october 2012
DESCRIPTION
Boise State's EdTech news magazine.TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
October 2012 EdTech
Connection
ANTHONY SABA:
Managing cultural training at Hyundai 13
AT EdTech:
New captain at the helm
GLORI HINCK:
National award winner 5
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE OF EDUCATION BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY
![Page 2: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Welcome
to fall semester 2012
In this
edition EdTech inaugurates its fourth chair in 24 years.
Farewell to a pair of favorite professors.
EdTech student wins national Award.
EdTech professor wins NSF grant to study the freshman fizzle.
It is my sincere
pleasure to serve as
interim chair of Edu-
cational Technology
for the 2012-2013
academic year.
Although EdTech
is not my academic
discipline (I am a
biomechanist), I
have worked with the
past three chairs in my role as associate
dean for the College of Education for the
past nine years, and have a strong ap-
preciation and understanding of the de-
partment’s mission.
This is an exciting time for EdTech,
as we deal with a number of challenges:
implementing two new programs—the
Ed.D. in Educational Technology, and
the K-12 online teaching endorsement
for Idaho teachers; a 27% increase in
enrollment from fall 2011 to fall 2012;
and conducting searches to fill three
faculty lines—one a new line to support
the new doctoral program, and the
other two to replace faculty members
who served the department with dis-
tinction for many years—Connie
Wyzard and Lisa Dawley. Thankfully,
we have a dedicated, hard working,
competent faculty and staff to meet
these challenges and move us forward.
Boise State launches pioneering doc program.
Ross Vaughn Introducing (drum-roll, please) new faculty members!
EdTech research points to interesting correlations.
Hsu presents at app inventor summit.
10
3 4
5 6
7 8
9
11 New jobs and new opportunities 13
EdTech grad Anthony Saba is a training manager
for Hyundai in Korea. Follow his
journey from academic
to corporate teaching.
COVER
STORY
EdTech Connection Published three times a year
by the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University.
Jerry Foster, editor & academic adviser
208-426-4008 [email protected]
![Page 3: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Hail, to the chief
Dr. Ross Vaughn named interim chair of EdTech
Ross Vaughn tried to retire two or
three years ago, but the rocking chair con-
tinues to elude him as College of Educa-
tion Dean Diane Boothe keeps coming up
with offers he can’t refuse.
For Vaughn, an associate dean since
2003, the latest offer was interim chair-
manship of the university’s
largest graduate department—
EdTech. He fills, he assumes
temporarily, the seat vacated
by EdTech Chair Kerry Rice.
Rice’s bids for a sabbatical
and a Fulbright scholarship
were both approved. She is off
to Nicolaus Copernicus Uni-
versity in Poland, where this
winter she will help education
faculty to incorporate emer-
gent technologies into teacher
education courses, including
how to teach effectively online. She plans
to be back in Boise next school year as a
faculty member.
Running a big department is noth-
ing new for Vaughn, who’s worked at
Boise State for 39 years. He coached
baseball for years and taught in the Kine-
siology Department and chaired that de-
partment between 1994 and 2003, when
he became associate dean of the College
of Education.
He earned his bachelor’s degree at
Chico State and his master’s and doctor-
ate at Washington State University. In his
time at Boise State, he earned College of
Education honors for outstanding service
and distinguished teaching.
Vaughn is an expert in university
budgeting and has previous experience in
managing self-support programs. EdTech
Associate Chair Chareen Snelson will
continue to manage admission and cur-
ricular affairs in the department.
From the dean’s perspective, the
choice for interim chair was an easy call
because Vaughn’s “expert leadership,
professionalism, integrity, competency,
and knowledge of the College of Educa-
tion are unsurpassed.”
Ross was also a
dynamic baseball
coach who never
stopped coaching,
but challenges
each of us to
excel every day.
Education Dean
Diane Boothe
![Page 4: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Farewells
Two high profile professors resign from university life.
