EdTech
Connection
TIME
October 2014
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Field experience for online teachers is now available to out-of-state students and, starting next fall, will yield three credits instead of two. Field experience coordinator Dr. Kerry Rice now has agreements with two virtual schools, so she can take eight teachers each semester. Five positions are still open for spring. Field experience requires a 90-hour commitment, part of it in an orientation in which EdTech students are matched with a subject-area teacher in the host school. Grad students in field experience may be asked to do a variety of tasks including reviewing the host-school’s curriculum to make constructive feedback on new or additional resources, methods, or other updates. Students in field experience then teach an online class in their own subject area for eight weeks, under the supervision of the host
EdTech Connection Published three times a year by the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University
Jerry Foster Editor and academic adviser 208-426-4008 jfoster@boisestate.edu
LETTERS WELCOME
teacher. Teaching includes course facilitation, participation in discussions, and evaluating student work. Teaching also includes a brief facilitation of a synchronous class or tutoring a student in a live, one-on-one experience. To participate, EdTech students must demonstrate significant progress in M.E.T. or certificate course work, and must undergo a background and fingerprinting investigation by Idaho authorities, which can take 6-8 weeks. Idaho teachers in the state’s K-12 Online Teaching Endorsement program get first priority for field experience. All students in field experience, including residents of other states, must be certified teachers. Rice says training and experience in online teaching can be the deciding factor in the hiring process, as many traditional districts are creating online or blended courses.
EdTech professor Barbara Schroeder has been appointed as the interim e-portfolio manager for Boise State University. The EdTech program has successfully used e-portfolios for years, but it is a new concept for the university’s undergrad students and faculty. Using digital technology, Boise State is supporting students’ need to practice and demonstrate soft skills and deep content knowledge across disciplines. Students now have a platform to “show what they know” to employers, graduate schools, and on grant applications. Schroeder has taught for EdTech for 12 years.
Boise State EdTech Connection
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Boise State EdTech graduates will be awarded a department-specific medallion beginning with the December 2014 class. The Department of Educational Technology encourages graduates to wear their medallions when they walk in graduation because the medallions provide special recognition of their achievement. Students unable to attend graduation will receive their medallions in the mail. Formally called The Carolyn Thorsen Award, the medallions recognize the pioneering vision and innovative practice of the department’s founding chair. “I’m floored. Just floored,” she said when seeing the medallion for the first time. “No matter how tough it was—and it was—it’s how it turns out in the end that matters,” she said of the department’s early years and, indeed, of every graduate student’s experience.
Thorsen, who retired in 2005 after nine years as chair, said the department—now acknowledged as one of the most innovative EdTech programs in the country—is “exactly as I dreamed” it would become. “If I could have left a to-do list, everything would have been achieved. I’m really proud of the department.”
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Technology integration began in the College of Education with a federal grant in the 1980s but split after a few years when certain faculty members decided the program should focus on corporate training. They found a place in another college and formed what is now called Occupational Performance and Workplace Learning. Thorsen, who had been teaching pre -service teachers with only a master’s degree, was earning a doctorate at Utah State University when the schism occurred. Dean Bob Barr had an assignment for her when she returned—take over the stalled educational technology program. It was not a plum appointment. At the time, there were no full-time faculty members and very few resources. She didn’t even have a curriculum. Her close friend and colleague, the late Dr. Connie Wyzard, agreed to teach some educational technology classes and Barr allowed Thorsen to charge a $10-per credit fee to hire an adjunct instructor. Today, that fee is only a distant memory and EdTech now has 14
Carolyn Thorsen has always been a nurturer. Three faculty members—Drs. Rice, Schroeder, and Snelson—were EdTech graduates who were encouraged to stay and teach. She also hired advisers Jerry Foster and Paul Castelin. Retirement has been good for Carolyn Thorsen. The EdTech Department’s founding chair plays stand-up acoustic base in two bands and farms in her suburban back yard. Between the two groups, And Friends and The Single Car Garage Band, she plays 60s-era country and folk eight or nine times each week at cafes, special events, and assisted living facilities. Previous to retirement, Thorsen had no time for music. Ditto for the stamp-sized farm in the backyard, where she continues to nurture. Her back lot is filled with vegetable plants, separate pens for ducks and chickens, and a self-sustaining greenhouse. Home-made hydroponic herb and vegetable beds sit atop large tanks of water populated by tilapia. Water and fish-waste feed the plants on top and the gravelfiltered water drips back into the tanks. In one corner, baby tilapia scurry around an aquarium until they’re large enough to swim with the big guys. Thorsen may be retired, but she’s still nurturing.
