Interview with Ernie Perez

I sat down earlier this week on Zoom with Ernie Perez, Director of Instructional Technologies at California State University, Northridge. We discussed some of the experiences that he has had with various technologies and how they have been integrated into curriculum.

Audio/Video Podcasts: Pros and Cons for Adult Learners

The last module we are working on for this course is focused on using audio/video podcasts in a learning environment. Originally podcasts were introduced as a way for people to listen to pre-recorded shows or lectures on varied topics using a mobile device such as an iPod or cell phone.

Delivery methods of this type of content have been used in classrooms and online for a long time and offer an easy way venue for consumption (Cox & King, 2011). Over the years, podcasts have become more commonly used by instructors as a means to deliver content to their students. Online audio/video repositories have also emerged as a resource for anyone who has a desire to learn more about a given subject that they are interested in. Some common sites I’ve listened to that publish regularly are NPR (http://www.npr.org/podcasts/), Ted Talks (http://www.ted.com/talks), Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/), and even various YouTube channels.

One particular concept that has shown promise in recent years that utilizes online posting of lectures is the idea of the “flipped classroom.” In this type of teaching style, the actual content and lecture portion of a class is posted online and meant to be watched outside of regular class hours. That way when students physically meet with their instructor and other students, they can use that time for collaboration and interactive application of the material that was given to them in the recordings.

One of the key concepts of this idea pointed out in an Educause Learning Initiative article on 7 Things You Need to Know about... Flipped Classrooms:

“The video lecture is often seen as the key ingredient in the flipped approach, such lectures being either created by the instructor and posted online or selected from an online repository. While a prerecorded lecture could certainly be a podcast or other audio format, the ease with which video can be accessed and viewed today has made it so ubiquitous that the flipped model has come to be identified with it.”

In the end, I feel that this evolution of the use of podcasts/videocasts in adult learning scenarios has definitely led to a more beneficial method of teaching.

Cox, T.D & King, K. P. (2011). The professor’s guide to taming technology. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.

7 things you need to know about… flipped classrooms. (2012). Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7081.pdf

Integrating a Wiki into Your Curriculum

Our third week of discussion on wikis looks at how they can be specifically integrated into a hypothetical class. I'm actually posting a modified and shortened "Curriculum Plan" from another course that I took a couple of years ago to demonstrate how a wiki can be used to increase the overall collaboration and learning ability of students in a class that is focused around the use of technology. I look forward to and appreciate any feedback...

Technology Tools in Higher Education

Why this Course?

This course is designed to help anyone who is interested in using technology that is found in classroom and other teaching environments learn more about how different pieces of equipment can be used and provide a better experience to their students. They will also be using a number of collaborative tools, such as wikis, in order to help them meet the course objectives.

Why have this course? Obviously, other universities and corporations are using technology in their classrooms as well as in other settings. Some of the most successful and world-renown names in higher education and industry are well-known because of their implementation of different tools that teachers or workers can use and leverage (MIT, Indiana University, Google, Microsoft). Having a course that teaches others how to use these tools would provide a great advantage to the school.

Target Population

This course is aimed at individuals who are interested in learning more about emerging technology in classroom environments and how to implement these tools in their own setting as well as being able to teach other educators. Students should be motivated by their desire to provide a better learning experience to individuals that they will be teaching in the future through the use of collaborative and innovative technology resources.

Course Delivery and Materials Required

This course would be taught in a combination of both online and in a classroom that has been outfitted with different types of technology that is commonly used to teach a wide variety of students. There will also be some flexibility built into the room so that instructors and IT staff can bring in new pieces of equipment as they are released into the market. This will help the person teaching the course to be able to show new innovations and how they can be used to teach students in the future. Tours of different classrooms and facilities around campus will also be incorporated into the course.

Another aspect of the course will be held in an online setting. Students will be required to do research on other universities and schools to see how they incorporate different types of equipment into their classrooms. This information will be researched by teams and then be presented to the rest of the class in the form of a wiki that can be used as a point of reference and learning tool. Each team will also evaluate other group’s wikis and provide them with suggestions and feedback.

***One of the common use cases for wikis in coursework is to present case studies. This helps the students with building research and analysis skills and the overall process itself of starting with a framework that is eventually fleshed out through collaboration with others (West & West, 2009).***

Time-frame

The suggested time-frame for this course will be to meet once a week for three to four hours over 8 weeks. During these times, there will be a portion of class time devoted to different lecture topics and instruction. The rest of the time will be hands-on learning and experimenting with all of the different classroom equipment as well as touring of other rooms on campus in order to see the various layouts and environments and how they can be utilized for different courses.

Outside the classroom, teams will be created and assigned with the research and creation of their wiki. This part of the class will be divided into parts with specific goals/checkpoints where each site is then evaluated by another group so that the final product that each team creates will have been a full collaboration of the entire class.

In the end, by doing this, each student should be able to accomplish the following course objectives.

Course Objectives

• Be able to list different types of equipment that is used in classrooms.
• Classify the various technology tools that are used and understand their function; know what type works best in what situations or settings.
• Demonstrate the ability to research new technologies and strategies that can be used in the classroom.
• Understand the importance of the different layouts of a classroom and how they can be used in specific ways to teach students.
• Be able to use classroom tools in new and innovative ways.

Course Objectives Rubric

Objectives	Unsatisfactory - 0	Acceptable - 1	Exemplary - 2	Score
Be able to list different types of equipment that is used in classrooms.	Student can only list 1-3 types of classroom equipment.	Student can list 3-5 different types of classroom equipment.	Student can list 6 or more different types of equipment used in classrooms.
Classify the various technology tools that are used and understand their function; know what type works best in what situations or settings.	Student possesses a very basic understanding of technology and its use; does not show the ability to know what equipment works best in specific situations.	Student possesses a general overall understanding of technology and its use and can make decisions on what equipment works best in specific situations.	Student has a complete and expanded knowledge of how technology can be used in classrooms and knows what types work best in many different circumstances.
Demonstrate the ability to research new technologies and strategies that can be used in the classroom.	Student does not possess the skills to research different technologies or list where they might be able to find information on classroom strategies.	Student can demonstrate their ability to research technology and gather information on how it can be used in different classroom environments. Student can also cite various online resources on innovative products.	Student has shown that they are completely capable of finding out about new technologies and strategies and is able to list and cite from a large number of different resources including online, and other venues.
Understand the importance of the different layouts of a classroom and how they can be used in specific ways to teach students.	Student is unable to describe any of the different styles of classroom layouts and does not understand the specific benefits for any of them.	Student can describe all of the different types of classroom layouts and is able to decide which ones are more conducive to particular types of teaching and learning.	Student is fully capable of listing all of the different layouts and understands how and why each one is used differently. Student can also take existing layouts and apply them in a more innovative manner of teaching.
Be able to use classroom tools in new and innovative ways.	Student does not possess the basic skills of using classroom tools and is not able to create any new ways of using them to teach students.	Student can demonstrate how different and new technologies can be used in innovative ways to better teach their students.	Student can utilize all types of classroom technology and is able to develop new methods and strategies with both existing and new tools in order to teach students in ways that might not have been done before.

*** The other main goal of this course deals with the basic acquisition of knowledge and learning/remembering about all of the different technologies that are available for instructors to use in the classroom. West & West cover this aspect in our readings this week as well when referring to Bloom’s Taxonomy and the idea of Knowledge Construction (2009).***

West, J. A. & West, M. L. (2009) Using wikis for online collaboration: the power of the read-write web. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.