Texas Community College Teachers Association

1. Texas Community College Teachers Association The 61st Annual Convention February 21-23, 2008 Dallas, Texas

2. Communication

3. It is fundamental that we begin with an analysis of models of communication and likely that we must digress into models of meta-communication as well. I begin therefore, with five influential models of communication: Aristotle, Shannon, Schramm, Katz & Lazerfeld, HRW.

4. Types of Episteme • (384-322BC) Greek Philosopher. A pupil of Plato, and a tutor to Alexander the Great,in 335 BC. He founded a school and library (the Lyceum) just outside Athens.His surviving written works, in the form of dry lecture notes, constitute a vast system of analysis, convering logic, physical science, zoology, psychology, metaphysics,eithers, politics, and rhetoric. In reasoning, he establishd the iuductive method. In metaphysics, he reached against the mystical speculation of Plato, whose Theory of Forms he rejected; for him form and matter were the inseparable constituents of all existing things. As an empirical scientific observer he had no rival in antiquity.The science in which he was most at home was biology, describing corrctly the stomach of ruminants and the development of the chick embryo, and classifying animals by means of a scale ascending to man (without implying evolution). His work in this field was not fully appreciated until the 19th c.: Darwin ackoledges a dept to him. His influence in all fields has been immense: from the 9th c. it pervaded Islamic philosophy, theology, and science, and after being lost to the West for some centuries, became the basis of scholasticism; in astoromy, his rejction of the idea of the plurality of planets was a serious handicap to later thinking. An ancient tradition describes him as bald, with thin legs, small eyes,and a lisp ,and as being noticeably well-dressed. A number of extant statues (e.g.one in the Vienna Museum) probably represent him. Poiesis Praxis

5. But first... about “thin slicing” • Ratings of three ten-second video clips of university instructors predicted end-of-year course evaluations. So did three two-second clips! • Natalie Ambady & Robert Rosenthal (1993). Half a minute: predicting teacher evaluations from thin slices of nonverbal behavior and physical attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 431-41. • Malcolm Gladwell (2005). Blink: The power of thinking without thinking. New York: Little, Brown & Company.

6. Web 2.0, Communication, Technology and Post-Secondary Education John MittererDepartment of Psychology Brock University mitterer@brocku.ca

7. Goals • I have two major goals for today’s talk: • To share some of my ideas about teaching and technology (with a focus on Web 2.0) • To share some examples of how I have used technology to put these ideas into practice in my courses at Brock University

8. Relax • Explore technology a bit at a time; find your own best practice

9. On communication: The sender • It is my deep conviction that many teachers who are labeled “poor teachers” are neither neglectful nor malicious. Sender

10. The Message • Rather it is because they spend their entire, and often considerable, instructional effort honing the message. The result can be “professorial”, beautifully crafted and unarguably profound. This attitude can honestly be derived from a Platonic focus on “truth” rather than a Sophist focus on “rhetoric”. Sender Message

11. The Message • The transmission perspective: Effective delivery of content • Daniel Pratt (1998). Five perspectives on teaching in adult & higher education. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishers. Sender Message

12. The Message • One unfortunate aspect of this exclusive focus on the message is a neglect of the sender. It turns out that the sender is also important. It matters how you teach (rhetoric) as well as what you teach. Sender Message

13. The Medium • Another unfortunate result is a neglect of the medium. Consider the medium as well as the message (Marshall MacLuhan). Trivially, can the message even be perceived? Less trivially, does the medium match the content of the message? Sender Medium/ Message

15. The Receiver • Ultimately, and much more importantly, how you present yourself and how well your medium/message is crafted are necessary, but not sufficient, conditions for effective teaching. Concern for the impact your message has on your audience is of fundamental importance. Teaching is a form of communication. Sender Medium/ Message Receiver

16. The Receiver • In the end, you were mainly repelled because I presented the message without regard for the receiver. I neglected you, my audience. According to the old saying “If there’s no audience, there just ain’t no show”. Sender Medium/ Message Receiver

17. The Receiver • At the heart of teaching as communication is respect for the student. I failed to respect you in my opening parody and you reacted quite strongly. And within seconds! I think that is what Ambady was measuring. I believe Plato knew this. The Socratic method is as much about the learner as it is about the teacher. Sender Medium/ Message Receiver

18. The Receiver • Failure to respect the receiver leads, in turn, to the receiver’s failure to respect you, leading in turn, I passionately believe, to most problems of motivation, morale and disruptive behavior. • Conversely, your respect invites the receiver’s in turn. And that respect invites identification, empathy, and commitment to the material. Sender Medium/ Message Receiver

19. On pedagogy: Active learning • The most direct way to express our respect for our students is to design our courses as a form of communication. No, I do not mean “water down” anything. I mean connecting.

