In case you haven’t heard, Campus Technology Day is right around the corner.
Technology is not just for our computer overlords. Nay, there are so many interesting ways technology is being used in classrooms across the University of Windsor to add to the student-learning experience. Campus Technology Day is a way to celebrate those developments here at UWindsor — a free event taking place April 29th, 2014, with presentations from technology users from all backgrounds. It just so happens that some of our friends at the CTL will also be presenting:
Improving student engagement both on and off campus: Introducing the Lecture Tools and Echo360 student engagement platform pilot with Nick Baker, 1:00pm -1:45pm
Engaging students in and out of the classroom is a perennial challenge faced by instructors. In large classes, tools such as clickers may be effective at engaging students and providing feedback on learning, but they have limited capabilities and require students to have a device that cannot be used for anything else. Utilising online tools accessed by students using devices they already own and are familiar with, such as laptops, tablets and smart phones, can provide not only a cheaper option for students, but also a means of encouraging them to actively engage with the learning content. The recently acquired Lecture Tools is an online platform that provides many options to instructors and students to help facilitate active in learning in the classroom. It is available to all instructors under the pilot and can be used both within and outside the classroom.
Another significant new capability being piloted is the Echo360 lecture capture system. This system allows for scheduled or on-demand recording of presentations (two video streams plus audio) in our 15 largest classrooms, live streaming of classes from those rooms to students anywhere they have an internet connection, recordings that can be played back on any device with an internet connection, and social learning tools such as discussions built right into the recordings. Students will be able to bookmark parts of lectures, make notes on the system, and even search for terms used in the lectures when they are studying. The system also allows instructors to capture a lecture from their own computer anywhere in the world and upload it to the system for students to view in CLEW.
Both of these tools also provide instructors with powerful learning analytics that they can use to understand how their students are doing in their class, and help them target instruction where it is likely to be most effective.
Ontario-wide Course-Sharing and Teaching Evaluation Toolkit Development: Technology Central to MTCU Grantswith Alan Wright, Beverley Hamilton, Jessica Raffoul, and Graham Fawcett, 1:50pm – 2:40pm
Information, communication, and instructional technologies are ubiquitous and essential tools and transmission vehicles in two major grants awarded to the University of Windsor as lead institution in a multi-institutional Productivity and Innovation Fund (PIF) competition launched by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MCTU) in the latter half of 2013. UWindsor teams were awarded about $800, 000 for three multi-institutional projects. This session, with a focus on two of the projects, will describe how technology encounters pedagogy in a funded feasibility study exploring mechanisms for the development of shared, modular courses and a second study designed to promote better university teaching in Ontario through the gradual building of a teaching evaluation toolkit. Both of these projects require constant use of new communication technologies by the teams from six universities as well as a fundamental commitment to the exploration and integration of learner-friendly technologies in teaching modules and teaching evaluation compilations and portfolios.
Six Minutes in Social Media with Alicia Higgison, 3:00pm -4:00pm
What is a Tweet, and what does it do? How can a Pin encourage student engagement? Can Google bring us more than great cat videos? We’ll get you thinking about how giving students permission to have their phones in their faces might enhance the learning experience after all.
Register for Campus Technology Day 2014 before April 24th to make sure you receive your complimentary lunch!