Dawley led EdTech
through critical period
Dr. Lisa Dawley, EdTech chair from 2006 to 2011, resigned her university posi-tion this summer to assume leadership of GoGo Labs, a private research and devel-opment think tank for exploring and advo-cating innovative new technology tools and applications in edu-cation.
When founding chair Carolyn Thorsen retired in 2005, Dawley as-sumed temporary de-partment leadership until the following August, when she was named chair. Under her guidance, the department continued to grow at substantial rates, becoming the largest graduate program at Boise State.
She encouraged EdTech professors to engage in new technologies, such as teach-ing and learning in virtual worlds, social network learning, and educational games. She co-created quest-based learning with instructor Chris Haskell.
Dawley served as a director of iNACOL, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, and in the Dawley era EdTech became one of the nation’s largest trainers of K-12 online teachers .
She was a prolific presenter and writer, and her 2007 textbook, The Tools for Suc-cessful Online Teaching, became a top-seller for publisher IGI Global.
Before coming to Boise State, Dawley taught in southern California elementary schools and later at the University of Memphis and at Sonoma State University.
EdTech co-developer
Connie Wyzard retires
Dr. Connie Wyzard (Pollard) resigned this summer because of lingering health issues. She and Dr. Carolyn Thorsen worked side-by-side to establish the department—just the two of them at first—carrying full teaching
loads and serving on all of the major college and department com-mittees. She also designed and managed the un-dergraduate program, which serves about 700 pre-service teachers every year. In addition to teaching graduate
courses, Wyzard until recently managed the department’s adjunct instructors.
She won national awards in 1996 for ser-vice to adjudicated youth with disabilities and for work in alternative school networking. In 2005, Boise State students recognized Wyzard for her inspirational and impactful teaching.
Despite a full load of teaching and re-searching, Wyzard was also a prolific writer. She co-wrote three text books, plus five edi-tions of an introductory technology text book for pre-service teachers. In addition, she wrote several book chapters and numerous journal articles.
Wyzard was a reviewer for an interna-tional technology journal and also served on the editorial board for a national college text book publisher. She was also an indefatigable researcher and conference presenter.
She taught reading in Wyoming and Can-ada before earning her doctorate at the Uni-versity of Nebraska in 1990.
Lisa Dawley Connie Wyzard
![Page 5: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
National organization gives Student Recognition Award to EdTech’s own
Hinck, a 2010 graduate of Boise
State’s Master of Educational Technol-
ogy program, was already a qualified
chiropractic doctor when she started the
M.E.T. program, but she recognized
that she was not nearly as effec-
tive as a chiropractic educator.
The M.E.T. program gave her
the skills she needed, and her
employer recognized and re-
warded her developing exper-
tise with new professional op-
portunities by:
Tasking her with educating
and helping other faculty members, in
one-on-one and group sessions, to inte-
grate technology into their teaching,
Tasking her with leading (1) the de-
velopment of all online and hybrid com-
ponents of Northwestern Health Sci-
ences University’s new master’s program
in health sciences and (2) the transition
of undergraduate courses from place-
based to hybrid delivery systems,
Adopting her recommendation for
e-portfolios in the new Master of Health
Sciences program, which helped satisfy
the regional accreditation agency’s as-
sessment requirements, resulting in ac-
creditation for the program,
Allowing her to develop and teach
chiropractic courses online, which is re-
markable because chiropractic is a
hands-on practice. Her primary course,
Cervical and Thoracic Adjusting Tech-
niques, is a hybrid course, with the in-
structional component delivered online
and the hands-on labs on campus. The
course is delivered via Moodle, but also
uses SoftChalk and Camtasia for short
lectures and a YouTube channel to make
demonstrations conveniently available
day or night from anywhere with inter-
net service, and
Allowing her to create and co-
instruct a hybrid pharmacology course
at NHSU.
The National University Technology
Network is celebrating its 30th year as
an organization for college and univer-
sity distance education program direc-
tors.
Glori Hinck EdTech doctoral student Glori Hinck was honored on September 19
with the Student Recognition Award by the National University Technol-
ogy Network (NUTN) at its annual conference in Kansas City.
