
The purpose of the paired World Congress on Exercise is Fitness was to bring together representatives from major regions of the world to share information and dedicate their support for a global health forum, including the “science, policy, practice, and public health aspects of physical activity and its impact on disease prevention and health promotion.” The “Exercise is Medicine” charter encourages physicians and health care providers to include exercise in a patient’s treatment plan, as a part of regular medical care. It complements the World Health Organization’s global strategy on diet, physical activity, and health, and was endorsed by the international representatives.

National Family Literacy Convention

Last April 10-14th, I attended the National Family Literacy Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Thank you! I came back with more enthusiasm, commitment and realized what a good job we are doing here at CMC. I will highlight information from several speakers, share some new books, and teaching strategies.


Sir Ken Robinson, who wrote The Element was not only hilarious, but most importantly, thought provoking. He pointed out that No Child Left Behind left millions of students behind and warned that if we are not careful, current policies may also. We must help students find their brilliance and passions. Sometimes the well intentioned goal of raising standards uses incorrect methods. Robinson reminds us that we can't run education as if it was a manufacturing process. While autos are indifferent to process, humans are not for we have feelings and emotions. According to Robinson, human life can not be standardized. We must reach each child, one at a time, to find out his story. A child does not jump out of bed and run to school to raise a standard score. Every child, every adult, has a personal, compelling story. He encouraged educators to use our imaginations to create new models and processes. An example of a innovative approach was a partnership in Tulsa, Oklahoma where children attended school in the same building as Grace Living Retirement Home. Several positive interactions resulted. One was the Reading Buddies Program where seniors learned about ipods and technology while students improved their reading skills. Both seniors and the children found a new energy as their lives expanded beyond themselves. Robinson said it was almost a spiritual process for both groups. I find Robinson's message important. In the Glenwood Learning Lab and in our classroom teaching, we first try to identify goals and passions and teach our classes mindful of each student's story.


Byron Pitts, 60 Minutes Correspondent, and author of Step Out On Nothing was also an inspiring speaker. In his book and speech, Pitts traces the angels in his life who helped him grow from an functionally illiterate, inner city kid to the nationally known correspondent he is today. Pitt the youngest of three children overcame many obstacles on his journey. His parents separated, he could not speak without stuttering, and he could not read in elementary school. Byron was so embarrassed by his lack of reading ability that he would spend endless hours with his older brother completing homework. No one knew he could not read because he was smart enough to hide his disability. At night his brother would read and re read sections of his textbook, and Bryon would memorize word for word passages so he could volunteer the practiced pieces the next day. In third grade, Bryon was tested in math and failed so dramatically that the psychologist told his mother that he was either retarded or mentally ill. His mother, a lady of incredible faith and personal strength, finally discovered Bryon could not read and she, with tutors and caring teachers, helped Bryon unlock the mysteries of the written word starting with the alphabet. Other angels helped along the way-- his coach who was like a father , his college roommate who practiced vocabulary with him daily,and a college professor, Dr.Ulle Lewis, who dedicated four extra hours a week to Bryon's studies.

Bryon Pitts' message to the audience was that we must believe in something greater than self and that aggressive literacy training was necessary in many places he has visited. In Afghanistan, many of the soldiers can not read a manual and are taught by show and tell. In Haiti, only 1 in 4 can read. In a Baltimore charter school where Bryon volunteers, 67% are from no parent households and are raised by grandparents, friends or foster parents. He mentioned a little girl who is 11 but looks 7 who asked him, "Where did you hide when the world hurts too much." In closing, Pitts asked us all to recognize the stuggles students face and step out to become the safety net that is necessary.