EdTech Report 2010-2011 | The Educational Technology Center

EdTech Report 2010-2011

Summary of Educational Technology Center Activities

January 2010 – May 2011

  1. Introduction
  2. Initiatives and Projects 2010 – 2011
  3. Conferences and Events
  4. Workshops and Consultation
  5. Research
  6. Outreach
  7. Academic Websites
  8. EdTech Website and Online Resources
  9. Task Force Participation
  10. Partnerships
  11. EdTech Staff

EdTech Report PDF

Introduction

The Educational Technology Center is Northeastern University’s hub for integrating novel technology and teaching. The Center screens emerging technologies for offerings that can best serve faculty needs, helps faculty assimilate new technology, collaborates with faculty teams to develop and implement customized technology-based projects, and helps formulate university policy on technology-supported teaching and learning. For over a decade, the Center has pursued its mission as an agent of change via three guiding principles: continually monitor and respond to evolving technology, innovate collaboratively, and pursue simple solutions to complex problems.

In 2010, in concert with the university’s focus on mobile learning, the EdTech Center launched a new initiative that invites faculty to respond to an RFP on using iPads for curriculum development. We are also hosting events, both virtual and face-to-face, that allow faculty to learn about mobiles for teaching and learning. Opportunities include the following:

Initiatives and Projects 2010 – 2011

Electronic Portfolios

During 2010-2011, the use of eportfolios in First-Year Writing and Advanced Writing in the Disciplines classes increased to 14 instructors and approximately 1000 students. The instructors met regularly throughout the semester in three inquiry groups, each focused on a different theme related to eportfolio use. At the end of each semester, the Writing Program collected student eportfolios to develop a repository of work as a resource for programmatic assessment.

The Health Sciences program expanded its use of eportfolios by extending students’ subscriptions to cover their entire five year program. This positions the program to utilize the eportfolios to track development progress and to showcase student achievement.

Digital Media Projects

Interactive Course Development Project

In May 2011 EdTech staff provided planning, one-on-one consultation, and technical assistance to faculty to develop the following digital media assignments for their students. Students completed the assignments in the library's Digital Media Design Studio (DMDS).

  • Nursing - digital stories and podcasts about health care institutions, patient care, and leadership
  • Pharmacy - APPE digital stories on coop opportunities
  • Human Services - podcasts about policy on topics such as health and housing,
    educational policy, and juvenile justice where students integrated policy analysis with local interviews of experts.
  • English first-year writing - digital-based retrospective essay exploring the relationship between text and images in their writing
  • Physical Therapy - an online forum to analyze therapeutic exercise prescriptions for specific patient case scenarios

Mobile Learning Digital Media Curriculum Project

EdTech invited faculty to submit proposals to expand the current “Interactive Course Development Project’ initiative by offering iPad2 equipment. EdTech Staff are providing planning, one-on-one consultation, and technical assistance to faculty to develop digital media assignments or teaching initiatives integrating iPads into the classroom. Faculty will blog about iPad classroom use and their experiences, as well as present their finds at various EdTech conferences. Faculty currently using iPads:

  • Matt Noonan - English Department
  • Margarita Divall - Pharmacy Practice
  • Gregory Zuch - English Department

Clickers (Personal Response Systems)
The EdTech Center continues to support the use and implementation of Turning Technologies as Northeastern’s university-wide clicker vendor and offers virtual vendor training sessions each semester. Faculty members across the university (including Bouve, CBA, Biology, School of Law, Chemistry, Engineering) are using this technology to enhance student’s classroom experience.
The EdTech website includes information on the process for obtaining clickers, as well as tutorials and best practices for the use of clickers in different disciplines.

Math Problem Sessions Online
EdTech Center staff are working with Math faculty to develop interactive online problem sessions.

Game Design
EdTech staff assisted public school teachers from the Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program with evaluation of the COE online game, Geckoman. The RET’s were funded through the NSF Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing. EdTech Staff also developed the game’s online presence.

Research Projects
The EdTech Center staff assist faculty with conceptualizing instructional technology components during the grant-writing process, then develop websites that support the grants. Recent examples include:

  • Human Trafficking website and online application redesign: The website is a public destination for information about the project, including background information, federal and state legislation, and news about human trafficking related litigation. The system is funded by a grant from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice. The online application provides systematic information on cases of human trafficking that have come to the attention of law enforcement.
  • EVIDAAC: Evidence in Augmentative and Alternative Communication database and website.
  • Project Play Training for Early Intervention Practitioners: Conceptualization and development of an online training program to help practitioners learn how to assess children through observation of natural play.
  • MedAppTrak: Application that manages prehealth students life experiences and testing information in preparation of their request for their Committee Evaluation Letter.

