While the definition of open content material has not changed much, it is an evolving discussion and is something that is very present in our lives, take Google Books or Google Scholar for instance. These tools are used on a daily basis. Did you know they were considered pioneers of the open content movement? I, for one, did not. In a previous post, I discussed the top 6 technologies featured in the 2010 Horizon report, which included open content. To break it down, the idea of open content serves a purpose of addressing the barriers associated with the pursuit of knowledge, such as cost of textbooks and regional accessibility of resources. Open content would make academic material freely available and accessible on the web, consequently eliminating the aforementioned barriers, but creating a whole new list of potential issues.

Consider textbooks as a perfect example. Finding the right textbook that includes all of the material teachers wish to cover that is sold at a reasonable cost can sometimes be compared to a number of overused clichés that include: slaying a dragon and climbing a mountain. Teachers have, at least in my experience, developed ways to go around said dragon/mountain by assembling a “coursepack” (photocopied articles, chapters of books, bound together in one book) or photocopying these chapters or articles and uploading them to the learning management system (LMS) used at their institution. Both of these, of course, come with a cost that is fractional in comparison to buying a textbook from the campus bookstore. The fees associated with coursepacks are brought to you as a result of the Access Copyright law and the “pay-per-use” licenses as well as fair dealing. Even though coursepacks reduce textbook cost, open content would eliminate cost altogether because the content would be publish freely online.

Opencontent.org breaks down the various privileges that are featured by open content.

1.  Reuse – the right to reuse the content in its unaltered / verbatim form (e.g., make a backup copy of the content)

2. Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)

3. Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other content to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)

4. Redistribute – the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixed with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

So that leaves us with the issues(?) surrounding open content.

What happens to copyright owners? One of the most popular licensing sources for open content is a large not-for-profit organization called Creative Commons. Users who apply for open content licenses have a list of four different licenses you can choose from: attribution, share-alike, non-commercial, no derivative works. In other words, if done properly, you can make your copyrighted material as “open” or as closed as you want. In the instance of attribution, people can freely use your copyright material and its derivative works, but only if they give you credit in a way specified by you. Then there is non-commercial licensing, which limits the use of your copyright material to non-commercial uses. These licenses can also be combined to create a unique one that suits your needs, for instance, attribution-non derivative, rather than using the individual licenses.

How “free” is free? According to an overview article written by policy strategist for open access research, Peter Suber, open content literature focuses “on literature that authors give to the world without expectation for payment.” He argues that scholarly articles are typically written by authors interested in “advancing knowledge in their fields and careers” and not necessarily the financial aspects, which differs them from musicians and filmmakers. This all to say, while the scholarly work may be free, the actual production of open access/content is not free. There will always be costs associated with the production of a scholarly work, whether it be some form of reimbursement for the writer, publishing or distributing copies for peer review sessions.

Who is to guarantee that the text is a reliable, factual source? We know scholarly work must endure a rigorous peer review session before it can be considered as a legitimate piece of academia. Fortunately, Peter Suber sums this concern up perfectly: “One reason we know that peer review at OA journals can be as rigorous and honest as peer review in conventional journals is that it can use the same procedures, the same standards, and even the same people (editors and referees) as conventional journals.”

Author Jonathan Bailey describes the culture of fear created by educational institutions featuring the following anecdote:

“I remember when I was in college, one of my English classes had a very tense day. The instructor told the class that she could not return the papers from the previous week as plagiarism had been detected in one of them. The teacher invited to the student involved to come forward, assumedly to receive a lighter punishment.

The students, all 30 of us, wondered who it was but were more worried that it was us. Many of us began to talk openly about that fear saying things like “I didn’t plagiarize but… I hope it wasn’t me.” The conversation then shifted to specific quotes, missed citations and other mistakes, wondering if that triggered the alarm.”

In a former job of mine I had to sit on academic appeals for students who were charged with committing a plagiarism offense. In the vast majority of cases I sat on, there was a consistent defense among students — “I didn’t know I was plagiarizing.” This was particular evident with students who spoke English. It’s very easy to think that it’s just an excuse, but the repetition of this similar defense often made me question whether or not it’s possible that they didn’t. Bailey’s article inspired me to think back and recall my days in school and how course outlines or lectures by professors on plagiarism often tell you over and over again about what plagiarism is and all of the consequences for doing it. So, if you asked me whether or not I knew what plagiarism was, I was very much in understanding. But did I know how to not do it? That I’m not sure.

