Blackboard wikis (websites which allow collaborative editing) are a convenient means for students to create websites as course projects. Amaryllis Rodriguez had students in her Italian courses create wikis in Blackboard focused on topics relevant to the course content. Students created a wiki (in Italian) advertising an Italian cruise line as well as a wiki about current environmental problems. Finally, the wiki tool was used for a group project in which students were asked to design an online newspaper modeled on existing Italian newspapers. Students were able to create these projects quickly using the easy tools built into Blackboard, and all students could see each others’ work and comment on it. The instructor also found it easy to grade and comment on the students’ work.

As a fellow in CIT’s Flexible Learning Spaces Fellowship (2008), Deb Reisinger participated in meetings, mini-workshops, and other fellowship activities centered around the concept of ‘flexible learning‘ – specifically focused on the uses of the technology and space arrangements made possible by Duke’s new teaching and learning space, the Link.

Course overview

During Fall 2008, Reisinger taught two sections of a French course called Cultural and Literary Perspectives in the Link (one section in Classroom 3, and the other in Seminar room 1). The following lists Reisinger’s core goals of the course(s):

• Improved writing skills through collaborative learning/peer editing (in particular, the development of critical thinking skills in relation to cultural analysis)
• Improved reading comprehension skills in order to move through program and read independently at higher levels
• Nuanced understanding of cultural differences (notable in group exchanges and class discussions, assessed via oral presentations and written papers)
• More precise oral production of language, both in accuracy and in analysis

Uses of technology and flexible learning spaces

• Students created wikis to house assignments over the course of the semester. The flexible learning spaces allowed students to work collaboratively on editing these assignments during class breakout sessions.
• The classroom space, combined with on-site technology check-out and support, allowed students to receive training in their classroom, rather than in a language lab. Using technology became more fluid and integrated into course pedagogy.
• Student presentations were enhanced by easier student access to technology (video, on-site computer), which is often stalled by technological difficulties.
• Reisinger used the learning spaces to show video and project images in addition to writing on the whiteboards. Students were able to use projectors to display follow-up to group work from multiple laptops.
  
• Multiple whiteboards made classroom learning more student-centered. Groups were better able to better demonstrate their analysis by mapping out and displaying their work on the whiteboards.

Students working in groups

“As a warm-up, we began class by identifying projected images on one of the room’s white boards (paintings, literary titles, photos).  Students then broke into small groups to generate lists of well-known French  intellectuals on the board; follow up discussion included the collective creation of a definition of an intellectual,. We then returned to our seminar table (shaped like a pentagon today, which they seemed to like) and we related how their definition matched that put forth by the author of the article they had prepared, called “The Death of French Culture.” Students then worked in pairs to briefly summarize the article’s arguments, accessing the article on their laptops. In a follow-up discussion, a student secretary listed pair findings on the board, and we closed with a whole group debate about on the article’s conclusions. It was more or less a typical day, but shows how the classroom facilitates this type of classroom dynamic: it’s easy to get students writing as groups on multiple boards, to move from groups to seminar-type and back again, and to blend technology into traditional forms of classroom discussions.”

Using the Blackboard wiki

Reisinger discovered that a large benefit of teaching in the Link came from the flexibility offered by the ability to bring technology in and out of the classroom as needs be.

“This was something we used to have to go to the language lab for, but this time around, Erin rolled in a laptop cart and we were able to work right in our classroom space. The wireless was a bit slow, but I really enjoyed not having to displace the class to do this training. For me, it makes technology a part of the class and not something extra we have to go somewhere to do.”

The following video features Reisinger briefly explaining her use of wikis in her courses:

As a fellow in CIT’s Flexible Learning Spaces Fellowship (2008), Susan Wynn participated in meetings, mini-workshops, and other fellowship activities centered around the concept of ‘flexible learning‘ – specifically focused on the uses of the technology and space arrangements made possible by Duke’s new teaching and learning space, the Link.

Course overview

During Fall 2008, Wynn co-taught EDU 214 (”Society, Schools and Technology”) with Hugh Crumley in Link Classroom 3. The course was designed for undergraduate students enrolled in the Secondary Teacher Preparation Program and for graduate students enrolled in the Masters of Arts in Teaching. Wynn and Crumley created course goals based on the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) and Performance Indicators for Teachers. Students need to demonstrate proficiency in these standards as a requirement when earning their North Carolina teaching license.

The core goals of the course were to prepare students to:

• be able to design lesson plans that demonstrate “best practices” in teaching
• use technology to support student learning
• explore technology applications typically not utilized in a high school classroom setting

Uses of technology and flexible learning spaces

Wynn’s and Crumley’s plans for using the Link’s technology and spaces included:

• using classroom technologies to teach basic HTML skills
• enabling students to create presentation files
• demonstrating uses of interactive technologies to support instruction in each student’s discipline (including Web2.0 resources)
• developing and refining an electronic portfolio (eportfolio) centered on a ‘teaching with technology’ statement
• script, storyboard, film and edit a digital story
• explore other teaching tools, such as wikis, blogs, digital images, etc

Creating digital stories

In the following video, Susan Wynn talks about class activities.

