EdTech
Connection June 2013
Riding Texas’ digital divide —p.4
Back from Poland—p. 6 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
‘Unconference’ planned in July —p. 8 COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY
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In this issue . . . Mary Tsadi rides Texas’ digital divide EdTech co-sponsors un-conference in July Learning leadership In World of Warcraft
4 8 10
Cover Story Dr. Kerry Rice: EdTech professor & Fulbright scholar Page 6
EduCause publishes Lowenthal’s advice to online teachers EdTech instructional designer Patrick Lowenthal teamed-up with Joanna Dunlap of the University of Colorado Denver to create a short video called 8 Lessons Learned from Teaching Online. Some of the points include: High-touch is more important than high tech. When students need help, the phone may be the best tool. Don’t let the tools drive the instruction. Go back to the objectives and ask yourself what’s the right tool for the job. Make instructions explicit. Doing something different that jolts and awakens students. Anything that adds a little playfulness re-engages students. Students really value specific, meaningful
feedback, and audio-video feedback provides the inflections and humor that so often do not come through in text. The complete video is available online at vimeo and at EDUCAUSE Review Online.
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
What a year! Dr. Brett Shelton will be coming from Utah State University to serve as the new chair, beginning August 1st. Other new hires include Dr. Norman It has been a pleasure to serve as inFriesen, who joins us from Thompson terim chair of the Department of EducaRivers University in Canada, and Dr. tional Technology for the 2012-2013 acaJesus Trespalacios, who comes from demic year. The department New Mexico State University. has continued its rapid In addition, we regrowth, and experienced nuceived permission to convert merous accomplishments this two temporary faculty lines to year. permanent tenure track posiEnrollments in our gradutions. These positions will be ate programs totaled 611 stufilled by Dr. Patrick Lowendents—546 seeking master’s thal and Dr. Yu-Hui Ching. degrees, 18 in the new Ed.D. Dr. Lowenthal originally program, and 47 pursuing one joined us two years ago from of three graduate certificates. the University of Colorado at This is a 21% increase over Denver. Dr. Ching has been Dr. ROSS VAUGHN last year’s enrollments, and a Interim Chair teaching for us the past three 98% increase over the past years after completing her four years. We will award 122 master’s Ph.D. at Penn State. With the addition degrees this year. The second cohort of of the new hires, the number of our fulldoctoral candidates (23 in this admission time permanent faculty is now 14. cycle) will begin the program in fall 2013. It has been a privilege to have worked Educational Technology continues to hold with such a strong, dedicated faculty its claim as the largest graduate program and staff this past year, and I’m confiat Boise State University. dent that the department and its proAs the program continues to grow, we grams will experience continued success have added faculty to help support that in the coming years. growth. National searches were conducted this year to fill three faculty positions, including a new department chair. College of Education Associate Dean Ross Vaughn was asked to delay retirement to helm the EdTech Department for a year. Here, he reflects on that experience.
Ross Vaughn
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Riding Texas’ W hen Mary Tsadi arrived at her first job interview, she was dismayed to see chain link and razor wire.
It wasn’t at all what she expected. She sat for five minutes before getting out of her car. As she wondered what a nice Oklahoma girl was doing in San Benito, Texas, in a place like this, she started to realize why the job announcement referred to JCPRC instead of the Joe Callandrett Positive Redirection Center. Her vision of teaching seventh grade math and science was something very different than a military boot-camp-style school for students with serious disciplinary issues. “I wasn’t sure I could teach there,” she says.
“Watching them do experiments, work together, and be kids . . . was always worth the effort and – frankly – the fight.”
MARY TSADI
Drill sergeants directed daily drills for students in grades 6-12 and taught them military values, such as discipline, loyalty, trust, and teamwork. Most of her students bounced from family to social to legal issues like racquet balls, so she learned to support and counsel them and develop relationships before she could teach them math and science. But, “Watching them do experiments, work together, and be kids while they were with me was always worth the effort and – frankly – the fight.”