![Page 6: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
By Sherry Squires
Condensed from Update
By the time undergraduate engineering stu-
dents reach core engineering courses, it may be
too late to fix deficits in fundamental knowledge
of science and engineering, according to re-
search conducted by EdTech professor Dazhi
Yang and Engi-
neering profes-
sor Inanc Seno-
cak.
Yang and
Senocak have
been awarded a
$300,000 Na-
tional Science
Foundation
grant to identify
which concepts
are most likely to
cause engineering
students to stumble early on and to develop in-
novative instructional strategies to help to help
them learn. “Our goal is to help students have a
better mindset and clearer understanding of
math and science
concepts going into
the engineering
courses, particularly
those related to
thermo-fluid sci-
ences,” Yang said.
“It would be ideal to
start doing that at the elementary or middle
school level, but our efforts are focused on
catching it in the freshman year of college, be-
fore it’s too late.”
“A lot of research has been done on how to re-
pair misconceptions after students have already
developed them, and that approach has proven
to be only somewhat effective in helping stu-
dents,” Yang says. “We want to turn the re-
search around—instead of repairing misconcep-
tions, we want to
prevent them.”
Reviewers were keen
on Yang’s and Seno-
cak’s proposal be-
cause the results
could have broad
impacts on math
and physics educa-
tion.
Work in the
three-year grant be-
gins this fall with a
collaborative ap-
proach to identify which concepts most often
trip up students and to develop online tutorials
that frame and describe those concepts in dif-
ferent ways. Beginning next year, a test group
of students will
engage the tutori-
als as Yang moni-
tors their progress.
In the third year,
the research team
will analyze out-
comes and track student success. They also will
organize a workshop with middle school and
high school science teachers.
Saving engineering students
from the freshman fizzle
EdTech professor Dazhi Yang (right) with Engineering profes-sor and co-researcher Inanc Senocak.
The work exemplifies the modernization
of education in a digital age.
Martin Schimpf
provost & vice president for academic affairs
![Page 7: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Meet EdTech’s first doctoral cohort
Lisa Berry Idaho
Dennis Large California
Molly Large California
Anthony Saba South Korea
Dwayne Ockel Colorado
Sarah Rich Indonesia
Jillian Wojcik Florida
The nation’s first online doctoral pro-gram in educational technology offered by a public university began at Boise State this semester with 18 students.
Seven students hail from western states, four from the Midwest, four from eastern states, and includes two U.S. edu-
cators working in international locations. The application process for EdTech’s doctor of education (Ed.D.) program is very competitive. Six of the new doc stu-dents studied in one of Boise State’s master’s programs in educational tech-nology.
Rebeca Befus Michigan
Steve Isaacs New Jersey
Tanya Windham Nebraska
Patty McGinnis Pennsylvania
Kellie Taylor Idaho
Mark Suter Ohio
Carl Lund Kansas
Kristin Oostra Idaho
Donna Ledford Georgia
Glori Hinck Minnesota
Carol Askin California
![Page 8: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Tae Keun “John” Jeon is teaching EDTECH 506—Graphic Design for Learning—this semester.
In his full-time job, he trains Uni-versity of Wisconsin faculty in the ef-fective use of web 2.0 tools. He has quite a lot of experience in that arena, as well as instructional design, because he has worked at those tasks for five years while completing his master’s and doctorate at Utah State University. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from Utah State.
Jeon now teaching 506: Graphic Arts for Learning
Kemp teaches Intro to EdTech
Jeremy Kemp is one of four Intro to EdTech instructors this fall. In his full-time job at San Jose State University, he teaches technology-related courses in the School of Library and Informa-tion Science.
Kemp earned his doctorate at Cali-fornia’s Fielding Graduate University, where his dissertation focused on im-mersive learning in virtual worlds. Prior to that, he did an impressive in-structional design and courseware de-velopment project in his Learning De-sign and Technology master’s program at Stanford.
Anthony Saba earned his M.E.T. while teaching at Hongik University in South Korea, and now, as an EdTech doctoral student, is teaching a section of Intro to EdTech this fall.
