Academic Affairs

I’ve had some great conversations about the merits of the blogosphere with some folks who are loath to admit the benefits of the web. I’m convinced, as they are not, that blogs are a great, fresh way of uncovering new ideas and are just one of the spokes that can help drive innovation. My RSS reader welcomes me into conversations about connectivism, student engagement, new tech gadgets, personal-learning-environments and so much more. Despite living in a small town in south west New Hampshire I am invited to read, learn, and participate in discussions on any given topic with people who are passionate about their area of interest. It’s like an invitation to a rich dinner conversation without having to crack a cookbook.

Then there is Twitter.

Twitter is a microblogging tool that lets you post brief updates about your everyday thoughts and activities to the web, cell phone, or instant messenger. The messages are limited to 140 characters, so they lean toward pithy, haiku-like utterances. The fringe appeal is now becoming mainstream and is being adopted by both business and education. So what’s being discussed and what’s the appeal of a 140 character post?

I clicked my way over to Twitter and read a litany of *tweets including: “just 8 a gyro for the 1st time - yum”, “Considering moving to Europe”, “Just kicked off the NH bus tour in Hanover. Great crowd!” (this one was from former candidate John Edwards). When read individually the posts can teeter on the banal but the real power comes when you find people of like interests to follow. It’s the social benefits that allow you to network with like minded people. Imagine being able to follow what people like Howard Rheingold are thinking and doing. I was curious so I sifted through some of the lite tweets and found a few gems that captured my interest:

“Any student savvy enough to check my blogs can find out. I’ll use Twitter in class later in the semester/quarter.”

” First time I used Twitter in a class, it sent them into shock. When they need to perform coherently some multitaskers aren’t so adept.”

” Students used projected twitter as parallel channel during class discussion — through this class for a loop. Maybe not others?”

And finally I uncovered the biggest pearl of all :

“syllabus: http://tinyurl.com/yuyrzg“

Rheingold had added a link to his Comm 217: “Digital Journalism” syllabus. Not only was I able to get a glimpse of what his thoughts were as he introduced Twitter to his students but I was able to understand the context in which he was using social networking tools as a means to introduce digital age Journalism.

“…By the end of the course, you should have a clear sense of the various ways journalists have taken up digital media and a sense of how you might use those media yourself. You should also gain a broad understanding of the ways in which recent social and economic developments have changed both the practices of journalists and the nature of the publics with whom they communicate. The role of the journalist in the public sphere is emphasized — journalism is unique among the professions in its responsibility to provide the information and context necessary for free people to govern themselves. You will actively blog, wiki, RSS, tag, Twitter, flickr, create mashups and podcasts….”

Rheingold certainly isn’t the first professor to try Twitter in the classroom. In fact the 1/28/08 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education had an interesting article about David Parry of UT Dallas and his use of Twitter. More revealing however were the number of comments left by enthusiastic adopters and the cynics.

So to complete the metaphor: Blogs are to dinner conversation as Twitter is to a rowdy party: great entertainment, nuggets of thought provoking conversation and lots of comments that have you scratching your head.

Jenny

*(a response to “what are you doing?”; Twitter’s perpetual question)

Tags: teaching by jdarrow // No Comments »

Tomorrow I will meet with the deans to convene a group to look at policies regarding plagiarism and academic dishonesty. The will be the second group I’ve worked with on this topic in the year I’ve been at Keene State. The most recent policies were approved by the College Senate only last spring.

The new group will mostly be looking at procedures in light of some administrative changes we’ve made recently. That is, what will the roles of the assistant deans and department chairs be in handling plagiarism cases that now begin with the dean of the school?

But I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how our students create. This is a generation that creates content. Look all over the web. Keene State students are creating serial videos and posting them on YouTube. Other students are blogging their little hearts out. Still others are making music or sending tweets or…wait for it…even writing papers.

One big thing about the content that the millennials are creating is that often the freshest, most original creation is a mashup. Don’t know what a mashup is? First, consult Wikipedia:

• Mashup (web application hybrid), a web application that combines data and/or functionality from more than one source
• Mashup (music), a musical genre of songs that consist entirely of parts of other songs
• Mashup (video), a video that is edited from more than one source to appear as one

Mashups take content from more than one source and brings it together in a uniform whole, often–usually–without attribution. The new work is, well, new so there’s no need for attribution or recognition that the work is different than the sum of its parts. Those in the know will recognize the parts. For those not in the know, it doesn’t really matter.

In this context, academic dishonesty and plagiarism take on new meaning. Actually, they don’t really exist. If I take 10 sources and craft them together into something new, my paper, then the work is mine and not someone else’s. The act of bringing these disparate things together is an act of creation that makes the work that of its author. The new work might be considered commentary on the source material. It might be something completely different. In any case, it’s relation to the source material is irrelevent.

So how do we teach about citing sources and academic integrity in this environment? I don’t think it’s enough simply to publish policies that say, “Your work must be your own, and when it isn’t cite your sources.” For students, their work that brings together other sources IS their own.

We need to draw distinctions. We need to be clearer about the academic pursuit. We also have to realize that we’re still bringing students into a different universe. We need to ground them in ethics and yet not stamp out their creativity.