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GREENSBURG, PA — EdTech grad Sylvia Orsatti has been named teacher of the year by the Pennsylvania State Modern Languages Association (PSMLA). Orsatti taught high school Spanish when she earned her master’s degree and is now teaching Spanish at the University of Pittsburg’s Greensburg campus. The award recognizes individuals for their
full-time faculty members and close to 20 adjunct instructors. With 726 enrollments, it is the largest graduate program at Boise State. The program grew into a full department about 1996 and a year later Dean Wenden Waite supported Thorsen’s proposal to put courses online. The department could then offer graduate instruction to teachers in isolated Idaho communities located well beyond commuting distance to the state’s universities. All courses were online by 1999 and the first distance graduate was a community college instructor in upstate New York. “I wanted to contribute something to make education better,” said Thorsen. “It (educational technology) wasn’t about me. It was the right thing to do” for teachers and students everywhere.
distinguished teaching and professional contributions in world languages and cultures. She received the award October 17 at the PSMLA fall conference. Orsatti is a doctoral candidate with a concentration in Language, Literacy, and Culture at the University of Pittsburgh. Previous to studying educational technology at Boise State, Orsatti earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish Language and Literature from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She also holds a degree in Engineering (electronics with an emphasis in control systems) from the Universidad Nacional de San Juan). She combines her interest in technology and education as an independent technology integration consultant and develops presentations that assist fellow educators in incorporating technology into their world language classrooms. Most recently, she has focused on digital storytelling, presenting at the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, the PSMLA, and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages conferences. She also presented sessions on the use of the iPad and mobile apps for interactive activities and digital storytelling for Pitt-Greensburg’s Community for the Advancement of Teaching. Orsatti’s past experience includes teaching various levels of Spanish classes at The Kiski School and English as a Foreign Language at public and private schools in Argentina. In the corporate world, she worked for Middlebury Interactive Languages and Pearson School as a world languages curriculum specialist.
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The sixth-grade classroom of EdTech grad Matthew Gudenius (’12) was the focal point of an article on paperless classrooms in the Oct. 20 edition of Time Magazine. Michael Sherer, Time’s Washington, D.C., bureau chief, discovered Gudenius’ blog, and decided to spend a couple of days in his Calistoga, California, middle school to learn more about paperless classrooms.
can then be shown in class. History lessons are enlivened by brief videos that run on individual tablets. And spelling, grammar and vocabulary exercises have the feel of a game, with each student working at his own speed.” Though Gudenius and his engaged students are able spokesmen for Constructivism’s new paradigm in teaching and learning, the focus of the article was on paperless classrooms.
Gudenius says paperless classroom are not 100% digital, just like traditional classrooms are not 100% paper. Effective classrooms include discussion, group work, skits, science labs,
“Indeed, emerging research suggests that they may be reason for concern.”
model building, and more. “The only component I am replacing is the paper,” which he says represents a significant savings.
mental sources, such as cool white fluorescent lights, also flood us with invisible bluespectrum light, which can lead to eye strain.
Technology integration for improving student engagement and learning is a central mission of Boise State’s EdTech Department, and its effectiveness is apparent in Gudenius’ classroom.
