Hybrid Thinking about the Role of Technology for Liberal Education

Rebecca Frost DavisApril 6, 2013

Mapping Technology Use for Teaching and Learning at

Liberal Arts Colleges

References and Links

http://rebeccafrostdavis.wordpress.com/2013/04/06/mapping-technology-use-for-teaching-and-learning

/

Passion-Driven Statistics

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7l070-WFb5Q

• Lisa Dierker, Professor of Psychology, Wesleyan University

Our Path across the Landscape

• Examples of technology-supported teaching and learning from liberal arts colleges– Motivations for engaging with technologies– Driven by definitions of liberal education

• Pointing to potential areas for development and collaboration

NITLE www.nitle.org

• National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education

• NITLE helps liberal arts colleges integrate inquiry, pedagogy, and technology.

• Future of Liberal Education• Digital Humanities

http://www.nitle.org/shared_academics/

Liberal Education in a Networked World

• http://rebeccafrostdavis.wordpress.com • Slides and more examples available via my

blog

TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATIONConversation about

“Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States” (2011), p. 7. 100% MOOC Massive Open Online Course

Online Learning as Delivery Method

Defining Liberal Education

• Small, residential, private, bachelors granting college

• The study of the liberal arts and sciences• Preparation & skills for democratic citizenship• Pedagogical methodology & practices

--Jo Ellen Parker, “What’s So Liberal About Higher Ed?” Academic Commons

MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES (MOOCs)

See also Lisa Spiro, “Open Education and MOOCs”, Recording of full presentation available by request for NITLE members, http://www.nitle.org/live/events/161-open-education-and-moocs

Slide courtesy of Lisa Spiro, “Open Education and MOOCs”

Slide courtesy of Lisa Spiro, “Open Education and MOOCs”

Slide courtesy of Lisa Spiro, “Open Education and MOOCs”

Two Visions for MOOCs

Industrial (xMOOC)• Faculty expert• Homogeneous Network• One perfect lecture(r)• Knowledge transfer

Networked (cMOOC)• Collaborative peer learning• Heterogeneous Network• Knowledge is situated• Knowledge production

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Slide courtesy of Lisa Spiro, “Open Education and MOOCs”

MOOC CONSUMERSMOOCs as Open Educational Resources

MOOCs as Lifelong Learning

• Coursera MOOCs: Over 80% have a BA or higher

• Southwestern Computer Science Professor to take Thrun MOOC with students

• Gettysburg student took Thrun’s “Machine Learning” as independent study

• Modeling how to be a self-motivated learner

MOOCs as Global Learning

• Both Coursera and edX have global partners in Mexico, Israel, Italy, Japan, Australia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada

• Expand course offerings in target languages• Global learning opportunity (virtual study

abroad)• Peers from diverse backgrounds• “Mentored MOOCs for Global Learning”

Tool to Explore Digital Pedagogy

• Digital Pedagogy and MOOCification, Jesse Stommel, Marylhurst College

• ACS group exploring MOOCs as part of ACS New Paradigms Initiative

• Trinity College discussion group on digital courses

• Daemen plans MOOC exploration• Common reason also cited by large

universities

BLENDED LEARNINGBryn Mawr College Next Generation Learning Challenge Grant

Blended Learning in a Liberal Arts Setting

• Bryn Mawr College, NGLC grant-funded program• “Using Blended Learning in a Liberal Arts

Environment to Improve Developmental and Gatekeeper STEM Course Completion, Persistence, and College Completion”

• Computer-based, interactive tutorials and quizzes that provide customized learning and instant feedback, e.g., Open Learning Initiative modules

• http://nextgenlearning.blogs.brynmawr.edu/

Open Learning InitiativeChemistry Module

Outcomes

• Student preparation = better student-faculty interaction– Metacognition

• Assessment data for learning analytics• Mastery vs. grades

Challenges

• Uneven availability of resources– OLI did not cover well economics, biology, geology,

chemistry, developmental math• Start-up costs: time to find, evaluate, apply &

integrate computer-based materials• Doesn’t apply in every case, e.g., basic math

skills

Creating Resources

• Spohrer (Bryn Mawr) reports 50 hours• Collaborative Projects from ACS– Analyzing and Creating Maps– Beyond the (Online) Handbook

: Writing Resources Designed for the Digital Environment

Open Textbooks

• Open SUNY Textbook Program

• SUNY-Geneseo, Cyril Oberlander

• 15 free online books• Library as publisher

• Anthropology• Business• Computer Sciences• Education• English• Math• Music• Sciences

More Reasons to Blend

• Free up more time for more meaningful interactions

• Expand the classroom• Bring more real world examples in the

classroom• Multiple and global perspectives• Navigate successfully in a digital world

LIBERAL ARTS PEDAGOGIESHigh Impact Practices

Liberal Education: Essential Learning Outcomes

• Intellectual and practical skills, like – Inquiry and analysis– Critical and creative thinking– Written and oral communication– Quantitative literacy– Information literacy– Teamwork and problem solving

• Knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world;

• Personal and social responsibility, including civic knowledge and engagement both locally and globally;

• Integrative and applied learning.

