Technology, Learning, and Intellectual Development

Network for Academic Renewal Conference
October 30 – November 1, 2003
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Resources from Meeting

Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH)

MITH is a collaborative community of scholars, an interdisicplinary institute, and an electronic space devoted to exploring the use of new technologies in university research, teaching, and community outreach.

Computing: What’s American Literary Study Got to Do with IT?
Martha Nell Smith, Professor of English and Director of MITH

Explores how computing effects the way humanities scholarship is practiced and concludes "The new media, and the new critical technologies they produce, require that we scrutinize anew how our items of knowledge come into being, who makes them, and for what purposes." For more information on Martha Nell Smith, including selected articles and publications, visit her website: http://www.mith.umd.edu/mnsmith/

How Virtual Interactions Deepen Learning for Real Students (PowerPoint 259 MB)
Christopher Dede, Chair, Learning and Teaching, Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Pedagogy in virtual learning settings has expanded beyond "talking heads" and downloaded readings to include tele-mentoring, shared virtual environments, collaborative learning, and small group inquiry. This plenary described key instructional design issues when faculty use new media.

Creating New Learning Environments in the Convergence of Computers, Communications, and Cognition (PowerPoint)
Jack M. Wilson, Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of Massachusetts System & Chief Executive Officer, UMassOnLine

The ultimate challenge and opportunity in technology-enhanced education is that people change very slowly while technology changes very rapidly. We have learned much about how students learn over the last decades although we have only begun to apply this knowledge to widespread use in higher education. This session addressed historical trends, present developments, and future possibilities in technology-enhanced education.

Teaching and Learning With Technology: Ideas and Assessments
Stephen C. Ehrmann, Director, The Flashlight Project and Vice President, The TLT Group

This web site was tailored for the AAC&U workshop and includes notes from the presentation, articles, and links to other useful web materials. The non-profit TLT Group has helped educational institutions, associations, and corporations to improve teaching and learning by making more appropriate and cost-effective use of information technology without sacrificing what matters most. The Flashlight Program has been used since 1992 to assess and improve educational uses of technology while gaining control over costs.

Institutional Design: Building the Capacity to Use Technology for Intellectual Development (PowerPoint 99KB)
Ellen Waite-Franzen, Vice President for Computing and Information Services, Brown University

To promote effective uses of technology for student learning, institutions must assess the resources and services that the faculty use and that are part of the campus culture. Drawing on experience with both, the presenter discussed the pros and cons of central and distributed approaches to integrating technology in teaching and learning.

Knowledge Management in Education: Defining the Landscape

This monograph by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) was made available to all conference attendees and can be downloaded as a pdf or puchased. It describes the opportunities and challenges faced by those working to improve the use and sharing of information in education through practices that have come to be known as knowledge management.
ISKME is an educational think tank that conducts research and offers resources with the goal of helping education institutions increase their capacity to use data and information to improve student and institutional success.

Technology and Intellectual Development: A Framework for Student, Faculty, and Institutional Learning (pdf 14K)
L. Lee Knefelkamp, Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology, and Arthur M. Langer, Chair, Instruction and Curricular Development, Programs in Information Technology, Columbia University

This session focused on how to assess the technology competencies of faculty and students. It also provided an inventory of technology knowledge and support within the institution. The technology arc is designed to assess the technology literacy of faculty and students, as well as defining what infrastructure support is needed from the institution. The arc is useful to design curriculum that integrates technology with other core competencies and that provides institutions with a method of integrating technology and pedagogy through a structured approach of self-assessment and curricula design. Presentation notes on John Dewey and Reflective Thinking are also available (PowerPoint 64KB).

A Multi-dimensional Pedagogical Framework for Designing and Evaluating Technology Enabled Learning (PowerPoint 664KB)
Nishikant Sonwalkar, Principal Educational Architect, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Over the last few decades the pedagogy for technology enabled education has been influenced by behaviorist, cognitive, and constructivist theories. These theories are debated vigorously by educational scientists. While the debate is extremely important for the paradigm shift, the need for a framework for instructional designers seeking meaningful incorporation of technology is necessary. The new design framework must provide a flexible approach for incorporating technology within the context of pedagogy. A multi-dimensional approach for the design, development, deployment and evaluation is proposed based on sound pedagogical principles.

If you have questions, please e-mail us at meetings@aacu.org.

Applying Technology to Enable Useful Assessment Practices in Diverse Instructional Settings
Cynthia Conn, Assessment Coordinator, and John Norris, Assessment Specialist, Northern Arizona University

Northern Arizona University's Office of Academic Assessment (OAA) supports assessment for the improvement of student learning. Increasingly varied settings for instruction, including web-mediated, distance, and hybridized courses, call for unique solutions to collecting, analyzing, managing, and using assessment data. This session featured technological solutions and associated outreach support provided by OAA in addressing immediate assessment demands. This resource is designed to assist and encourage faculty in using technology for implementing useful assessment practices.