Indiana UniversityCommittee for Technology Review

Patty MitchellPaul Valdez

Melissa Vergara

Technology: Closing the Gap

• Our impetus for this committee presentation was to inform ourselves as well as the faculty and administrators of the Dean’s Council of five “hot topics” in campus technology to help bridge the technology gap.

• The five topics are:o Bloggingo Podcastso Adaptive Technologyo Integrated Information Systemso Institutional Spam

Overview

• We will present each of these topics providing o general informationo significance in higher educationo examples of these technologies in practiceo the issues involved with utility of the technology

• We will accomplish this through demonstrations of the technology and through the use of hyperlinks to direct your attention to quality examples of the technology in action.

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BlogsBlogs

What is a Blog?

• “A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.”

• “Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

Blog is HOT!

• A Google search for blog reveals 1,090,000,000 hits. Likewise, a search for George W. Bush reveals only 76,500,000 hits.

• A www.blogpulse.com search for Indiana University revealed 4,500+ messages posted about IU.

• The School of Education at IU maintains a blog to stay current on instructional technology.

• In June 2003 the business community held the first international conference on the business use of blogs (Williams & Jacobs, 2004).

• Other similar Big Ten institutions such as the University of Michigan have made free blogs available to students, faculty, and staff.

General uses of the Blog

►Intranet

► Outreach

► Portfolio

► Recruiting

► Collaboration

► Communication

► Public Relations

► Course management

► Knowledge management

Source: Herzog, 2006

Other benefits of the Blog

• Can appeal to students in a more personal manner (Shupp, Prater, & Dailey, 2006).

• A way to engage and connect Deaf students in and out of class (Read, 2006).

• Reflects the University’s technology prowess (Shupp et. al., 2006).

• Keeps the reader current on news in specific field (Herzog, 2006).

• Easy to create, publish, update, and collaborate, while being low cost, and not requiring complicated software to implement and maintain (Herzog, 2006).

• Williams & Jacobs (2004) concluded that, “Blogging has the potential to be a transformational technology for teaching and learning.”

Blog use in Higher Education?

• Recruitment tool

• Alumni relations

• Collaboration internally/externally

• Monitor student culture

• Course management

• Reflection assignments

Blogging Exploration

• Here are some hyperlinks to current blogs and how they are used:oDrudge Report (Communication)o Archinect (Information sharing, collaboration)o Frosh Comp (Course management)o Albion College Student Senate Blog

(Communication)oMBA Admissions Blog (Outreach)oChronicle of Higher Education News Blog

(Communication)

Beware of the Blog• Legal implications mostly focus around confidentiality and defamation.

Click here for more detailed information about the legal implications.

• When used in higher education uncontrolled user generated content will result in greatest liability (Shupp et. al., 2006).

• Constant monitoring is necessary (Shupp et. al., 2006).

• Students or those targeted by blog may not have the patience to invest the time needed to stay informed about the blog.

• A blog can be a perfect distraction or procrastination tool for students, faculty, or staff.

• As a professional, a misguided blog can have negative implications for your career (Drezner, 2006).

• Blogs are dependant on the users that frequent them.

PodcastsPodcasts

Picture retrieved from: http://campustechnology.com/article.asp?id=18001

What is a Podcast?• Similar to a radio broadcasting, but are channeled through the

internet and specifically to a pod.o Examples: iPod, personal computer, mobile phone

• Similar to blogs in accessibility and organization (chronological).

• Subscription podcasts rely on feed readers to constantly check and update the consumer’s subscription with new content.

• Paid or unpaid subscriptions.

• Typically audio or visual, but can be images, pdf, text, or any file type.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasts

Podcasts are HOT!

• In 2004, Duke University started providing iPods for every member of the freshman class.

• Frequent topic in student affair journals and conferences.

• Recording artists have helped to popularize podcasts.

• Corporations like Macintosh and Microsoft also popularize this social media.

General uses of a Podcast

• News updates

• Advertising

• Web seminars/web conferencing

• Tutorials

• Interviews

www.totalcatholic.com/podcast/index.html Image retrieved from:

Benefits of Podcasts

• Used at the leisure of the consumer.– i.e. in transit, at the gym, when traveling

• Efficient and low cost way to present a message to a large group of people (Fannin, n.d.).

• Relates well to millennial tech-savvy students.• Infrastructure of computers (pods) is already in place at most

institutions of higher education.• Foster connectedness between a group (Beldarrain, 2006).• Can be as formal or informal as you desire.• “Handled properly, a school's website, e-mail, RSS feeds

[podcasts], and even blogs can help streamline media requests…” (Joly, 2007) .

