Starting my 2022 Georgetown University ed tech seminar

This week my spring 2022 seminar began. It’s a master’s degree course for Georgetown University’s excellent Learning, Design, and Technology program. The topic is education and technology.

In this post, I’d like to share some course materials and my thinking behind it.

In other LDT classes I’ve included technology within our topics in various forms, examining its implications in many domains.  Here I want to dive into tech for teaching and learning, focusing on pedagogy and support, for the entire semester.

These seminars are mostly discussion based.  I resist lecturing, and prefer instead to prod students with questions to get them talking and thinking out loud.  I will deliver short (<3 minutes) rants minipresentations on topics as we encounter them, and also to introduce some parts of the class.  We also spend time learning how to use some technologies, and that’s a mix of my showing them things, them trying them out, and me helping individuals.

Another way the class works is by combining hands-on learning with academic research.  Most class session involve a focus on one technology or tech-enabled teaching issue, so we read scholarship and other professional writing about it, then actually use the stuff.  For example, during the digital audio week we explore the pedagogical affordances of podcasts and audiobooks, then put together tracks using Audacity, importing clips from Freesound, and uploading sample results to Soundcloud and Canvas.  While learning about the web for learning, they’ll edit a Wikipedia page and use Hypothesis to annotate web pages.

About that reading: I’ve cut it back a bit since the last time I taught this, based on student feedback and pandemic stresses.

Other student work: every week students share their reflections on that week’s topic.  Initially they do this through Canvas, Georgetown’s learning management system. As the seminar progresses, they will use technologies they study to create these reflections. Back to our podcast example: the week after they’ll record their spoken words and upload them to the LMS. After our gaming week, they’ll use Storyboard to make a hypertext game about their reflections.  In addition to that, they have two midterm assignments: a short analysis of one educational technology, then an annotated bibliography for their final project.  That final project is either a detailed analysis of one ed tech or a detailed lesson plan using some ed tech.  Additionally, each student will teach the rest of us one tech.  And finally, they all design one class, including topic, readings, and exercises.  These last parts stem from my classroom democracy belief, as does our opening class assignment of collaboratively determining class norms.

Some of this is liable to change.  Right now the class is online, due to COVID-19.  Georgetown has classes in remote mode through January.  Perhaps we’ll meet in person after that.  This will matter for the week on AR/VR/XR, since Georgetown has good amounts of gear we can use in person, but I can’t assume all students will have access to same from their individual bases. I’m not sure about some of the tech overall, for which I might find substitutes.  For example, I’m looking into alternatives to Audacity. And I may tweak readings and exercises based on how the students are doing: their progress, how their interests intersect the syllabus.

There’s a great deal of continuity with the last time I taught the class, back in 2021.  That’s because most of it worked well, based on my judgement of individual sessions, informal feedback from students, and from class evaluations.   Repeating materials and assignments always gnaws at me, as I want to make things new!  But I remind myself that a) they’re new to these students, b) they seem to work, and c) I can modify on the fly.  I’ve also expanded some points, like concept maps and the campus enterprise environment.

Here’s the schedule:

January 13, 2022 – Introductions

• Our backgrounds and expectations
  • Some tech background 
• Organizing the class
  • What do we want from it?
• What is ed tech and what have we done with it so far?
• What have you done with ed tech?
• Visualizations: Napoleon in Russia; The Size of Space; Cellular Landscape
• The campus ed tech environment:
  • What’s in it?
  • the last Campus Computer Survey; EDUCAUSE Top 10 IT Issues
• SAMR and the quintet

Technology exercises

• develop a strategy for tracking ed tech digitally
• concept mapping in Miro

 

January 20, 2022- The LMS and the Web

• Top 10 IT Issues, 2020: The Drive to Digital Transformation Begins
• Selwyn, Education and Technology: Key Issues and Debates, chapters 1-2.
• Indiana University’s LMS review record (https://uits.iu.edu/next/reports)

Technology exercises

• explore Canvas
• edit Wikipedia
• explore Hypothesis

 

January 27, 2022 – Digital and information literacy, plus open, part 1

Special guest: librarian Jess O’Toole

• Reuters, “Identifying And Tackling Manipulated Media” https://www.reuters.com/manipulatedmedia
• “Digital Literacy in Higher Education, Part II,” https://www.nmc.org/publication/digital-literacy-part-ii-an-nmc-horizon-project-strategic-brief/
• ACRL Standards
• Michael Caulfield, “Four Moves” https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com/chapter/four-strategies/
• Open education definitions: SPARC and Lumen
• Open access definitions: SPARC and OSI

Technology exercises

• • Explore these open textbooks
  • Compare these open materials
  • Open Textbook Library
  • Open textbook: Ethical Use of Technology in Digital Learning Environments: Graduate Student Perspectives
  • post two CC-licensed content items to the Web

 

