Monthly Archives: May 2010

Moving

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It’s been awhile since I’ve updated.  So much has happened and I’m not even sure what I want to put here and what should remain unpublished.

Because of a renovation, we have moved to the 1st floor. I love my space!  It is expansive! 

Although moving is painful, it is good to have a reason to evaluate what you have to determine what is worth taking with you.  My plan is to not empty my boxes until I need something.  If I don’t touch something, it will go away. 

Along with my move, I also helped a family from my church move this past weekend.  So you can say that was the theme for last week. 

Moving tends to create a stir that makes it difficult to get things done.  Luckily, I was able to keep on top of things.

Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds Collaboration Tools

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This is my first entry about this topic, but I plan to make many more in the weeks, months, and (hopefully) years to come.  I’m fortunate enough to work with Kent Matsueda, Kate Twoey, Penny Ralston-Berg, and Jen Berthage.  For this note, I’m going to comment on the tools that we’re using for the project.

Since Penny lives in Wisconsin and works from a distance, we have used a couple of virtual meeting tools: 

  • Polycom
  • Elluminate Live

To get a better grip visually on our topic, we are using mindmeister.  This is my first foray into the tool and I have found it to be user friendly. 

To manage the project, we initially decided to use ning.  Unfortunately, ning decided to become a pay site, so we shifted gears.  Instead we formed an ANGEL group.  Much discussion followed about how to organize and post articles and other resources.  We decided because of the fleeting nature of items on the net to include pdf’s of articles when possible along with links.  I like the way things are looking in the site, especially the icons that Kent chose to represent the different items. 

Diigo is another tool that we are using to annotate articles that we find.  It is such a powerful tool!  I’m highlighting, making comments, and sharing with the group from the web page.

I’m very excited about this project and look forward to what we find.

 

Looking Ahead

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The week started out with a conference and a presentation for faculty.  I finally was able to catch up a bit on Wednesday.  The summer semester starts on Monday and there is a physical move to the first floor the next Monday.  So I’m looking forward and hoping for the best!

We had another meeting for our research team (Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds).  I wish that I could have added more to the team discussion this week, but with the semester opening I was unable to do as much reading and research as I had wished.  Many thanks to Kent, Penny, Jen, and Kate for their work!  I plan to write a bit more so stay tuned!

Keynote for 2010 Hendrick Best Practices for Adult Learners Conference

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Presenter: Brenda K. Harms, Ph.D. Principal Consultant, STAMATS

Brenda shared stats from Stamats about Adult learners.  It highlighted how different Higher Education has become with the inclusion of the For Profit universities, like Phoenix University.  You can definitely make the argument that the college experience will be completely different in the near future.  Hopefully, public universities can see the need for change and begin the process of becoming more receptive to their learners’ needs.

Research in a Nutshell: Library Workshops for Adult Learners

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Presenter: Dawn Amsberry, reference librarian, Penn State University Park

Observation: Marketing by giving out free stuff is what the libraries like to do.

Reflection: Giving out free stuff works for students of all genres!

Resources:

Presentation Note:
Recommendations

  • Advertise in multiple venues
  • Offer giveaways and free food
  • Try multiple time slots
  • Engage students in activity
  • Include practical application
  • Invite the press
  • Evaluate

Reflection: It is amazing to me how many of these recommendations are similar for learners of all types.  To me the main consideration for adult learners is making sure that the activity is set up when they will be most likely to be available. 

Summary: I have known for awhile about the great library staff at Penn State.  It was great to learn more. 

Prior Learning Assessment (PLA): An Important Tool for Student Success

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Presenter: Judy Wertheim, vice president, Higher Education Services and Administration, Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL)

Definition of PLA: The evaluation for college credit of the knowledge and skills one gains from life experiences (or from non-college instructional programs) including employment, travel, hobbies, civic activities, and volunteer service.

Quote: “This isn’t giving out credit for time; it’s for learning.” -Judy

Reflection: This is such a strong statement!  What a great message to encourage the learner to make the most of their time and experience.

CAEL site

Pipeline of young college graduates is not sufficient to remain competitive- CAEL Adult Learning in Focus

Food for Thought: Will a more formally educated population make a community a better place to live?

My input: As an educator at heart, I’d like to think this is true.  But I’m not sure if the data supports it.  It seems like formal education leads to a further stratification of society and power that leads to more ills in society.  If we

Presentation Note:
What we know about PLA:

  • motivates students
  • saves time
  • saves money
  • portfolio develops skills

Reflection: I personally can vouch for the last point.  I learned so much during my portfolio defense for my master’s.

Summary: This session was much different that I originally anticipated.  I thought that the session would talk about understanding what students know for teaching individual courses.  This was more about giving formal credit for knowledge already learned.  But I can see how important this is for teaching and learning.  There is a lot of frustration that comes with students having to reproduce effort that leads to many individuals not getting an education.  I hope that this type of acceptance of learning outside of traditional means permeates educational institutions for the betterment of society.

