When Travel Budgets Disappear, Teamwork Grows

"Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation." -  Elizabeth Drew

World Wide Web of Informatin

"The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway." - Henry Boye 

Colleges and organizations throughout the state and country are slashing travel budgets to save money. We've done the same thing here at CCC Confer, and I have to admit that I don't miss the hotels, restaurant tabs, tips, airports, toll roads, car rentals, packing and unpacking, lost items, or germy travel environments as much as I thought I might. And I'm getting more done - with more people - by staying in my office and meeting with them virtually. Now that more people are foregoing statewide trips, I'm getting more opportunities to introduce them to the quickest, easiest, and most effective way to bring teams from different geographical locations together. 

I recently helped to host an event at a local college that required speakers and attendees to drive to the event, food to be prepared and served, tables to be set up, equipment to be arranged, and a sound and video system to be tested. It took two hours to set up the room, ensure that the microphones and projector were working properly, skirt and decorate the tables, and work with the caterers. The keynote speakers each drove more than 100 miles to attend, so they also needed two hours advance time to get to the meeting and another two hours afterward to drive home.

For the same event, if it were to be held virtually, it would require less than five minutes to order the meeting and send e-mail invitations to all attendees. Loading the speakers' presentation might take another two minutes, and testing the audio connections might add another minute. In less than ten minutes, we'd be ready to go, and no one would have had to leave the home or office!

In the large room where my local college's event was held, there were corners of the room where it was difficult to see and read the speakers' slides, and even the P-A system was unable to bring an equally clear signal to all participants. The sunlight streaming through the windows reduced the visual clarity of the content, making it even harder to make out all of the images on the screen. In a Confer presentation, everyone sees exactly the same images and hears the same audio signals: there are no "cheap seats" in this environment and no problems with lighting. One of the speakers, anticipating potential problems with the room and presentation, brought more than 100 paper copies of his presentation, which had to be distributed throughout the room. In the Confer meeting room, a single click distributes a file instantly to all participants (even those who aren't in attendance but are able to view the archive later). 

I'm not celebrating the budget crisis or decrying the virtues of travel. After all, I've got a collection of school gear from California colleges that can only be complete if I'm able to visit more schools. But there's no question that we waste a lot of time and money with face-to-face meetings that can easily be saved by taking the meetings online. With a good agenda, a prepared moderator, and motivated team members, you can accomplish more in a virtual meeting than is possible in most face-to-face conferences. I'm just happy that so many of my colleagues are discovering this for themselves and coming away from Confer experiences pleasantly surprised.

The Critical Teaching and Learning Issues Worldwide

"I am gratified to see that new technologies such as collaboration and video are globally increasing in importance in education, as they can open the door to a world of opportunities for students, regardless of socio-economic status or geographical location." - Renee Patton

A global survey recently commissioned by Cisco and conducted by Clarus Research Group indicates that more than three-quarters of educational administrators and officials around the world  believe educational technology can change how students learn and how teachers teach. The countries surveyed were Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom; poll respondents were evenly divided between higher education and K-12. 

Learning Issues

• 86% noted the need for programs and curriculum that develop skills in team- and project- based learning, with an emphasis on modern communications technologies.
• 85% of these educators saw technology playing a "large role" in how students learn, and were hopeful that student engagement and participation could be increased by using technology in education.
• 83% of  respondents cited the need to prepare students to compete in a global economy, including the need for effective and productive use of technology.

 Technology Issues

• The top concerns of these educators were protection from Internet abuse, improved collaboration technologies, stronger cybersecurity measures, and administrative efficiencies that can be achieved through technology.
• Embedding video and multimedia resources in the learning process were seen by most of the respondents as a near-term goal.
• 65% of the higher education officials see online international programs as a realistic opportunity to enlarge their virtual student body within the next five years.

Regional Perspectives

• Respondents from the Asia-Pacific region placed highest priority on communications with students and investment in the research infrastructure.
• European educators were mainly concerned about funding, online security, and increasing their international presence.
• Latin America rated highest on overall aspirations for education. 

Today's educational climate stresses globalization and technology, as my friend Yong Zhao explains in his new book, Catching Up or Leading the Way. You can learn more about these issues by watching the archive of Yong's recent Webinar here.

