Technology Fellows 2012 Entrance Interviews

FTC staff caught up with the 2012 Tech Fellows the week before the Intensive to get a sense of their expectations and goals. Conversation highlights are below.

• Heather Caldwell
• Cathy Coulter
• Aaron Dotson
• Margie Draskovich
• Scott Hamel
• Hsaio Wei-Ying
• Trish Jenkins
• Zeynep Kilic
• Rebeca Maseda
• Jessie Nixon
• Irasema Ortega
• Karl Pfeiffer
• Jennifer Stone
• Kathleen Stephenson

FTC: Expectations for the Intensive?

Heather: I hope to become more familiar with certain aspects of Blackboard and system software that we use here. And I would also say, I expect some collaboration with English department and with other departments: to see what other people are using.

FTC: Do you enjoy using technology?

Heather: I like to blog. I use blogs in Blackboard. And I blog in my personal life -- about running.

FTC: What are you most excited about going into the Intensive?

Heather: I'm excited about using a new piece of technology, the IPad. That's really exciting. I've been researching the IPad, asking how other people use the IPad. I'm excited about streamlining my class. 

FTC: Speaking of the IPad, how do you imagine you're going to use it?

Heather: I hope to use the IPad to make stuff more easily accessible, and to use it as a recording device.

FTC: Do you feel apprehensive about anything technology-related?

Heather: I'm a little apprehensive about making something to tech-heavy. That could be a problem with the non-traditional students.

FTC: How do you define teaching and learning success, particularly as it pertains to the use of technology?

Heather: At the end of every semester, I ask my students to make a reflection. I'm hoping to integrate those reflections, to evaluate how things went online. The students' feedback helps me know whether I've been successful. I ask them to evaluate their ease [of movement] within a course. It's their experience!

College of Education
Partner: Hsaio Wei-Ying, Education; Irasema Ortega, Education

FTC: What are you hoping for from the Tech Fellows Intensive?

Cathy: I'm hoping to learn how to create an online course. I'm teaching one for the first time next semester. I'd also like to work with our group to collaborate on some things, specifically with stuff we're doing in Chevak. We're interested in exploring how we can use technology, particularly IPads, in Chevak to help them document language together with pictures. There's language that's specific to tundra grass... they're losing that knowledge. We're hoping with IPads to help them document language, take pictures, capture stories from elders: to revitalize and sustain language, to make storybooks and support literacy in the native language.

FTC: What are you excited about?

Cathy: I'm excited and relieved to get support for my online course. It feels important to connect with students. I've seen instructors meet with online students for the first time, after they've had the course, a year later. Also, I've always wanted an IPad. I imagine moving all the stuff that I do on my IPhone over to the IPad. I went to an IPad training that Apple put on, and was interested in the things you can do that are education-related. Right now I have a PC that I'd really like to turn into a Mac. I started a DropBox. It's time to be on the cutting edge!

FTC: Are you apprehensive about anything?

Cathy: I'm just a little behind the learning curve. It ends up being a lot of information at once. Creating a course, you're learning it in theory, and then a few months later, you're actually doing the course... other questions come up.

FTC: What do you imagine to be the result of a successful Intensive?

Cathy: A good result would be to reduce my fretting and concern about doing my online course. I want to be proactive, have tools. To me this is like planting the seeds.

FTC: On the lighter side, what's a fun thing that you do with technology?

Cathy: My kids share a lot of YouTube videos with me. I stalk my children on Facebook, it's actually fun. One of them just unfriended me, but she's 19 now. We're not friends anymore! "My mom's on Facebook."

Civil Engineering
Partner: Scott Hamel, Civil Engineering

FTC: Any expectations for the Fellows Intensive?

Aaron: I hope to learn about novel techniques to bring technology to the classroom effectively. That's kind of my primary goal. And to understand what tools UAA has to formally do that. 

FTC: Tell us about a fun thing you do with technology.

