The Future of Higher Education

You've probably already been reading about MIT's new program to offer free online courses, and credit for those course to students who pass an exam. They are enlisting individuals to help serve as graders (volunteers, mind you). To catch up on topic, check out these two articles from the Chronicle of Higher Education:

• MIT’s New Free Courses May Threaten (and Improve) the Traditional Model
• MIT Will Offer Certificates to Outside Students Who Take Its Online Courses 

This has created all sorts of reactions from students, faculty, academic professionals, and industry. This has lead to questions about the future of higher education. These two articles explore different possibilities:

• Does the online education revolution meant the death of the diploma?
• Envisioning a post-campus America

Most likely the future will not play out exactly as written in these articles, but it does raise interesting questions worth pondering: How do you think education will be delivered in the next 5, 10, 20 years? Who will be providing it? Will students be looking for degrees or shorter term training?

Share your thoughts in comments...

Subscribing to blogs using RSS feeds

I've had a few questions about how to subscribe to blogs so that one automatically receives the updates. Fortunately, that's where RSS feeds come in, and here are some readers that will help collect your RSS feeds:

• http://www.yeahreader.com/screenshots.htm
• http://www.feeddemon.com/
• http://www.google.com/reader
• http://my.yahoo.com

At first I only had two blogs I followed. So these fit nicely on my iGoogle page. But after I started collecting feeds, it got a little overwhelming, and I would forget to check my reader screen. Enter one of my favorite organization tools for iPad and iPhone users: Flipboard! You can download Flipboard (http://flipboard.com/) for free. Link your reader to it, and it turns your feeds into a magazine style format that makes it easy to flip through, read snippets, or entire posts/articles. (It will also pull in your Facebook and Twitter as well as a host of other free subscriptions like The Atlantic, Salon, The Economist, etc.).

You can also use your Outlook to collect your feeds. Some people find it helpful to have their “work” feeds go to Outlook and their “personal” or “fun” feeds to another reader. This is a personal decision and depends on how blended you like your life. You'll see the the RSS link within your Outlook (between Outbox and Sent Items in the Mail pane). This is where the feeds will go.

So, you’ve found a blog that you want to subscribe to…here’s how to do it…

1. Find and click on the Subscribe link and select your reader, or – if it’s not listed – click on “Atom.”
2. Select your reader from the dropdown list if you’ve selected “atom.” 
3. You are now subscribed and will see previous posts. It will update automatically.

Millennials in the Classroom

A few posts ago we started exploring the different generations in the classroom and workplace. As this is the population that we're most likely to see more of in the future, let's spend some more time looking at the Millennials.

In January, the Teaching & Learning Center put on a lunch-time talk about this topic. You can listen to a recording of the presentation and discussion here. Some of the big ideas that arose in this discussion, as well as in the literature, are the following:

• Low threshold for frustration and ambiguity
• Tech-savvy in social media but may lack skills in programs such as Excel
• VERY social and looking for meaningfulness
• Expect instant feedback with praise
• Need guidance in professionalism

This video below Danielle Hart, MD provides some tips for teaching and engaging this new generation.

The Millennial Generation & "The Lecture" from Academic Emergency Medicine on Vimeo.

So, some questions for you...

• What experiences have you had with the Millennials?
• What strategies do you use to engage different generations in the classroom?
• What are areas that you would like suggestions about from your colleagues? 

Will Technology Save or Destroy Teaching/Learning?

Last week, we began to share some examples of free and cheap technology. While I hope to have this topic repeat every month or so on a theme, it's worth a cautionary note.

Michael Wesch a Cultural Anthropologist from KSU has long favored the use of technology in teaching to get the messages to students in a variety of ways, to entertain as well as teach (recently the word "edutainment" has been floating around). In talking with his colleagues, many who have tried incorporating technology into the classroom, he found that technology for technology sake does not make a better learning experience. There needs to be a strong foundation to the material (what do you want the students to take away) and then look at the what technology can help deliver that content and make it interactive and participatory.

You can read more about his learnings here.

In the next few weeks, we will look at

• How learning goals can help create a better learning experience
• Explore the inverted classroom
• Building interactivity into online lectures
• Evaluate some online conferencing technology for student groups

Free & Cheap Technology to Spice up your Class

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a conference on Student Success and Retention. One of the sessions was lead by a self-declared technology geek, who offered a fantastic list of free and cheap technology. It made me think of the stuff that I use and about some of the conversations I’ve had with Ron about technology. Here’s a list of some applications you might find useful in your courses… 

Lucid Chart is like Visio, but it’s free for educators (instructors must set up the account for their class). It is useful for projects like mind-maps, process flow, organizations charts, etc. 

Have students provide feedback in the classroom using their cell phones using Poll Everywhere. Provides real-time feedback. You can use this to survey the class or to assess for learning. 

Create your own cartoon using Xtranormal. It reads the script that you type, with characters and settings you choose. Just don’t let this allow you to procrastinate from some of the less fun aspects of setting up your courses. 

