Educational Technologies Research at MET Emerging Technologies and Pilot Programs

1. MET Faculty Colloquium Educational Technologies Research at METEmerging Technologies and Pilot Programs Leo Burstein and Tanya Zlateva

2. Agenda • MET Mission • Educational Research & Technology @ MET • Educational Response to the Changing Working Place • Our Pilots • Virtualization • Video collaboration • Open Discussion

3. Acknowledgements • College of Engineering: • Professor Merrill Ebner for championing distance education at BU and for introducing us to the marvels of teaching on the web • Andy Abrahamson for generously sharing his experience with video conferencing • Networked Services, Office of Information Technology • Richard Mendez, Roland Jaeckel, Michael Sullivan, George Gaudette and the entire IT team for their professionalism and collaboration every step of the way • MET IT—Julia, Tong, Vincent, Jay

4. MET Educational Mission Latest Industry Technologies & Best Practices Flexible Delivery Formats + + Academic Rigor Innovation—MET’s Distinctive Strength: Capture & Teach trends in enduring intellectual context BU Brand Responsiveness to Student and Industry Needs = + Ensure student’s long-term success by linking academic knowledge with practical skills and competencies critical in the modern workplace.

5. Mission of the Office of Educational Research and Technology @MET • Research, evaluate, test emerging educational technologies • Recommend technologies for pilot courses • Work with faculty for developing appropriate delivery formats and educational scenarios • Support and manage the introduction of emerging technologies

6. The Changing Workplace • Knowledge based economy • Emerging Technologies – the more the merrier? • Relentless Innovation • Globally Distributed Work Patterns – out of site ≠ out of mind (telecommuting, outsourceing, offshoring and putting it back together) • Teamwork in a culturally diverse and geographically distributed environment • Flat Organizational Structures – more flexibility, more responsibility • Time Fragmentation • “Coopetition” = Competition + Cooperation Business Education Technology

7. The Theory—Skills Chasm Virtualization Video-Collaboration

8. Business Reality and Education There is a real gap between higher education and today’s business realities Harvard Business Review: "Business schools are on the wrong track. Some of the research produced is excellent, but because so little of it is grounded in actual business practice, the focus of graduate business education has become increasingly circumscribed -- and less and less relevant to practitioners".[2] “We [BU] should aim to be the premier University in the United States where specialization is not an end in itself, but always part of a program that aims explicitly at higher goals and broader horizons.” Report of the Task Force on Changing Landscape http://www.bu.edu/accreditation/ And Boston University is accepting the challenge:

9. Blended Delivery—e-Live • Asynchronous delivery blended with face-to face sessions over traditional 14-week semester • Synchronous Communication: two-way audio video (desktop videoconferencing), one-way video two-way audio; both with application sharing in off-campus week • Online course content with virtual lectures, correspondence, projects, assignments, etc. • Programs and Formats: • Graduate Certificate in Digital Forensics—launched Fall 2007: Saturday meetings every fourth week • MS in Innovation Management—launched Spring 2008: face to face meetings every other week

10. Blended Courses

11. Educational Technologies Landscape Technology landscape is crowded, how to find the perfect technology (and do they exist?) Learning Management Systems Multimedia • Discussions • Blogs, Wikis • SharePoint, Groove • Webinars • Video conferences • Citrix/app sharing • Social Networking • … Collaboration Authoring • Blackboard • Vista • Course Info • Angel • Moodle • Sakai • Mobile Academy • Learning Gateway • … • Video • Flash • Silverlight • Animations • Voiceovers • Podcasting • iTunesU • iPOD, Zune, … How do we know when students should “construct a wiki entry rather than to have a virtual discussion or a face-to-face dialog?” [1] • MS Office • Dreamweaver • Expression Studio • Google Tools • Respondus • Camtasia • DRM • PHP, Ajax …

12. Virtualization • One of the disruptive technologies. One of the most successful IPOs in 2007. • Virtualization is an abstraction layer that allows multiple virtual machines, with heterogeneous operating systems to run in isolation, side-by-side on the same physical machine. • We are using three variations at MET: • client-side virtualization: (a) pre-configured installations (e.g. Oracle), (b) lab support • server-side virtualization: group projects, ease of provisioning, simulating distributed environments

13. Virtualization Scenarios @MET CS579 CS601 CS693 Oracle Complete pre-configured instal-lations provided to MET students on a DVD, savings setup and troubleshooting efforts not related to course objectives Multiple images on MET Lab computers for different courses can be quickly rolled out and switched between classes with no extra effort

14. Virtualization Scenarios @MET (cont.) Easily replicated separate server-based environments for small student groups, and/or multi-server environments to emulate distributed systems Example: “online banking” scenario (simulation of a distributed computing environment in a Cryptography/PKI Lab, linking to crypto algorithms, network protocols and security models)

15. MET Virtual Data Center Photo courtesy of MET IT MET-VH1

16. Virtual project colla-boration environment might help to stream-line assignments handling, eliminate potential discrepancies in between students’ and instructor’s setups, and creates opportu-nities for group activities (e.g. Project Server in AD742HB); all this without incurring additional hardware and installation costs.