February 3, 2022 – Learning spaces and open, part 2

• Selwyn, Education and Technology: Key Issues and Debates, chapters 3-4.
• Jeffrey Pomerantz, Malcolm Brown, D. Christopher Brooks, “Foundations for a Next Generation Digital Learning Environment: Faculty, Students, and the LMS,” https://www.educause.edu/ecar/research-publications/foundations-for-a-next-generation-digital-learning-environment-faculty-students-and-the-lms/introduction
• Frances Bell, “Connectivism: Its place in theory-informed research and innovation in technology-enabled learning,” http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/902
• OpenStax, “Why we champion perpetual access, free of charge” https://openstax.org/blog/why-we-champion-perpetual-access-free-charge 
• Explore the CC license structure: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/ 
• The EDUCAUSE Open Education Resources library: read the three “7 Things…” articles under “Key Resources” and explore the rest (https://library.educause.edu/topics/teaching-and-learning/open-educational-resources-oer)

Technology exercises

• redesign the virtual classroom
• redesign the physical classroom
• rogue scholarly solutions

 

February 10, 2022 – audio

• “Changing Perceptions” 
• Gardner Campbell, “There’s Something in the Air: Podcasting in Education,” https://er.educause.edu/articles/2005/1/theres-something-in-the-air-podcasting-in-education 
• Siobhan McMenemy, “Scholarly Podcasting Open Peer Review” https://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Scholarly-Podcasting-Open-Peer-Review
• Selwyn, Education and Technology: Key Issues and Debates, chapters 5-6
• Student podcasts from Gettysburg College

Technology exercises

• Audacity and beyond
• create an audio file with at least two tracks.  Upload to Soundcloud.  Share with class digitally and in synchronous session

 

February 17, 2022 – video

• Zac Woolfitt, “The effective use of video in higher education,” https://www.inholland.nl/media/10230/the-effective-use-of-video-in-higher-education-woolfitt-october-2015.pdf 
• Michelle Kosalka, “Using Synchronous Tools to Build Community in the Asynchronous Online Classroom,” https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/using-synchronous-tools-to-build-community-in-the-asynchronous-online-classroom/ 
• Recommendations from NYU: https://www.nyu.edu/faculty/teaching-and-learning-resources/strategies-for-teaching-with-tech/instructional-video-and-web-conferencing/teaching-with-video-conferencing.html 
• Optional: “Effective educational videos,” https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/effective-educational-videos/

Technology exercises

• assemble a video with images, video, and soundtrack in WeVideo; share with class
• use images found from this library page 

 

February 18, 2022 – midterm analysis due

 

February 24, 2022 – mobile

• The three articles linked from this EDUCAUSE page: https://library.educause.edu/topics/teaching-and-learning/mobile-learning 
• Muthyala, “Digital Innovation in the Liberal Arts”
• Aresta, Pedro, and Santos, “Mobile Learning And Higher Education: A Theoretical Overview”

Technology exercises

1. Capture media, upload to Canvas
2. Reflect on Duolingo language learning
3. Compare responsive design: http://pubmed.gov/  vs https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ 
4. Analyze Canvas app

 

March 3, 2022 – accessibility and design

• NB: audio or video uploads for Canvas discussion
• UDL guidelines 
• Ableser and Moore, “Universal Design for Learning and Digital Accessibility: Compatible Partners or a Conflicted Marriage?”
• Selwyn, Education and Technology: Key Issues and Debates, chapters 7-8

Technology exercises

• CAMPUS SUPPORT

 

(March 10, 2022 – off for spring break)

 

March 17, 2022 – Gaming and education

• What_Video_Games_Have_to_Teach_Us_About_Learning
• Vlachopoulos The effect of games and simulations on higher education
  
• Teaching writing with Minecraft

Technology exercises

• Play A Game of College  or Solve the Outbreak or Practice Operations
• Make a Storyboard  story
• How does Duolingo gamify language learning?

 

March 24, 2022 – VR, AR, XR

• Radiantia et al, “A systematic review of immersive virtual reality applications for higher education”
• Emory Craig and Maya Georgieva, “VR and AR: The Ethical Challenges Ahead” 
• _________, “VR and AR: Learners as Creators and World Builders of Our Immersive Future” 
• Steven Baker et al,  School’s Back – Scaffolding Reminiscence in Social VirtualReality with Older Adults-1.pdf 
• C. Jeffra et al, “Blending the Material and the Digital: A Project at the Intersection of Museum Interpretation, Academic Research, and Experimental Archaeology” 

Technology exercises

• Dinosaurs in your room  (National Geographic)
• Mozilla Hubs 
• Georgetown black history AR project
• Virbela

 

March 25, 2022 – midterm bibliography due

March 31, 2022 – AI

• Introduction: “Artificial Intelligence in Teaching and Learning” 
• “7 Things You Should Know about Natural Language Processing” 
• “What Grades Can AI Get In College?” 
• “China has started a grand experiment in AI education”
• Guana, Mou, Jiang, “Artificial intelligence innovation in education: A twenty-year data-driven historical analysis” 
• Chen, Chen, Lin, “Artificial Intelligence in Education: A Review”  
  

Technology exercises

• Talk to Transformer 
• Quick, Draw!
• AI Duet 
• Dali Museum
• Deepfakes

 

April 7, 2022 – students teach technologies

• Technology, presentation, and preparatory materials TBD by students

 

(April 14, 2022 – off for Easter)

 

April 21, 2022 – STUDENT CHOICE OF TOPIC

• Materials, technology exercises TBD by students

 

April 28, 2022 – concluding work

• Student presentations
• Class evaluation

 

May 13, 2022 – final project due