Technology Profiles
Three Penn State faculty members have been named 2011 Faculty Fellows by Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT): Michael Elavsky, Jim Jansen, and Sherry Robinson. In addition, an undergraduate student, Davis Shaver, has been named as TLT’s first ever Student Fellow. The fellows have begun collaborating with TLT staff to investigate the potential of a particular technology to enhance student learning.
The Penn State community can follow their progress and reflections throughout the course of the summer by visiting http://blogs.tlt.psu.edu/fellows/. Following is a brief summary of the goals for each project.
Global Communication Pedagogy as Hybridized Collaborative Engagements
C. Michael Elavsky, assistant professor of communications, University Park, will be building on his interest in cross-cultural communications for intercultural understanding during his fellowship. Within his courses COMM 410 International Communications and COMM 419 World Media Systems, he will create a bridge between his classes and university students/colleagues in the Czech Republic. During his fellowship, he plans to research and explore new technologies and social media as they might apply to the pedagogical design and implementation of an innovative online course environment that significantly expands and extends the collaborative possibilities of such spaces. TLT staff collaborating with Elavsky are Chris Stubbs, Hannah Inzko, Tsan-Kuang Lee, and Jeff Swain.
C. Michael Elavsky
Designing Mobile, Location-Aware, Socially Networked Learning Assistants
Jim Jansen, associate professor of information sciences and technology, University Park, plans to develop subject-based learning apps that leverage cellular technology, the contextual (location-aware) attributes of mobile technology, and social media. His purpose for doing so is to make courses more dynamic and to allow students to access content—and assistance with that content—when and where they need it. The apps will serve as “learning assistants” that students can use in conjunction with resident courses. Initially, Jansen will collect data in two of his courses, an entrepreneurial course, IST 44W Capstone Course, and IST 240 Introduction to Programming Languages, with the goal of collecting content and identifying problem areas in the course content for students. TLT staff collaborating with Jansen are Brad Kozlek, Matt Meyer, Zac Zidik, and graduate assistants Heather Hughes and Partha Mukherjee.
Jim Jansen
Integrating Gamification into the Classroom
Sherry Robinson, associate professor of economics, Hazleton, is interested in integrating “gamification,” or gamelike elements, into her MGMT 301 Principles of Management and BA 321 Contemporary Skills for Business Professionals courses to enhance student motivation and participation by making the process of learning fun. In her past courses, she has implemented a token system with her students. Students earn tokens by reading an article, then posting about it on an online message board; tokens can be used to extend homework due dates or earn extra credit points. During the fellowship, she will conduct an assessment of the effectiveness of gamelike elements to motivate students. With her team, she will develop a toolkit of technologies that other faculty can potentially use to integrate gamelike elements into courses. One of those is a tool to help students keep track of their tokens. Another potential tool is a social rating system for articles on current events that students locate and submit as potential discussion topics, which will ideally result in a collection of higher-quality articles. TLT staff collaborating with Robinson are Chris Millet, Jackie Ritzko, Chris Stubbs, and Jason Wolfe.
Sherry Robinson
Student Fellowship
Davis Shaver, senior history major, University Park, will investigate several topics from the student perspective. One is social learning management systems—the potential of making the student the primary unit of a learning management system rather than the course, as is the case with a social network. Another topic is gamification: embedding gamelike elements into courses and a learning management system to make the experience more engaging. Shaver additionally plans to study how learning technologies are selected for higher ed and implemented and what the underlying business models are. He will also be involved with user testing of websites for TLT services such as the Media Commons. TLT staff collaborating with Shaver are Jeff Swain, Audrey Romano, Robin Smail, and Brian Young.
Davis Shaver
For more information on the TLT Faculty Fellows program, visit http://tlt.its.psu.edu/faculty/fellowship.
