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Abstract |
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| Title | Increments and Transformations Faculty Workshop |
| Contact | Dr. T. Grandon Gill ggill@coba.usf.edu 813-974-6755 |
| Principal Investigator | Dr. T. Grandon Gill |
| Department | USF Center for 21st Century Teaching Excellence |
| Brief Description | HP mobile technology supplied by grant was used was a week-long workshop, run by USF's Center for 21st Century Teaching Excellence, where 20 faculty membersfrom departments across campus used the Tablet PCs to explore new ways of developing online content (e.g., using Camtasia), new approaches to classroom collaboration (e.g., using Classroom Presenter) and methods of improving teaching productivity (e.g., ink-based grading of electronic submissions, use of OneNote for research). The goal of the seminar was to give faculty participants the tools and knowledge that they would need to implement technology-enabled changes to their teaching activities in the fall semester that followed. |
Quick Facts |
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| Courses Impacted | 1 |
| Number of Students Involved | 21 |
| Number of Faculty Involved | 25 (Note: students are faculty in this context) |
Rationale |
The project is being conducted under the auspices of USF's Center for 21st Century Teaching Excellence (C21TE), as part of its Increments and Transformations Institute (ITI). The ITI's goal is to encourage faculty members from all disciplines to enhance the effectiveness of their teaching through the appropriate use of technologies and pedagogical strategies. Institute participation consists of a year-long cohort-based program of faculty development divided into three distinct phases. In Phase I, participating faculty members attend an intensive week-long workshop on teaching with technology. Phase II takes place during the fall semester that follows, during which time each participant must implement a single technology-based/pedagogically-informed change to one or more courses (a.k.a., an "increment"). During Phase III, in the spring, each participant must share his or her experiences with additional departmental and college colleagues in a formal setting. (See Gill, Patterson and Williams, 2006, "The Increments and Transformation Institute at the University of South Florida", Informing Faculty, v. 1, n. 6) Historically, a substantial fraction of ITI faculty participants have chosen to incorporate Tablet PC technology into their Phase II increments. When the grant became available, the decision was made to issue each faculty participants (whose number was, quite coincidentally, the same as the number of grant-supplied equipment) a Tablet PC to use for the duration of the week-long Phase I workshop.
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Implementation |
| Pedagogy Consistent with its goal of enhancing faculty teaching effectiveness and encouraging them to explore new ways to employ technology in a teaching setting, the ITI summer workshop has always been taught using a broad range of techniques. Starting in 2005, the seminar adopted an approach that centered around case studies describing real faculty situations relating to teaching with technology. Specifically, the week long workshop includes the following:
The workshop facilitators, which included the PI, the C21TE directors, and instructional design staff, were all skilled in the application in multiple technologies. At any given time, 4-5 were typically available to answer faculty participant questions, and to assist with hands-on activities.
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| Technology The Tablet PCs supplied by the grant were used in every aspect of the 2006 week-long ITI summer workshop, and it is anticipated that they will be used in the same manner during summer 2007. Faculty members were given the tablets shortly after arriving on Monday morning, followed by an hour-long session on their use. At the end of each day, the tablets were returned to the cart for recharging. To avoid the need for faculty to keep track of their particular units, each faculty member was also given (to keep) a portable media player that could double as a USB stoarage device, allowing them to save their work at the end of each day and have it available for the next day. The Tablet PCs were integrated into virtually every aspect of the workshop. Tablet-related technologies actually used by participants included:
In addition, the potential other potential uses of Tablet PC technology were demonstrated, such as:
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Impact on Teaching |
Traditionally, the ITI workshop has always blended numerous teaching techniques. The objective in the summer 2006 workshop was to blend use of the Tablet PCs--both by the participants and by the facilitators--seamlessly into the activities. Doing so meant employing Tablet PC features in presentations and demonstrations, having the students use the capabilities in their hands on activities, and using collaborative capabilities (as exemplified by Classroom Presenter) to enhance discussions. The goal was not only to introduce participants to the tool's capabilities, it was to allow them to experience how using these capabilities could enhance their own learning (from the perspective of a student) and their own productivity (from the perspective of a faculty member). As the PI notes:
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Impact on Student Learning |
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Because summer 2006 was our fourth ITI cohort, we have a baseline for assessing the effectiveness of the summer workshop. Specifically, we have traditionally used four measures of effectiveness:
The first three of these are currently still being assessed for the summer 2006 workshop cohort, which concludes at the end of May. Based on fall and spring cohort presentations, however, it appears that the current cohort is transforming its teaching at a level comparable to that of previous cohorts. With respect to (4), we have already seen a highly positive tone to the comments submitted by participants when the workshop ended. |
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| One Year Ago In the 2005 cohort, we first began implementing the case-discussion theme in the summer workshop. The cohort results in 1-3 were astoundingly good, with an average of 3.05 increments per faculty member, involving 2.6 technologies (both numbers nearly double those of prior cohorts, as detailed in Gill, Patterson and Williams, 2006). In addition, three of the participants made enhancements so significant that they were chosen to be the keynote speakers in the USF 2006 symposium for teaching with technology. One complaint voiced by many in prior cohorts was the lack of "hands on" opportunities in the workshop. Here we anticipated major benfits from the use of mobile HP technology. |
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| Today In addition to the qualitative feedback, participants were asked to fill out a voluntary online survey that attempted to measure their reaction to the tool. 85% (17 of 20) chose to participate. Highlights of the survey include:
Another set of questions related to the synergies between Tablet PCs and other technologies presented during the workshop. The results, shown below, suggested that they had developed a strong appreciation of the many ways in which the technology could be applied.
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| One Year From Now We will be continuing to use the 2006 grant Tablet PCs in the summer 2007 workshop in July which signals the start of Cohort V. One drawback of using the tablets was the frustration mentioned by some faculty participants regarding the fact that we were showing them the technology, but then not giving them access to it. We are currently applying for additional grants--both from HP and other sources--in the hope that we will find a way to make it possible to issue cohort participants their own Tablet PCs for use during the cohort year and beyond. If we are able to acquire such resources, the intention is to develop Tablet-PC specific workshops that faculty participants can attend during the month after the week-long workshop. |
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| Student Comments Comments from survey at the end of the workshop: What uses of the Tablet PCs this past week were of greatest value to you?
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Websites, Presentations and Publications |
| Web Sites Case studies: http://informingfaculty.org USF Center for 21st Century Teaching Excellence: http://www.c21te.usf.edu/ |
Presentations
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Publications
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