Pedagogical Innovation: How do you
know if they’re working?
Hunter College ICIT
Tech Thursday
November 17, 2011
Kenny Kwong, Ph.D, MSW
School of Social Work
Background
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For the past several years, our school has
encouraged the steadily increasing use of the
blackboard sites and technology in teaching and
student learning.
Many of us have recognized the enormous potential
inherent in these technologies for making online
learning a more interactive, collaborative, and
hopefully satisfying experiences, for both instructors
and students.
My Question
However, I wonder when such new technologies are
introduced, that instructors will be tempted to adopt
these tools not because they serve a useful purpose
in terms of their particular learning design and
objectives, but rather, the very existence and
availability of the technology becomes the
rationale for its use.
Professional Concern
The challenge for social work educators becomes to
consider the use of such web-based technologies on the
basis of:
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an assessment of the degree to which the inclusion of
technologies reflects the broader concerns of social
work education
whether it will contribute to the creation of meaningful
learning experience through assisting students in
meeting identified learning objectives.
My FITT Project
Incorporating Wiki and Blog Assignments
to Enhance Student Engagement and
Online Class Participation
Project Goals and Strategies:
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Retool Blackboard site for the Social Work Practice in
Health Settings course by incorporating technologies
to increase student engagement and online class
participation.
The retooled site will have a customized navigation
menu, will incorporate rich media elements, and will
include wiki assignments for group presentation
projects and blog assignments to engage students in
online dialogue about course materials.
What I really want to know!!!
Have a better idea about the perception and
experience of a group of social work graduate
students in using web-based technologies and
determine whether such technologies help facilitate
the transfer of knowledge, promote deep learning,
and create meaningful learning experiences for
them.
Wikis Assignment
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Provided guidelines and instructions to students to complete wiki group
projects and created a wiki site on health literacy as an example
to demonstrate the use of various media tools to complete a group study
project.
The intent of using wikis presentations rather than typical presentations
using handouts and powerpoints is to create a collaborative learning
environment in which students in smaller groups work together to retrieve,
analyze, and disseminate useful information and knowledge; that they can
share ideas and post comments and questions to each other in order to
enrich their learning experiences through online dialogues and the active
use of media tools.
Student Wiki Projects
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Substance abuse and addiction
Chronic illness/nutrition/lifestyle intervention
Palliative and end-of-life care
Addressing the needs of victims of domestic violence
and their children
Barriers in access to health care
Working with cancer patients and caregiver support
Sexual health education.
Student Wikis Projects
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Students presented their projects in the last two classes and they
provided their project rationales, summarized critical areas of
knowledge and skills, and discussed social worker roles and functions in
a particular topic area in a variety of health settings. They also made
critiques of existing theoretical models and/or empirical data in
relation to social work practice in this health topic.
All these sites reflected content materials that students compiled from
various channels – books, articles, websites of organizations, youtube or
other publicly available audio and video files, agency interview video
clips.
Next step: I will complete content analysis of these wikis to determine
the range of formats and technology tools used by students to present
their projects.
Advantages of Using Wikis – Link to SW Practice
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In comparison of individual practice papers, wiki projects help
facilitate collaborative learning in a small group projects (in real
practice, collaboration is critical to SW practice in health settings,
build our own learning to each other); and that students can spend
much of their time to access and digest information rather than
writing up a paper
Information literacy and multiple ways of knowing: students use a
variety of tools to learn about a particular topic: websites from
various sources, interview scripts with colleagues and clients, images
of practice settings, video-clips (youtubes), review and synthesis of
academic literature, etc. It is relevant for their practice:
collaborative practices, case sharing, community health initiatives,
website developments, etc
Blog Journals
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Used blog journals to provide a private communication platform and
a comfort zone for students to share their learning and reflection on
their practice in a variety of health settings.
These journals may be reflective or analytical in nature. Students
were trained and socialized to become a reflective and analytical
practitioner.
Students were asked to submit their journals (in 2-3 paragraphs) in
every two to three weeks. A few guidelines were provided to
students to prepare their journals. Students can write to reflect
their understanding of the concepts, course contents, discussion, and
activities covered in class, as well as their reflection regarding their
field internship experience and their practice in health and/or
human service settings.
Blog Entries
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Altogether 90 journal entries were submitted from a total of 24 students
(each student made 3-4 entries throughout the semester). The instructor also
wrote 82 journal blogs as responses to individual student postings to
facilitate student engagement in their own learning journey.
Next step: assess the nature of these entries, identify what major themes
conveyed in these entries, and determine what these journals actually
accomplish.
I will also review my own journals and assess how I responded to all the
student postings to achieve my teaching objectives which serves as a means
to improve scholarship of my teaching
Evaluation Survey
A brief evaluation survey was administered in the last
class to gather student feedback and experiences
regarding the course, as well as to assess students’
acceptance and satisfaction with using the wikis and
blog journals and their access and use of media
resources and related technology to complete the
course assignments.
Evaluation Survey
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In comparison to the interaction experienced with students and instructors in other courses,
how would you describe the amount of interaction experienced with:
(a) Other students in this course (80% said increased or somewhat increased, 17% no
difference)
(b) The instructor in this course (75% said increased or somewhat increased, 21% no difference)
In comparison to the interaction experienced with students and the instructors in other
courses, how would you describe the quality of interaction experienced with
(a) Other students in this course (71% said increased/somewhat increased, 29% no
difference)
(b) The instructor in this course (79% said increased/somewhat increased, 21% no difference)
Overall, I am satisfied with this course (96% indicated strongly agree or agree)
Compared to your other courses was the workload in this course too light, light, moderate,
heavy, or too heavy? 92% said moderate and 8% said light.
Other Survey Questions
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How does this course differ from other courses, if
any?
What was the most effective aspect of this course
(such as wikis, blogs, role-plays, etc)? Why?
What was the least effective aspect of this course
(such as wikis, blogs, role-plays, etc)? Why?
Overall, what suggestions can you provide to help
strengthen this course?
Final Thoughts
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Self reflection of my own teaching philosophy - the
importance of creating a collaborative learning
environment in which students and the instructor work
together to disseminate information and useful knowledge,
share ideas, and post questions to each other in order
to enrich student learning experiences through online
dialogues and the active use of media tools.
Active learning (e.g., class discussions, small and large
group activities, role-plays, wiki presentations, and
writing reflective journals) is essential for students as they
learn about theory, research, and practice
Final Thoughts
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Students, given their diverse backgrounds, learn and demonstrate
their knowledge and skills in a variety of ways, and, therefore we
need to use diverse methods of instruction (e.g. short lectures,
showing short video clips, role plays, group discussions, and class
activities), and assessment (e.g. exams, short essays, interview
reports, reflective writing assignments, class presentations) which
allow a range of formats for students with different strengths to
express what they’ve learned (detail-oriented tasks and more
analytical tasks).
The importance of ongoing assessment of students' experience with
technology and obtaining their feedback.
Achieves of all blackboard site materials, wiki projects, and journals
make these ongoing assessments possible!!!!
Reference
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Garrison, D. R. & Vaughan, N. D. (2008). Blended learning
in higher education: Framework, principles, and guidelines
(Appedixes provide a range of docuemnts, practical survey
tools with students and faculty, and resources, assessment
rubric, etc)
Bender, T. (2003). Discussion-based online teaching to
enhance student learning: Theory, practice, and assessment.