Emphases and Avoidances Recommended by an Experienced

Laptop Campus

By David G. Brown, Wake Forest University

with the Engineering Faculty

at the University of Moncton

on September 25, 2000 3:00 PM

How the Laptop Program Has Changed Wake Forest

THE WAKE FOREST PLANF96: IBM

365XD, 16RAM, 100Mhz, 810MB, CD-ROM, 14.4 modemF97: IBM 380D, 32 RAM, 130Mhz, 1.35GB, CD-ROM, 33.6 modemF98: IBM 380XD, 64 RAM, 233 Mhz, 4.1GB, CD-ROM, 56 modemF99: IBM 390, 128 RAM, 333 Mhz, 6GB, CD-ROM, 56 modem F00: IBM A20m, 500 Mhz, 11GB, 15”ActMatrix, CD-ROM, 90 modem

• Thinkpads for all

• New Every 2 Years

• Own @ Graduation

• Printers for all

• Wire Everything

• Standard Software

• Full Admin Systems

• IGN for Faculty

• Keep Old Computers

• 40+30 New People

• 75% Faculty Trained

• 85% CEI Users

• 99% E-Mail

• +15% Tuition

• ~$1500/Yr/Student

• 4 Year Phase In

• Pilot Year

• Plan for 2000

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2000ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2000

Order at---http://iccel.wfu.edu

Brown’s First Year Seminar• Before Class

– Students Find URLs & Identify Criteria

– Interactive exercises– Lecture Notes– E-mail dialogue– Cybershows

• During Class– One Minute Quiz– Computer Tip Talk– Class Polls– Team Projects

• After Class– Edit Drafts by Team

– Guest Editors

– Hyperlinks & Pictures

– Access Previous Papers

• Other– Daily Announcements

– Team Web Page

– Personal Web Pages

– Exams include Computer

– Materials Forever

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 1999ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 1999

Computers Enhance My Teaching and/or Learning Via--

PresentationsBetter--20%More Opportunities toPractice & Analyze--35%

More Access to SourceMaterials via Internet--43%

More Communication with Faculty Colleagues, Classmates,and Between Faculty and Students--87%

Computers allow people----

• to belong to more communities• to be more actively engaged in each

community• with more people• over more miles• for more months and years• TO BE MORE COLLABORATIVE

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2000ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2000

With Ubiquity---The Culture Changes

• Mentality shifts-- like from public phone to personal phone.

• Teaching Assumptions shift-- like from books in the public library to everyone owns a copy of his/her own.

• Timelines shift-- like from “our class meets MWF” to “we

see each other all the time and MWF we meet together”• Students’ sense of access shifts-- like from “maybe I

can get that book in the library” to “I have that book in my library.”

• Relationships shift-- like from a family living in many different states to all family members living in the same town

Wake Forest UniversityWake Forest University

Chemistry-- Dartmouth, Millsaps, Reed, Wake Forest, Worchester TechPhysics-- Vassar, Arizona, Washington and Lee, Michigan State, , WhitmanBusiness and Economics--- Vanderbilt, Kansas State, Wake Forest, MiddleburyFine Arts-- Tufts, Reed, Connecticut, Williams, East CarolinaWriting and Literature--Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Missouri-Rolla, Language--- MIT, Smith, California-Davis, Texas-Austin, Northwestern

Biology and Medicine---Oberlin, Virginia, Johns Hopkins, Texas-Austin, HendrixInternational and Politics---Tufts, OregonComputer Science and Math---Harvard, NYU, American, Washington State

93 Essays36 Universities26 Disciplines

WHY COMPUTERS?…the faculty answer

• Interactive Learning

• Learn by Doing

• Collaborative Learning

• Integration of Theory and Practice

• Visualization

• Communication

• Different Strokes for Different Folks

The Big Five#1. Repetition

#2. Continuous Communication

#3. Controversy and Debate

#4. Different Strokes, Different Folks

#5. Outsider Involvement

The Low Hanging Six

Email & Listservs URL addresses (in syllabus) Annotations within word processed documents Powerpoint “lecture outlines” Mini-movies that show successive computer screens Practice quizzing prior-to-class (via WebCT)

LESSONS LEARNED

• Early investment in extensive multimedia may be more fun than useful

• Chat sessions are rarely productive

• Threaded discussions work only when the topic is narrowly defined, controversial, and the response is time limited and graded

• Powerpoint is often abused and overused

Lessons Learned

• First Focus Upon Communication• Undertake achievable goals• Contact becomes Continuous.• Students expect messages between classes• Team assignments increase• Papers & Talks often include visuals• Departmental clubs thrive• Student Portfolios Emerge• Students teach faculty

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Lessons Learned

• Computer challenged students learn basic skills quickly, without special classes

• Disciplines use computers differently

• The Internet is the place to put electronic class materials (WebCT)

• Start with Learning Objectives, Not Technology

• If Email is always up, everyone will be happy

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2000ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2000

Lessons Learned

• Greatest benefits are what happens between classes, not during classes.

• Greatest gains from computing come from some of the simplest applications

• Standardization speeds faculty adoption and eases the pressure upon support staff.

• Standardization saves class time.

• Student groups are larger and more active.

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2000ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2000