Aaron: A fun thing... personal or in-class? Technology's kind of attached at the hip. I play cell phone games. I don't know. I'm not very fun with technology. I just like new technology, let's put it that way: new shiny things, blinking lights. I have fun doing my research and anlyzing things. I like to use things in interactive ways: that's the reason I tried a tablet this semester. 

FTC: What excites you about the upcoming Intensive?

Aaron: Having a group of other faculty I can talk to about using technology.

FTC: You have a use for the IPad in mind.

Aaron: My intention is to see if I can use this as a way to have students interact with the class that doesn't involve them standing up at the board. Standing at the board when math is involved puts students on edge. I want them to interact with what's written on the screen.

FTC: Is there anything you feel apprehensive about?

Aaron: My biggest apprehension? I haven't taken many other teaching/training classes, so jumping to technology might be a little challenging. I hope I teach well! But without formal training, I think it could be a bit of a challenge.

FTC: How will you know you've been successful after the Intensive?

Aaron: Just new tools in my toolbox. Understanding how to use other tools. Trying something outside of the box I'm currently in.

FTC: Any other technology interests?

Aaron: I have a lot of interest in ELive and interactive -- maybe not distance education, but digital-type teaching. I just figured out I could do the screen-sharing thing on ELive to have students use a model. That was a nice technology catch in one of my classes. That's about it.

School of Nursing
Partner: Kathleen Stephenson, School of Nursing

FTC: What are your expectations for the Tech Fellows Intensive?

Margie: I'm expecting to learn how to get the students more involved with social interactions, with team building, and with group projects. How to facilitate distance-delivered classes in that regard? When you can't break them into groups in a classroom, how do you break them into groups online, when they're all over the state? I'm expecting to learn about that.

FTC: Can technology be fun?

Margie: I like doing the Camtasia recordings, the Powerpoints. I think that's fun. It's all fun, I like it all! I make games for the students. I think of ways I can make the course interactive, so that they're not just staring at a screen. Anything I can make interactive is fun for me.

FTC: Your excitement is infectious!

Margie: I'm always amazed at how much is out there, things I never knew were possible. I'm excited to figure out how to use the IPad. I want to use the IPad to make PowerPoints. The PowerPoints should be much more interactive, it should pull them right in. I teach via video conference as well as with Blackboard. So in my blended classes, I want my students to have independent study time on Blackboard, and I want the video conference to be exciting and stimulating and interactive.

FTC: Are you apprehensive about anything technology-related?

Margie: I don't get into Facebook and social networking with students, because that can be dangerous. So if I'm apprehensive about anything, it's the possibility of misusing technology. Certain things can be shared and certain things can't!

FTC: How will you know you've had a successful Intensive?

Margie: I'm not going to know until I see the first group of students go through. Then I can see whether things are more interactive. Students were dropping out in the past because they felt they weren't having enough group interaction. We'll have less dropout and more successful completion.

FTC: You said assessment is a concern for you.

Margie: If I'm creating a lot of social group interaction, are there tools out there to help me grade that? In one situation recently, a group that gave feedback that they didn't work well together as a team. If I need to go back and grade individual performance in a team, can Blackboard help me do that? Or an external tool? The question is participation and assessment: how is that graded fairly?

FTC: What are three things you'd like to share with the Tech Fellows group in terms of teaching, learning, and technology?

Margie: One, I think technology helps students become more engaged in the course. Two, technology stimulates my students to be more independent learners. Three, technology stimulates me to be a better teacher and fuels my fire. Technology keeps me learning!

School of Engineering
Partner: Aaron Dotson, Engineering

FTC: What are your expectations for the Intensive?

Scott: I'm expecting to interact with other people that are interested in using technology in their classroom setting. I'm expecting to learn a lot about the technologies that are available, even some of the ones I've already used, and techniques to using them more effectively.

FTC: Tell us about a fun thing you like to do with technology.

Scott: In class or in general? One of the things that we do in civil engineering classes, when we design projects, bridges and roadways, stuff like that, is 3D fly-throughs. We do 3D models of things, and then we fly through and see the structure in three dimensions. It's a powerful technology, especially from the marketing perspective. It's a good visual tool. As an engineer, I can look at a 2D plan set and see what's going to happen, but other people can't. The models are fun, they're really cool-looking.