He joined Hyundai Motor Group earlier this year as project manager for developing and managing culture and diversity training.
Teaching at Boise State is a “fan-tastic experience” because he now sees a level of student dedication and per-sistence that he hadn’t noticed as a stu-dent.
Jeremy Kemp
Saba earned M.E.T. in Korea; now teaches 501 from Korea
John Jeon
Anthony Saba
Condensed from UPDATE
Boise State University
has been named a “military friend school”—again—by Victory Media, which honors the top 15 percent of col-leges, universities and trade schools that are doing the most to embrace America’s military service members, veterans, and families.
Boise State is also a part-ner with the Wyakin Warrior Foundation that provides scholarship, mentoring, training and networking for severely wounded or injured veterans who return to school, and offers VetSuccess on Campus, a collaborative program between the Veter-ans Administration and the university to provide student veterans with a direct link to the VA as they transition from their military experi-ence.
Boise State is one of only 22 campus sites nationally to offer VetSuccess.
Boise State noted for being a military-friendly university
Look for Boise State EdTech
at Virtual School Symposium
EdTech adviser Jerry Fos-
ter will attend iNACOL’s Vir-
tual School Symposium in New
Orleans Oct. 21-24. Boise State
EdTech was the first university
to support VSS, which is the
world’s premier K-12 online
and blended-learning confer-
ence. The Boise State EdTech
booth number is 709.
![Page 9: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Recently published research by three Ed-
Tech faculty members—Andy Hung, Yu-
Chang Hsu, and Kerry Rice—reveals some
findings of interest to administrators of online
schools.
The
team, led by
Associate
Professor
Andy Hung,
used data
mining to
discover pat-
terns in the
records of
7,539 stu-
dents.
Here are some of their findings:
Students with higher engagement levels
usually had higher performance.
On average, highly engaged students were
twice as active in class as low-engaged stu-
dents.
Younger students who lived in larger cities
were more successful than those in smaller
cities and than older students.
Female students were more active than
male students in online discussions.
Female students had higher pass rates
than male students.
Overall, females significantly performed
better than male students, especially in the
following subject areas—English, social
studies, and electives in general.
Courses categorized as high-engaged and
high-performance might represent courses
with both effective design and effective
teaching because students were highly en-
gaged and achieved expected outcomes.
Those categorized as high-engaged and
low-performance might represent courses
with less effective course design because stu-
dents were un-
able to achieve
expected out-
comes despite
what appears
to be effective
implementa-
tion.
Most high-
engaged, high
performance
courses were
advanced level courses.
Entry level courses tended to have lower
performance, whether students were cate-
gorized as low-engaged or high-engaged.
This may speak more to course structure,
design, and support than to quality of in-
struction.
The reasons students enrolled in a course
may influence their engagement level and
performance. Student survey responses
indicated that students who retook courses
they had previously failed, tended to dem-
onstrate lower engagement and lower per-
formance. When students took courses un-
available in their schools, they were usu-
ally high-engaged and high performing.
Andy Hung
Hung, J.-L., Hsu, Y.-C., Rice, K.L. Integrating data
mining in program evaluation of K-12 online education.
Educational Technology & Society, 15(3), 27-41.
Successful students work twice as hard?
New research reveals some interesting implications
Yu-Chang Hsu Kerry Rice
![Page 10: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Boise State EdTech pro-
fessor Yu-Chang Hsu pre-
sented preliminary findings
on the use of App Inventor
for graduate instruction this
summer at MIT’s App Inven-
tor Summit hosted by the
MIT Mobile Learning Center.
Hsu shared learning ac-
tivities that he used in last
year’s Mobile App Design
course, particularly the de-
sign tool, App Inventor.
Students in the course fol-
lowed tutorials and incorpo-
rated their own customiza-
tions into practice apps. As
Yu-Chang Hsu
the semester progressed,
most students increased the
complexity of customizations
without being prompted. Stu-
dents also created design pro-
posals for developing their
own apps, which served as
beta ideas for future projects.
