Changing Styles, Meeting Needs

July 2010, Volume 23, Number 7

 

by William Wade

Colleges that have been offering online courses for a while are running into a new wave of challenges: changing student needs and static online course content. West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC) in Paducah, Kentucky, began offering courses via computer modem in 1991 and moved to the Internet in 1996. From 1996 to 2006, the college used seven different course management systems (CMS). The systems were of increasing complexity and the configuration of each required mastering a steep learning curve. The growth of options within the CMS itself and the change in configuration kept the courses current.

For nearly five years, WKCTC and many other community colleges have had more stability in their use of a CMS. This stability has created the new problem of static course content. Faculty members have not been forced to make major changes in course content nor have they been forced to use the new resources that have become available over the past few years. We have had to start thinking inside the box—looking at where we are and what we are doing with the material we have. At WKCTC, we are striving to reinvent courses to make the content more interactive, more engaging, and more fun. We are throwing away the yellowed note pads of early development and writing our courses in the current software, much of which is available at an economical rate or free.

Software innovations and the ability to interact with students in distinctive ways have changed the direction of teaching online and the physical teaching environment forever. We no longer have the option of standing in front of a group of eager students who cannot wait for us to tell them what they need to know. The students demand that we give them information using the same techniques they see in Facebook, YouTube, digital sound bites, video clips, and computer games. Gaming, instant communication, live learning, and the tools of the digital age are expected by every student, not just the students coming from high school. If we do not make the students an integral part of the class, we will not be an integral part of their learning.

Software programs have revolutionized teaching. One program, SoftChalk, allows the course developer or teacher to build materials that contain content to meet a variety of learning styles and keep the learner focused through interactivity and assorted approaches to the subject. Audio, video, and image files built in SoftChalk all work on any computer because the program that runs the file is packaged with the file itself. The teacher or developer has the option of building crossword puzzles, word searches, labeling exercises, and hot-spot identification activities. SoftChalk also contains tools that enhance organization practice and enable the teacher to test matching skills. Definitions of unknown terms are available by moving the cursor over the word, and quizzes built in SoftChalk can be incorporated into the CMS grading system or used as practice exercises without grades.

Wimba, another useful software tool, is a communication tool for live meetings, PowerPoint presentations, visual and audio conferencing, and archived replays of live meetings that allows students to interact with faculty and other students. Wimba also contains a whiteboard that allows the teacher and student to share screens and ideas, and discuss concepts and concerns via an audio link. A web cam also allows each person to be seen. The Spanish teacher at WKCTC holds weekly Wimba meetings to observe students as they practice pronunciation. This audio and video sharing is an excellent way for the larger group to practice the language. Sessions can be replayed for extra practice or viewed by students who could not participate in the session.

Several software tools are free. Photostory allows the user to create slideshows from digital photographs. The user can touch up, crop, and rotate images, and then create an interesting display of the images by adding narration or music. Jing, a screen capture tool, shows each screen as it appears during the login process. Screen capture can be narrated while the builder is going through a process and saved to post online or in the CMS. 

Another free tool, Kompozer, is used to produce and manage websites that have a professional look and are easy to build without the use of HTML. Open Office may be used in place of commercial word processing, database, presentation, and spreadsheet software. While some word processors will not open universally, Open Office documents can be opened and saved as a wide variety of documents, making them accessible to everyone. Skype is a free phone or audio link between Skype users. The sound is crystal clear and works anywhere Internet access is available. With a webcam, users can even see who they are talking to.

In 2001, Marc Prensky (On the Horizon, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001) described a new generation of students coming to our colleges—the Digital Natives, those born after 1990 who have grown up in a cell phone, texting, instant communication environment where images and news are shared live. “Film at eleven” no longer has meaning, and people can gain or lose reputations within minutes of an act. In contrast, the Digital Immigrant has become immersed in that same environment but can still remember the ancient practice of email, land-line phones, and rental movies. In many colleges, the needs of both types of students are met by a faculty that operates from previous generations and perspectives. What we do with these students determines our future as educators. We no longer have the luxury of telling students how they will learn. Students will most likely go where the learning is quality and relevant but most of all includes them in class activities.

Digital Natives expect learning to be interactive and engaging. Their phones allow them to surf the Internet, send pictures to friends, text, attend an online class and listen to lectures, check the weather, and keep up with Facebook and Twitter entries. They may even make calls on the phones, but not very often. They can also watch TV, write a research paper, check the phone for updates, and evaluate research sources without leaving a favorite restaurant, coffee shop, or book store. The majority of these activities can be and are completed on the computer or phone, but might also take place on an iTouch, Blackberry, or iPad. The Digital Native is used to and expects material to be interesting, accurate, and fun, and the presentation of content must be high quality. The Digital Native can see past the game to the application of information and the synthesis of those ideas to a new level of understanding. They can move in and out of a virtual world as easily as they can move though the physical world. They are more motivated by success than by eloquence. And they prefer to get the information and use it immediately than be told they will someday understand. What does this mean to us as teachers?

Many teachers fall into the Digital Immigrant category, and many Immigrant teachers have learned to embrace the digital age, but are still aware of their analog history. They remember film, newspapers, record players, and tape recorders. But these teachers gave up using the computer monitor as a holder of sticky notes a few years back and have since started texting and checking the stock market on the same phone used by the Native. Just as their Immigrant counterparts in the student population no longer expect lecture as usual, the Immigrant faculty are figuring out that their approach to teaching must change. Whether Digital Native or Digital Immigrant, students want to be treated with respect and allowed to participate in the learning environment. They want to do rather than simply watch and listen, and we can meet their needs with technology that allows students to take an active role in the learning process. In the relative safety of a virtual teaching and learning environment, students can, for example, dissect a frog, invest in the stock market, plan urban centers, and build engines that rotate 360 degrees for a full view.

At the community college level, these two student types present a challenge that may well last another twenty years. We have the tools and the ability to engage both Natives and Immigrants in meaningful learning experiences. If we are not using these tools, if we are not meeting our students’ learning needs, then they will very likely go somewhere else.

 

William Wade is the dean of online learning at West Kentucky Community and Technical College.

Posted by The League for Innovation in the Community College on 07/15/2010 at 9:36 AM | Categories: Learning Abstracts -