If we continue to just use fear-mongering tactics to eliminate plagiarism, we’re not targeting the actual problem: plagiarism education. By slapping students on the wrist every time they plagiarize, doesn’t stop them from plagiarizing, it forces them to be more creative with how they plagiarize so they don’t get caught next time.

“Strict plagiarism enforcement without solid plagiarism education doesn’t make better students, it makes better cheaters.”

The EDC has put together an instructional handout (check out the handout here) on how to create assignments that seek to limit plagiarism-potential. Plagiarism can result from procrastination, poor time management or just an inability to cite properly. It’s important that you take the time (regardless of how repetitive it is) to discuss not only what plagiarism is, but how to go about not doing it. Often times, citing material is a whole lot easier than students trying to cover up their digital-plagiarized-footprint.

In order to create plagiarism-free assignments, consider the following:

• create assignments that focus on students creating an original thought or require new research
• educate students on how not to plagiarize
• require students to submit an early draft of their assignment to ensure students aren’t waiting to the last minute to finish or start the assignment
• compile a restricted list of sources that students can use to complete an assignment; this will deter students from knowingly-plagiarizing if they know that you’ve selected the resources they can us.

In Bailey’s article, he compares plagiarism to a “disease” that has infected academia in this clever anecdote:

“If schools are going to deal with the epidemic of plagiarism, they need to treat it more like an actual infection and focus on all-around health rather than pumping in more quick fixes. The current path only makes cheaters more resistant to the methods that are used to catch them and creates a climate of fear that is both counter-productive for learning and can actually encourage cheating, since many students feel as if they are being treated as such anyway.”

So how can you educate students on how to not plagiarize? Consider checking out the resources in the library for some instruction or examples, provide students a sample poorly written bibliography vs. a properly written one, show students how to cite in-text, explain how plagiarism exists in not only copying words, but copying thoughts as well.

My first year as a TA began with a great deal of stress. After taking time off following my undergrad degree, I enrolled in a new university, moved across the country, and arrived the day before my first day of official duties. To add to this, I was experiencing mild culture shock due to having recently returned from a summer spent working in India, which certainly didn’t make the transition any easier. Despite everything that desperately needed to be done, I found myself paralyzed by indecision. Should I finish unpacking, or should I explore campus? Should I take care of university paperwork, or should I get to know my advisor?
This indecision dragged on for weeks, with the paralysis temporarily subsiding whenever an urgent task required attention.

Unsatisfied with just doing the bare minimum, I decided that something needed to be done before I had relegated myself to being “that guy” (you know, the one who does nothing, barely gets by, and somehow seems OK with it? Yeah, that guy). Knowing myself to be terribly disorganized and dedicated to responsibilities, I decided that the only solution would be to commit myself to as many extracurricular activities as it would take to completely fill my schedule. That way, I thought, I’d leave little room for poor time management, as a full and busy schedule would manage itself.

Although I didn’t quite achieve this goal, I did manage to find myself a great part-time job (off-campus), enrolled in an extra course, and fulfilled a life-long goal of learning to swim by enrolling in adult swimming lessons. To my surprise, the added responsibilities did not have the expected negative side-effect of everything being done at the last minute, as I very quickly learned to prioritize efficiently (nothing quite like necessity to catalyze change!). I found myself finishing assignments and papers with enough time for revisions, breezing through stacks of marking, and somehow fitting in ample time to focus on my own personal projects (which, strangely enough, include sleeping regularly). On top of this, the job added a bit of a cushion to my bank account, thus freeing up all of my worrying abilities for my various academic responsibilities.

As counterintuitive as it may sound, my solution to the problem of having too much responsibility was to take on more responsibility. My backwards logic might make some of you wonder how exactly I’ve managed to come so far in my education (I often wonder this myself!), but it really has worked for me. This isn’t saying that it will work for everyone, but it might appeal to the disorganized overachievers who, like me, have consistently found themselves disappointed with conventional academic advice.

One year or less

Mobile computing
While it suggests that the “adoption” of mobile computing is something that will take place within the year. In many ways mobile computing has already taken the classroom by storm in the face of laptops, smart phones, apple technology (iPhones/Pods/Pads). What the Horizon Report is suggesting is the adoption of using mobile computing as a pedagogical tool; combining the students desire to be constantly connected with an “increasing range of activities fully supported by applications designed especially for mobiles.”