Prezi is like PowerPoint but not really…all I can say is to check it out. It may completely change your world and how you think about presentations. There is a free educator’s version (use your .edu address). 

Jing allows you to create free screen capture videos (limit 5 minutes, but that keeps it within our attention spans, too). If you have a short PowerPoint or Prezi presentation, you can use this to create a mini-video. It will capture whatever is on your screen, including Office documents. It’s a clever way to provide feedback to students on their papers. The pro version is quite inexpensive and has more features, such as allowing the use of a webcam for a video of YOU!

Sliderocket allows you to import PowerPoints, add audio, and create essentially a movie. There is a free version (“lite”) and a discount for more advanced versions for educators.  

Google Chrome has an add-on feature that will let you create QR Codes using this app. What are QR codes? It’s those weird little black and white boxes with the small dots or boxes. With a QR reader, people can use their cell phones to take a picture and navigate directly to the page. It’s especially helpful for long, ugly URLs and for those using other devices to surf the web (e.g., iPhones, Androids, etc.). Get more information here.

How do I find more? How do I know which to use? There’s so much out there! Fortunately, there are folks out there who love to try this stuff out and review it. Here’s a helpful website that allows you to look for services and compares different options for you.

Please share in Comments your favorite free and cheap technologies that you are currently using…

Spice up your teaching

On Friday, OHSU's Teaching and Learning Center will be presenting a workshop designed to help spice up lectures using active learning methods. Learn and share this Friday, February 17th -- either in MacHall 2201 or online via Adobe Connect. Please visit their website for more information.

Generations in the Workplace & Classroom

The Millennials are coming, the Millennials are coming. OK…actually they are here. In this series we will explore how Millennials interact with graduate education and strategies to develop a multi-generational classroom. Here is a snapshot of who we are currently seeing in the Division of Management classrooms:

Who are these Millennials? The Millennial Generation (or Gen Y) follows Gen X in the United States, with members being born between 1981 and 2005. From an early age, they have been scheduled, protected, and praised. They are technologically savvy but have low thresholds for frustration. Feedback is appreciated and expected.  

Before we delve too deeply into this specific generation, let’s review who’s currently in our classroom and workplaces. While Millennials are relatively new to the workplace, they are preceded by Generation X whose members are taking up leadership reins as the Boomers begin to retire. The Silent Generation still plays a significant role in the workplace but is less likely to be seen in our classrooms. 

	Silent	Baby Boomers	Gen X	Millennials (Gen Y)
Born	1922-1944	1945-1964	1965-1980	1981-2005
Family Structure	Traditional, nuclear family	Disintegrating	Divorce, latch-key kids	Blended families
Methods of Communicating	Rotary phones One-on-one Written	Touch-tone phones Call me anytime	Cell Phones Call me only at work	Internet e-mail blended work/personal life
Attitudes toward work	Work hard Respect authority Duty Follow rules	Workaholic Social awareness Question authority Work efficiencies	Self-reliant Like structure Skeptical Work-Life balance	Mutlitasking Entrepreneurial Goal oriented Team work
Wants feedback	No news is good news	Annual review	Informal check-ins	Consistently, along each step, immediate
What is seen as a reward	Satisfaction is a job well done	Promotion (title, salary)	Freedom (time off, flexible schedule, own way of doing things)	Meaningful work

Generations flow from one to the next, often a reaction to the one previous. Let’s take two examples: family structure and performance feedback at work. As a cautionary note: These are trends. There are always exceptions and those who seem to be of another generation. Moreover, this research pertains mainly to the U.S.

As we move from the Silent Generation with the traditional, nuclear family , the family structure begins to morph as women enter the workforce, the Civil Rights movement comes into full-swing, and both Korea and Vietnam Wars are waged (Boomers), divorce rates rise along with the need to have both parents working, leaving kids fending for themselves (latch-key kids; Gen X). The Millennials find themselves part of blended families with step- and half-siblings. The parents, probably both working, may not be married and are highly involved in their children’s lives. 

In the workplace, performance feedback is always a tricky subject. The Silent Generation assumed no news was good news. While the Boomers aren’t always fond of feedback, they do accept the annual review (moving toward structured reviews but not a lot of feedback outside of that yearly event). Gen X, in their more laid-back style, seek feedback on a more casual basis to make adjustments. This can be aggravating for a Boomer who might assume feedback is desired (and therefore prepare for it) only once per year. Well, get ready, because the Millennials seek feedback continually, and prefer it to start with praise. This desire for feedback is true in the classroom as well. 

Here are two interesting articles that delve more into the different generations: 

• http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/05ws/generations.htm 
• http://www.ithaca.edu/icview/20202/ 

So, are you wondering how millennial you are? Take the Pew Research Center’s quiz to find out.

In the next installment of this series, we’ll examine Millennials in the classroom and strategies to teach this generation effectively.