Using Students Experts

"An expert knows all the answers - if you ask the right questions." - Levi Strauss. "Have you heard of this new thing called the internet? It's giving people new expectations. It's allowing them to become their own expert. Knowledge lies anxious at their fingertips." - Roy H. Williams


Angie Thompson's "daily experts" technique is a simple way to encourage student participation - both in traditional and online classes. "I list five or six students’ names on a PowerPoint slide at the beginning of my classes.... These individuals, assuming they are in class, then become my daily experts—the first ones I ask questions to or opinions of before opening discussion to the whole class. " Thompson says this technique breaks the ice and helps students realize that she is approachable. Other benefits she cites are providing for one-on-one interaction in large classes, encouraging class preparation, allowing all students at least one chance to speak in class, helping the instructor to learn names, and offering engagement to the entire class. I suspect that the accountability for class attendance - knowing that your name may be on the board today - may be positively affected as well. 


Anonymity in the Confer classroom is both a good and bad thing. It's good when students don't feel embarrassed about their opinions or lack of skill. It's bad when students become disengaged, alienated, and feel that their performance and/or participation are unimportant or ignored. Having a technique like "daily experts" - which reinforces accountability - allows you as an instructor to make sure that your students feel individually responsible for paying attention, coming to class prepared, and participating in their own learning experience. 


Since you have a class roster with the names of students always available, you don't have to prepare a PowerPoint slide before class with the names of the day's experts. Instead, you can select from the list of those present. Using the whiteboard tools, you can have the experts posted (see the image above) as an initial class activity, which will add to the intrigue and anticipation of the session. Doing this acknowledges students' presence and helps you (and the other students) get to know them as individuals. Students will begin to appreciate that there is no "hiding" in your classroom. And you'll benefit from the insights they give you into how well the material is being absorbed and understanding is growing.

On the Horizon

The New Media Consortium's 2011 Horizon Report, produced jointly with EDUCAUSE, predicts technologies which will have a large impact on teaching, learning, and creative expression in higher education. Now in its eighth year of publication, the report is distinguished by predictions of adoption cycles in education; i.e., how long it will take teachers and schools to actually use these emerging tools. Let's look at what's on the near-term (one year or less) horizon.
 
Mobile computing is on the short adoption cycle (as with last year's report). Last year, Horizon cited the wide range of activities mobile devices make possible; this year, the report says, "mobiles are here because so many people use them as their first choice for accessing networked resources." For online instructors, the impact of mobile devices is that they can literally teach from and to anywhere there is a cell signal. I'm looking forward to the Java-enabled mobile device that supports Confer sessions, and at the same time I'm pushing for a mobile-ready version of the Confer classroom.


Also singled out for near term adoption are electronic books. Yes, we all know that texts can be downloaded and read on mobile devices, and that both devices and content are now readily available. But that's not the real point: "What makes electronic books a potentially transformative technology is the new kinds of reading experiences that they make possible." What's happening with this new technology is that our definition of "reading" is changing, with audiovisual, interactive, and social components mixing into the act and extending the process.


These predictions will be welcomed by iPhone, Android, Kindle, iPad, and shiny new app owners. It's important to remember, though, that we serve a student population that includes a large number for whom constant Internet access is not a given, and some for whom "reading" on a small screen is more of an obstacle than an advantage. We have to be careful not to create a new digital divide: between the mobile "haves" and the desktop- or "dumb-phone"- bound "have-nots": new technology adoption has to occur in a relevant and practical context.

Meanwhile, I'm excited by what's on the horizon. How about you?

Brevity is the Soul of Confer

"Be sincere, be brief, be seated." - Franklin D. Roosevelt's advice on public speaking.

We've said it here before: it's different online. Students don't come to the online classroom with the same expectations, instructors don't behave the same way online as in the traditional classroom, and the online classroom itself presents an environment that encourages some types of behavior while discouraging others. One thing the online classroom does not encourage is long, inactive lecturing. In fact, the best Confer sessions tend to be the ones that end quickly.

I was reminded of that when I read a Tim Sanders' piece about the power of a short talk. He used the example of TED Talks, which were designed with an 18-minute keynote time limit that is enforced with an active moderator and a public countdown timer. Richard Saul Wurman, who co-founded TED, was asked in an interview why he decided on 18 minutes. His answer: that's the time it usually takes for him to get bored when he's listening to someone.

