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The April 8 Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology brought together 174 faculty and staff at the Thomas Building, University Park, to share innovative ideas and best practices for using technology to enhance courses. The event was hosted by Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT), a unit of Information Technology Services.
The keynote presentation, entitled "From the Digital Divide to the Participation Gap: Reconsidering Media Literacy for the 21st Century," was given by Henry Jenkins III, DeFlorz Professor of Humanities and Director of MIT Comparative Media Studies. Jenkins spoke about the ways in which inequity still exists among different populations of students rising through the educational system. During the last decade, he said, the concern was largely about the "digital divide," that is, the socioeconomic gap between those who had access to technology, including the Internet, and those who did not. According to Jenkins, that gap has been closing in recent years. However, he said, a gap still exists, which he calls the "participation gap." Increasingly, technology is used by young people to create and share content—to participate. However, due to certain technological, economic, and societal obstacles, some are unable to take part in this participatory culture and thus lose out on important skills and opportunities.
The day featured thirty concurrent sessions given by forty-one Penn State faculty and instructional support staff, divided into four tracks: New Online Ways to Reach Your Students; New Educational Technologies that Enhance the Classroom Experience; Your Instruction Anytime, Anywhere; and Innovative Best Practices Using Education Technology. Fourteen of the presenters represented Penn State locations other than University Park. Just some of the topics covered include videoconferencing, student e-portfolios, blogs (Web logs), wikis (communally-developed information repositories), animations, simulations, personal response systems such as hand-held clickers, and the use of tablet PCs during class.
One session was in the form of a student panel discussion, during which students could share their perspectives on the use of technology in teaching and learning. Cole Camplese, director within TLT, who helped plan the symposium, felt this was an important ingredient to the symposium as well to the planning of future directions regarding the integration of technology in teaching. He said, "The insights provided there give us a clue as to what students" expectations are. I'd like to see a larger student role in our event next year." He said that the planning committee for the next symposium, to be held April 14, 2007, will include student representatives.
As underscored by Jenkins in his keynote, Camplese said, "We're seeing a change with students, and the "biggie" is that they're beginning to spend a lot of time in e-spaces," referring to Web sites that encourage visitors to create and share content, as opposed to being only a passive recipient of information. Camplese went on, "They're creating personal Web spaces and honing their online identities like they never really have before. I think that there's a lot to learn from that as it relates to the learning spaces we design."
Throughout the symposium, "bloggers" assigned to each session posted notes, comments, and questions to the symposium blog space at http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/ as the sessions unfolded. Attendees were encouraged to respond to the approximately 100 blog posts with comments. A number of sessions, interviews of session attendees, and informal discussions were recorded in the form of "podcasts" (MP3 audio files that can be played on a computer or portable MP3 player), also available at the Web site.
The symposium blog site was established prior to the event, so that presenters and TLT staff could post topics and ideas ahead of time. Blog posts and podcasts have also been added to the site since April 8. Faculty are encouraged to continue to contribute to this online "dialogue" throughout the year. To remain updated on posts to the site, visitors can subscribe to an RSS feed of new additions.
For example, one of the symposium presenters, David Passmore, professor of education, added a post-event blog entry outlining his evaluation of the successes of the event, as well as suggestions on how to refine and improve on those successes. He wrote, "My compliments on the processes employed that brought this symposium into the blog/podcast/streaming age."
In addition to planning a similar symposium for next spring, throughout fall 2006, TLT will host a monthly lunchtime Teaching and Learning with Technology Innovators Series, during which faculty members will be invited to present effective or emerging technologies for use in teaching and learning. A schedule for the fall series will be posted at the symposium Web site in August.
Camplese said, "The fact that so many members of our community decided to spend a Saturday sharing in the outstanding sessions and conversations points to the fact that we have great support for teaching and learning with technology." He expressed great appreciation for the contributions of the presenters and all those who put the event together. He said, "I thought it was an energizing experience. The event really made people stand up and take notice. I think the promise is that we'll do it even better next year."
