Borg’s Blog

I’m fortunate to be teaching Computer Science at Mount Marty College because it went wireless in 2002 due to the vision of Dr. Mike Kahlke who served as Dean of Academic Affairs. It wasn’t an easy sell to the faculty who were largely cyberphobic then but he persisted. My life is so much easier because he persisted until the “laptop initiative” was in place.

Kahlke’s vision was to put a laptop computer into the hands of every student and faculty member. This meant the Computer Science department could phase out its use of labs. The students carry their lab equipment with them. They are free to work when they want without regard to lab hours. We still update computers on a regular cycle but I don’t need to justify a budget request to do it because its included in the regular students fees.

The second part of Kahlke’s vision was to create an environment where students could connect to the campus network and Internet anywhere on campus without needing to tether their computers to an ethernet drop. Wireless ethernet frees computing from spatial limitations. I can move a class out into the fresh air on a beautiful day without feeling guilty or losing access to the net!

Its not enough to have computers. You have to know what to do with them.

Classrooms needed to evolve to take advantage of ubiquitous computing power. We started a multi-year project to update classrooms along the lines of the “smart classroom” concept. These rooms feature overhead projection systems to display computer output, sound systems, VHS and DVD players.

The next stage is to create a virtual learning environment of the World Wide Web. We began with Blackboard course management software. Unfortunately the faculty were left to their own devices after a half-day training session on Blackboard. Our Teaching and Learning with Technology Committee offered classes but attendance was dismal. Use of the new classroom technology waxed and waned over the past 6 years but momentum grew with every cycle and avid users emerged over time. The new Web 2.0/3.0 applications such as Google docs creates greater potential to more fully realize Dr. Kahlke’s vision.

Mount Marty is ahead of most colleges in this area but there is still plenty to do. A group of early adopters must find and test new web-based technologies to see how well they impact teaching and learning. Then the solutions identified must be evangelized to the faculty. The school can transform education and prepare millennial students for a digital world with just a little more effort.

Dr. James Simmons is a gentleman and scholar of English at Mount Marty College and I risk much in attempting to apply my humble skills for his benefit. Yet he is of such good character that I’m compelled to try for I wish to give him a small token in recognition of the great gifts he has given his students, colleagues, and community. Simmons is a man of sharp wit and dry humor. You can also describe Jim as a rugged individualist and independent thinker. His acting and oratory skills are unmatched on campus. You ought to have seen his version of Satan last spring! He walks to work each day and invests his own money in extracurricular activities for his students. Yes, my friend is truly a man to be emulated.

What token can I offer a professional educator and pioneer of distance education?

I believe Jim’s use of technology in teaching has focused on synchronous television broadcasting. This scenario involves teaching students at multiple sites using expensive broadcasting gear. This is a problematic approach to my mind as it begs for lecture yet provides a space barrier which renders lecturer nearly helpless in applying methods of controlling a classroom full of student with short attention spans. This is especially difficult when teaching high school students in advanced placement courses because of the variety of schedules one must deal with. An asynchronous approach offers salvation from rough seas.

Mount Marty faculty have been using Blackboard for several years now to augment their courses but I haven’t seen much content being placed within its course management modules. This is not meant to be an indictment of my peers as we do not regularly offer distance courses. Our is a traditional learning environment populated in large part by first generation college students. We sail the waters of higher education on the longships of classrooms and lectures.

Still we can apply the new technologies in innovative ways. We can add podcasts to our Blackboard courses to benefits ourselves and our students. Once there we know how to easily access these podcasts and can show them in the classroom. Students can review them as the leisure, Absent students can view them online to catch up! All benefit and its as easy as cutting and pasting the embed code from YouTube.

So let me try to entice my friend with a few examples of the spoken work freely available on YouTube.

This first offering is a poetry reading by Donald Hall, U. S. Poet Laureate. Hall has published 15 books and earned many awards in his career. This podcast is a product of the University of Virginia and the Research Channel.

This podcast is about 30 minutes in length which may be a bit long for some students. Poems hit the viewer like the waves beat the shore offering little time for reflection. Yet it is good to listen to such an illustrious poet and to see how relevant poetry can be to life in the new millennium.

A single poem like a calm sea offers opportunity for reflection. Anne Sexton’s The Truth The Dead Know begs for such calm seas as it touches on a deeply personal subject. Offering in online gives the student the opportunity for secluded reflection on the poem such as is known by a solitary sailor in a skiff.

Students may be more engaged by poetry slams. They seem to be the bikinis on the beach of poetry. The next podcast is on the National Poetry Slam. It offers some of the best poetry of our time and describes the challenge of slamming.

Some waters are welcoming to sportsmen. So are poetry slams! This program show students how they can be involved in poetry. The slam is hosted only 30 miles to the east of our campus at the Coffee Shop Art Gallery. This brief program tells the prospective slammer just how the contest works and offers examples of student poetry. If you look very close you may even see my photo credit in this podcast.

So there it is, my tech tip for a friend and colleague. Jim, I hope this is worthwhile to you and your students. Drop by anytime and I’ll show you how to put a podcast in your Blackboard class.