There are several reasons why we should try to keep our Confer lectures short, even if this means that we have to provide more of them than we would face-to-face sessions. For one thing, it takes students longer to read and understand online content, so we can't flood the screen with print the same way we can deliver handouts to students in a classroom. (We can still deliver these handouts online, of course, but we should allow students to process them offline.) In the age - and medium - of YouTube, three minutes is ideal and five minutes is eternal. So an archived lecture that lasts for 20 minutes and requires students to watch it in its entirety is ... optimistic. Bandwidth is one concern, since nobody likes to wait for content to download, but the real issue is user expectations and behavior in this medium. Since YouTube and other online media have created the expectation that information can be packaged in condensed "chunks" for short viewing, online instructors may find it helpful to condense their own deliveries into shorter, more dynamic "clip-link" packages that allow students to access the information in parses and from multiple paths.

Quick: What Did I Just Say? Tests as Learning Tools

“I think that learning is all about retrieving, all about reconstructing our knowledge. I think that we’re tapping into something fundamental about how the mind works when we talk about retrieval.” - Jeffrey Karpicke, Purdue University.

A new study published this week by Jeffrey Karpicke and Janell Blunt suggests that when students are asked to recall what they just finished reading, they will retain (remember) 50 percent more of the information a week later than they will by using classic studying techniques (i.e., cramming) or by using concept maps. Although studying and using concept maps are effective, what the researchers call "retrieval practice" - the active process of reconstructing knowledge by recalling information in order to answer questions - appears to be superior as a form of active learning. The authors write, "retrieval is not merely a read out of the knowledge stored in one's mind - the act of reconstructing knowledge itself enhances learning."

This supports something I've learned from Confer instructors: the virtual classroom, because it is synchronous and interactive, is a great place to do quick assessments that have an impact on learning. Instructors want to make the most of every online minute with their students, but those minutes may be wasted unless students are asked to reflect upon, respond to, and remember what you've taught them.

Larry Green, for example, has found that the "1-2-3: Put it in the Chat Box" method works well as a way to spot-check students' learning and understanding.
By using this simple and spontaneous assessment method, Larry reinforces retrieval practice and thus (if the researchers are correct) enhances the learning process.

Another quick and effective tool in the Confer classroom is the Polling tool. This works well because it engages students' attention, can be used to enforce retrieval practice, provides immediate feedback, and protects (at your discretion) student anonymity. All that, and it's incredibly easy to do. This video demonstrates the process, and you can print out this PDF to use as a "cheat sheet" if you like.

While retrieval practice is important, you may find that the quick assessment is useful even before students have started to learn new materials. By forcing students to answer a question (take a stand), you're increasing their commitment to discovering the answer. Now it seems that we're also increasing the chances that they will retain that answer in long-term memory. So, as every good host reminds every guest, "don't hesitate to ask."

We Are the Message; The Message Is Us

“The medium isn’t the message. The message is the message.”- Andrew Bosworth, Director of Engineering at Facebook. "We think that we should take features away from messaging. It should be minimal.”- Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.


The Pew Research Center recently studied how young people communicate with their friends. Although e-mail is not used as a daily tool, it hasn't been completely abandoned by today's students. In fact, it's used primarily to talk (communicate) with institutions (like colleges) and adults (like professors). Text messaging has grown astronomically in the last three years by this age group, while other forms of communication seem to have stabilized or dropped off slightly.

    

The low-cost, mobile nature of text messaging is probably a major factor in its quick adoption and growing popularity among today's students. Texting also allows for rapid, asynchronous communication with a wide network of friends, which ordinary phone calls do not provide. There is some research to indicate that texting is used primarily to maintain relationships, and that girls use it more often than do boys as a means of socializing.

In the Confer classroom, the closest equivalent to texting is the chat area. There are ample opportunities to "talk" to other classmates and/or the instructor, but these may not have the same impact or serve the same purpose as does the chat message, generally directed "to the room" and instantly shared with anyone who's looking at the screen.

Chat, in other words, may be the tool best fitted to creating and reinforcing social ties and friendships between and among your students. Because it is not anonymous, but is devoid of "face" and "voice" identifiers, it has a kind of power in the online environment that is reassuring and self-reinforcing. It may also provide valuable social support and comaraderie to otherwise isolated students in your classroom.

It's not easy to monitor chat when you're busy providing other content to your students. That may incline you to take it away from your students, and there is certainly justification in trying to eliminate unnecessary distractions. But it may also be necessary, given the nature of modern communications and growing social networking trends, to include chat in at least part of your online classroom in order to promote interaction and the co-evolution of learning and insights.