Students also kept a de-
sign journal to reflect on their
own design thinking, inspira-
tion received from peers, and
their own experiences with
apps.
Students were positive
about their experiences in the
learning community and with
the design tool itself. They
noted that App Inventor fos-
tered critical thinking and
problem solving—and they
would have developed more
apps , if they’d had more time.
EdTech’s Hsu presents at App Inventor Summit
Lowenthal explains how to be known as a thought leader
EdTech instructional designer Patrick Lowenthal and Joni Dunlap of the University of Colorado
published an article this summer that advised faculty members how to be known as thought leaders.
Lowenthal and Posner built on an earlier article by Miriam Posner in The Chronicle of Higher
Education, suggesting that:
Academics wishing to be seen as thought leaders in their discipline need to be intentional about
how, when, and what shows up when someone uses a search engine like Google to search on their
name or area(s) of research.
If Google cannot find a faculty scholar’s work or the work of the scholar’s colleagues, department,
or institution, then it is essentially irrelevant — even nonexistent — because people will not find,
read, apply, or build on the work if they cannot locate it via a quick Google search.
Building a web presence is more than simply having a website and can make the difference in an
academic’s visibility to the desired audience, including opportunities for new projects and col-
laborations.
Lowenthal, P. R., & Dunlap, J. C. (2012, July/August). Intentional web presence: 10 SEO strategies every academic needs to know. EDUCAUSE Review Online. Find it at http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/intentional-web-presence-10-seo-strategies-every-academic-needs-know >.
![Page 11: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
New jobs . . . (and other cool happenings)
Bob Thompson joins UNLV TV
Susan Ferdon (2012) has a new job—and
new respect in her school district.
Just before flying to Boise for spring
graduation, she learned about a technology co-
ordinator position at a neighboring school dis-
trict. But first things first. She wanted to
graduate from the EdTech master’s program
with the Graduate Certificate in School Tech-
nology Coordination. When she got home, she
applied for the job and got it.
Then she took the exam for the state tech-
nology specialist endorsement and aced it, be
coming the only person—ever— in her new dis-
trict to earn the endorsement. While still in
her previous job, she was named Illinois music
teacher of the year.
Her sister, Linda Deneher (2012) of 29
Palms, California, went through the M.E.T.
program with Susan. Linda is volunteering as
an instructional designer and faculty trainer at
a local community college and continues to
substitute in her local school district. She also
tutors students privately, both face-to-face and
online.
Bob Thompson had a goal when he joined
the EdTech program—he wanted to work in
higher education.
He got a new job over the summer at the
University of Nevada-Las Vegas as manager of
post production and animation. He had been
working at ESPN.
EdTech grad aces Illinois
exam for tech coordinators
Why you won’t see EdTech’s newest instructor
EdTech graduate
Jodie Hale (2011) of
Pocatello, Idaho, is
believed to be the
first teacher to earn
the state’s new
online teacher en-
dorsement.
EdTech faculty member Kerry Rice was
instrumental in developing the new endorse-
ment and getting it approved.
Jodie Hale
Hale earns 1st online teacher endorsement
EdTech graduate
Kris Mesler (2011) has
been hired to teach the
department’s only un-
dergraduate course,
EDTECH 202, which is
not available to grad
students. More than
700 pre-service teach-
ers study in about 25
sections of the course
each year in both cam-
pus and online classrooms. Mesler taught in
faith-based junior high schools for a dozen
years before and during the time that she
studied in the M.E.T. program. She is a
graduate of Northwest Nazarene University in
Nampa, which is about 20 miles west of Boise.
Kris Mesler
![Page 12: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Ted needs a few, good, part-time instructional designers “We are looking for instructional designers interested in working on a contractual basis, on special projects, for Anne Arundel Community College.” That’s the good news from EdTech student Ted Finch, elearning project manager for Anne Arundel Community College’s virtual campus in Maryland. He says he has a strong instructional design team, but anticipates that several new training projects for corporate clients will leave his staff stretched too thin. So, he’s asking instructional designers around the country to join a pool of talent that he can call on when the projects start rolling in. EdTech students and graduates interested in being considered for Finch’s contractor pool should send their resume and examples of work. Include files or links to online examples in your response, and be sure to indicate your role and responsibilities for each example that you share. Finch also mentioned that interested individuals should include an hourly rate requirement. Contact Finch as soon as possible at [email protected] or at 410-777-7137.