Teaching with Technology: Assistance with planning, design, development and delivery of Face-to-Face, Hybrid and Web-enhanced Courses.
EdTech staff assisted faculty in the colleges of CBA, CAS, Engineering, Bouve, Biology, Sociology, ard Pharmacy Practice in enhancing their courses with the following tools, technologies and practices:

  • Lecture Capture: Webcasting, Podcasting
  • Blackboard tutorials (walk-in, online, and
    phone support)
  • Managing Online Discussions
  • Multimedia and Course Materials
  • Articles about Teaching Online
  • Social Networking Tools
  • Course Design Evaluation
  • Teaching Large Classes
  • Online testing

The Center’s newly re-designed website offers a range of resources for faculty creating online course elements as well as fully online courses.

Online Course Development
EdTech Center staff are providing one-on-one and group consultation to faculty in CBA, Bouve, History, International Affairs, Sociology, Biology, and Pharmacy Practice to plan, design, develop and deliver undergraduate courses.

Related assistance:

  • instructional design
  • development of online course components
  • consultation and training in how to use Blackboard, produce narrated Powerpoints, podcasts and online quizzes

Conferences and Events

The EdTech Center hosts a range of events to help faculty establish connections with colleagues in other disciplines, share best practices, and learn more about possibilities for enhancing teaching with technology. Our events include:

AcademiX Conference, April 29, 2011

EdTech, CIETL and Information Services worked with Apple to host this year's free AcademiX conference on Mobile Learning. AcademiX 2011 focused on how the mobile revolution is redefining education. In eight 20-minute talks, leading educators discussed how iOS development, mobile devices, and apps have impacted the way students learn, the teaching methods that have emerged, and the Apple technologies that help make it all happen.

Teaching with Technology Day, April 26, 2011
Our seventh annual Teaching with Technology mini-conference included workshops, faculty presentations, and a keynote presentation by Dr. W. Gardner Campbell on Integrative Learning and Digital Citzenship.

Adobe Day, March 22
EdTech partnered with Information Services and Adobe to host a series of workshops on Adobe products, presented by Adobe.

Teaching 2.0, November 18, 2010
Over 60 people attended Teaching 2.0 (formerly known as Tech Trends for Teaching). The event featured presentations by faculty about their experiences using a variety of teaching tools and strategies. The day also featured brief demos by staff EdTech, CIETL, DMDS and Information Services.

Teaching with Techonoly mini-conference, April 14, 2010
Our seventh annual Teaching with Technology mini-conference included a keynote presentation by Dr. W. Gardner Campbell on Integrative Learning and Digital Citizenship, workshops and faculty presentations.

Tech Trends for Teaching, March 11, 2010
Annual day of short presentations highlighting current technologies related to teaching. Tech Trends for Teaching day has been changed to Teaching 2.0 day.

EdTech Website Launch Party, February 1 2010
The EdTech Center invited Northeastern faculty and staff to to celebrate the launch of the new EdTech website and enjoy light refreshments.

EdTech Center Website Scavener Hunt, January 2010
Each day for the two weeks leading up to the EdTech Center's new website launch party, the EdTech Center hosted a scavenger hunt where faculty and staff were asked to read the clue on the website home page and then find a treasure chest located on one of the website’s pages.

Online Conferences
EdTech Center hosted viewing of the following online conferences:

Workshops and Consultation

EdTech Center staff promote exceptional teaching by helping faculty solve pedagogical problems, and integrate appropriate technology to challenge today's students to excel.

TA Workshop
The EdTech Center collaborated with the department of economics to re-design a 2-day training program for economics TA’s. Materials for the workshop included processes, teaching tips and technology strategies that could be used to expand the workshop for other departments.

Hands On!
The EdTech Center offers a series of short workshops called Hands On! Hands On! is held once a month and taught by Seth Merriam, EdTech's Web Services Manager and Multimedia Designer. During Hands On! you will learn a technology skill and share ideas with colleagues about ways to use it for teaching and learning.

Second Mondays
Second Monday Conversations on Teaching, Learning and Technology are a series of open discussions that offer a forum for sharing ideas on topics including teaching online, strategies for teaching large classes, eportfolios for assessment, designing student team-based projects, data resources, and assessing student digital media projects.

Weekly Workshops
or the Spring 2011 semester the EdTech Center hosted Weekly Workshops. Our co-op students offered one-on-one sessions for faculty and staff by appointment on various topics aimed at helping to enhance teaching. Topics included YouTube, Slideshare, Google Forms, Google Docs, Jing, Prezi and BB9 Blogs, Wikis and Journals.

 

Research

In 2010, the Inter/National Coalition for Eportfolio Research invited the Northeastern research team of Chris Gallagher (Director of the NU Writing Program) and Laurie Poklop (EdTech instructional designer) to participate in a cohort of research teams from twelve institution conducting research projects on eportfolios and assessment. The project runs for three years and includes six cohort meetings at which teams receive peer feedback on their ongoing research process and showcase their results. Northeastern will host a cohort meeting in Spring 2012.

