1	Time to Collaborate! Scott E. Siddall Assistant Provost, Director of Instructional Technology Denison University Granville, Ohio siddall@denison.edu
2	Two meanings…. Now is the time to collaborate! Why? Do you have time to collaborate? The challenges
3	“Collaboration with Technology” Mellon-funded program, 1998-2002 Five Colleges of Ohio (Denison, Kenyon, Oberlin, Ohio Wesleyan, Wooster) Lessons learned Disciplinary gatherings Flexible funding Broad definition of “technology” Local, technical support Senior administrators must talk
4	“Collaboration with Technology” Program’s web site: http://enhanced-learning.org Third year report on the program http://siddall.info/talks/educause2001/
5	Collaborative Projects Classes shared between campuses Clash of Cultures: Middle Eastern Studies Gender and Family in South Asia Aristophanes Now
6	Collaborative Projects Shared development of curricular material Access to examples in abstract algebra Symbolic computing to enhance learning in probability and statistics Shakespeare on Film
7	Collaborative Projects Shared faculty expertise Enhancing spatial analyses in the classroom (GIS) Print making in a digital world
8	Collaborative Projects Less commonly taught languages Chinese Language and Literature Beginning and Intermediate Japanese Three semesters of Arabic
9	In what ways do you collaborate? (and the audience response) Is your discipline collaborative by nature? Less so for political science, neuroscience More so for music, education, library and technology Team teaching? 60% responded “yes” Collaborative scholarship, creative work? 45% said yes, but “it can be a struggle” Collaboration between campuses? Only 5% Model collaborative learning in class? 45% do Collaborate to get tenure? As mentors
10	Now is the time to collaborate Fewer reinvented wheels Shared efforts in faculty and staff development, curriculum development Do with someone else what you cannot do alone Model collaboration for your students To keep up with both your discipline and technology Technological interdependencies require collaboration Extend access to new courses Contain costs New ideas for faculty and students alike Collegial support, more enjoyable work Collaborate to share uniquely held materials Increased accountability Build a community of scholars
11	How does collaboration relate to technology? Help each other climb the learning curves of technology Applies to faculty, staff and students Technology that makes collaboration effective E-mail Web-based curricular resources Asynchronous tools Shared network resources Video conferencing Technology can sustain communities Rarely defines or creates communities by itself
12	Why use technology? Enhance information access Increase student motivation, engagement Accommodate different ways of learning, knowing Create partnerships, opportunities to collaborate Change content through visualization, simulation Promote a new “balance of power” in classroom Encourage new methods of assessment Improve communication skills Greater opportunities for complex, interdisciplinary study Prepare students for postgraduate life
13	Faculty Perspective Not enough time! 90% teaching, 40% scholarship, 20% service…. Face-to-face contact is valued, more costly Pressure of promotion and tenure - what is valued? “Personal chemistry” for teaching Structured classroom - “my domain” Disciplinary methods are changing Shifting departmental and disciplinary focus Curricular materials often in specific formats Confidence in traditional methods of publishing
14	From where do our teaching habits come? Formal training in educational theory, practice 40% of the audience Graduate teaching assistantships Disciplinary methods Evolved personal practices Practices of our institutions, mentors, best teachers From raising children or training dogs Observation of good and bad teachers Teaching as I wish I were taught Experience in personnel management Experience in customer service
15	Why not use technology? If it doesn’t match the instructor’s goals or style of teaching Lack of time If it means doing more instead of doing different “Time deepening” – life in a multitasking world Unmet and uninformed expectations “Technology saves time” – sometimes yes, sometimes no Unreliable technology Lack of support Unintended effects Hard to use technology, hard to learn Pace of technology changes
16	Change is not new - rate of change is New patterns of information use, distribution Positive feedback loop in technological development Steady change has given way to accelerating change “Digital incunabula” – like early printed texts An incomplete, unfinished technology Brittle Public beta testing
17	Inventors and innovators Inventors create new technologies Innovators find meaningful ways to use technologies In higher education, the small, residential college is often viewed as the innovator
18	Why innovate? Because we always have Our academic tradition is richly innovative Tradition and constancy of process Discovery, creation and distribution of information Scholarship, creativity, intellectual and social growth Learning from differences
19	Benefits of Collaboration Availability of specialized courses More and improved curricular materials Greater awareness leading to new opportunities Sabbatical replacements Guest lectures Pooled enrollment for very small courses Enhanced learning (self-assessed outcomes)
20	Costs of collaboration Time Collaboration takes more time than independent efforts Takes time to change a culture steeped in individual scholarship Stipends, release time Designing and redesigning courses is expected; fund the added overhead Support Local training and consulting – staff and student Mission-critical production support Infrastructure Inter-campus network capacity Compatible systems Facilitator
21	What to look for in a collaborative effort Curricular compatibility Common interests – within or among disciplines Personal compatibility Institutional support Technology Tenure policies Financial Substitution, not addition Pedagogical goals come first Why before how Easy-to-use applications
22	Do we have the time to collaborate? As institutions, as individuals? Is there a choice, and how broadly? Collaborate on campus Collaborate among campuses And to what degree? Cooperation, collaboration, partnerships And with whom?
23	With whom do we collaborate? Faculty with faculty on campus and off Faculty with librarians and instructional technologists Students with students on and off campus Faculty with students Helps us move from teaching about social science to teaching how to be a social scientist
24	Traditional relationships
25	New partnerships (a strong form of collaboration)
26	Students need an extended information literacy Traditionally: location and format of information Discernment among infinitely diverse resources Assessment of new technology tools Meaning and methods of publishing on the web Intellectual property rights Understanding social dimensions of electronic communication, collaboration Skills to keep up with changes in disciplinary methods
27	Faculty responsibility: quality of learning Distributive learning Authentic tasks, complex inquiry Dialogic learning Constructive learning Public accountability Reflexive and critical thinking
28	Time…too little time Collaboration/Technology = more of my time Collaboration/Technology = risky Where is the gain? Change is at least accelerating, and we will manage change by creating more change Paraphrased after Peter Drucker
29	Return Return to home