MDEC Conference Narrative
This blog posting is the Conference Narrative I submitted to the Vice-President of Instruction at Schoolcraft College after attending the MDEC Conference. It focuses on specific techniques and technologies that faculty and students can incorporate into classes.
I have reached the age where I have become a home body who would prefer to come home to my little dogs. Leaving town—even overnight—is not the exciting adventure it used to be when I was younger. Therefore, when I decide to attend a conference, I want to insure that it will benefit me, colleagues, and students. The Michigan Developmental Education Consortium (MDEC) does not disappoint.
In addition to the beneficial conversations during lunch and between sessions, this year’s conference provided me with the opportunity to learn pedagogical and technological skills that I have already been able to incorporate into my classes. It also gave me the opportunity to facilitate a discussion about how I use technology in my classes; a discussion that provided me with feedback from colleagues that positively challenged my thinking.
Instead of discussing some of the theoretical conversations whose benefits will unfold over time, I am first going to highlight a critical thinking activity that I have already incorporated into my classes. Then, I will provide details about some free, easily accessible software available to faculty and students.
SEE-I
As part of his day-long session on critical thinking, Dr. Brian Barnes demonstrated the SEE-I approach to analysis. Instead of describing this process in terms of the developmental education which is the topic Dr. Barnes used, I will explain how I incorporated into classes the week after I returned from MDEC.
This semester, I am asking students to analyze a meme. The purpose of the assignment is to help students develop analytical skills and well as skills in digital technology. When used in history courses, this assignment also provides students with an opportunity to learn more about the historical period under study. It is a very difficult assignment for students and I had already provided some classroom instruction before using SEE-I. The four steps in SEE-I are State, Expand, Example, and Illustrate.
The way I taught the SEE-I lesson, students were asked to concentrate on the meme they had selected for their analysis. I then worked through the following steps with them:
STATE: State the concept (theme/message/point/argument) of the meme. The prompt was “The concept is…”
EXPAND: Students were then asked to expand on what the concept. The prompt for this section was “The concept means…” I initially gave students five minutes to write and told them that they had to write for all five minutes. If they finished early, they were to continue writing by expanding on the points that were part of what they had already expanded on. Once the five minutes were up, students were still writing. Therefore, I asked that they continue to write for an additional five minutes.
EXAMPLE: I asked students to provide a specific example(s) to support the statements they made in the “Expand” section.
ILLUSTRATE: The students were then asked to find a way to illustrate the concept about which they had been writing. They were given two options. First, they could do a graphical illustration by drawing the concept. The second option was finding a metaphor. The writing prompt was “The concept is like…”
Once the students had completed their SEE-I analyses, they not only had a better understanding of the material they were analyzing, but they also had a first draft for their paper. I did explain that it was a very rough that was not very elegant. None-the-less, they had a manuscript that they could modify.
“Digital Technologies, Real Audiences and At Risk Students”
In my presentation on “Digital Technologies, Real Audiences and At Risk Students,” I argued that incorporating digital technologies in the traditional classroom while focusing projects on real audiences benefits at risk and marginal students who often feel isolated in the traditional classroom. As part of my presentation, I presented the following technologies.
WordPress (for blogging)
Using WordPress for class blogs can be problematic because, in cases such as Today in History, the professor needs to make the postings. However, the professor can post a blog entry and students can respond to it. It is also possible to construct assignments so that students are posting and reading each others’ blogs.
I did make the recommendation that the name of the blog not be “Class Blog for Such and Such a Class” because that could violate FERPA. Instead, give the class blog a generic/content name. I was asked why I preferred WordPress over other blogging programs such as Blogger. My answer is not very sophisticated. I prefer WordPress because that is the first one I used and I am been pleased with it. However, I know that individuals have successfully used Blogger and other blogging strategies.