High Impact Practices (Kuh)

• First-Year Seminars and Experiences

• Common Intellectual Experience

• Learning Communities• Writing-Intensive

Courses• Collaborative

Assignments and Projects

• Undergraduate Research

• Diversity/Global Learning

• Service Learning, Community-Based Learning

• Internships• Capstone Courses and

Projects

Public Digital Scholarship

Digital Field Scholarship

• Davidson, Math Maps• Lewis and Clark, Digital Field Scholarship Seminar• Muhlenberg, Documentary Research Storymapping• Reed College, Carbon Field Studies

Stories of the Susquehanna: Digital Humanities, Spatial Thinking, and Telling the historia of the Environment

Katherine Faull, Professor of German and the Humanities

Alf Kentigern Siewers, Associate Professor of English and Affiliated Faculty Member in

Environmental StudiesBucknell University

NITLE Seminar, October 9, 2012

Slides courtesy of Katherine Faull & Alf Siewers & available online

The problem: How to engage students in local geo-history

• Civic engagement– Summer Writers Institute

(2009)• Chesapeake Conservancy—

John Smith Trail Connector Trail (2009-12)

• Digital storytelling– Stories from Marcellus Shale

(2010)• Mellon foundation grant

(2012)• Interdisciplinary course (IP)– 2011, 2012

Students commonly write history as:

A linear temporal narrative imposed on complex signifying grids

They employ a univocal narrative voice

And thus provide a single perspective

Slide courtesy of Katherine Faull & Alf Siewers

Smith’s 1612 map--detailQuestion remains as to where these locations are today and whether they can even be found as John Smith’s map is not isomorphic, that is is not drawn to scale to represent landscape and location

Slide courtesy of Katherine Faull & Alf Siewers

Students georectified Smith’s map according to different scholarly interpretations1. Clark and Eschleman place all Smith’s sites south of Harrisburg:

Sasquesahanough at Washington Boro,

Attaock around York, Quadroque near

Middletown, Tesinigh around Lebanon, Utchowig around

Harrisburg, Cepowig “at the head of

Willowby’s River” (Bush River) in Maryland[produces geographical error of between 10-30 miles]

from: H. Frank Eshleman, Lancaster County Indians: Annals of the Susquehannocks and Other Indian Tribes of the Susquehanna Territory from About the Year 1500 to 1763, the Date of their Extinction (Lititz, Pa.: Express Printing Co., 1909), 12-13.

Slide courtesy of Katherine Faull & Alf Siewers

Teaching new courses: learning new skills

• Importance of a LONG TERM mentor/mentee relationship—e.g. Presidential Fellow, Steffany Meredyk

• Allows for collaborative learning of new skills• Allows for complementary learning and

application of skills• Student skills transferable between GIS, History,

Humanities, English, Environmental Studies courses

Slide courtesy of Katherine Faull & Alf Siewers

CITIZENS FOR A GLOBALLY NETWORKED WORLD

Globally Networked World

Global Network by Flickr User WebWizzard

Multimodality

• Linguistic (verbal)• Visual• Audio• Gestural• Tactile• Spatial

Increased capacity

• Explosion of data • Exponential advances in computation storage

and bandwidth• Ubiquity of access, e.g., mobile devices

Participatory Culture

• Low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement

• Strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations

• Informal mentorship by most experienced for novices• Members believe their contributions matter• Some degree of social connection

Henry Jenkins, Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century

Networks

Mass Industrialization

Mass CustomizationAmazon

Small Liberal Arts Colleges

Humanities ProjectsLocal

The Long Tail

Pedagogical Experimentation

• Digital Humanities Pedagogy: Practices, Principles and Politics, ed. Brett Hirsch, 2013

• Digital Pedagogy Reader and Toolkit (in development)

Digital Pedagogy Reader and Toolkit

• Born digital• Curation of Pedagogical artifacts• Multi- & Cross-disciplinary• Interactive living archive • Networked • Tagged• Open

Keywords & Curators

AbilityCollaborationCommunityCompositionFailureGLAMInformation ScienceInterface

MOOCMultimodalPlayPraxisProgrammingPublicQueerRace

RemixRhetoricSexualityStorytellingText AnalysisVirtualityWork

http://lookingforwhitman.org

• Personal student blogs• Aggregation via tags and news feeds

Looking for Whitman in . . .

• New York City College of Technology (CUNY)• New York University• University of Mary Washington in

Fredericksburg, VA• Rutgers University-Camden • University of Novi Sad (Serbia)• Gold, Matthew. “Disrupting Institutional Barriers Through Digital Humanities Pedagogy.” Diversity & Democracy 15, no. 2 (2012).

Find out More

• http://bavatuesdays.com/looking-for-whitman-a-grand-aggregated-experiment/

• http://mkgold.net/blog/tag/lookingforwhitman/

• Matt Gold. “Looking for Whitman: A Multi-Campus Experiment in Digital Pedagogy.”Digital Humanities Pedagogy, ed. Brett D. Hirsch. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2013

Texas Language Consortium

Global Learning

• Re-envisioning Diasporas at Swarthmore College and Asheshi University in Ghana

Global Course Connection Project

• Connecting with a companion course in another nation

• Enrich each connected course with an international perspective

• Direct exchange between students and faculty members as they discuss shared readings and assignments.

Intercampus Interaction or Collaboration

• Sunoikisis intercampus courses (ICCs) in advanced Greek & Latin

• SUNY-COIL Globally Networked Learning• FemTechNet: Distributed Online Collaborative

Course• History Harvest

Fall 2006 Sunoikisis ICCs

NOW WHAT?

Collaborative Approaches

• Finding and Creating OLI modules and other materials for blended learning

• Plugging into existing digital projects• Creating networked collaborative courses• Something completely new . . .

References• I. Elaine Allen, and Jeff Seaman. Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States,

2011. The Sloan Consortium, November 2011. http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/going_distance_2011.

• Parker, Jo Ellen. “What’s So ‘Liberal’ About Higher Ed?” Academic Commons (June 10, 2006). http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/essay/parker-whats-so-liberal-about-higher-ed.