Evaluations

Since I've been learning to blog, I have chosen random topics from our textbooks that were meaningful and thought provoking. I have mentioned the challenges we face on our campus regarding our not having the technology to meet the current needs of students wanting to take online courses. Planning for technology for a small business, organization, school district, or even college is a huge task. One of the many hopes that I would like to see take place is that we have planned, coordinated, implemented successfully a complete distance learning education system for our students.

When planning, there are many decisions we must make and take into consideration. Evaluating hardware and software for our institution will be one of the many steps we will need to take. Choosing the right hardware and software that will benefit our institution for years to come should be a goal while in the planning process. According to Picciano, "planning for computer hardware requires planning for the long range" (Picciano, p.187), and administration should take this into consideration as they evaluate hardware that will be used to support the learning system. 

With the existing computer hardware that the campus is using, the evaluation process should include a review of the hardware to see if it is durable enough to withstand any upgrades or additional applications. Trying to determine if current hardware will be sufficient enough or if you need to upgrade to a newer system can be very complicated. Picciano shares seven factors that need to be considered as we evaluate computer hardware:

• Performance
• Compatibility
• Modularity/expendability
• Ergonomics
• Software availability
• Vendor
• Cost

As we evaluate for computer hardware to support our learning system, we need to also plan to visit other institutions who are using similar programs or applications. This would be beneficial to those persons who may not have a background in IT, software applications or knowledge of computer hardware. 

The Community College Research Center produced an article titled "Evaluating Your College's Readiness for Technology Adoption" that provides information on assessing your institution to see if they are ready to invest in new technologies. The article states "understanding the likelihood of successful adoption before embarking on a reform can help your college invest wisely in new technologies" (Fletcher & Karp, 2014). Fletcher and Karp produced a "Ready for Technology Adoption Framework which can be used to assess if an institution is ready to "adopt" new technology rather than "implement. 

http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/media/k2/attachments/evaluating-your-colleges-readiness-for-technology-adoption.pdf

This article can be used as a great resource to determine if we are indeed ready to take on the huge task of implementing a learning management system. However, planning this endeavor will be the most important and beneficial step we can make in order to begin this process.

Karp, M. M., & Fletcher, J. (2014). Evaluating your college’s readiness for technology adoption. New York, NY: Columbia University, Teachers College, Community College Research Center.

Picciano, A. (2011). Educational Leadership and Planning for Technology (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Sticky Presentations

This semester is my first time teaching a business course and the curriculum was already developed. The students enrolled in this course are responsible for an end of semester paper and presentation on any topic within the textbook. Most of my students are sophomores and juniors and have done a number of presentations for many subjects. The assignment states students have to decide on a topic and begin their research and develop a 7-10 page paper along with 5-7 slides in a PowerPoint presentation . I decided to do something different and be more creative with their presentations. I want my students to, according to Hicks, "craft effective digital writing in the form of presentations" (Hicks, p.61).

In our classroom discussion we talked about the different ways to deliver a presentation and the types of presentations that are available. I explained that when they begin to think about what they are presenting, they need to make clear that the information is remembered and it tells a story. From the text of Crafting Digital Writing textbook, I shared with them the six principles from Chip and Dan Heath's book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (2007), (Hicks, p. 62):

• Keep It Simple
• Introduce the unexpected
• Make it concrete
• See that it's credible
• Appeal to the emotions
• Tell a story

Since the chosen topics would come from the textbook, I talked to them about the types of digital writing genres and explained that their presentations would fall under informational writing. Informational writing presentations are mostly presentations used to present details about a chosen topic and with this type, they can be a bit more creative using various digital presentations. All of the students were familiar with the Prezi presentation tool so I decided to create a small slide show to provide them with basic idea and details about presentations. In addition to the slideshow, the last slide has a tutorial video to get students started in creating their presentations.




Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media and Genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArGh6FurR0Q

The Big Picture

As you are walking across campus to prepare for the registration process at the beginning of the semester, you take a deep breath and walk into a familiar scene of excited, confused, anxious and nervous kids. They are all trying to understand the process, where to go, who to see, locate housing, all while at the same time asking: how do I get to that building? At the end of all of the chaos, those newcomers attend a welcome to college type ceremony and start anew as an official 'college freshman'.

The 'newbies' come to a college classroom for the very first time and hear instructors give classroom expectations, preview the syllabus (maybe), go over some policies and procedures, then they begin to teach. In the college environment, we often expect our students to 'get it' or already possess many classroom strategies in test taking, note taking or have good study habits.  As some institutions are going into their second month of the semester, instructors begin to measure student progress and notice that there are a few students who are 'at risk' or 'not attending' class for a number of reasons. As teachers try to analyze and determine intervention or remedial actions to assist students in getting on track, many discover areas of weakness in their first time students. These areas of weakness seem to stem from the lack of note taking, test taking and studying habits. So how do we as instructors assist our students in being successful in these areas to ultimately get them to making good grades, earning high GPA, and to graduating with a degree?

See the Big Picture: assisting our students with the resources they need to be successful to matriculate through college and completing graduation. How do we accomplish this task? By improving teaching and learning to address the needs of students and conducting needs assessments or surveys to assess students prior to beginning class instruction. Picciano states "The improvement of teaching and learning will succeed (or not) depending on what goes on in the classroom" (Picciano, p. 78). Using  data collected at the beginning of a semester on the new incoming students, will help instructors to develop the right strategies and curriculum to help them become successful.

As instructors we have to change the way we see our students and understand that they are operating in a way that mimics their familiar high school routines. Helping them to understand that they do have to work hard in order to earn good grades. Now, understandably, their are some students who just get it and catch on and are very successful, but there is a large percentage of students who are challenged with adapting to this different environment. Showing them the big picture - getting them to visualize graduation day in full regalia - and then building useful strategies and techniques in the beginning that they will use over time and become second nature thereby creating successful students.

What does collecting data on new incoming students have to do with the Big Picture you may ask? Well, instructors would want to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses of their students to assess how to proceed with class instruction. Using data from assessments gives them opportunities to minimize students becoming at risk or failing completely by developing strategies to improve teaching and learning.  Also,"by identifying the gaps between entering students’ expectations and their level of engagement in the first year of college", instructors can target their efforts to create educationally effective programs for their new students (Miller et al. 2005; Upcraft et al. 2004). 

Picciano, A. (2011). Educational Leadership and Planning for Technology (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Miller, T., B. Bender, J. H. Schuh, and Associates. 2005.Promoting reasonable expectations: Aligning student and institutional thinking about the college experience. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.

Upcraft, L. M., J. N. Gardner, and B. O. Barefoot, eds. 2005.Challenging and supporting the first-year student: A handbook for improving the first year of college. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.