1	Meanderings
2	Building a Blended Class: Face-to-Face, Online, Anytime 2011 Distance Teaching & Learning Conference Madison, WI August 5, 2011 Robert O. Keel Teaching Professor Department of Anthropology, Sociology, and Languages UM-St. Louis http://tinyurl.com/blended-class-2011 Use MS IE
3	Who is Coming: Millennials (NetGen) Digital: “I've grown up with technology. I've been on a computer from age 5.”¹ “Devices” Mobile: “A survey of experts shows they expect major tech advances as the phone becomes a primary device for online access, voice-recognition improves, and the structure of the Internet itself improves.”² Interactive Online Multi-channel
4	Online Teens and Young Adults 73% of wired American teens now use social networking websites, a significant increase from previous surveys. Up from 55% in November 2009. Fully 72% of online 18-29 year olds use social networking websites. 81% of adults between the ages of 18 and 29 are wireless internet users. Two-thirds of 18-29 year olds (66%) own a laptop or netbook, while 53% own a desktop computer. Young adults are the only age cohort for which laptop computers are more popular than desktops. African Americans adults are the most active users of the mobile web, and their use is growing at a faster pace than mobile internet use among white or Hispanic adults. 93% of teens ages 12-17 go online, as do 93% of young adults ages 18-29. Three-quarters (74%) of all adults ages 18 and older go online. 54% of teens are texting on a daily basis. 500 Million Facebook users.
5	Internet Use
6	So, Should We Really Care? Student engagement and interaction Social Learning Flexibility and Accessibility The Millennials are here (and a whole lot more are coming) Students in online classes do as well or even better than students in traditional classrooms¹ Blended, hybrid, totally online Across content areas and learner styles Courses don’t have to incorporate all the bells and whistles Online enrollments are surging 17% increase over past year² Online only students expected to triple (up to 3.5M) and Students taking one online course is expected to double (up to 18.6 million)³ Post-modernity
7	A Vision of Students Today
8	Thinking and Tinkering 1996, Sherry Turkle (Life on the Screen) Computers as "objects to think with." "Computers would not be the culturally powerful objects they are turning out to be if people were not falling in love with their machines and the ideas that the machines carry....Today, the personal computer culture's most compelling objects give people a way to think concretely about an identity crisis. In simulation, identity can be fluid and multiple."¹ Tinkering with multiple modes of interaction "For planners, mistakes are steps in the wrong direction: bricoleurs navigate through midcourse corrections. Bricoleurs approach problem-solving by entering into a relationship with their work materials that has more the flavor of a conversation than a monologue.“²
9	Teaching, Imagination, and Interaction Teaching Sociology Teaching with Imagination Increasing channels of communication and interaction.¹ “Collaboration is increasingly seen as critical across the range of educational activities, including intra- and inter-institutional activities of any size or scope. ² “Collaboration Webs. Collaboration no longer calls for expensive equipment and specialized expertise.”³ “Collective Intelligence. The kind of knowledge and understanding that emerges from large groups of people is collective intelligence.”⁴
10	Blended Learning WWW (release .02 circa 1999) MyGateway (Blackboard) circa 2000 “Combos” Survey Interaction: Teacher/Student Student/Student Student/Content
11	Blended Learning 1 Synchronous Temporal and spatial: Face-to-Face (Lecture notes) Temporal Wimba Classroom Survey
12	Blended Learning 2 Asynchronous: Discussion Boards Lecture notes (textbooks) Archived Wimba classes Panopto Multimedia Internet Activities StudyMate Tutorials (the “good ole’ days”) Online Testing and Quizzes (OTC)
13	Blended Learning 3 Collaborative: Group Projects—wikis (another) Real World Research Survey Next?
14	Research at UM-St. Louis: MyGateway—since 2002 (N: 11,421) Most recent: Spring 2010 (N: 1032) Current Surveys: Students and Faculty Students today (F2010 UMSL data) Traditional and Non-traditional (median age: 27) Commuters (80%) Most: Computer savvy Own computers (95%) Broadband users (over 85%) Mobile (78% use wireless technology of some sort)
15	My Students Wimba and Wiki surveys: My classes, since Summer 2006 10 semesters, 27 classes. N: 1635 74.4% working primarily from home 61.2% using laptops (42.5% report having wireless access at home) 92.7% have broadband access off-campus Time on course each week: 45% 1-3 hours 39% 3-6 hours
16	Survey Questions (Slight modifications and numbering changes for Wimba and wiki surveys)
17	Spring 2010 Student Survey: Distribution of responses for “communication” questions
18	WS 2010 Student Survey: Learning
19	WS MGW 2010 Survey: Satisfaction
20	Change over the years: Spring 2002-Spring 2010
21	Students and MyGateway I would suggest that all UMSL professors should be required to use MyGateway to some extent - at least to post the course syllabus, other class documents, assignment deadlines and email contact information. MyGateway is a fantastic tool when teachers actually use it. I like it specifically for the Gradebook. I love knowing exactly where I am at in the class. Unfortunately, only half of my teachers actually record grades. One teacher records grades but long after the actually assignment and the other does not record any grades whatsoever. I think the teachers should be encouraged to use this feature of MyGateway to help the students. I am a 41 year old adult returning student. MyGateway was new to me this semster. I love it! It's a great way to keep in touch with the teacher and other students. I like seeing my grades posted as well. Thanks!