Scherer notes that pediatricians have been “warning parents for years to limit screen time for their children, but now the screens are filling up the school day.”
Scherer sat in the back of the classroom and took notes. Here’s what he wrote in the article:
Actually, the American Academy of Pediatrics website raises concerns about indolent, sedentary entertainment at home, not computer use in schools.
“Ask his students if they prefer the digital to the tree-based technology and every one will say yes. It is not unusual for kids to groan when the bell rings because they don’t want to leave their work, which is often done in ways that were impossible just a few years ago. Instead of telling his students to show their work when they do an algebra equation, Gudenius asks them to create and narrate a video about the process, which
For example, he notes concerns about blue light emitted from monitors. But other environ-
To balance the article, Scherer quotes a University of Arizona professor who says word processing improves writing skills by 20 percent. In an after-publication discussion, Gudenius says he plans to write a response to critics of paperless classrooms.
Boise State EdTech Connection
EdTech mobile apps professor Yu-Chang Hsu (Shoe) mentored a group of Bellevue, Washington, middle school students earlier this year whose proposal to build a mobile app for hikers on Washington state’s mountain trails was chosen as one of the eight best concepts in a national competition sponsored by Verizon Wireless. Boise State’s Hsu was asked by colleagues at M.I.T. to assist the western Washington students with coding the project chosen from nearly 1300 entries. The Verizon Innovative App Challenge asks middle and high school students to apply science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) knowledge to develop mobile apps that address needs in their local schools or communities. Seventh graders at Bellevue’s Open Window School proposed tackling a statewide need by
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building an informational app, including maps to benefit hikers on the state’s trails. When finished, the mobile app called HikeAbout will be a guide to trails, highlighting popular routes, hazards, vistas, flora and fauna, including warnings in areas inhabited by mountain lions, ticks, or poison oak. “The Innovative App Challenge provided an amazing opportunity for our middle school students to go beyond the Technology Lab on campus and into the real world, imagining solutions to real problems in our community and then partnering with Verizon to bring the innovative idea to fruition,” said Open Window Head of School Jeff Stroebel. For the 2014-2015 Innovative App Challenge, teams of five-to-seven students and a faculty advisor from any public, private or parochial middle school can enter until November 14.
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Educational technology assistant professor Yu-Hui Ching’s study on how to help students use role-play to improve peer feedback in online learning environments is now featured on VoiceThread’s official blog. VoiceThread is a cloud-based application that allows creating, commenting on, and sharing multimedia artifacts for learning and work. Ching’s study also was recently published in the International Review of Research on Open and Distance Learning.
EdTech assistant professors Yu-Hui Ching and Yu-Chang Hsu (Shoe) will travel to Jacksonville, Florida, in November to accept secondplace national awards at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) conference. The award is for “an outstanding article published in the last three years that describes best practices in distance education or research on an important aspect of distance education.” Ching and Hsu won in the category of qualitative-focused articles for their refereed paper, Peer Feedback to Facilitate Project-Based Learning in an Online Environment. The article appeared in The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning in 2013.
EdTech assistant professor Patrick Lowenthal gave a webinar earlier this year on “Improving Student Retention in Online Learning.” A recording of the webinar can be accessed at www.insidehighered.com/audio/2014/05/15/ improving-student-retention-online-learning .
EdTech professor Young Baek (Beck) visited Hunan, China, last month to deliver a series of lectures at Hunan Normal University. Baek advised educational technology faculty and doctoral students on researching and getting it published. HNU faculty members have been working hard, teaching and researching with more than 60 graduate students and 160 undergraduate students,” Baek said. “But recently graduates from the college have been struggling to find jobs.” Also, faculty members are expanding their efforts to publish their research in the United States. Baek is exploring the possibility of educational technology faculties at both institutions collaborating on research. In a workshop with students, Baek discussed the potential for creating and using instructional games in K-12 classrooms.