Guest Writers

The beginning of the Fall 2007 semester finds us entering the mobile teaching and learning initiative in earnest. Though this brings with it new challenges and possibilities, the bottom line – providing an excellent opportunity for educational experiences for the students of Fort Hays State University - remains constant. We must keep pedagogy central as we adapt and learn how to implement tablet computers into our classroom environments. Just as PowerPoint modified the way lectures were delivered, the Mobile Teaching and Learning initiative will be a similar shift. Learning at FHSU is now better poised for “knowledge building” – the engagement of students over a given question in open, collaborative environments. The Net Generation is very technology aware but needs help utilizing it in the constructions of learning (Phillip, 2007). Students are ready for classroom environments where the desks do not all face the front but rather cluster together facing each other (if there are desks or a classroom at all!). But this only addresses classes happening on campus. Knowledge building and collaboration can readily happen online as well. One of the end results of the Mobile Teaching and Learning initiative will be a blurring between classroom environments that are literal and virtual.

Helping navigate this shift is one of the primary functions of CTELT. We are here to more than simply acclimate instructors and staff to new technologies on campus (such as tablet computers or the DyKnow software program) or to assist with Blackboard, as important as these functions are. We’re also here to be a resource to enhance the pedagogy behind using technology in the classroom. “Instructional technology training without a strong pedagogical foundation is a bit like learning to use very good kitchen equipment with no knowledge of food” (Wach, 2007). With this in mind there are great resources on technology and pedagogy in the CTELT library as well as online. These resources can be checked out at the front desk of CTELT.

To see a complete list of the CTELT resources of books, software and recorded conferences and satellite downlinks go here:

http://www.fhsu.edu/ctelt/resourcelibrary.pdf. A few items that are worth highlighting are What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Bain (CRC # 209) and Deep Learning for a Digital Age by Van B. Weigel (CRC # 134). Also helpful are the articles cited above:

Phillip, D. (2007). The Knowledge building paradigm: A model of learning for Net Generation students. Retrieved July 9, 2007, from . http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=368

Watch, H. (2007). Changing needs, chaning models: Instructional technology training at Bronx Community College. Innovate 3(5)Retrieved July 9, 2007, from http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=424

Here are a few other online sources worth checking into (by no means an exhaustive list):

Merlot: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
http://www.merlot.org/Home.po

The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Group
http://www.tltgroup.org/

How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice (Online Book)
Edited by M. Suzanne Donovan, John D. Bransford, and James W. Pellegrino
http://books.nap.edu/html/howpeople2/

Crash Course in Copyright and the TEACH Act
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm#top

FHSU Mobile Teaching and Learning website
http://www.fhsu.edu/mobilecomputing/

The official start of the mobile teaching and learning initiative brings new ways to collaborate in the classroom, in departments and across campus. The resources are available and now it is up to all of us to make the most of both the resources and the opportunity. Change is inevitable. Making change successful is the difficult part.