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digital divide Near the end of her second year, she helped “I don’t know if every day is a success, but launch a drop-out recovery high school that’s I do know that over the past six years, I have working. Her kids don’t read chapters, take notes, helped almost 200 kids earn a high school dior tests. They learn by doing. They explore and ploma, and I’ve become a passionate advocate discover in their science labs, they create with for giving kids a second or third chance.” technology, and they demonstrate mastery by exTsadi flipped her classroom because many plaining principles students do not Tsadi wins Ellenberger Scholarship want to raise their or processes to friends. hand in class, or Mary Tsadi was awarded the 2013 Sean Ellenberger Some days, stuScholarship offered annually by Boise State’s Department of they don’t underdents work together Educational Technology to teachers of at-risk students. stand instructions in groups. Instead (some still struggle The scholarship—this year in the amount of $3,414— of talking about memorializes EdTech graduate Sean Ellenberger who taught with English), but at-risk students in Florida. In the summer following his force conceptually, at home, they can graduation, Ellenberger was helping a friend install a new they race model listen to her incars to demonstrate radio in his car, which was parked on the street at the structions over and friend’s home. They were robbed at gun-point by a teenager, force, distance, and over. Class time is and Ellenberger was shot and killed when he resisted. acceleration. They better used for engage in lots of demonstrating and hands-on modeling, like building cells and DNA helping. “We hear that flipped classrooms strands. won’t work with students like mine, but it Her students are physically adults, but they works with all kids,” she says. don’t have the skills you’d think they should. Tsadi, who plans to apply to the EdTech “We are the digital divide. These kids doctoral program at Boise State, says she is have a lot of experience navigating a computer or getting more from her Master of Educational cell phone, but not truly using the computer. Technology courses than her colleagues are They can type but can’t make changes on a Word getting from other master’s programs. document. Doing a PowerPoint project takes at “I have products and projects to show and least a week. So, sometimes, they need a comuse in my classes. I have supportive dialogues puter and sometimes they need PlayDough.” and helpful divergent views, but my colThat’s how it works some days. leagues are not getting as much value from Other days look more like group therapy. their programs.”
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EdTech prof returns from Polish adventure Rice taught classes on emerging technology
Rice at the Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork, Poland
EdTech’s Dr. Kerry Rice returned to campus this spring after teaching in Poland for five months on a Fulbright Scholarship. As a visiting professor at Nicolas Copernicus University, Rice conducted lectures and workshops on educational technology topics, particularly emerging technologies, to pre-service teachers, English Philology students, and faculty in the Department of Didactics and Media in Education. She was one of about 50 Fulbright scholars in Poland. Most were students who would serve as English Teaching Assistants or who would conduct
PHOTO—Marcin Floryan in Wikipedia Commons
Chocolate-frosted, filled, and glazed Torun gingerbreads, a Polish treasure.
Continued from Page 6 research. Including Rice, the group included about 14 senior Fulbrighters. Undergraduate pedagogy students at Nicolaus Copernicus all take a general curriculum which prepares them to teach. Included in that curriculum is a course in information technology, which is an introductory course similar to the under-grad course we offer at Boise State for pre-service teachers. The course covers the basic MS Office suite of tools in an educational context. It is technically classified as a “konwersatorium” course which means that the course combines both a lecture/ discussion and with UNC Professor Dorota Siemieneicka, who practical hands- Kerry will spend three weeks at Boise State this fall. on experience, similar to a lab/lecture course in the United States. Rice and her Polish colleagues have contracted with UNC to write a book on the evolution of educational technology in the United States and Poland, and have discussed the possibly of a faculty or student exchange, or even sharing online courses.
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Rice embraced Polish history, food & walking Armed with a paltry 24 hours of Polish language instruction, Rice was able to order grzybami zupy, a localmushroom soup, at restaurants. Mushrooms are widely used in Torun cooking because they grow wild in the countryside. She also learned to order goulash, pierogi, and nalishniki (“crepes or pancakes, but not like any pancakes you have ever tasted”) and wine at restaurants, and to buy staples at the grocery store. Her intensive cultural immersion activities included a visit to a castle, a night at the philharmonic, Polish folk dancing lessons, lectures on Polish literature, art, and history, and a visit to the Gingerbread Museum. The city of Torun has been famous since the 1300s for pierniki, which are gingerbread snacks, now often covered or filled with chocolate. The museum is a fully functional medieval gingerbread bakery. She learned to use public transportation and got used to walking. “It’s just what everybody does here.”