FTC: And in your personal life?

Scott: In my personal life, I tend to be kind of cheap! I don't have an IPhone or an IPad. I feel that I'm a little behind the curve, kind of out of the loop. A lot of people are already moving into that world, the world of touchscreens. I'm excited to get into that world and see what the possibilities are. The portability of the devices, being able to use them in a classroom -- I'm excited about that. 

FTC: What is your criterion for a successful Technology Intensive?

Scott: Having a bunch of new tools that I'm excited to use, and being annoyed that I'm going to have to wait two months to do it! That'll be a sign that the Intensive was successful: my level of enthusiasm.

FTC: Any technology you'd like to learn more about?

Scott: Probably the things that I lack knowledge of are Blackboard and ELive, and that genre of tools that are used in class, or used with a course. How can those tools be used more? I'm completing my first year of teaching here, and I use Blackboard, basically, just to post stuff. But I know that it has a lot more capability.

FTC: Do you bring any unique perspectives to the Tech Fellows Intensive?

Scott: Looking at the list, I see that Aaron and I are the only engineers. It'll be fascinating to see the different perceptions from, like, English people -- who have a completely different way of teaching and portraying what they need to teach. I'm an engineer, so I teach courses that are different from theirs, courses that are mathematically oriented. I went through a thing in Wisconsin when I was a PhD candidate. I can't remember what it was called. We visited other classrooms -- it was all about interactive classrooms, a semester-long thing. We visited people who were good at interactive teaching. And one day, people were having a discussion about how to keep students from searching the internet in class. I was like: well, I never have that problem! No one has their laptop out at all! The reason is of course, as an engineering professor, I'm doing a lot of drawing, numbers, matrix math that you can't even deal with on a computer. At least, you couldn't deal with it at the time. Different backgrounds lead to better discussions. I don't find there's a lot of inter-departmental discussion at UAA normally. Having an English person critique my teaching? That would be valuable.

College of Education
Partner: Cathy Coulter, Education; Irasema Ortega, Education

FTC: What are your expectations for the Intensive?

Wei-Ying: I would like to learn something new, something challenging! Since we're going to get IPads, I would like to learn more about IPads and how I can apply them in the classroom. I'd also like to learn more about free software like Google Apps. 

FTC: What are some fun things you like to do with technology?

Wei-Ying: I like to create something. I like projects. If you don't use it, you lose it. It's important when you learn something to apply your knowledge.

FTC: Maybe you can use your new IPad in one of your projects!

Wei-Ying: I hope that I can use the IPad as part of the technology in the classroom. I'd like to create more websites on Google Sites. You can have QR codes right there [with Google Sites and the IPad]. Students can really see the interactive piece. Paperwork alone is boring. But with QR codes, they can link to the Google Site. I want to take time next week to work with Google Sites and bring it into the classroom.

FTC: How do you define teaching success?

Wei-Ying: Success is grasping skills and using them right away -- or using them over a semester. If I haven't applied it, I haven't truly learned it.

FTC: Is there anything you'd like to learn in the Intensive that you haven't mentioned yet?

Wei-Ying: Sometimes if you don't know something, you don't know what you should learn! But to go back to Google Sites, I'd like to create more websites with Google Sites. I'd like to explore free eBooks, particularly as they relate to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). And I'd like to know more about the Technology and Engineering part of STEM.

FTC: Closing thoughts?

Wei-Ying: How are you going to bring the face-to-face courses online? It's a different format, that's why it's hard. But you can bring the face-to-face materials online. It's simply a matter of knowing how.

Department of English
Partners: Heather Caldwell, English; Jessie Nixon, English; Jennifer Stone, English

FTC: What are your expectations of the 2012 Intensive?

Trish: I would like to have the time to learn. My biggest expectation: simply to have time. I know some of the things that are out there, I want to advance where I am, but I can't do that unless I stop everything in my life and take time. Tech Fellows will allow me to take time. 

FTC: What are you excited about going into the Intensive?