20. On pedagogy: Active learning • Think Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development - that “space” between what the student can do on her own and what she needs you to do for her. I believe this notion to be a restatement of the Socratic method. • The ZPD is the “construction zone” where learning occurs. Teaching “scaffolds” the student, who must do the constructing. “Guide on the side”, not “Sage on the stage”.

21. Active learning • Another way to think about it is in terms of Donald Norman’s distinction between experiential cognition and reflective cognition. • Donald Norman (1993). Things that make us smart: Defending human attributes in the age of the machine. Reading, MA: Perseus Books. • We want to encourage reflection and all other forms of active processing. Students who are actively processing will be much more likely to construct the knowledge you want them to construct.

22. Active learning • The ultimate goal of the educational system is to shift to the individual the burden of pursuing his or her education • - John W. Gardner

23. The Social Context Social Context • And let’s not forget the social context of education. • The teacher needn’t be the only sender; communications might flow in many directions. • This is why, more and more, I view teaching as the fostering a community of inquiry and a form of cognitive apprenticeship. Sender Medium/ Message Receiver

24. The Social Context • Some important features of communities of inquiry/apprenticeships: • Socially situated workplace • Multiple levels of expertise, from the master down to the lowliest apprentice • Inspectable intermediate, as well as final, work steps • Socially valued work • Randy Garrison & Norman Vaughan (2008). Blended learning in higher education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. • Van Weigel (2002). Deep learning for a digital age. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

25. Instructional technologies • Nowadays the phrase “instructional (or “educational”) technology” is synonymous with “computer technology” - especially actual computer hardware. • This usage makes it possible to claim to teach “without technology”, if you do not use computers in your teaching.

26. Instructional technologies • Ironically, this usage has turned computing into a modern “Trojan horse of pedagogy” - instead of bemoaning the effect of “technology”, we educators should welcome it with open arms. • It is normally only around computing that most institutions of higher education are, nowadays, motivated to ask the right (i.e. pedagogical) questions - “How does technology impact on student outcomes?”

27. Instructional technologies • "Technology is simply a way of doing things.” • Ursula Franklin (1990), The Real World of Technology. CBC Massey Lectures Series. Toronto: CBC Enterprises. • From the Merriam-Webster: “a manner of accomplishing a task especially using technical processes, methods, or knowledge”

28. Instructional technologies • A college course IS a technology. The lecture IS a technology. So is a grade three class. • So is writing. Or chalk, overheads, speech patterns, essays, multiple choice examinations, etc, etc, etc. • Concern for teaching as a craft motivates us to ask over and over again: Are these tools, old and new, being used to best advantage?

29. Digital technologies • "The computer is by all odds the most extraordinary of all the technological clothing ever devised by man, since it is the extension of our nervous system.” • Marshall McLuhan (1968). War and Peace in the Global Village. New York: Bantam.

30. Digital technologies • The computer is a “metamachine” or “metamedium” which represents a logical endpoint of our Western epistemological tradition. Because they empower us to explore the digital, computers will revolutionize not just education but EVERYTHING.

31. Digital technologies • The digital offers an infinite suite of tools, a “Swiss army knife of the mind.” • We owe it to our craft as teachers to continuously reinvent it at every level. This means that we must rethink teaching and learning in light of the digital. The possibilities are infinite.

32. Digital technologies • My own pedagogical stance is to ask how to use the new digital tools to foster the development of communities of inquiry and cognitive apprenticeship, especially when we are dealing with large classes.

33. And What of Education? • In some ways pedagogy has not advanced beyond the “Socratic method” (would Socrates be a blogger if he lived today?) • If nothing else I think we can agree that we need to get away from teaching “facts” and move on to inquiry, critical thinking, discovery learning, and reflection at all levels of education.