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Free virtual conference focuses on quest-based learning this summer Boise State and GoGo Labs, the start-up company launched by the university in January, are bringing together experts in questbased teaching and learning for a virtual workshop and “unconference” July 31-Aug. 1. The free two-day event, called QuestBoise 2013, will give teacher-participants a chance to not only hear, but work with experts. In addition to GoGo Labs, the workshop is sponsored by the College of Education and the Department of Educational Technology (EdTech). “Our speakers will give us LISA DAWLEY the big vision and help us understand trends, research and emerging practices in quest-based learning,” said Lisa Dawley, GoGo Labs founder and a former EdTech chair and professor. In an unconference, participants suggest and vote on the topics they want to cover. “It’s an informal way to let the meeting organically evolve, and keeps the second day of the meeting participant-driven,” Dawley said. Participants will explore aspects of gamification in the classroom, including quests, guild sites, the open badges initiative and more. Speakers for QuestBoise include: Sheryl Grant will present her insights on digital badges, one of the most effective movements in education. Peggy Sheehy, a pioneer in virtual worlds
and games for education, will discuss why games are engaging and how teachers can harness that engagement for learning. Chris Haskell, an EdTech faculty member, will talk on developing 21st century learning empowerment that meets the needs of learners, teachers and institutions. His classroom is a unique lab of gamebased technology and pedagogy that produces exciting results. Kae Novak, an EdTech grad and instructional designer at Front Range Community College, Colorado. Novak CHRIS HASKELL will introduce Machinima, where gameplay meets screencapture and creativity. Lucas Gillispie, an instructional technologist in North Carolina, will engage participants in immersive learning on his Minecraft in Schools program. Mark Suter, an Ohio-based EdTech grad and now a doctoral student, is an Ohio computer technology teacher who will provide a quick-start guide to creating a quest-based classroom. Sean O’Neil, a California technology coordinator, will show participants how to create mobile apps relevant to their subject areas. Register at http://www.questboise.com/#! register/c24vq or contact Danielle DeVoe at danielledevoe@gogolabs.net >. Professional development credit is available.
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EdTech professor one of three national experts asked to speak on online learning EdTech’s Dazhi Yang was one of three national experts who discussed preparing online teachers in an April webinar sponsored by INACOL, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. Yang noted that few teacher education programs offer courses in online teaching. Most online teachers are trained in professional development workshops but 25 percent of the nation’s online teachers
Dr. DAZHI YANG
have received no training at all, so it is not surprising that the National Education Association last year called for certification or endorsement programs for online teachers. And not just a workshop or two, added Barbara Treacy of EdTech Leaders Online, but ongoing professional development in both academic disciplines and online instructional practices, including new technologies and tools.
Numbering changes coming soon for most 597 courses Newer students who scheduled EDTECH 597 courses on their program plan may be confused a year from now when they see that the catalog numbers have changed. The university allows departments to use 597 numbers three times before creating permanent numbers.
Time is up for EdTech 597 courses, so in the fall the department begins the year-long process of creating permanent catalog numbers. Because the permission process for creating new catalog numbers takes so much time, advanced and even most mid-level students likely will not notice the change.
tools, such as Kidblog, Edublog, Edmoto, and several learning management systems, and discuss why some are better suited for certain ages of students. She teaches 5th grade at St. Anne’s School in Nassau.
Should we all go to The Bahamas, cheer for Bowe? EdTech student Maylene Bowe will present at the first Nassau Education Technology Conference (NET.1) June 17 at the Lyford International School in The Bahamas. Bowe will analyze software
So, what do you think?
BOWE
Should we should all go to The Bahamas to support Maylene’s first presentation?
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Doctoral study not generally known for fun and games When Dr. Chareen Snelson integrated World of Warcraft into her Leadership in Educational Technology course, she could almost hear the gasps of colleagues outside the department and the persistent question of disbelief: “What were you thinking?” Several education researchers have
examined World of Warcraft through the lens of various leader-ship models and theories, but, still, it’s not easy to be an innovator. In educational technology, we advance knowledge by trying new things, says Snelson. The month-long exercise was not intended to make gamers, but to stretch student thinking and extend their horizons. Doctoral students in educational technology need to at least explore strange, new worlds. In a WoW orientation for non-gamers, student Steve Isaacs helped classmates adjust to life as avatars in a virtual world. Some liked the game environment, others didn’t.
How World of Warcraft teaches leadership to doctoral students World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game, called a MMORPG, that integrates a 3-D virtual world, mythical storyline, and about 11 million of your closest friends. The settings, characters and storylines are very Campbellian (think of Lord of the Rings), but the strategy planning is very real. Players poorly prepared for the contingencies created by cunning adversaries get killed and have to watch from the sidelines as team-members raid the lairs of monsters and dragons without them. WoW teaches players how to lead and follow leaders to achieve common goals. Author Kirk Wankel (see page 11),
says non-players may not appreciate the game, but they can appreciate the skills it develops.