Open content
Open content is a huge item for discussion today and is growing in its popularity. It particularly addresses the many barriers associated with education, such as cost for textbooks and accessibility of resources for some regions. Open content would address these barriers by making academic content freely accessible. Of course, within the concept of open content remain issues of copyright and intellectual property when we talk about the reuse, re-purposing and sharing academic or scholarly work.

Two-three years

Electronic books
The accessibility of having books online has changed the way students interact with learning resources. When you think about students lugging their weight in textbooks to and from class and the monumental costs associated with some textbooks, it’s easy to see why electronic books are growing in popularity.  It’s not as common now to see, but there is already knew technology that enables you to download and read books online. Check out eBook Reader to get some reviews on the most popular models. There is certainly no question that the popularity of electronic books is going to continue to grow. It ties together many issues that students are actively involved within: rising costs associated with education and environmentalism.

Simple augmented reality
“The concept of blending (augmenting) virtual data – information, rich media, and even live action – with what we see in the real world, for the purpose of enhancing the information we can perceive with our senses is a powerful one.”The use of cell phone applications (iPhone or Blackberry apps) are perfect examples of how we can augment reality into virtual data.

Three-four years

Gesture-based computing
“Devices that are controlled by natural movements of the finger, hand, arm, and body are becoming more common.” This is particularly evident in the gaming world. With the development of the Wii console where users can play video games without pressing buttons, and instead, just perform the actions they want their character to. How this can be used in an educational setting is still being determined, but there’s no doubt that it’s a growing phenomenon.

Visual data analysis
It’s easy to get lost in a thousands and sometimes millions of numbers while you’re trying to identify patterns and solve problems. However, given the advances in visual data analysis, we’re able manipulate and view data in ways never quite thought possible before. “Visual data analysis is an emerging field, a blend of statistics, data mining, and visualization, that promises to make it possible for anyone to sift through, display, and understand complex concepts and relationships.”

It’s incredibly important to begin discussions of how these new technologies can have an impact of education and teaching.

Are gesture-based computing techniques the way of the future for obtaining practical hands-on learning?

Will having full access to scholarly work be a positive or negative contribution to academia and the pursuit of knowledge?

And where will mobile computing take us next?

How can we take advantage of it?

Post your thoughts or concerns!

BigBlueButton

^Click for Full-Size Image^

At its very basic level, BigBlueButton (BBB) is an online classroom as is considered a synchronous learning tool. Check out our how-to guide for BigBlueButton and other synchronous learning tools. That being said, before you rush into setting up your own BigBlueButton course, consider all of the things that could be done using BBB:

1. Online office hours: So many of us have experienced what it is like to have students unable to reach our office hours, whether it be distance related or scheduling. BBB can enable the ability to have online office hours, where you and many other students can engage in post-class discussions about material that they may be struggling with. The BBB chat system enables public discussions and private discussions, which can allow you to help multiple students at once. Students can be, at times, shy of coming to speak to you in person about their concern, whereas chatting online may be something they would be more comfortable with. Consider giving it a try.

2. Tutorials: As much as students and teaching assistants convincingly smile during 8:30 a.m. tutorials, we all know that they would much rather be at home in bed. BBB would enable TAs and students to do just that. The participation and engagement components to tutorials will not suffer, and in fact, could very well increase. Students who are more shy will be more likely to respond if they don’t have to speak out loud in public. This could very well enhance the discussions that take place within tutorials using online means … which, we all know now, is familiar territory for most students.

3. Distance Courses: Carleton has made many positive steps towards opening the doors of the university to distance learners through CUTV. However, there is still a desire to move towards more distance courses that are taught online. BBB can be a tool in breaking the mould of traditional online teaching, which would just consist of engaging through a learning management system, such as WebCT. Instead, BBB enables video, audio and text chatting. Students will be able to see and hear you, and you them. Instructors can upload a presentation using any Microsoft application (word, powerpoint, excel, etc) or even PDF files and BBB automatically converts it to a viewable format that doesn’t rely on software installed on the computer.

4. Meeting tool for collaboration: In addition to many of the features available through BBB, including presentation, audio and visual aspects, a new Whiteboard feature is being released soon as part of Big Blue Button 7.0. This feature will enable several features, similar to what you would find on a Paint program such as adding colour and drawing on the presentation. BBB is a great tool for online collaboration because of it being a platform that relies on interaction between the presenter and viewers.