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in an Adult Learning Environment

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Presenters: Paul Banach, law enforcement training specialist, Penn State University and Robert Stonis, associate director, Penn State Justice and Safety Institute

A member of the audience mentioned that adult learners shouldn’t have to take the prerequisites because they don’t need them.  I don’t agree.  I think that we all need to keep learning.  I feel that we need to change our thinking on this.  We need to take a life-long learning perspective.

We as an audience had a problem: 

Given: 2 plates, 2 paper clips, 2 Styrofoam cups, 1 straw, 2 toothpicks, and 3 rubber bands
Objective: To make something that moves

We had a pathetic attempt.

Takeaways:

  • Teamwork
  • Fun
  • Sharing perspectives

Why did they go with PBL?
Students weren’t learning with an approach that is more direct.  When students solve a problem, they understand how to handle real-life situations? 

What is PBL?

  • Ill-Structured
  • Real Life Significance
  • Student-Led
  • Instructor-facilitated
  • Community focused

The process is to start with a problem.  To this, we add known facts to solve the learning issue.  After this the group needs to make an action plan.

I like this approach, but I wonder if it is replicable.  It’s almost as if you can’t standardize the course.  So if the course is about problem solving, then it is the right approach.  But if we use it is a standard course we may lose the course purpose.

Paul mentioned that an important part of the learning is a journal.  I like the idea of students reflecting on their learning.  But it is also evaluated and addressed.

Paul also mentioned how creating learning objectives is so important.  Then creation of the ill-structured problems is also really important.  Understanding what students know helps to facilitate the course as well.

Reflection: It seems like this is something that needs to happen by course creation by committee.

Great session!  Very engaging!

 

Adult Learner Student Panel

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A panel of current adult learners from various campus discussed their Penn State experiences as they juggle multiple roles as spouse, parent, student veteran and full-time employees as well as the best practices they have encountered at their campuses.

Moderated by Eric Hoover, senior reporter, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Quote: “As an adult, we’re afraid to ask questions because we’re adults and we should know all of the answers.”- Denise Gladd (panelist)

Reflection: I once had a discussion with an Indian friend/elder of mine.  According to Hindu teachings, life if broken into sections.  The first section is to be spent studying.  The second is to be spent doing your life’s work including family commitments.  And the final section is to be spent out of society preparing for death (in the jungle or as a beggar). 

In the American culture, there are no real barriers.  But I am often reminded how similar we are to the Hindu perspective.  It’s expected that we complete all of our learning early in our lives.  But to me, we really can’t frame the principles learn in our minds until we have a place to apply them.

Observation: There were differing opinions on adult learners working with younger students.  Some are more annoyed by them while others are glad to have their insight.  It seems like the more focused members of the panel don’t have time to work with the younger learners. 

Quote: “The Elluminate Live is fantastic.”- Barbara Benfer-Caruso (panelist)

Reflection: It’s interesting that the student liked the synchronous tool.  It just reinforces to me how tools, both synchronous and asynchronous have their place.

Observation: Denise mentioned how she appreciated having the opportunity to discuss the materials.
 
Reflection: Sounds like she is into social learning.  I love hearing about this as a constructivist!

Observation: Maggie Kwok, Jacob Moore, Barbara Benfer-Caruso (panelists) expressed frustration to have to go back to take courses when they already have a strong background.  Why can’t more military or life experiences count for some of the introductory coursework?

 Answer from the crowd: A member of the audience mentioned that adult learners should consider CLEP for Veterans.

Observation: I have heard several times the word confidence. 

Reflection: I think that we all need this to succeed.  Not enough is made of how important motivation is to learning.  During the panel discussion, I was reminded about how there were specific instances in my own life that I can recall that gave me confidence and lead to my success as a student.

Observation: It came up several times that the word is not getting out to adult learners about Penn State being available for nontraditional students.

Observation: Denise mentioned about having relevant and interesting examples in a course like Statistics to engage students and make prerequisites more useful.

2010 Hendrick Best Practices for Adult Learners Conference

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This is the 3rd Hendrick conference that I have attended.  Here is a link to information about the conference: 2010 Hendrick Best Practices for Adult Learners Conference

I’ve included links to separate blogs on sessions that I attended:

I found this to a great opportunity to collect information about what is best in working with adult learners.  As an instructional designer, I’m often developing strategies to help adults learn, but we don’t always have student data to make decisions.  During time at this conference, there are ample opportunities to get this data.

One new idea used by the conference planners that I liked was to have my schedule printed on the back of my name tag.  I often have notes in my calendar, but having it so readily available was much more efficient for me.

For all of you who also attended, I’d love to know what you thought.

Appreciating my Mom

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I was just encouraged to make a post by Patty on my mother.  I’ve become more and more appreciative of my Mom because she has always been super supportive.  Also, she was always one to encourage, not list all of the reasons why I couldn’t or shouldn’t do things.  That isn’t to say that she didn’t know or have preferences for what I would do.  She just trusted me.  I hope that I can be that kind of parent for my sons.  Thanks Mom!