22	Students and MyGateway, 2 The ability to access classes online is wonderful. Not only does it allow me to work from home at my own pace, It frees up a lot of time driving back and forth to classes as well as attending the physical classes The major benefit for me with MyGateway is the ability for professors to offer hybrid courses that combine in-classroom with online. This reduces the need for adult working professionals to have to physically come to campus, which often involves taking time away from work responsibilities. …The flexibility this provides to us is greatly appreciated. [When I need] something I can download a copy of that item from the class site. If I don't want to have a lot of paper items I can look at them as I need them on MyGateway. Also, communicating with other students is easier because everyone's email address is located in MyGateway.
23	Wimba and Students SS06-FS09 90% use Wimba 23% use to attend live class sessions 67% play back archives for attendance 34% play back archives for study 10% report inability to use (now: mp3 and mp4)
24	How did you use Wimba?
25	Wimba and Usability SS06-FS09
26	Wimba and Communication SS06-FS09
27	Wimba and Learning SS06-FS09
28	Wimba and Satisfaction SS06-FS09
29	Wimba Classroom Mean Scores SS06-FS09
30	My Students: Wimba Classroom Overall the best part of the course was the use of the wimba, it enabled me to not have to be at the campus to attend the lecture. I really appreciated having it as a resource. “Using wimba is a good tool to review, lecture, and to clarify things..” “I did not use Wimba live to attend the class but I am glad it was available. I have used it to play back for attendance credit only. I would like for this feature to be added to other courses at UM-StLouis.” “The flexibility and convenience of Wimba allowed me to attend EVERY class. In a traditional classroom course, I would have missed at least 4 classes.” “I think that all courses should have the wimba archives available!!! I travel a lot and it was great to have a class that I could be out of town and still attend.” If it weren't for WIMBA I would not have been able to take this class. I have taken other "on-line" courses at other colleges and hated them. The archived "live" classes were great.
31	Wikis and Usability
32	Wiki and Communication SS06-FS09
33	Wikis and Learning SS06-FS09
34	Wikis and Satisfaction SS06-FS09
35	Wiki Mean Scores SS06-FS09
36	My Students: Wikis “The wikis are an excellent tool. Interactive, easy to use, and the final product is better than a group paper would be with graphics and internal links. Plus, busy group members can input on their own time, rather than trying to find a time and a place to meet.” “More than anything, the wiki's and discussion boards made me feel like it was possible to have a thriving community of connected students that persisted outside of the class. It helped me to identify students like me more easily, by way of the quality of their interactions facilitated by the tools provided.” “I would have liked to see a stronger set of tools for the wiki, perhaps even on a platform with some degree of permanence so that all that work wasn't lost to me upon completion of the course. I do see some downsides to this, but that portion of the course was very addictive for me.” “The wikis were helpful and fun because we got to use our creative side with them and i love to be creative :)”
37	What to Do?
38	Cautions What if you gave a lecture and nobody came?^[i] Motivating Students: Rationalizing Rewards or Rewarding Rationality? (Is this going to be on the test?) Making Something out of Nothing. (“…a social form that is generally centrally conceived, controlled, and comparatively devoid of distinctive substantive content.”^[ii]) Using Technology or Technology Using You?
39	Possibilities Openness: Access to information and learning spaces Adjusting to change and adapting to users’ needs Interactivity Choice and multiplicity Transparency: Co-presence, Telepresence, or Simply Presence Community and University: "Essentially, a student's university career in such a system would no longer be through a particular place, time, or preselected body of academics, but through a network principally of their own making, yet shaped by a degree granting body and its faculty. A student could stay home or travel, mix on-line and off-line education, work in classes or with mentors, and continue their learning long after taking a degree.“ ^[1]
40	Changing the Frame Old dichotomies just don't work anymore. Distance Education----Traditional Education: How far away are you? Teacher----Learner: Who knows best? Virtual----Real: The issues of actuality and ways of being: "The virtual should, properly speaking, be compared not to the real but the actual…It implies the production of new qualities, a transformation of ideas, a true becoming that feeds the virtual in turn.“ ^[i] How do you not use technology in education? [i] Pierre Levy, 1998. Becoming Virtual: Reality in the Digital Age, translated by Robert Bononno, Plenum Trade: New York. Pages 24-25.
41	The University: Bricks, Information, and Integration. "In looking at university change for its own sake or as an indicator of change more generally, no one should underestimate the remarkable staying power of these institutions. They have been around...for more than 1,000 years. In that time, they have survived many revolutions and may survive more yet, including the digital one.“^[^1] Or, back to chalk? [1] Brown and Duguid, 2000. Pages 24-241.
42	Where is it Written?
43	Contact and Additional Information Robert Keel, rok@umsl.edu This presentation: http://tinyurl.com/blended-class-2011 Review all the MyGateway Students’ and Faculty Surveys http://www.umsl.edu/technology/mgwhelp/mgwinfo/mgwinfo.html. MyGateway Use Statistics: http://MyGateway.umsl.edu/umsl/mgwstats/stats.htm