Distance Learning Program Specialist—Northeastern University, Boston. Qualifications: Bachelor’s Degree required. Strong proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, especially Excel. Proven skill managing and reporting data, familiarity with online or hybrid education highly desirable. This person must be comfortable working with all levels within an institution and have keen attention to detail. https://neu.peopleadmin.com/postings/21316
Online Student Services Director—Odessa College, Odessa, Texas. This position will lead the development of online student services. https://jobs.odessa.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1348149826703
Activity Director/Online Learning Specialist—Odessa College, Odessa, Texas. https://jobs.odessa.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1348150189937
Instructional Designer—Frederick Community College, Frederick, MD. $48,891 to $53,780 per year . Minimum Requirements: Master's degree in Instructional Design, Distance Education, Curriculum and Instruction, Educa-tional Technology, or a related academic discipline. And two years of experience designing distance learning in-structional materials in higher education. Preferred quali-fications: Familiarity with the community college environ-ment, ability to generate basic text/graphic materials in HTML format, and experience with professional develop-ment of faculty. https://jobs.frederick.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/position/JobDetails_css.jsp?postingId=141803
Distance Learning Specialist—Community Colleges of Spokane, Spokane, Washington. $43,468 The incum-bent develops and delivers a multi-faceted training pro-gram to CCS faculty, students, and administrators to pro-mote the effective use of educational technology, includ-ing the use of the LMS—Angel and Canvas. http://agency.governmentjobs.com/ccspokane/default.cfm
Educational Technologist / Instructional Designer - National Department of eLearning—Hebrew Union Col-lege, New York. Duties: 1. Faculty Development, Training and Support, 2. eLearning Courses (Cross-campus, Hybrid/Blended, Enhanced and Online), 3. Managing, Supporting and Training for Learning Envi-ronments, 4. Project and Technical Support for Local Campus Us-ers, 5. Department Support, Supervision and Professional Development.
Instructional Designer—Southern Utah University, Ce-dar City, Utah. $50,500+ https://jobs.suu.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1348151808847
Instructional Designer—Black Hills State University, Spearfish, S.D. $45,000 to $50,000 https://yourfuture.sdbor.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1348152111195
Educational Technologist—University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. $55,000 - $65,000 Minimum qualifica-tions include a Master's degree in educational technol-ogy, instructional design, or directly related field. https://www.jobsatcu.com/applicants/jsp/shared/position/JobDetails_css.jsp
New Opportunities
![Page 13: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Transformative technology
Saba changes the nature of teaching and learning in university & corporate classrooms
Anthony Saba’s office is in the left wing of Hyundai’s Mabuk training center in Yong-in City, about 45 minutes south Seoul. The Mabuk campus is the flagship of Hyundai's global training network. Courtesy of Hyundai.
By Jerry Foster for 80,000 employees worldwide.
Like a small rudder on a big ship, Saba
knows it will take time to turn the corporate
training practice from traditional didactic in-
structional methods, such as PowerPoint pres-
entations, videos, and quizzes, to more inter-
active teaching strategies because they are
more engaging, and the more educators and
trainers get learners engaged and involved in
their studies, the more they learn.
He’d like to leverage technology more ef-
fectively—webquests, for example, for workers
T echnology transformed EdTech grad
Anthony Saba’s teaching, and then
his career.
Now he hopes technology—and he—can
transform the way the world’s fifth-largest
automaker trains its employees.
Saba, originally from Staten Island, New
York, is a 2011 EdTech grad, who has taught
university English in Korea since 1998. Last
spring, he was recruited by Hyundai to create
and manage cultural and diversity training
![Page 14: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
from various countries. The collaborative na-
ture of webquests would give multi-national
groups of employees opportunities to work
together and compare cultural differences in
their working styles. This would be especially
useful for employees who will be sent over
seas to work on international assignments
with diverse groups of people.