Why use in Higher Education?

• Lectures

• Language teaching

• Recruitment

• Web instruction

• Distance education

• Marketing

• Orientation programs

• Radio broadcasting

2006)

Image retrieved from: ca.ucsc.edu/podcast/ (Blaisdel, 2006) 6)

Podcasts in Higher Education

• Advertising (i.e. monk-e-mail)

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology Orientation

• Perkins School of Theology Admissions

• English as a second language courses (ESL)

• Michigan State University campus radio

Drawbacks of Podcasts

• Time consuming if unfamiliar with application.

• Some contend that podcasts are not as helpful as perceived (Holahan, 2006).

• Lack of administrative and technical support can cause problems (Blaisdel, 2006).

• Be cautious of copyright infringement (Blaisdel, 2006).

• Quality is as good as you make it.

Want to know more?

• The University of Wisconsin-Madison offers this service to create podcasts.

http://engage.doit.wisc.edu/podcasting/teachAndLearn/

AdaptiveAdaptive

TechnologyTechnologyPhoto retrieved from: www.nanopac.com/Half%20Keyboard.htm

What is Adaptive Technology?

• Adaptive technology is a way to better serve persons with disabilities who have:

o hearing

o learning

o or mobility impairments

Photo retrieved from: http://www.kingston.ac.uk/atrc/IMAGES/rv_image1.jpg

Why Adaptive Technology?

• Higher education is moving towards a direction of advanced technology.

• It is important to understand how we can use technology to better serve our students and colleagues.

• Be inclusive: It is critical that faculty and practitioners understand the impact these accommodations have for the classroom environment when serving persons with special needs.

Benefits of Adaptive Technology

• Inclusion in the classroom through information access for all students.

• Being cutting edge on adaptive technology initiatives for the individual student and the classroom environment.

• Promote practical changes in the classroom and not pedagogy (Lockyer & Bennett, 2006).

Examples of Adaptive Technology

• Hearingo Video captioning: captions are added to videos when using

web sites. • Remote transcription: a student who is deaf receives the

spoken part of a class by remote and the information is transferred to a laptop.

• Softwareo JAWS for Windows: helps low vision or blind users browse

the web, send and read e-mail, and create spreadsheets. o Studio Recorder: records, edits, and produces spoken word

audio documents in an efficient manner.

Source: http://www.indiana.edu/~iuadapts/technology/

Learning and Physical

• Learning

Co-writer 2000: a type-and-speak writing assistant with word prediction capabilities, designed to help users write correct sentences with few keystrokes.

• Physical

Dragon NaturallySpeaking: a word processor controlled by voice commands which limits the use of hand, wrist, and finger movements.

Source: http://www.indiana.edu/~iuadapts/technology/

Emerging Adaptive Technology

• Microsoft Vista– As a Microsoft operating system computer user, Vista will be

standard operation in the near future.

Why it’s beneficial?oProvides magnification for graphics (Williams,

2006).o Individual can interact with computer by voice

(Williams, 2006).o It is easy to access the information (Williams,

2006).

Image retrieved from: http://it.gizmodo.com/Microsoft%20Vista%20Soft%20Drink.bmp Source: http://www.indiana.edu/~iuadapts/technology/

Problems with Adaptive Technology

• Initiatives are costly.oDragon NaturallySpeaking = $969oJaws for WINDOWS = $859

• More research and investigation is needed in this area.

• Applies to only a specific population.

Source: http://www.indiana.edu/~iuadapts/technology/

SPAM!SPAM!

Photo retrieved from: http://www.alaska.net/~royce/spam/spam-collection-2005-04.jpg

Spam: Impact on Campus

• Unsolicited emails (spam) have a negative impact on the reliable delivery of academic, work, and personal email messages.

– Examples of spam:o Commercial advertisementso Promotion of products and/or serviceso Sexually explicit contento Private, political, and nonprofit e-mail speech is not

considered spam (Wigen, 2004).

Impact continued…

• Spam threatens network security with hostile file attachments and embedded codes.o Jeopardizing email service trustworthiness.o Creates rising costs on Internet users and providers.o Burdens students, staff and faculty to identify unwanted

emails.• Consumes Internet resources by using massive network

bandwidth.o Mail takes longer to get where it’s going. Especially

LISTSERV mail. o Causes “traffic jams” that delay delivery of important email

messages.

