Wednesday, June 16, 2010

TWISA Honorable Mentions Presentation

TWISA is the "Teaching with Sakai Innovation Awards." There are more awards and information here: http://openedpractices.org/twsia

Joshua Danish - Indiana University Bloomington
Computational Technologies in Educational Ecosystems

Karen Swenson - Virginia Tech
Introduction to Science Fiction and Fantasy

Kate Ellis - Indiana University presented the winners.

Abstract:
Joshua Danish's Course: Computational Technologies in Educational Ecosystems Indiana University Bloomington In his graduate course on Computational Technologies in Educational Ecosystems, Dr. Joshua Danish used Sakai as a hub to help extend class conversations beyond the classroom and even into other courses. He used Sakai wikis and blogs, and other Web 2.0 tools such as Twitter, to help meaningfully position students’ online conversations in order to promote rich reflection and discussion. One of the central activities of the course was a modeling activity in which students created visual models of the course content and iteratively refined their models throughout the semester, while posting reflections to the course website about the manner in which they adjusted their models in response to course readings and peer feedback.

Extending the Conversation
Using Sakai to Promote the Ongoing Reflection.

He used Sakai, Twitter, Wordpress, and Blogger as the primary technologies.

He designs courses around activity theory (Engestrom 1987).

This was a graduate level survey course to look at the ways that technology can be used in education. There were 11 students with MA and Phd students drawing from a number of different disciplines. There were a wide range of tech abilities represented.

The course objectives included helping students develop a personally meaningful model of how tech can be implemented in educational contexts.

Activities included discussions from experience and reading for the "obvious" connections. The purpose was to develop a model of how technology fits in education (Lesh 2003).

The students created a preliminary model and tracked how the readings and discussions changed or evolved their model.

He created a page that grouped everyone's blogs together in Sakai.

Students collaboratively created the assessment rubric for the course.

The students were required to post definitions to the course wiki dictionary. The students had a set number of postings to this wiki for the course.

He used Twitter to extend the course conversations - 8 out of 10 were already on Twitter. He created a hash tag for the course. Course Twitter feed aggregated into a page in Sakai.

This is the cover to the January 1953 issue of...Image via Wikipedia


Karen Swenson's Course: Introduction to Science Fiction and Fantasy
Dr. Karen Swenson used the Sakai wiki in her Science Fiction and Fantasy course to create a community of practice that moved students from being peripheral receivers of information and content to becoming expert creators of information and content. The course allowed students the flexibility to choose what, how, and when they would contribute to the ever-growing body of Science Fiction and Fantasy knowledge. Students actively participated in an on-going dialogue within the Chat Room to discuss their contributions and to ask questions. Forums were used to let students discuss and debate ideas, including controversial and especially thought-provoking topics. Participating in their own education in this manner "gives students a sense of ownership,” says Swenson.

Karen's course was very popular with English majors, engineers, and science majors.

The course was developed collaboratively by many people.

Her course goals include using collaborative work to help make the world a better place.

She used multiple wikis for different purposes. She used them to present images of science fiction and for interactive postings.

She used videos to communicate with her class. Virgina Tech uses a "Principles of Community."

The class used polls to create community.

The quizzes were timed (50 mins) and open-book with 25 questions. They were basically reading quizzes.

The forum was only used to support the weekly summaries of what the students did. She also used a chat room.

Seven Principles for Cultivating a Community of Practice was integral to her instructional design.


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