Head winds
He’d like to use more technology-
supported problem-based learning, but that
process generally
takes time and
many of the train-
ing sessions are
scheduled only for a
couple of days.
Corporate and
national regulatory
issues are also chal-
lenging.
Educators are
innately sharers.
Researchers pub-
lish to share their
findings. Teachers
share lesson plans.
Universities share
administrative
practices and their
sports teams even
share game films. But just as sharing is part of
the culture of education, it is most definitely
not the culture of business. The two cultures
are diametrically opposite to the point that
sharing—even inadvertently—is anathema in
business. Innovations of design, production,
or distribution can create a competitive edge
by increasing sales or reducing expenses. Ei-
ther way, loss of proprietary information can
affect a company’s bottom line, which is why
Hyundai does not allow employees to use
Boise State master’s degree in educational
technology fortunately focused on technology
-supported problem solving, rather than just
computer skills or educational theory. He is
now in the EdTech doctoral program, so if
anyone can develop the leadership to create
effective training solutions within these con-
straints, he will.
And Hyundai’s system for training em-
ployees worldwide will be a competitive inno-
vation in itself.
Google apps—it is just too easy to upload and
possibly expose proprietary information to
prying eyes.
National regulations regarding personal
privacy, particularly in Europe, prevent Saba
from creating a global learning network be-
cause he cannot access employee personnel
data across national boundaries.
Innovators, like athletes, are not recog-
nized unless they overcome great odds. Saba
may be a little rudder on a big ship, but his
Saba works with a student in a one-on-one oral description activity in an intensive English class at Hongik University. He taught there 7 years before joining Hyundai.
![Page 15: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Technology in the Korean academy
It was that very opportunity—more chal-
lenge, more responsibility and a chance for
advancement—that convinced Saba to leave a
comfortable assistant professorship at
Hongik University, Korea’s preeminent art
school whose “eclectic bohemian” students
create a Greenwich Village atmosphere in
northwest neighborhoods of Seoul.
Most instructors at Hongik used technol-
ogy in basic ways, and so did Saba before
joining Boise State’s M.E.T. program. Then,
he says, “My focus changed from content
presentation to interactive uses of technology
for student-centered collaborative learning.”
Anthony, Hyun-Jung, and kids on Jeju Do (Island), a popular tourist destination in Korea. The stone statues are called Hallu-bang, as the style is particular to Jeju Do. They can be found throughout Korea in various styles, including totem-like wooden versions. They are placed at the entrances to villages and homes to pro-tect against evil spirits. They predate Buddhism, but were continued after Buddhism came to the peninsula.
For example, he:
Required his conversational English stu-
dents to create narrated videos of the best
places to go in Seoul, edited them in
iMovie or Windows Media Maker, up-
loaded their video to a YouTube channel,
and then discussed—in English, of
course—each other’s videos.
Assigned them to use ISSUU to create
magazines, which they discussed in class.
Experimented with text-messaging for col-
laboration and communication outside of
class.
Set up Moodle discussion boards so stu-
dents would interact more outside of class
![Page 16: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
because one of the issues with EFL learn-
ing is that students don’t use English out-
side of the classroom. So, they held discus-
sions in forums online between classes
around various topics.
Created a mobile app to provide class in-
formation, including an RSS feed from dis-
cussion boards in Moodle, which they
could view through the web-app.
Used webquests to make instruction more
interactive and collaborative and blurred,
in fact, the lines between class time and
free time.
His students enjoyed using technology in
their learning but, like students everywhere,
complained that the class required too much
time and effort, particularly outside of class.
His colleagues, on the other hand, ex-
pressed interest in learning more about effec-
tive integration. Most of them are still using
things like paper handouts, textbooks, chalk-
boards, and such. “Ironically,” he says, “Korea
in general and young college students in par-
ticular are very fond of technology and use it
heavily outside of class (or in class) to talk
with their friends, but instructors barely use it
at all.”
