DIIA Blog

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched the National Broadband Plan in a forum at Thompson Conference Center on Monday. In a Daily Texan article today, Commissioner Meredith Baker said, “The Internet is a critical educational tool. We came to Austin first. It is a model for educational benefits over the Internet.”

Featured at the forum were high school students who have benefited from three UT-Austin Continuing Education programs–the UT Online High School, the Migrant Student Graduation Enhancement program, and the Language Learners at the University Center for Hispanic Achievement (LUCHA) program.

DIIA Faculty Development Specialist Leslie Jarmon received a grant from the Transforming Undergraduate Education program to support a University of Texas System innovative teaching initiative based in Second Life. Dr. Jarmon leads the nation’s first system-wide program to stimulate creative approaches to instruction, increase student access and success, and manage or reduce instructional costs.

The program will “use the virtual world environment to cultivate working communities of learning and discovery transcending the complex, interdisciplinary UT System, empowering students to become innovators and thought leaders throughout Texas, the U.S., and the world,” according to this week’s DIIA spotlight article by Michael Barrett.

The Chronicle of Higher Education picked up on the project here, and Dr. Jarmon was featured in a UT-Austin OnCampus accolade here.

Today’s The Wired Campus section of the Chron features UT Austin associate professor of radio, TV, and film S. Craig Watkins on social networking and media. He discusses his soon-to-be-published book The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future.

In a Q & A with Marc Beja, Watkins gives his perspectives on social media in the classroom. Especially interesting are the comments. The Q & A is brief, so consider browsing reactions to what information is included in this article.

Even after posting approximately 60 entries, clearing 2,364 spam comments, and live-blogging SXSWi and AccessU, I still can hardly believe it has been a whole year since the DIIA Blog came online.  The experts say that a blog is only as good as its content, and I sincerely hope that readers found the DIIA Blog to be a rich source of up-to-date information, insight, amusement, resources, and perspective.

It was personally gratifying to see page hits approaching the 100,000 mark while live-blogging at SXSWi, knowing that we were spreading the word about DIIA among the industry movers and shakers.

AccessU, although smaller in scale, brought attention to the vital importance of accessibility to everyone who uses the World Wide Web. It was there that I coined my mantra, “Curb cuts for computers!” as an analogy for how accessible design benefits all of us. Glenda Sims (UT), Sharron Rush (Knowbility), and all the caring geniuses who developed the standards have made me a life-long advocate of designing for usability. We will all most likely face obstacles in communicating via the Internet as we age, so why not plan ahead?

Most of all, I have enjoyed learning more about the world we live in–from my blogging colleagues, and from the research I’ve engaged in to find something worth blogging about. I hope to hear from more DIIA voices in the years ahead, bringing wider-ranging, thought-provoking information to our attention, and engaging in dialogue through comments–although not the spammy ones, please!

If you use a Mac platform, Amy Miller has developed some nifty widgets to ping you when a new post goes up. Dana DeLoca, DIIA’s creative videographer and photographer has added a rich visual dimension through the “Photo of the Day” to complement our wordy posts, along with her fantastic sidekick AJ Landeros (Mr. iPhone). Truly, it takes a village…

My birthday wish for the DIIA Blog is to see it expand and grow, touching more lives, enhancing the University of Texas at Austin experience for faculty, staff, and students, and drawing in a wider circle of commenters to challenge and engage us in fruitful dialogue.

Blog on!

In the first of a three-part series, the Chronicle of Higher Education Research Services reports on what to expect in course delivery in the year 2020. According to the executive summary, students will expect institutes of higher learning to adapt to accommodate students’ financial and temporal needs.

Online classes, part-time study, courses from multiple universities, and expanding the four-year convention for earning a baccalaureate are some of the options students will expect.

This will call for more flexibility on the part of colleges and universities to meet changing conditions, particularly in the area of mobile delivery of services.

The College of 2020 Executive Summary 1 (pdf)

I was recently (hours ago) enlightened about the impact of Ruby Payne on instructional policy. Evidently, her thinking and writing on poverty has gained a large following. Others, including this 14 yr old boy on you tube aren’t convinced that she should be as revered.

Among those critiquing her work are Randy Bomer, Joel E. Dworin, Laura May & Peggy Semingson in Miseducating Teachers about the Poor: A Critical Analysis of Ruby Payne’s Claims about Poverty 2008.

Enough said by me; both of the above references make their points well. What are your thoughts? (I also wonder how many of our students, non-education majors) will end up teaching in K-12 environments. Also, to what degree are we responsible, from a societal-impact perspective, for thoughtfully preparing our grad students for possible teaching roles?)

Want to see, touch, and hear about the future of higher education? Then you definitely won’t want to miss the Innovative Instructional Technology Awards Program (IITAP) ceremony this afternoon from 2:00-4:00 p.m. in the Texas Union Ballroom. Exemplars in instructional technology from across the UT-Austin campus will be featured in a new “See and Touch” environment, available for your browsing pleasure. Supported by the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, top winners are recognized with cash prizes and iPod Touch devices, (mobile devices courtesy of Apple, Inc.).

DIIA staff have been working extra hard to create an exciting celebration, complete with interactive media, avatars, and the opportunity to discuss this year’s eye-opening projects in depth with the faculty and student developers. Oh, and did I mention groovy refreshments?

For a taste of amazing classroom technology that has evolved into nationally-recognized, ongoing, fully-supported projects, check out our past winners.

The IITAP Awards ceremony is the place to be–hope to see you there!

Greetings from San Diego, California, where I’m attending the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA)! As time and Internet access permits, I’ll post my thoughts and reflections on some of the sessions and events I’m attending this week.

If you’re not familiar with AERA, you should know that it’s an absolutely daunting conference (13,000 attendees this year!) that attracts people from all corners of the educational world. My favorite aspect of AERA is the opportunity to see how so many varied and diverse perspectives converge to address the challenge of improving teaching and learning.

Even with my phonebook-sized conference program, AERA is an exceptionally difficult conference to navigate. Luckily, there are numerous special interest groups organized around common areas of interest. This year, I joined the SIG on Technology as an Agent of Change in Teaching and Learning (TACTL), and it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite topics. I see so many parallels and relevance to the work we do at DIIA as we support technology integration in ways that positively transform the nature of teaching and learning on our campus.

I’ll share more in later posts so please stay tuned!

Joe Sanchez, co-founder of The Educators Coop, served as a panelist at the SXSW Interactive 2009 panel: Gaming as a Gateway Drug: Getting Girls Interested in Technology.

Joe, who is a doctoral candidate, former DIIA staffer, and current UT Austin instructor, shared his insight with the audience based on his experience teaching, writing about, and developing instructional programs using social media, including Second Life.

Others on the panel included (L to R):

• Dee Kapila - Girlstart
• Megan Gaiser - Her Interactive
• Sheri Graner Ray - Sony Online Entertainment
• Cindy Royal - Texas State University
• Joe Sanchez - Educators Coop