 

Outreach

Department Meetings
The EdTech Center regularly hosts academic department meetings in the EdTech Center's collaborative learning space. In addition to the department’s regular agenda, the EdTech Center presents on various pedagogical topics and new technology of interest to assist faculty in exploring ways to engage students and enhance their learning.
Community Outreach
The EdTech Center regularly hosts the Mayor’s Creative Industries planning meetings

 

Academic Websites

The EdTech Center has developed a website template program to help Northeastern groups enhance their Web presence while adhering to Northeastern University graphics standards.

Each website built through the template program is based on an interface that has been previously designed, but can be easily customized to meet specific needs. Several website templates are available to choose from. All designs adhere to W3C standards and accessibility guidelines.

The EdTech Center has completed the following template projects this year (January 2010 – May 2011).

Alert blog
Asian studies
Choral Music from the Jewish Traditions
CSAS Tutoring
Clark Lab
Compliance and Risk Services
Creative Industries
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Department of Chemical Engineering
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Department of Psychology
Dietary Assessment Center
East Asian Studies
Education Policy Fellowship
Environmental Studies Program
General Studies Program
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures
History Department Redesign
Internal Audit
International Affairs Coop
J. David Cisneros website
Languages, Literature, and Cultures
Linguistics
Godoy Laboratory
National Interpreter Education Center
Northeast LSAMP Alliance
Northeastern LSAMP
NU Web
Online Advising Websites

Pharmacy Office of Experiential Education
Pharmaceutical Care Tutorial
Physics Co-op
Program for Undeclared Students
Project Play
PROTECT Program
Risk Services
Traumatic Brain Injury
VOTERS

EdTech Website and Online Resources

The EdTech Center’s redesigned and reorganized website makes it easier for visitors to find information related to their interests. In addition to the standard ways of finding information via a navigational menu, the EdTech Center has employed a system of "tagging." Each piece of content is tagged with descriptive keywords as a way of linking related content.

Other new features included in the EdTech website are the Buzz and How Do I sections. The Buzz is a collection of the latest trends in technology intended to show faculty the various ways technology is being used enhance teaching. Many of these resources link to tools that can be utilized for online communication and collaboration, and articles that discuss benefits of using these tools. The How Do I section contains tutorials, resources and webcasts of our demos and workshops. The topics covered in the How Do I section include Blackboard, Clickers, Digital Storytelling, ePortfolios, Mashups, Podcasting, Social Networking and Google Tools.

Task Force Participation

In 2010, the EdTech Center director, Alicia Russell, was asked to participate in three strategic task force efforts: The Digital Media Commons, Online Learning, and Mobile Learning. The director has provided the a series of reports to assist in the efforts of these groups.

Partnerships

NU partners

The EdTech Center is a key player among Northeastern units that support teaching, learning, teachnology and digital content.

External Partnerships
The EdTech Center staff served on advisory boards, delivered presentations and papers, and attended conferences for these groups:

  • Educause: The EdTech Center regularly hosts Educause online conferences in the EdTech conference room.
  • Educause Learning Initiative (ELI): The EdTech center regularly hosts ELI online conferences in our conference room.
  • AAEEBL: Northeastern became one of the original academic members of the Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-based Learning when it was founded in 2009 as the international professional association for the the eportfolio community. EdTech instructional designer Laurie Poklop has served on the program committee for AAEEBL’s annual conference for two years. She made two presentations at the July 2010 World Portfolio Summit and assisted two groups of NU faculty to make presentations as well.
  • NERCOMP (NorthEast Regional Computing Program)
  • New Media Consortium (NMC)
  • MacLearning.org
  • EdTech Director, Alicia Russell serves on the steering committee and writes articles. In 2011, the EdTech Center collaborated with MacLearning.org and Apple to present the AcademiX conference on Mobile Learning at Northeastern on April 28 and 29.
  • Campus Technology EdTech Director, Alicia Russell is serving on the program board for the Campus Technology Conference, 2011. EdTech Staff, Seth Merriam, Alicia Russell & Victoria Wallace will present workshops on strategic planning for mobile learning and digital media projects at the 2011 Campus Technology conference in Boston in July.

EdTech Staff

Professional Staff
Alicia Russell
Director
strategic planning, outreach, grant writing, Online Learning, evaluation

Rachel Bertolani
Web Interface Designer and Training Manager
website design and development, graphic design, template program project manager, event planning

Seth Merriam
Web Services Manager and Multimedia Designer
workshops, multimedia integration, Web 2.0

Andrew Seaboyer
Internet Systems Developer (programmer)
website programming, content management development, wordpress plugin development

Laurie Poklop
Curriculum and Instructional Designer
eportfolios, assessment, online course design

Victoria Wallace
Curriculum and Instructional Designer
outreach, clickers, events, TA Training, digital media projects, online course design

Co-op Students
Phuong Phan (Spring 2011)
Mike Godlewski (Spring 2011)
Jessica Leary (Fall 2010)
Taryn Sadauskas (Fall 2010)
Molly Gilette (Spring 2010)
Chelsea Costaney (Spring 2010)

Also of Interest:

Executive Summary
The Educational Technology Center is the hub for integrating technology and teaching at Northeastern University. The center's mission is to improve teaching and learning with technology through...

about edtech