The EDC is currently piloting BBB throughout the summer, with potential for it to be adopted for the Fall Term — we welcome all feedback, of course!

Twitter, for those who aren’t yet familiar, provides users 140 characters or less to “tweet” (or post) about what they see, what’s going on, or what’s on their mind. Users from all over the world can “follow” you, subscribe to your tweets and even reply to your tweets. Celebrities, news organizations, businesses, athletes and even yours truly have found a place on Twitter. Some Twitter-ers use it as a micro-blog about the daily happenings in their lives, but it also can be used as an intellectual hub for discussion among professors and students and peer-to-peer. Consider this example where a university professor would post questions on his Twitter and students would respond, as seen summarized here. Sure, you’re not hearing the student out loud in the classroom, however, you’re reaching students using the kind of medium that they know and love best. Using Twitter you can also:

• reach students who are uneasy or shy about speaking publicly in the classroom
• provide a venue for a dialogue about academic topics
• integrate the youth obsession with social media into an online learning component
• provide exam or test tips, reminders or hints
• an opportunity to extend learning outside of the lecture hours
• answer questions, or post questions like seen in the example
• and many, many more — it’s really up to you how you want to use it.

Some social media you may consider to be part of your “personal life” and you’re not willing to share among your students, and that is a sound and very justified argument. However, consider the idea of making a professional account along with maintaining your personal account. Say for example, you’re teaching Introduction to Communication Studies, or COMM1101. Why not make use the course code as your user name. Not only will your students follow it, but interested or prospective students to that course can also follow it and gain a better understanding as to what is being discussed before they register.

You may also choose to combine your personal and course related tweets thus sharing some of your personality along with the course announcements, news  and interesting links. That is exactly what this Carleton professor did and then pipped the Twitter feed into WebCT as seen in the image on the right and explained in our guide.

Educause developed an article about the 7 Things You Should Know About Twitter and within the document it discusses this concept of “metacognition” learning when students are engaged in a Twitter conversation, which according to Educause, is “the practice of thinking about and reflecting on your learning.” The idea that Twitter forces students to communicate their ideas concisely and clearly into 140 characters or less is a valuable tool that can be associated with retention. With discussions bouncing back and forth between students at 140 characters of less, students can train themselves to understand and communicate the key points of their argument. It’s no surprise that the virtual Twitter-world can become a powerful pedgogical tool when used correctly.

What do you get when you cross a teacher with an elephant?
~ A teacher you can never forget.

When it comes to maintaining a sense of control and focus in the classroom, it has always come down to the long-standing rivalry between the teachers and the infamous “class clown.” Recently, however, what used to be every teacher’s worst nightmare has made its way into the classroom as a tool that can actually help instructors or teaching assistants motivate students on topics that may otherwise be beyond a student’s reach. Using humour in these situations has been found to relieve stress, improve student attention and enhance learning.

Think back to some of your favourite instructors: what made them remarkable? Were they funny? Teachers who value wit within the classroom are seen as more interesting and authentic, as opposed to those who keep levity out of their lessons. Humour can even help to foster the student-teacher relationship, which in turn creates a positive and welcoming classroom environment. When meeting with a new group of students, a well-placed joke or quip can go a long way towards setting the tone for the rest of the term. The best thing about the use of humour in the classroom is that even if your joke bombs, it still accomplishes the goal of appearing light-hearted – as long as you can laugh at yourself! Self-deprecating humour can be effective in demonstrating that the instructor or TA is fun and approachable.

It is important to remember that while humour in the classroom can be a helpful pedagogical tool, finding your own balance takes practice in order to gauge what works best. Try and avoid a constant stream of jokes in order to maintain the integrity of your message, as too much humour can minimize the impact of the lesson you are trying to teach. In addition, some jokes have no place in the classroom. For instance, humour that is ridiculing or “over-the-top” can be distracting, unnecessary, or even offensive.

If you’re thinking of implementing humour in your classroom, consider what is effective or ineffective before you try:

Effective Uses of Humour
•    Introductions that include humour act as an ice-breaker and set the tone of the classroom.
•    Discipline-specific anecdotes, jokes, word-play, etc. can be used to explain challenging content.
•    Occasional self-deprecating humour can help the instructor appear more approachable, personable, and authentic.
•    Humour can help to deal with student-resistance or challenging students.
•    It can relax students during stressful times of the semester.