Trish: I'm really excited to be working with colleagues, to be influenced by them, to see what they do. I think my colleagues are leaps and bounds ahead, and have a lot to offer.

FTC: Are you apprehensive about anything?

Trish: People learn in different ways! When I write a paper, I start with a piece of paper and a pencil. But sometimes when you do something one way, you bring transfer knowledge. I wonder what transfer knowledge I can bring. I'm also hoping I can get more bravado about going into uncharted territory, taking advantage of all the technology available. Last fall I tried ELive for the first time. It went better than I thought, and students liked it more than I thought they would. I want more collaborative learning in my classes! I want a better online community. I want teaching to be less labor-intensive for me. I want my students to be engaged throughout the semester too: that's what I consider frictionless learning.

FTC: You've recently become interested in models of online teaching and learning.

Trish: In the Community of Inquiry model for online teaching and learning, you have social presence, teaching presence and cognitive presence. Social presence is the student's sense of themself, teaching presence has to do with the organization of the course, and cognitive presence is the engagement. I want to improve my teacher presence and make sure my students are cognitively engaged. I want my course to be more than an online repository of uploaded documents. I would love to share with the group some of the theoretical stuff. It makes you think about the role that you play, your assumptions about students, and the goals and outcomes that you have. Have you heard about the distinction between object orientation and task orientation? Task orientation is better, of course... I'd like to share that too.

FTC: Is there anything else you'd like to learn during the Intensive?

Trish: When we moved to Blackboard 9.1, there were some new things I never learned about. I spend a lot of time fighting with the WYSIWYG editor. Text formatting is something that I teach. What are my options with the WYSIWYG editor in Blackboard? I found a few tricks, and maybe they're not the best, but I'd like to explore that more.

Department of Sociology
Partners: Rebeca Maseda, Languages; Karl Pfeiffer, Sociology

FTC: Any expectations for the Intensive?

Zeynep: I want to learn some extra skills! I've been using Blackboard for a long time now... I want to improve my class and to use EPortfolios better. I want to provide different options for students. I like the possibility of collaboration: learning from other people and hearing their stories. It gives me a better idea if I hear a person say, here's what's worked. That gives me a quick sense of whether to try the technique or not. People have very wide variety of experience. I really want to learn something new from my fellow Tech Fellows. I want the collaborative aspect to work.

FTC: You said you like to make learning fun for your students. How do you use technology to do that?

Zeynep: I use cartoons, humorous videos. I like to start the conversation with a cartoon.

FTC: How do you use technology in your teaching and learning?

Zeynep: I have an IPad that my department bought me. I love that I can read PDFs, download documents, take it to meetings. It's not heavy like a laptop! But I don't use it in conferences as much as I thought I would. I cannot let go of my PC laptop -- that is about to die a slow death. Starting with Tech Fellows, I am going to switch over to being a complete Mac user.

FTC: Do you feel apprehensive about anything related to technology or to the Tech Fellows program?

Zeynep: I have some misgivings about technology. I see a difference between online and face-to-face classes. Students think that when a course is online, they can flake and catch up later on. Keeping online students motivated is much harder than keeping face-to-face students motivated. I send a lot of emails and reminders, but if they're not logging in there's not much I can do. I allow laptops in class, and I can see they're not working... every student I asked 'fessed up that using technology makes it hard to pay attention. They're like, smiling at their screens, looking at Facebook. I don't want to shut it down, say you're not allowed to bring it in. A colleague in my department observed that students using laptops in his classroom had lower averages. Honestly, I don't know what to do about that. So I have conflicting feelings.

FTC: Something to do with the difficulty of multitasking?

Zeynep: I'm skeptical about multitasking... unless one of the processes is like tying your shoes, something automatic, it doesn't work, it conflicts with the primary task. How do I help the students use technology without sacrificing their focus? I hope my fellow technologists will report from the classroom about that.

FTC: Anything else you'd like to learn about in the Tech Fellows program?

Zeynep: I don't know what I don't know! It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Department of Languages
Partners: Zeynep Kilic, Sociology; Karl Pfeiffer, Sociology

FTC: What are your expectations for the Intensive?