34. Pedagogies of uncertainty • In this regard I recommend reading Lee Shulman, outgoing President of the Carnegie Foundation, who notes that students at all levels must learn how to act under conditions where knowledge is limited yet actions must be taken (practice, theory, ethics).“ • Shulman, L. (2005). Pedagogies of uncertainty: Teaching for understanding, judgment and commitment. Liberal Education, Spring.

35. And What of Education? • 2002 APA Task Force on Undergraduate Psychology Major Competencies • Goal 1. Knowledge Base of Psychology • Goal 2. Research Methods in Psychology (PSYC 1F90 research project) • Goal 3. Critical Thinking Skills in Psychology (Beyond scientific method) • Goal 4. Application of Psychology • Goal 5. Values in Psychology • Goal 6. Information and Technological Literacy (Web 1.0 & 2.0?) • Goal 7. Communication Skills (Including digital tools) • Goal 8. Sociocultural and International Awareness • Goal 9. Personal Development • Goal 10. Career Planning and Development

36. Web 1.0 • Web 1.0: The Web as a giant library (infotater) • “All information at all places at all times” • Godfrey, D. & Parkhill, D. F. (Eds.). (1980). Gutenberg two. Toronto: Press Porcépic.

37. Web 2.0 • Web 2.0: The Web as a giant conversation (P2P) • Individual control over the means of production • YouTube, MySpace, Blogger, Wikipedia

38. Web 2.0 Participation • Empowering individuals • United Flight 93 • “Internet Patients” • Doe Network • Sousveillance

39. Communities of inquiry • Faculty-generated (Is this Web 2.0?) • Biome (Corey G0ldman) • Social, cognitive, & teaching presence • Student-generated • WikiYork (Rene Suarez) • Social loafing arises; social presence predominates.

40. Communities of inquiry • Faculty-generated (Is this Web 2.0?) • Biome (Corey G0ldman) http://biome.utoronto.ca/ • Social, cognitive, & teaching presence • Student-generated • WikiYork (Rene Suarez) http://wikiyork.org/york/index.php?title=Main_Page • Social loafing arises; social presence predominates.

41. Communities of inquiry • Faculty-generated (Is this Web 2.0?) • Biome (Corey G0ldman) http://biome.utoronto.ca/ • Social, cognitive, & teaching presence • Student-generated • WikiYork (Rene Suarez) http://wikiyork.org/york/index.php?title=Main_Page • Social loafing arises; social presence predominates.

42. Web 2.0 and pedagogy • Can the immense draw of participating in a global conversation be harnessed for pedagogical purposes (see e.g. “serious games”) • Can Web 2.0 tools foster/support communities of inquiry? • Can we instructors “officially” find value in explicitly using these tools? E.g. YouTube • YouTube for classroom display (Milgram, Zimbardo, etc.)

43. A Shocking Discovery

44. A Web 2.0 example: Wiki • Wikis as effective tools for collaborative writing. • Giles (2005). Special report: Internet encyclopaedias go head to head. Nature, 438 (December 15), 900-901. • COSC/PSYC/PHIL 4F70 An introduction to cognitive science • PSYC1F90 Wiki? • But see Turnitin.com & peer review

45. Another example: Blogging • Blog - Web log • Personal journals in my Psychology of Men course • PSYC1F90 blogging

46. Inquiry • A self-directed, question-driven search for understanding • Formulate a question • Plan an inquiry • Do research • Assess the result • Jenkins & Hudspith (2001). Teaching the Art of Inquiry. STLHE Green Guide.

47. Web 2.0 and inquiry • Motivating scholarship and inquiry • Scaffolding the process (formulation, research, evaluation) • Social construction - discussion lists, wikis • Social expression - blogs, wikis • Social process support tools - Del.icio.us, Otavo (http://otavo.com) • We need more tools to support inquiry on the web

48. An extreme example? • In May 2007, 1,300 educators held an international conference to discuss the use of the virtual world Second Life in education. (http://slbestpractices2007.wikispaces.com/) • What makes this conference so remarkable is that the educators met online in Second Life.

49. Some older technologies • Seminars provide multiple levels of expertise: • Brock’s (traditional) focus on seminars • Student seminar leaders - 3rd & 4th year undergraduates provide perfect intermediate levels of expertise for both modeling and coaching

50. Seminars • Socially situating the workplace with software like WebCT: • Hybrid seminars - modeling academic discourse in a social context, in both spoken and written form • Expanding the social context Seminar (& course) threaded discussions and email.