And for those of you who’ve made it this far, one of my favorite mashups. For most people reading this, the music will be the familiar piece. For the 40 million or so kids who are part of the High School Musical generation, they’ll have no clue who Gloria Gaynor is. But this is something new: Zac Efron Will Survive

Tags: plagiarism, students, teaching by enetzhammer // 13 Comments »

In this morning’s Chronicle of Higher Education, Max Clio (the pseudonym of a Big-Ten historian) writes about “teaching styles“. Basically, his point is that we spend a lot of time studying and understanding students’ learning styles, but shouldn’t we also be interested in the variety of teaching styles among faculty. His point of reference is that each semester he assigns a book that he hasn’t read. The result, for him, is the excitement of discovering a text along with his students.

This immediately brought be back to my days in the classroom. I used to team teach a course in minority voices with a colleague of mine in the communication department. My style was loose and fluid (and not a little clumsy at times). I’d never teach with more that a page of notes. A beginning and an end. I didn’t know the path we’d take to get there, but I had confidence we would reach the point I needed to make in the class.

My colleague charted her path with meticulous detail. Her lectures were an elegant road map that took us point by point to the conclusion she needed to make. Her lectures were always a discovery for me, and equally effective in engaging the students in the topic.

We learned very quickly that our teaching styles wouldn’t work for the other. When one of us was primary during a particular class period, we did it our own way. When we were up there together–which was most of the time–we developed an approach that blended our teaching styles. And we learned from each other.

A commitment to teaching is a commitment to lifelong learning. And it’s not just content I’m talking about here. Learning about my colleague’s approach to teaching forever influenced my own pedagogical techniques. And even though I’m less frequently in the classroom these days, I still attend to my teaching. I still love the thrill that comes from a great class, and I still love the excitement that comes from knowing where I want to get to with only a slight notion of how I’m going to get there.

Tags: teaching by enetzhammer // No Comments »

Today we introduce our first guest author on the Academic Affairs Blog. I recently had a discussion with our Distinguished Teacher Therese Seibert about the start of the semester. I enjoyed our conversation and asked her to blog about it. And now a word from Therese Seibert.

A SEASON OF CHANGE
Fall is in the air. I love it, and not just because of the beautiful array of colors that blanket the countryside. Fall means change, new beginnings and fresh starts, including the start of a new semester. Change and the opportunity to try again is one of the many aspects I love about academia. If some teaching approach did not work last semester, I can try a new one. If that paper did not get accepted by a journal, there is always the chance to improve it and try again. Most often in my case, there is the welcome change of getting it out the door in the first place.

The start of this semester ushered in two momentous changes at Keene State: the campus-wide, four-credit model and a new general education curriculum, now referred to as the Integrative Studies Program (ISP). Oh yes, there is also the rotary, but that’s for another blog. For now, I would like to talk about my own experience with the four-credit model and ISP.

A year ago I reluctantly agreed to teach a Quantitative Literacy (IQL) course for the ISP. Wait a minute. Didn’t I just celebrate change? Why the reluctance? I was concerned that additional resources would be taken out of my department that already struggles to offer majors a breadth of courses. But there was another reason, one that I am not proud of. In fact, I hesitate to confess it publicly. So let me put it this way… I am usually not the first person in my department to jump at the chance to teach first-year students. I admit it. Teaching small classes with mature, highly motivated, and well-prepared students is appealing.

Well taking into account some inevitable variation, my first-year, IQL course “Africa by the Numbers” has proven to be a relatively small class with mature, highly motivated, and well prepared students. Here is some empirical evidence to support my observation:
• Most of the students come to class early, not simply on time but early, having read the material carefully. How do I know this? They participate in class discussions, and they question me on material which is a good thing, a very good thing. Yes, this is supposed to be the norm, but I am seeing an appreciable improvement in these areas.
• Many of the students have spoken about studying Africa in a high school course. Indeed, a number of them have suggested videos and books to me, which is also a very good thing. These students demonstrate a greater awareness of global issues than previous cohorts.
• Within one class, most learned how to generate demographic data in Excel. Within one class, they generated a population pyramid using the statistical software package SPSS. This meant learning how to enter data and how to use SPSS in the first place. Some students even tell me how to make my own charts look nicer. I guess this is a good thing; I am still getting used to this one. But most tell me that they took courses in Excel and other computer applications in high school. They are by far the most technologically savvy cohort of first-year students that I have ever taught.

Sociologists always want to know why social phenomena occur; this one is no different for me. Maybe it is the smaller class sizes for IQL courses or the extra time that allows me to cover projects from start to finish in one period. Maybe we are now experiencing the effects of high schools internationalizing their curriculum and infusing more technology. Maybe our curriculum changes are increasingly attracting well-prepared students. Maybe students are getting the message about academic rigor through admissions, orientation, and so forth. Maybe it was the first-year convocation, and in particular, Provost Netzhammer’s speech on our commitment to high academic standards. Maybe it is none, some, or a confluence of all of these factors. What I do know is that I am enjoying this class and the beautiful fall season.

Tags: IQL, ITW, academic excellence, teaching by enetzhammer // No Comments »