Players have to plan carefully and work the plan without vacillation. Success depends on it.
Avatars representing doctoral students gather in a mythical meeting place for a World of Warcraft orientation. The course demonstrated different ways of leading and learning, from the innovative unit on World of Warcraft to the more traditional education conference with speakers, noted on page 11.
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NOTE: As part of the Leadership in Educational Technology course, doc student Anthony Saba prepared a live webinar with Kirk Wankel, author of the WoW Factor: An Insider’s Look at the Real Skills Developed in the Virtual World of Warcraft. Here is a brief exchange.
KW: No. Leadership requires interaction with someone else. You can learn aspects of management on your own, but leadership requires followers. You can develop leadership skills even without being the leader. It is the association with others. AS: Do games develop leadership for women and minorities?
AS: Can leadership be developed in any domain?
KW: There are lots of ways to develop leadership—there’s a high degree of leadership in cheerleading and sports. In online games, nobody knows who you are, so leadership develops (or doesn’t) because of interaction. AS: Is it charisma or performance?
KW: Yes. The internet is a great place for women to develop skills because guys see performance, not gender. If you fail in guild leadership, the consequences are SABA small, but you fail in your job, it could damage your career. Games give you a chance to succeed in a low-impact environment.
KW: Games are performance-oriented, so if the game isn’t fun or if the leader isn’t performing, players will go elsewhere. AS: Can leadership skills develop in solitude?
AS:
Any other job implications?
KW: The military was an early adapter of learning with games. Drone pilots, for example, are often gamers.
EdTech doc students present online conference The keynote address and other presentations delivered at the online technology leadership conference organized and conducted by EdTech doctoral students earlier this year are available for viewing at https://sites.google.com/a/ boisestate.edu/leadership-in-edtech/home >. Keynote speaker Tricia Kennedy discussed how her district’s administrators are leading a digital transformation in Gwinnett County, Georgia, public schools. Some of the presentations included: Best Practices in Developing Educational
Technology Leadership Skills in Pre-service Teachers, Creating Collaborative Connections for School Leaders, Guild Leadership and Communities of Practice as Models for Professional Learning, Implementing Large-Scale Change in Online Schools and Distance Programs. Doctoral students planned and presented the conference under the supervision of Dr. Chareen Snelson, as a learning activity in her Leadership in Educational Technology course.
Achievements New grad gets new job as a community college teacher Tammy Harris Price completed her M.E.T. studies in December and by March she had a new job. She starts teaching in the CTE Teacher Certification Program this summer at South Seattle Community College. “I'll be co-teaching "Introduction to Career & Technical Teacher EducaPRICE tion"! It is the same online program she took to earn certification as a high school floriculture teacher. “Thanks Boise State EdTech Department for a great education!” She’s a little excited right now. “I'm super excited!”
Winkelman ordained in Nazarene rites EdTech student Mark “Wink” Winkelman, a teacher at Caldwell, Idaho, High School, was recently ordained a pastor in the Nazarene Church. In addition to teaching and starting the EdTech master’s program in January, Winkelman has engaged in pastoral studies at Nazarene universities for the past several years. DurWINKELMAN ing that time, he also served as a lay pastor to gain the experience required for Nazarene
ordination. He is a bi-vocational pastor, which means he works a regular job and serves a pastoral role part-time. He is the lead pastor at Fill-My-Cup Nazarene Church in Middleton, a small town near Caldwell. His wife, Sara, preceded him in ordination and serves as an associate pastor at the same church.
Alyson Nelson named finalist for teacher-of-the-year award EdTech’s Alyson Nelson is one of 10 finalists for South Carolina’s Greenville County Schools’ Teacher of the Year award. Nelson., a six-year teacher of anatomy, physiology, and biology at Mauldin High School, earned her bachelor’s degree from Clemson and is working on a master’s in edtech from Boise State. The selection process began last fall NELSON when each Greenville school selected its individual teacher of the year. As a member of her school’s Technology Refresh Committee, Nelson was instrumental in developing the budget that provided every teacher with a laptop, Promethean board, and other technologies. This spring, the selection committee interviewed the finalists and observed classroom teaching. Nelson’s reviewers saw students engaged in Moodle discussions on current events in medicine related to topics of study, human anatomy students getting test announcements on Twitter, web-cam reviews of dissections, and Nelson’s own web-based tutorials.