principles are principles

In the past few weeks, I’ve run into two presentations that relied on Chickering and Gamson’s “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.” I suppose that you’re not surprised, given the title, but you might be surprised to know that the article that introduced these principles was first published in the dark ages of 1987. If you were all caught up in the big hair, bigger shoulder pads of that era and missed the article, here are the big 7:

1. encourages contact between students and faculty,
2. develops reciprocity and cooperation among students,
3. encourages active learning,
4. gives prompt feedback,
5. emphasizes time on task,
6. communicates high expectations, and
7. respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

I’m sure you’ll agree that these really are still good principles. But maybe you’ll be surprised to know that I heard them referenced in presentations about education and technology. In late May, I heard Steve Gilbert of the TLT Group speak at Gannon’s symposium on teaching, and his entire presentation focused on how technology can enhance these principles. You can find Gilbert’s resources here.

Then I heard about them again at the Second Life Best Practices in Education 2007 conference from Sarah Robbins (Intellagirl Tully, SL) in her presentation on “Engagement in Second Life.” You can view a clip of her presentation here, and find her slides and download them here.

Maybe I should remind you more often that using technology is not a substitute for thinking about your course design. There’s nothing worse than being presented with dazzling gizmos that are expected to speak for themselves–why are you in the classroom or online with your students if that’s the case?

Isn’t it great to allay fears that the teacher isn’t needed anymore?

P.S. I guess I’ll have to cross-post this on our new SL blog, since I mentioned it;)

Filed under: 7 principles, SLBPE2007, second life, slbestpractices07

virtual conference

I’ll be attending some conference sessions at the Second Life Best Practices in Education Conference 2007 today from the comfort of my office–or I could be at home in my pajamas (you don’t know). Follow the link to read about it and consider joining Second Life to experience an immersive world as an educational space. I’ll report back later today with more on the conference.

Here’s a slideshow of my visit to the conference poster session and two lecture sessions. They were terrific educationally and in the cool sense.

The first session on “Asynchronous Student Orientation,” by Catherine Soderstrom (SL) of Texas Woman’s University, described how an instructor organized orientation documents for new students. What a great and necessary idea. Part of the orientation was a scavenger hunt that helped students hone in-world skills, like customizing their avatars, meeting and communicating with other people in-world, doing a little building, and visiting a library and checking out a book. Students had positive responses, I’m sure because they were having fun as they were learning about this immersive world.

This session was conducted via written chat, as most conversations occur in SL, and it was interesting to see how well you could make a 15 minute presentation. There was at least 30 minutes of Q & A following, with lots of good questions.

The second session was a Keynote Presentation by Kenny Hubble (SL) of Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario. The keynote featured live audio, making it very much like real life, except that I couldn’t tell if my seat was uncomfortable ;)

Hubble covered a broad spectrum of topics associated with Loyalist’s beginnings in SL. Perhaps the most significant point was how a rural college could offer its students interaction with the world–literally–through SL projects. There was too much to cover here, but Hubble described a class, “Topics in Journalism,” that conducted discussion sessions in SL, instead of in a typical discussion board. One student even garnered an internship with the Second Life News Network (SLNN) through his experience.

Well, I’ve had some other things to do in the afternoon, but the conference goes on until midnight (pacific time), so I’m heading back to see what else is going on.

Cool, very cool.

Filed under: SLBPE2007, education, immersive worlds, second life, slbestpractices07