Ineffective Uses of Humour
•    Using humour that is unrelated to the course-content can distract and confuse student learning. Humour is not a substitute for traditional instruction.
•    Targeting selected groups (e.g., race, gender, sexual-orientation) or sensitive topics (e.g., evolution, mental illness, sex) breeds an unsafe learning environment.
•    Students should never be selected as the target of the joke. You run the risk of alienating or offending your audience.

Effective higher learning utilizes a variety of techniques, and if you are comfortable injecting a bit of humour into your teaching style, this could be your opportunity to bring some laughter into the classroom. Have fun!

Being a TA is an incredibly rewarding experience.  But let’s face it, we will probably all encounter a few occasions where getting students to participate in class discussions can be akin to pulling teeth.  Fortunately, TAing gives you the chance to let your imagination run wild and offers unique opportunities to creatively engage students in the material under discussion (and hopefully avoid those ‘teeth-pulling’ situations).

Tutorials may be a bit foreign for students new to university as it is expected that they generate the dialogue instead of passively listening to the instructor lecture.  While tutorials are an extension of class lectures, they offer greater flexibility for you to actively engage students.

To do so, be sure to utilize all your resources. Doing something like making use of classroom dynamics by moving around the room while you speak is just one example. If during the tutorial you have students work in groups, consider rearranging the classroom layout or make them physically change seats.  Shifting around should help keep students alert and make the tutorial seem a bit less formal.

Since most classrooms are equipped with teaching tools such as chalkboards and projectors – make use of them! Moreover, push your imagination to create activities that are uncommon or out of the ordinary as a way of adding an element of surprise to each week’s meetings and to keep students guessing as to what may be next.  These could take the form of role-playing or friendly competitions between groups as a way of giving students an active role to play in their education.  In short, using multi-media modes of communication, such as YouTube clips or musical excerpts, can stimulate thought which can lead to richer discussions and greater involvement.

Though sometimes trying to engage your class can be affected by different factors, such as the time of day, location, the subject matter, or even what time of year it is during the semester.  Nevertheless, making the most of your resources, as well as encouraging creative participation, can help accommodate diverse learning styles, enhancing the learning experience. And remember, if you find yourself at a loss for ideas and inspiration, never underestimate the power of chocolate as a motivator.

In keeping consistent with the goals and purpose of this blog, we will be continuing to inform you about EDC news and events, our commentary on the latest in educational technology and successful ways to integrate technology into your classroom.

We’re also adding a new series to the blog that focuses on the teaching assistant (TA) experience at Carleton. Many TAs participate in various workshops offered by the EDC and also submit articles to the TA Talk newsletter. We’re pleased to include some of these articles on the EDC blog.

Finally, if you’re interested in contributing to the EDC blog we would greatly appreciate it. Consider writing topics about: teaching issues, interesting incidences, activity ideas, things that work for you, best practices, assignments, classroom dynamics, or tools for teaching. They can be program specific or multi-disciplinary.

Simply send your blog post to ryan_kuhne@carleton.ca. We look forward to reading them.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS feed to keep up to date with all of the latest postings.
Have a great summer!

On September 25th, 2009 the EDC hosted a Teaching Roundtable discussion with Professor Jim Davies from Carleton’s Department of Cognitive Science. The topic was fitfully titled “Don’t Waste Student Work: Using Classroom Assignments to Further Wider Educational Goals and Research.”

Dr. Davies pointed out that many of the assignments that are given to students have no life beyond completion. How Professors can combat this is by providing students with assignments that have a greater purpose to fulfill, like involving an end customer, which can provide additional motivation to complete the assignment and to put their best work forward.

Professors could consider having students do assignments that contribute to the Professors’ own research. (i.e., obtaining a series of articles or journals on a topic that need to be summarized and have students do this as part of the assignment.) Students would see value in this because not only are they learning relevant material, but their name could potentially be mentioned in an acknowledgment or contributors note in an actual publication.

Dr. Davies provided several examples that could be integrated into any discipline, including using Article Summaries or Wikibooks as a way to provide longterm use for student assignments, Supermemo programs where students can design their own library of skill testing questions on topics related to their discipline, and many others.

If you have any questions regarding this discussion, or you would like to get more information, please contact Jim Davies at jim@jimdavies.org, or visit his website. You can also contact us with questions by commenting on this blog post, Phoning  613-520 4433, or Emailing  edc@carleton.ca.