"In the future we will all be distance learners"

Ten years ago, as a Masters student, I was introduced to 'Blackboard'.  Our professor, Dr. Doris Wright, was convinced that distance learning was the future of higher education; I was convinced that she was crazy.  In my naiveté I could not imagine a world beyond the traditional brick and mortar campus.  Even greater was my disbelief that anyone would want to participate in higher education in this way when the "fun" of being a college student is being on campus.

I believe some of my initial thoughts about distance learning remain true.  Much of the learning that takes place on college campuses occurs outside of the classroom.  This learning takes place as students participate in clubs and organizations, attend performances, become active members of the community, and interact with hall mates in the residence halls.  It is difficult, if not impossible, to recreate the experience of living, growing, and developing amongst peers and in a distance learning situation there is a loss of what makes "going away to college" so exciting.

That being said, I know now that most of my initial thoughts on distance learning were completely arrogant and unfounded.  As an educator I believe strongly in access and equity in education.  It seems to me that distance learning provides a greater number of students access to education that could potentially change the trajectory of a student's life.  Most people attend college, or some form of continuing education, to earn a degree or certificate that, at least in theory, will provide them opportunities that would not otherwise be available with a high school diploma or GED certificate.  In this way there is power and strength in the future of education as we move from what we know to be true to the possibilities of tomorrow.

Creating new knowledge

Creating new knowledge is one of the charges given to the University of California in the California Master Plan.  I spend the entire summer talking with new students about how attending a research university is likely to be different than any other institution they've attended in the past.  They will be asked to synthesize material, instead of regurgitating dates of this war or that treaty they will be asked to contemplate the events that lead up to said event and provide theories on why it might have occurred from a sociological, economical, perspective.  They are asked to think critically and to "think for yourself".

Many students struggle with this shift in structure, especially during their first quarter, and it's no wonder.  I had an ah-ha moment while watching the video that Katya sent to us on Saturday.  At one point the narrator and artist reminded me that along the way our education system has asked students to stop tapping into what excites us and learn the test material.  How have we moved so far from creativity and imagination and what will be the long-term consequences? 

"...Leaders must remove barriers to change."

As the credits ran and tears streamed down my face, the filmmakers left me with this thought "... leaders must remove barriers to change".  Late this afternoon I decided to go see "Waiting for Superman".  I knew that it would be heartbreaking and that I was likely to leave in a fairly foul mood, but I knew that it was a film I had to see.

We've been talking about and reading a lot on change and as leaders I believe that it is up to us to be change agents.  What I witnessed in the film was how resistant other stakeholders can be to change even when it is blatantly obvious that change is desperately needed.  To be sure behavior change is never easy, and isn't education reform one of the greatest societal behavior changes of all time? But to sit idly by and continue to operate with the status quo is to rob our nations students of a quality education that will prepare them to be the leaders of tomorrow.

It seems to me that many people are, at least philosophically, supportive of changes in education, but when it comes to the hard work of making change happen the masses seem to fade to the back.  In the reading by Tim O'Reilly he stated that "[paradigm shifts] are often hard fought, and the ideas underlying them not widely accepted until long after they were first introduced.  What's more, they often have implications that go far beyond the insights of their creators."  I found this statement to be ironically accurate and equally frightening as it seems we move further and further away from true education reform.

Engaging the audience

"Making the Most of Your First-Year" is one of the workshops that new students attend during Orientation in the summer.  This presentation is designed to introduce new students to campus services available at UCSB and to give tips and suggestion on how to have a successful first-year at the university.

As you can imagine EVERYONE (i.e. departments, student organziations, services, etc.) wants a piece of the action when it comes to communicating with new students the opportunities and services their particular office provides.  Since there is not enough time in a one or two-day program to have every campus service individually present to the students, my office has created the "Making the Most" presentation as one solution to ensurethat new students are made aware of the services available to them once they arrive on campus.

Yesterday, in a summer de-breifing meeting, the team wase discussing what went well and what could be improved on in this presentation.  A theme that continues to emerge after every summer is that the presentation needs to be more interactive.  We know that students better retain information when they can interface with the presentation, thus participating in constructivist learning about their new campus community.  Over the years we have toyed around with the idea of breaking into small groups, which was quickly discarded since the typical audience size is around 300 students.  We've thought about using iClickers to have the students participate in real time polling to questions or concerns pertinent to first-year students, but this idea also doesn't seem feesible given the additional tasks of handing out the device, training students on how to use it, and collecting at the end of the presentation.

One of the team members, Miles Ashlock, suggested for next summer that we look into the online site http://www.polleverywhere.com/.  Much like the iClicker, it allows for real time response to poll questions but instead of using the iClicker, students use their personal cell phones to respond to questions.  According to the website, student information is not stored so there should be no worry about getting spam or text message advertisements.  Also student responses are anonymous and cannot be linked to the student.  At this point polleverywhere might be one viable multimedia solution to our dilemma of making this particular presentation more interactive, increase audience participation, encouarge question asking, and engage the students.  I'm truly looking forward to seeing how it might be used in our 2011 program.