Rebeca: I have distinct expectations for my class and for myself. For myself, I want to learn a few technological things I'm not sure about. This is a good opportunity for me to sit down and have someone who is an expert teach me these things. For my students, I want to be able to teach my students what I've learned.

FTC: What's a fun thing you do with technology?

Rebeca: For fun? In my fun life, I do not use technology. I am not a Facebook person, for instance: I don't know how to use Facebook. For social purposes, nothing: I am a member of the old school. But in my classroom, it's very helpful. Technology is useful for teaching, I use it a lot pedagogically. I only learn what is useful for me... I'm not a technomaniac. If it makes my life easier, I want it! if it doesn't help me out, I don't need to know it. I'm very open about what I do in my classroom, and I have something to share. My relation to technology is very ambiguous. If technology is not helping my students, I'm not interested. Technology is not the goal. I want it to be simple and minimal for them. I like low-friction! If it gets too complicated, and is taking too much space, it's not for me.

FTC: Ever used an IPad before? People say it's easy to use.

Rebeca: You have to teach me what the IPad can do for me. Otherwise I have no use for it! Someone told me with the IPad I can listen to audiobooks. I love audiobooks. I don't know much about the IPad, I need to know what it can do for me that my Mac Air doesn't do already. At the end of the year I will know what my IPad can do!

FTC: How will you know you've been successful in the Intensive?

Rebeca: I'll be successful if I can really get my students involved and engaged, so that they can demonstrate what they've learned. At the end of the semester, I ask my students.

FTC: You mentioned screencasting earlier.

Rebeca: I've been trying with QuickTime to record Powerpoints off my desktop while I talk, but it isn't working! I can't record lectures! So I would like to learn about lecture capture or screencasting. Maybe I can use Camtasia for this.

FTC: Anything else you're excited about?

Rebeca: I am superexcited to learn how to do websites. I'm doing ePortfolios with Mahara, but I want something that can't disappear, something public. You want something that is alive, an organism, something that can grow... a website. I'm not apprehensive about anything. I have no fear. I am super open to what is coming.

Department of English
Partners: Heather Caldwell, English; Trish Jenkins, English; Jennifer Stone, English

FTC: What are your expectations for the Intensive?

Jessie: I'd like to focus on Blackboard. We're all looking at Blackboard. I'd like to explore and see how other people are using it. I recently tried to use the Journal function, for instance... it didn't work so well. So I'd like to explore some of the more obscure functions of Blackboard.

FTC: Blackboard is pretty important around here.

Jessie: I really enjoy using Blackboard. But when I teach in-person classes, Blackboard seems just like a place to for students to find documents or announcements. How do I make Blackboard more interactive, less busywork? In my English 111 classes, I feel I do a good job of creating a community in that classroom... in a 200 level classroom, there's not so much of that feeling among students. These are Great Expectations.

FTC: How do you think you'll know that you've had a successful Instensive?

Jessie: I'll know I've been successful if I can take what I've learned from the Intensive and implement it in a class. Recently, for instance, some people tried to put the blog on their front page. This summer, I'm going to put the blog on my front page in Blackboard.

FTC: Tell us about your work with screencasting tools.

Jessie: Based on This American Life, I had my students use GarageBand to put together audio narratives. I made a screencast showing them how to use GarageBand. I make them listen to This American Life, I make them like This American Life. Anyway, ScreenFlow is a brilliant tool. It records your screen. This summer, I want to record how to put headers and page numbers into papers. You pull up a Word document and you talk through it. It sounds silly, but students spend hours trying to figure this out. The ScreenFlow tool really creates presence. You talk them through it, show them how to do different things.

FTC: Did you know that as part of the Tech Fellows program you get a free IPad 3?

Jessie: I'm so excited about the IPad! I've wanted one, but couldn't justify it. People have talked about how you can record lectures with the IPad. For the classroom, I'm interested to explore all aspects of the IPad. A year ago, an instructor tried to use the IPad for all aspects of teaching... he had some problems. But I'm excited about the IPad.

