Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology

Cole Camplese and Jim Leous interview Bryan Alexander after his presentation at the 2007 TLT Symposium. They discuss the attendee's reactions, mobile devices, privacy, participatory culture, and many other topics related to the social web. [There are some problems with Bryan's audio, but you can catch most of what he's saying.] You can view the streaming version of this interview by clicking on the preview image or get the feed through iTunesU.

During the Symposium, Jeff Swain sat down to interview David Passmore and Rose Baker, faculty in the College of Education. During the interview, they discussed educational uses of social bookmarking tools such as del.icio.us. You can either get the video through iTunes or click the preview image below:

In the closing panel of the Symposium, we got a group of people together to discuss the future of social computing in higher education. We had perspectives from John Harwood, Senior Director of Teaching and Learning with Technology at Penn State; Lee Rainie, the Director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project; Jim Thomas, Dean of the Smeal College of Business; and three students: Dan Rosenbaum, Alexander Kozak, and David Gelpi. Their topics include everything from wikis to the new meaning of "friend" in the context of online social networking applications.

I'm pleased to announce that the video for our lunch speaker, Bryan Alexander from the National Institute of Technology and Liberal Education, is now available through the link below and through iTunes (use the iTunesU link in the right menu). Bryan discussed innovations in mobile learning, social computing, digital storytelling, gaming, visualization, and many other modern educational technology topics along with the ways that institutions were reacting to these changes.

We just added a Twitter stream to this site. Essentially, Twitter is an application that asks its users what they are doing from moment to moment. You can answer through instant messaging applications, a web form, or from your phone. The interesting part is that you get updates from your circle of friends on what they're doing as well (conference sessions, new projects, mother-son movie nights, running mileage, etc...). If you would like to try twitter, go to http://twitter.com and sign up for a free account. Then go to http://twitter.com/tltsymposium to make the TLT Symposium a friend of yours. The Symposium account will "friend" you back and you'll be added to the stream on this site.

This panel will focus on Penn State’s investigations into the educational uses of Second Life, a virtual world. Virtual worlds are constructed environments where the computer is used as a window to access the world. Most virtual worlds mimic a real-world environment to a large degree, although they also may include “impossible” abilities, such as breathing underwater without equipment. Most virtual worlds require you to create your in-world presence, or avatar. You avatar interacts with both the environment and other avatars to form a rich exploratory and (in multi-user worlds) social experience.

Weather, or contagion, will at some point impact on our ability to meet traditional semester coverage. While not all classes will be amenable to alternative technology-driven approaches, the majority could utilize Web-based alternative approaches to reach and engage students. This presentation identifies multiple rapid approaches, based on teaching style and faculty comfort levels with technologies, to capture content, present, and engage students with Web delivery.

It has never been easier and more important for faculty to try out new technologies, or to acquire and share new ideas and experiences in teaching and learning today. As awareness and concern about the Web technology continues to grow, University communities, in particular the faculty and instructional design/support staff are committing to becoming more technologically responsible.

Podcasting has great potential for enhancing language instruction. This has been the single most extensive use of podcasting at Penn State since the pilot began in fall 2006, providing a huge number of students with the ability to practice speaking various foreign languages, discuss culture, and collaborate with their peers. The French, German, and Spanish departments are just a few who are actively exploring the pedagogical implications of podcasting. In this presentation, teaching strategies and implementation issues will be discussed and numerous examples will be shown by experienced staff and instructors.

More and more faculty at Penn State are using podcasts to enhance teaching and learning in their classes. In addition to using the technology to deliver lecture recordings, instructors are extending the classroom by offering supplementary audio and video content to help motivate students and review difficult concepts where there might not be time in class. Students are also getting the opportunity to create podcasts ranging in subject from journalism to music to foreign languages. In this panel discussion, attendees will hear from faculty members who have had extensive experience incorporating podcasting into their classes.