Spam: Keeping Safe

• New filtering systems on campus automatically delete unwanted messages from “Spam” or “Junk E-mail” folders five days after receiving them — freeing valuable mailbox space.

• Some people outside of campus may not receive email you send them. This is because spammers send messages that use the school’s domain in fake reply-to.

• Protect your email address.• For more information visit: Campus Technology

Source: http://uitsnews.iu.edu/new/?p=656

IntegratedIntegratedInformation Information

SystemsSystemsDiagram retrieved from: www.segue.com/solutions/erp-crm/peoplesoft.asp

Integrated Information Systems

• Rising educational cost, fragmented data, competition for students, faculty, administrators, and regulatory requirements are driving the demand for accurate information (Oracle, 2006).• Data is used as a tool for data reports, performance management,

supporting regulatory compliance requirements, and improve learning outcomes.o Enrollment Statistics.o Retention and Graduation Rates.o Ethnicity Classification.o Grade Point Average Reports.

• The systems are designed to enable institutions to influence their student enrollments (Hossler & Bean,1990).

Integrated Information Systems at Work

Faculty and staff can filter applicant information by academic plan, GRE’s and GPA.

In the end…

• We hope that you found these hot topics to be interesting and worth further exploration.

• We suggest using this presentation and the hyperlinks available to continue your learning process at your leisure.

• Lastly, we thank you for your time and interest in understanding how technology shapes the ever-changing college environment.

ReferencesBeldarrain, Y. (2006) Distance Education Trends: Integrating new technologies to foster new student interaction

and collaboration. Distance Education. 27(2), pp. 139-153.

Blaisdel, M. (2006) Special double feature! Academic MP3s: Is it iTime yet? Campus Technology. Retrieved on February 13, 2007 from http://campustechnology.com/article.asp?id=18001

Blog. (n.d.) Retrieved on February 12, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

Drezner, D.W. (2006) Can blogging derail your career? The trouble with blogs. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 52(47), B7.

Fannin, B. (n.d.) Podcasting agriculture news. Retrieved on February 13, 2006 from http://www.higheredblogcon.com/index.php/podcasting-agriculture-news/

Herzog, S. (2006) Blogging 101. Retrieved on February 12, 2007 from http://herzogs.wordpress.com/

Hossler, D., Bean, J.P., and Associates. The Strategic Management of College Enrollments. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. 1990.

Indiana University, University Information Technology Services, Retrieved: February 17, 2007 from http://uitsnews.iu.edu/new/?p=656

Indiana University, University Information Technology Services Adaptive Technology Centers – IUB and IUPUI Retrieved: February 13, 2007 from http://www.indiana.edu/~iuadapts/technology

Joly, K. (2007) PR on the web 101. University Business. Retrieved on February 13, 2007 from http://www.universitybusiness.com/ViewArticle.aspx?articleid=679

Lockyer, L. & Bennett, S. (2006). Understanding roles within technology supported teaching and learning: Implications for staff, academic units, and institutions. In J. O’Donoghue (Ed.), Technology supported learning and teaching: A staff perspective (pp.210-223). Hershey, PA and London: Idea Group, Inc.

References continued…Oracale. (2006). PeopleSoft Campus Solutions Warehouse For Higher Education. Retrieved February 10, 2007,

from Oracle Data Sheet: http://www.oracle.com/industries/education/peoplesoft-campus-solutions.pdf

Podcast. (n.d.) Retrieved on February 13, 2006 from http://ucomm.iweb.bsu.edu/blogs/HighEdBlogCon/index_files/frame.htm

Read, B. (2006) Technology and influential blogs helped galvanize protests at Gallaudet. Chronicle of Higher Education, 53(12), A40.

Schneider, R. (2006) Attack of the pod people. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 53(16), B5.

Shupp, H., Prater, N., Dailey, J.C. (2006). Case Study: Blogging and Podcasting for Student Recruitment. Electronic source retrieved on February 12, 2007 from http://ucomm.iweb.bsu.edu/blogs/HighEdBlogCon/index_files/frame.htm

Wigen, W. (2004, January/February). Educause Review. Retrieved February 13, 2007, from www.educausereview.edu: http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm04/erm0417.asp

Williams, J. M. (2006). Microsoft’s Vista guarantees people with special needs access to

computers. EP Magazine, 36, (8), pp. 54-57.

Williams, J.B. & Jacobs, J. (2004). Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector . Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 20(2), pp. 232-247.

Yap, R., Muirhead, B., Keefer, J. (2005) Blog RUBRIC: Designing your business blog. Retrieved on February 12, 2007 from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Nov_05/article06.htm