Learning about Flip cameras and YouTube

In this video, Hugh Crumley shows students how to use Flip cameras, then sends them out into the Link’s open spaces to film introductions.

Project description
ISIS (Information Science + Information Studies) explored Second Life for teaching and learning. Students studied virtual worlds as social phenomena and “texts” as well as technical aspects like 3d modeling, scripting, and virtual space design. Projects included: construction of a student project gallery and virtual labyrinth for the ISIS Focus cluster; research assignments in Gender and Digital Culture; developing virtual world content in ISIS 140 and 240; a “getting started” script garden; a Next Newsroom prototype, and a virtual economics experiment (co-funded by VSI).

ISIS is currently consulting with faculty in several departments: in Education, to create the English Café, in Nursing, to provide an online classroom environment; in Writing, to launch a Virtual Writing Center and with the Office of Institutional Equity to launch a virtual diversity training center. In addition, ISIS explored Croquet, Qwaq, and Project Wonderland to assess appropriate applications.

“We came into this project with some experience with Second Life, but also with the broader goal of understanding how virtual world environments can benefit our curriculum as well as be a rewarding object of inquiry. Second Life’s strengths are in its sociability, the ease in getting started, and the support resources available for it. Its limits are in house-only tool, the time it takes for users to get up to speed for construction activities and scripting (as opposed to just participating), and the challenges in integrating it into other systems.”

–Victoria Szabo

Find out more about these virtual world explorations, consider using Second Life in your class,  or learn how to get started with Second Life.

Project start date: 5/4/2007
Funding awarded: $ 2,500

More information:
Focus Cluster on Virtual Realities
Course descriptions
Project wiki
Second Life at Duke

Project Description

For the course “Introduction to Old Testament Interpretation,” Portier-Young proposed technology based activities to enhance student learning in this core course (enrollment 170), required for all incoming Divinity students. She wished to create a Blackboard-based group activity for students to collaboratively write about course topics, and to digitize a set of images for use in course materials and lectures. In addition, she wished to explore use of a personal response system in class lectures and use the DiVE visualization facility to view Old Testament-related locations.

Portier-Young successfully arranged the installation of a PRS in her classroom with coordination between the CIT, A&SIST and her local support staff. Her teaching assistants, with training from the CIT, successfully managed a group activity in which student groups collaboratively authored wiki pages about course topics that could be shared with and expanded by future classes.

Due to time constraints, image digitization was postponed, but the CIT researched several possible 3D models that could be viewed in the DiVE and Portier-Young learned about the facility and the process for converting models for viewing in the DiVE.

Portier-Young reported that the use of the PRS and wiki activity as successful. Encouraged by the potential of viewing 3D models in the DiVE, she submitted a follow-up Jump Start grant request to fully fund conversion of a model for the DiVE and its use in her class.
Project start date: 5/24/2006
Funding awarded: $0

Project Description

Anathea Portier-Young enrolled in the CIT’s Spring 2006 Fellows program designed for faculty teaching large classes. In Fall 2006, Portier-Young was teaching the course “Old Testament Interpretation,” a core requirement of all incoming Divinity students, and she wanted to explore ways to approach learning activities and manage course logistics in a class expected to have close to 200 students.

During the Fellows program, participants were introduced to methods that could be used to enhance student learning, including approaches to lectures, group activities and grading with large courses. Portier-Young explored class activities including guided note taking to give her students a clearer picture of important topics in the course. She also tried use of a class wiki for communication and collaborative writing, and developed grading rubrics for essay assignments. In addition, Portier-Young looked at methods to improve her lectures for better student understanding and engagement.

Outcomes reported from this Fellowship included that students demonstrated better comprehension of material and more confidence in assignments with the grading rubric, and the wiki received participation from most students in the class. Portier-Young plans to streamline and improve the activities in the future.

Project start date: 1/2006
Funding awarded: $1,250

Project description

Admay participated in a Faculty Fellows group focused on teaching large classes. This fellowship group discussed a number of techniques, described in McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers and Classroom Assessment Techniques.

In the Spring 2006 Fellows program, Catherine Admay introduced multimedia materials and more effective use of Blackboard into two courses, Arts and Human Rights and a Capstone Seminar for professional graduate students. Admay surveyed the students and found that the use of images, sound and video in her course very enriching and challenging and encouraged her students to upload material. Monitoring of discussion board posts displayed a deeper understanding of the subject matter. Admay also explored the use of wikis and surveys in the Blackboard course web site.

Project start date: January 1, 2006
Funding awarded: $1,000