17. Structure and Dialog – Maximizing Impact Structure Course materials, well defined activities, schedules, etc. Impact Dialog f2f sessions, online discussions, video collaboration Independent Learning Ability

18. Video Collaboration Demo Video collabo-ration is a term we use to describe a combination of videoconferen-cing and online meetings tools (e.g. screen & application sharing).

19. IOCOM Demo Scenario • Start with Vista, meet with Dao in MET Test Room; Dao introduces herself. • Dao showing a few slides (positive psychology). • Bring in recorded interview with David W. • why and when video collaboration is important • what learning activities are most suited for video collaboration • Harvard interview • Music recording • Show Suresh, • Show example with multiple participants • Desktop sharing

20. Students survey based on Fall 2007 experience

21. Students survey based on Fall 2007 experience (Cont.)

22. Leo Comparative analysis of video collaboration technologies Video Collaboration = Video Conferencing + Online Meeting

23. Market Sample * Based on limited testing Using IG Meeting for MET video collaboration pilot (low entry cost, support – incl. weekends, technology similar to Internet2 Access Grid (BU is one of the 80+ Access Grid nodes).

24. MET Strategy Implications Technology providers are making attempts to bridge these differences and come up with a “one fits all” technology, but (as of early 2008) with limited success. Desktop video technologies can still be characterized as emerging, and, with major vendors like Cisco and Microsoft now demonstrating more interest, the market will undergo a certain level of consolidation in the next few years. Until this happens, we should minimize our risks and costs and continue to build our video collaboration strategy around limited pilots, focusing on understanding how to link video technologies to pedagogical objectives. We might need to continue using a combination of video/audio technologies that best fit our pilot objectives. A very important consideration in planning emerging technology pilots is availability and quality of support. Close collaboration with technology providers and technology support teams, as well as a high level of commitment from pilot participants, are critical to overcome the “infant mortality” failures and ensure a meaningful learning experience.

25. More Student Feedback How to make new technology introductions easy for students and faculty?

26. Math Demo

27. Echo360 • Easy to use “appliance” records your lectures and provides automated end-to-end processing of audio/video content, including posting to a streaming server and sending you an email with a link to the recorded lecture. • System operationally supported by MET IT, with NIS available for second level support. • *********Demo ********** • To schedule a recording, just email itmet@bu.edu .

28. Technology Excitement Mobility Social Networking

29. Use, Amuse, or Abuse?How to Introduce New Technologies Open Discussion • Second Life Video? Zune? • - Importance of support services (If something can go wrong – it will, be prepared; this is another reason why blended programs with more “forgiving” environment are great for new technology pilots). • - Manage costs through iterative piloting – no “waterfalls”, proper timing is key, using the razor blade terminology, we want “cutting edge without cuts”. • - Drive adoption through learning objectives, fascination with technology is worthless without a commitment to perform often less appreciated but necessary ground work. • - Standardize through abstraction . • - Maintain strong relationships with technology providers. • - Ensure processes are defined end-to-end (e.g no video recordings that never make it to students). • - Flexibility, e.g. distributing learning content through a variety of delivery channels to accommodate different students’ preferences without introducing extra work for faculty. (e.g PowerPoint presentation to iPOD podcasting). • Define measurements – cannot manage what you cannot measure. • AND WHAT DO YOU THINK?

30. Use, Amuse, or Abuse?How to Introduce New Technologies Open Discussion • What works best for you? • What does not work? • What would you like to see? • What does it take?

31. References • Chris Dale, Harvard Graduate School of Education. • Warren G. Bennis and James O’Toole, How Business Schools Lost Their Way • Moore, M. “Theory of Transactional Distance”. • Blanchard, K. “Enterprise Management and Situational Leadership”. • Moore, M. “Investigation of the Interaction Between the Cognitive Style of Field Independence and…”. • Force, D. “Relationships among transactional distance variables in asynchronous computer conferences”. • Keller, J.M. 1983. “Use of ARCS model of motivation in teacher training”.