College of Education
Partner: Cathy Coulter, Education; Hsaio Wei-Ying, Education

FTC: Any expectations for the Intensive?

Ira: Two things: I hope to learn how to effectively manage a hybrid class. I want the ability to teach students using our technology in the College of Education, so that I can bring in students who are at remote sites, and at the same time teach my Science Methods class live to the students who are in Anchorage and the nearby area. The other thing? To learn about using the IPad. 

FTC: What's a fun thing you do with technology?

Ira: I communicate via Skype with friends and relatives around the world, and I've done that with my students as well.

FTC: What most excites you about the Intensive?

Ira: The opportunity to learn how to continue to implement technology in the classroom, and to expand technology uses to other sites, such as Chevak. 

FTC: How are you planning to use your new IPad?

Ira: I am going to take that IPad to Chevak, and I am going to start documenting what I see around the environment. I am going to test it myself, and I am going to invite others to use the IPad. I'm going to do this with Cathy.

FTC: Are you apprehensive about anything going into the Intensive?

Ira: No, not really. I think that learning is always exciting! So if anything, I'm really eager to start!

FTC: How will you know you've been successful?

Ira: I think it's trial by fire when I offer my classes and I am able to manage that hybrid environment. And I always know that I've learned something if I'm able to teach it to others. That is a measure of success for me!

FTC: Is there anything in particular you'd like to explore during the Intensive?

Ira: Perhaps ways of incorporating the technology into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). More ways of using the IPad and the web to design curriculum for K-8.

FTC: Name three things that you bring to the Intensive in terms of teaching, learning, and technology.

Ira: One, my disposition to work collaboratively with others and to create what I would call a professional learning community within our group, and to continue those efforts to attract others -- I guess I bring my vision. Two, my willingness to make mistakes while I learn and not to take it so seriously, but to take it as a challenge and as a learning opportunity. Three, my experience as a science educator and as a bilingual, bicultural individual. That's what I bring.

Department of Sociology
Partners: Zeynep Kilic, Sociology; Rebeca Maseda, Languages

FTC: Thanks for talking to us. Let's start with your expectations for the Intensive.

Karl: I've been doing web-based stuff for a good while now. I'm more interested in new ideas than anything else. I haven't used Blackboard as well as I could, though I do use it regularly. I've been trying to do some things with student-developed video projects as opposed to term papers. Students in the process of putting together a short video really engaged with the material. Since the video technology is so pervasive on people's smartphones now, I want to experiment more with that. On the most grand and global level, I'm sort of interested in assessing the degree to which technology might be used for distance delivery of a whole degree -- like they do with special education at UAS.

FTC: Is technology fun for you?

Karl: Technology is fun until you start getting into it. Then it quickly becomes work. Video stuff, audio stuff, working with still images: I use Final Cut and Logic Pro. In Sociology, you're always doing research, and that's fun. Sure beats how it used to be -- command line programming and so forth.

FTC: What excites you about the Intensive?

Karl: We've got a small department: we've got people who embrace technology and people who don't. The support for doing web-based courses is not extensive. There's no development money at all, people did them in their spare time, evaluation of them has been sort of limited, and so forth. People doing web-based courses getting together to improve the overall quality of content delivery: that's kind of what I'm excited about. The clicker technology: I find that kind of interesting too. I really like the idea that there's a forum for developing the web-based stuff.

FTC: Are you apprehensive about anything technology-related?

Karl: I have no phobias or fears about technology at all. Due to recent developments, my schedule is messed up! But that's it.

FTC: How will you know you've been successful in the Intensive?

Karl: I'd be delighted if I had some cool new techniques for engaging students. I'm looking for new and novel things since they seem to help students connect with the material a little better. I'm not expecting miracles, like getting them to read the textbooks! I don't have astronomical expectations, but I'm looking for things to implement.

FTC: Anything you'd like to learn in the Intensive that you didn't mention in your application?

Karl: I just learned about this 15 minutes ago, but apparently now you can connect Skype via Facebook for telephone calls. That's something I'm interested in. Could this be used for coursework?