WordPress (for web pages)
Recently, Dr. Glenn Sunshine developed a webpage to promote Portals: Entering Your Neighbor’s World, a book I am teaching this semester. Dr. Sunshine’s Every Square Inch is built on the WordPress platform. I have not yet asked students to use WordPress for web pages, but since I have seen Dr. Sunshine’s page, I am considering how I could incorporate it into my history courses. I am also seriously considering having my first year composition students use WordPress for their final portfolios.
One of the interesting questions asked during this session was why I preferred WordPress over Weebly. My answer demonstrated why we need to have conversations with colleagues: “I’ve never heard of Weebly;” a statement that would only remain true for less than an hour.
Students are more familiar with video editing software than I am and most have their own favorite software. In a recent class, more than 80% of my students had already made a video. To have students produce a video for a class project and post it in YouTube is something that they already know how to do; especially when they are working in teams. Therefore, as professors we can concentrate on quality issues instead of technological issues.
I cited Cabe Ware’s The Story of Siddhartha: Education as an example of a student video. Although my students have made some spectacular videos, I confessed that I have never made one myself—spectacular or otherwise.
YouTube and similar on-line video sources can also be a source for qualities materials we can incorporate into our presentations, assign to students, or which students can consult/cite in their research.
In my presentation, I cited other types of technology such as posters as well as how students can incorporate technology into their presentations.
“Sharing Web Resources in the Developmental Classroom”
Professor Heather Mayernik from Macomb Community College gave a presentation on “Sharing Web Resources in the Developmental Classroom” in which she demonstrated the following free technologies.
Poll Everywhere is clicker technology without the clickers. Instead, students use their cell phones to respond to questions designed by the professor. Students could also incorporate this technology into their own presentations.
Professor Mayernik designed a question and had us answer it during her session. Because most—if not all—students in a class will have cell phones, this technology can be an effective way to test knowledge without putting students on the spot. I also thought it could be an effective way to end class to see if students understood the main points of the lesson. Because Poll Everywhere also allows for short answer questions, it could provide a way for students to ask questions even if they did not want to identify themselves in class.
Weebly allows individuals to create free websites that do not include advertising on the page. For most individuals who do not have their own web space, the lack of advertising is an advantage over WordPress which does include advertising on the free sites hosted on their servers. Weebly is user friendly and appears to be more versatile than WordPress. However, as with any technology or pedagogical technique, curricular goals need to be taken into consideration. For example, while I plan to investigate Weebly as a tool for history students, my initial reaction is that I will continue with my plans to use WordPress for first semester composition portfolios. However, as I investigate Weebly, this choice is subject to change. And, before Fall 2013, I might discover an even better technology for portfolios than either WordPress or Weebly.
Delicious is billed as a social networking research site; something that does not interest me at all. Therefore, I did not pursue Delicious when I first learned of it a few years ago. However, within three hours of having Professor Mayernik demonstrate Delicious, I created my account. Two hours after creating my account, I was already using it for my genealogical research. The following day, I began using it for my courses.
Even though I am not interested in the social networking aspects of Delicious, it is still an excellent way to organize/bookmark websites which can be sorted into categories. Because the information is stored in the cloud, I can access my bookmarks from home, my office, in any of the classrooms in which I teach, and anywhere else I have access to the Internet.
Because of my Delicious account, I no longer have to e-mail material to myself that I want to use in a particular class. And it is easy for me to save citations which students make during class. Being reintroduced to Delicious was worth the conference fee.
Yet, as Professor Mayernik pointed out, there are pedagogical uses for the social networking aspects of Delicious. For example, because some of Professor Mayernik’s students follow her, she is able to see their preliminary research and coach them on it. They are also able to use her bookmarks as starting points for the topics that interest them. While I do not see myself using Delicious in this way, I realized that the strategy could be used by student teams who are doing joint research. For example, I suggested to my film students that sharing film choices with each other via Delicious might have been an effective way for them to organize the projects they had just finished. Several agreed that they would have liked to have known about Delicious at the beginning of the semester.
As always, MDEC was worth spending a night away from home. In addition to the very specific examples listed above, I also gained additional insight into teaching strategies as well as other aspects of improving my skills as a professor.
- –Steven L. Berg, PhD
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