Instructional Technology Conference 2009

Title: Technology-Empowered Collaborative and Learning:  A tool based approach to Participatory Learning

Name: Gregory D. Bothun

Audience: Intermediate to Advanced Faculty and Instructional Designers

Audience Level: Intermediate to Advanced Faculty and Instructional Designers

Length: 1 Hour

Abstract: We will present learning outcomes from Science and Culture, an interdisciplinary course in a wireless laptop classroom. In-class activities involve pushing multimedia content out to individual laptops and having students process this content in groups and publish their results globally for further discussion.  Tools can be used inside and outside of class. This teaching technique, which greatly increases student engagement, will be demonstrated during this session.

Description: We have developed and used over the last 5 years a system which we will call the Laptop Classroom Reporting System (LCRS). In brief, in this system any piece of content can be pushed to the client laptops, along with tool sets to manipulate that content and then published it back to a “global canvas”.  The tool set is not limited to just text but involves spreadsheets, annotated images, simulations,  collaborative map making, and graphing exercises.  Further details about this system, including screen shots, can be found at http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/powerpoint/ELI08144.pps - our intent here is to present a Hands-on Workshop in a computer laboratory where participants can use this fairly unique reporting system that opens up a myriad of new communication avenues in and out of the classroom.   In addition, the document sharing and modification nature of this system greatly facilitates collaborative work and has more flexibility than any current commercial product.  All data/exercises are also recorded into a permanent data base whose content is accessible at any time.  The system is fully robust and scalable to literally thousands of concurrently connected clients.

Session Type: Lecture/Presentation

On-Site Equipment Requirements:

Contact Information/Affiliation:
Gregory D. Bothun
University of Oregon
Dept of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403
541-346-2569
dkmatter@uoregon.edu
nuts@vtext.com