FTC: Who knows! Could you summarize for us what you bring to the Intensive?

Karl: I have a lot of experience in knowing some of the benefits and downfalls of the technology-based stuff. I've applied web-based stuff in different contexts -- social work, sociology, and a lot of other applied academic areas. I have a fairly long-term perspective on this stuff and on what works for students.

Department of English
Partners: Heather Caldwell, English; Trish Jenkins, English; Jessie Nixon, English

FTC: What opportunities do you see in the Intensive?

Jennifer: Well, I mainly want the opportunity to work on my class, English 111. I want a chance to really play around with that class and learn what is possible with Blackboard and the tools that Blackboard gives me. I feel that I've learned that technology pretty idiosyncratically. Having some guided playtime would be really useful.

FTC: Most exciting thing about the Intensive?

Jennifer: I'm excited to work with the team from English more closely and to work with people from around campus on technology.

FTC: What's a fun thing you like to do with technology?

Jennifer: I'm a gamer. I play MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games). I'm playing Star Wars: The Old Republic right now. It's fun. I've learned a lot about the possibilities of online communication from that. When people are there because they want to be, not because they have to be, what does that look like? I try to pull that into my courses.

FTC: Have you ever used an IPad?

Jennifer: I have one of the older ones, and I've never really made that bridge to using it instructionally. It seems like a gimpy laptop... I'd like to find out how to use the IPad instructionally. For planning? That would be cool. I used one in presentation, and it was way better than holding paper notes. But I don't know, I'm nervous [about the IPad].

FTC: Anything else you're apprehensive about?

Jennifer: I want things to run smoothly when I'm teaching online. I want to be effective with my students. I want to learn how to use SafeAssign in my summer class.

FTC: Do you think there's a lot of plagiarism in English 111?

Jennifer: There is, and I catch them regularly without SafeAssign.

FTC: How do you catch the plagiarists?

Jennifer: There's just a change in voice. And I use Google to catch them. But I would like to learn how to use SafeAssign with my students so that they can be more aware of when they're using other people's words, versus their own words. Most cases are not intentional.

FTC: How will you know you've had a successful Intensive?

Jennifer: My hope is to leave with a really clear plan and strategy to implement. I'm teaching Freshman Comp this summer, so I'm immediately going to be putting these things into practice.

FTC: Anything else you'd like to learn in the Intensive that you haven't mentioned?

Jennifer: I would like to make Blackboard look less institutional, and to operate less like a clunky course delivery system. When I participate in message boards in a game, those are really inviting and customizable settings. Blackboard strips the personality away. I wonder if there's a way to integrate that back in. I go in and change the buttons -- I do what I can.

FTC: Final thoughts?

Jennifer: I'm really interested in the questioning practices that instructors use that lead to effective or non-effective discussions. That's something I've spent a lot of time looking at in face-to-face and online courses. I've developed a really good sense of how to organize my classes so that students, no matter how they're accessing them, can't give excuses like, I was using my phone, or, I didn't know to scroll down. I'd be happy to share that with the group!

School of Nursing
Partner: Margie Draskovich, Nursing

FTC: What are your expectations for the Intensive?

Kathleen: Margie and I have talked about this a lot. We'd like to explore technology that increases group cohesiveness in online classes. Particularly the class we're looking at, Nursing 101 -- it's very immature. When we teach face-to-face, students are engaged. But we have yet to figure out how to capture their attention online. I just finished putting my grades in: a couple students actually failed the course because they just didn't do anything. They just weren't there. 

FTC: What's a fun thing you like to do with technology?

Kathleen: I do a lot of the usual, messing around on the computer.

FTC: What excites you about Tech Fellows?

Kathleen: Mostly just seeing what else is out there. I'm just so focused on what I'm doing. There's a lot out there I don't even know about.

Kathleen: Two things. One, I have an awful lot of experience now in planning and designing courses to be offered over distance. We've been doing that longer than probably anybody else in the University. Two, on a personal basis, I'm a diver-inner at this point. It's almost necessary!

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