Networking U
How IT is helping educators engage students in new ways
So is the classroom an anachronism? Not yet. “I think we have to be careful not to get tangled up in the technology,” says Miles. Some educators are wary of becoming dependent on IT as a teaching medium; some faculty are simply not up to the challenge of embracing new tools. Yet UVic’s Spiliotopoulos says many are motivated to meet the demands of today’s students. “Although you can’t force faculty to use technology innovation,” she says, “what you can do is create a culture of innovation.”
The technological challenges remain, such as expanding the online accessibility of scholarly articles and journals, adopting e-textbooks—which would be much cheaper to download than their hard-copy counterparts are to buy—and continually increasing the reach of student-friendly mobile technology. But some great leaps come in decidedly low-tech forms. At UBC, for instance, students can use their laptops without worrying about dead batteries, even outside, thanks to the simple installation of electrical plugs on outdoor tables. Now they can learn just about anywhere on campus—“when it doesn’t rain,” Lamberson notes with a laugh.
If only there was a techno-fix for Vancouver weather . . .
[...] “Networking U” is an article about how universities use learning technologies to help their students succeed in the modern university setting by engaging their students in different ways. Since UBC is one of the pioneers in the field, it is featured heavily in the article, along with York, University of Victoria, and Carleton. It even has input from ETEC 540’s very own Brian Lamb! “At the University of British Columbia, the Learning Enhancement Academic Partnership program—or LEAP—builds on the idea of multi-platform learning. It’s a portal for tools and resources that’s been online since 2005. Brian Lamb, manager of emerging technologies and digital content at UBC, says that weblogs and wikis aren’t new phenomena at UBC—in fact, the university pioneered the use of these learning tools in Canada. LEAP takes online resources even further by giving students and those managing the site the ability to aggregate their own content. On LEAP, students blog about campus life and academics; there are also helpful links and tips on various tech topics, such as how to find and use academic podcasts, or where to find and download flash card software for studying. (The portal also lets students share the tools with friends via Twitter.) “Getting students to manage their own learning experience is extremely important,” says Michelle Lamberson, director of the Office of Learning and Technology at UBC.” [...]
[...] http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2009/11/13/networking-u/ [...]