IT 101 and Critical Thinking: Using Technology to Integrate Liberal Learning into the Classroom

1. IT 101 and Critical Thinking: Using Technology to Integrate Liberal Learning into the Classroom Mark Frydenberg Sr. Lecturer/Software Specialist, CIS Angelique Davi Assistant Professor, English

2. Overview • Introductions and Welcome • Bentley, Liberal Learning, and IT 101 • Liberal Learning in a Technology Classroom • Demo: Integrated Learning • Survey Creation and Presentations • Demo: New Media for Communication • Multimedia, Podcasting • Your Comments and Questions

3. Bentley • 4000 undergraduates, 1270 graduates • Focus on business and information technology with strong liberal arts learning component • Liberal Learning Initiatives • Liberal Studies Major • Center for Arts and Sciences • Davis Grant

4. Ethics and Social Responsibility Technology and Effective Communication Critical Thinking and Critical Analysis Diversity and Global Citizenship Service to the Community Davis Foundation and Liberal Learning Concepts

5. AACU Statement on Liberal Learning A truly liberal education is one that prepares us to live responsible, productive, and creative lives in a dramatically changing world. It is an education that fosters a well-grounded intellectual resilience, a disposition toward lifelong learning, and an acceptance of responsibility for the ethical consequences of our ideas and actions. Liberal education requires that we understand the foundations of knowledge and inquiry about nature, culture and society; that we master core skills of perception, analysis, and expression; that we cultivate a respect for truth; that we recognize the importance of historical and cultural context; and that we explore connections among formal learning, citizenship, and service to our communities. http://aacu.org/About/statements/liberal_learning.cfm

6. But I Teach a Technology Course!

7. Integrating Technology in the Liberal Arts Classroom Fostering Liberal Arts Learning in the Technology Classroom

8. Integrating Technology in the Liberal Arts Classroom • Introducing technology enables developing communication, analysis, and critical thinking skills • Incorporating technology enables using new media for communication beyond the printed word • Little discussion on how the technology works

9. Fostering Liberal Arts Learning in the Technology Classroom • Teaching technology provides a context for developing communication, analysis, and critical thinking skills • Teaching technology provides a context for using new media for communication beyond the printed word • This understanding about how to use technology allows students to have “out of classroom” experiences

10. The Internet enables new media for communication, collaboration, and creative expression Course Management (BlackBoard) Blogs E-Portfolios Web Pages Research Tools Podcasts Surveys RSS Feeds VOIP Wikis Multimedia Instant Messaging Groove Beyond PowerPoint: Technologies in the Classroom

11. IT 101 at Bentley • Intro to Information Technology course required of all first year students • Introduction to Windows XP, laptop, HTML, spreadsheets, current events, networking, the Internet, etc. • Develop basic skills with technology • More and more incoming students have previous computing skills (or think they do)

12. Bentley’sTechnology Intensive IT 101 • Technology Intensive Sections use Pocket PC’s and e-books instead of textbooks, started Fall ‘04 • Students self-select • Learn by doing, discovering, integrating skills • Teach integrated tasks, not discrete topics • Encourage students to live technology-enabled lifestyles

13. Mobile Devices Enhance Integrated Learning • Manage Contacts, Calendar, Tasks • Discover free wireless • Beam contact information • Use Skype to learn about VOIP • Gather and analyze data through Perseus surveys • Use Bluetooth to exchange files or sync with cell phones • Download and evaluate software applications • Listen to music, streaming radio, and podcasts • Connect remotely over the wireless network to dorm computers • Access or modify Excel spreadsheets • Play multi-player games • Design and view mobile web pages • Implement and deploy games

14. Allow Web Publishing without HTML Introduce a regular writing component Many free providers Individual blogs to write about technology experiences Class blog enables students to respond to each other Use an aggregator to track new posts Blogs in the Classroom

16. Class Blog Promotes Discussion Outside the Classroom • Four students assigned to post a thoughtful discussion question each week based on next week’s class readings • Eight to ten students respond to a question posed by their classmates • Each student posts one question and two responses during the semester on a staggered basis • All students responsible for reading the blog prior to the week’s class

17. Integrate Liberal Learning Through Role Playing

18. Survey Project

19. Demo and Discussion • How does this assignment foster liberal learning? • What skills beyond technical skills are required? • What surprises? • How similar or different is this approach to surveys vs. “doing them the old fashioned way”?

20. Student Surveys

21. Survey Project Feedback Being able to walk around and give surveys is the way they were meant to be taken and given. No more paper, no more copies, no more collection routes… I've seen a few people giving their surveys in the lunch room and around our floor and it seems quite aggravating. A girl on my floor gave everyone two sheets. The real problem for her was collecting the data. She had to make another rounds after an hour. I posted my answers to the door cause I had to leave but I just a easily could have forgotten about it leaving her out on a limb.Tim and I are working on this assignment together. We quickly put together our survey (which is about video games), spent just as long reformatting it in PPC form as actually making the questions (about 5 minutes each), then loaded it on our mobile devices and took off. It is configured very well and allows each entry to be entered quickly and easily. I think that the aspect that really stood out for me was it being so functional. Surveys are given all the time in the real world and doing it on a PPC really is one of the best ways to collect all this data… Perseus really made me look at what we are doing in a new light. (Scott)

22. 2004 - Podcasting emerges as a mainstream RSS application 2005 - Podcasting is Word of the Year (Oxford) 2006 - Everybody’s doing it Many students have iPods, but any PC will do Uses syndication technology to distribute multimedia over the web to personal media player Many College Faculty Podcast Their Lectures Who’s going to listen for an hour? Podcasting

23. Issues Impact Classroom Attendance? Will students listen to an hour + lecture again? Searching is difficult (shorter is better) Good for lecture, hard to record many voices Video quality may be poor for demonstrations Applications Useful for supplementary material or explanations Group conversations Interviews “On the scene” reporting Class Podcast Teach students to do it! Podcasting in the Classroom

24. Record audio or video Convert to mp3 or mp4 format as needed Update and upload the XML Feed Upload multimedia to a web server Subscribe, listen, and watch How To Make A Podcast

25. How does this assignment foster liberal learning? Does this transcend the technology classroom? Demo and Discussion

26. What Did You Learn that I Can’t Test You On? “I don’t think that I could have found a better way to organize my life, especially during a stressful first semester in college where there are so many things to remember. I have a more open approach to technology than before I started this class. The biggest thing that I will come away with from this class with is the willingness to go outside my boundaries and try new things that I hadn’t thought to try before.”

27. Questions? Mark Frydenberg mfrydenberg@bentley.edu http://cis.bentley.edu/mfrydenberg/it101 Angelique Davi adavi@bentley.edu