In the beginning
In 1998, Saba’s twin sister Mary Ellen con-
vinced him to put work on an earlier master’s
program on hold and go with her to Korea. So,
he committed and on the night before their
departure, she canceled.
Saba went to Korea and three years later, a
friend introduced him to a girl at a party. Her
name was Hyun-Jung Jo (Jo is her family
name) and, after dating awhile, they got mar-
ried—twice, once at home in New York and
once in Korea. Their daughter Rylee is almost
four now and Anthony Jr. is 18 months. He is
just learning to talk, but Rylee is bilingual be-
cause her mother speaks to her primarily in
Anthony and Hyun-Jung at their traditional Korean wedding. They also were married in New York, so American family and friends could attend. A few family members at-tended both ceremonies.
Korean and her father speaks to her in Eng-
lish. “When we are all together, we pretty
much just mix-it-up. It can be quite humor-
ous at times!”
Q&A What do you like to do when you’re not
teaching and being a doc student?
Hmmm. Being a dad! That’s pretty much all
there is time for these days, since I work for 11
hours, study for four and play with the
![Page 17: October 2012](https://reader033.vdocument.in/reader033/viewer/2022042903/568c4a451a28ab49169777f8/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
kids for two or three hours in the evenings.
Weekends, I try to reserve time strictly for my
family. We go to parks and playgrounds, and
hike in the many mountains of Korea.
What do you eat at home, mostly
American or mostly Korean? We mix it
up—a lot of Korean food at home these days
since the kids were born. We are a pretty tra-
ditional family now that I’m working full days
with the wife doing the traditional household
chores. She does make things like pasta, but
often it is some kind of Korean-American fu-
sion dish.
If you eat much American food there,
what do you eat most often? Well, if we
eat American food, whatever that is these
days, we often go to family restaurants like
TGIF or Pizza Hut.
Of Korean food, what do you like the
most? Korean barbeque is my favorite, espe-
cially the beef ribs. I also like many of the rice
dishes and things like kimchi stew. I’m not so
fond of the Korean style seafood, but there are
tons of Japanese restaurants everywhere these
days, so I enjoy eating sushi as well.
Who cooks in your family, you or your
wife? Wife these days. Pretty traditional fam-
ily structure, even though we are not tradi-
tionally minded. I cook breakfast on weekends
—pancakes, French toast, eggs, that sort of
thing.
I think students would like to know
about salaries and costs there.
Salaries are a bit lower than in the United
States, but the taxes are lower and the cost of
living can be lower, depending on lifestyle
choices. Housing can be a bit expensive if you
want something on the scale of what you
might expect in the United States. If you go
native and live in the more typical smaller
apartments, then the cost is not bad. A young
starting teacher at a private institute can make
about $2000 a month with free housing and
plane tickets to Korea and back home, two
weeks of vacation, national holidays, medical
insurance and a one month salary severance
pay at the end of a year contract—all that for
20 hours of instruction per week. University
instructors make around $3200 a month,
sometimes housing is included or subsidized,
medical insurance, and 22 weeks (Yes, 22
weeks) of paid vacation per year with opportu-
nities for extra work during winter and sum-
mer vacations for about 12 hours of instruc-
tion per week. Full professors in a specific do-
main area can expect to make more money,
approximately $6,000 to $8,000 per month.
In a company, the pay can range greatly
depending on the industry, position and
whether or not you are working as a domestic
employee or as an overseas employee.
Did you have to learn Korean when you
went there? No, I didn’t have to learn it. In
fact, many westerners don’t learn Korean be-
yond a superficial level because it is too easy
not to learn, and many Koreans want to speak
with them in English to practice their English
ability. In my first year, I was living alone in a
small country town with nothing to do, so I
spent my evenings studying Korean at home
with textbooks and tapes, and I became quite
good by the end of my first year.
Jerry Foster is an academic adviser in
Boise State’s Department of Educational
Technology, and is editor of EdTech
Connection.