TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

Andy Saltarelli, CEP 952

Introduction

Baby Salts Pregame Why How What Conclusions

Pregame – Web Presence

Pregame – Web Presence

Why – Joining Search in Progress

Attended Kevin Johnston’s Teaching Philosophy Session 1… got too busy teaching to finish the second session.

Why – Biosocial Perspective

Why – Thinking on the Fly

CEP 260 Class Discussion:• Q: What do you expect your instructors to do? What are their core responsibilities?• A: [crickets]• Q: What is one word you could use to describe my role in this class (e.g., transmitter, catalyst).• A: [is this mic on?]• Q: What is a “quality” learning experience for you? What do you hope this class will do for you 5 years from now?• A: [Bueller, Bueller…]• Q: What should we do more of?• A: YouTube, YouTube, YouTube!!!!

Why – These Times are a-Changin’

Cause for pause… Information and the Internet –”Post-Gutenberg

Revo” Tech-Immersed Learners

Albeit “selectively native” Proliferation of Online Learning Computer Supported Collaborative Learning

(CSCL)… and the tools to do it Web 2.0 – Cheap, Flexible, Customizable

E.g., blogs, wikis, CMS, Video sharing, video conferencing, whiteboards, virtual worlds, free content, mind maps, ETC!

Why – A Question

Has the rise of online learning (and CSCL in particular) changed how we look at “teaching philosophy”? Should it?

Constructivist vs. Direct Instruction Models

Compare 1999-2004 to 2005-2010“Web 2.0” Coined in 2004

Why - Hypotheses

H1: The rise of CSCL and Web 2.0 tools has re-focused the teaching community to constructivist, collaborative, and semi-directed teaching practices. H1a: There will be less text and more links in

the 2005-2010 hits. H1b: There will be more direct instruction

words used in 1999-2004 and more constructivist words used in 2005-2010.

How – Two Ways

1) Page Descriptives:

# Words in Code # Characters in

Code # Words in Page # Characters in

Page # Links on Page

2) Content Analysis: # Times Words

Used: Constructivism

Guide Explore Collaborate

Direct Instruction

Educate Disseminate Knowledge

How – Google (of course)

Date Page was First Crawled by Google

~ 5 years Each

Analyze Top 15 Hits for Each Search

How – Lots of Keyboard Shortcuts

Follow URL + U + A + C + Tab + V + MS Word Count = # Txt/Char in Code

How – Lots of Keyboard Shortcuts

Tab + V + TextWrangler + F + href = #Links

How – …and TextWrangler

What – Lots of Raw Date

What – The Descriptives: Means

# Code Characters

# Text Characte

rs

# Code Words

# Text Words

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

1999-2004

2005-2010

20,451

7,819

2,371

1,501

31,305

8,277

2,730

1,494

1999-20042005-2010

Averages Over Top 15 Hits for Each Time Period

What – The Links

1999-2004

2005-2010

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

46

107

Average # of Links Over the 15 Hits for Each Time Period

What – The Words

GuideExplore

CollaborateEducate

DisseminateKnowledge

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

19

4

1

13

4

40

27

88

2

1

18

1999-20042005-2010

# of Times Word is Used Across the 15 Hits

Conclusions

H1a: There will be less text and more links in the 2005-2010 hits. No, YES!

H1b: There will be more direct instruction words used in 1999-2004 and more constructivist words used in 2005-2010. Yes, perhaps would play out over larger

sample

Conclusion – The Future

How to mine this data more efficiently? Apply more sophisticated statistical

techniques to control for variables and increase validity.

Use qualitative analysis to glean themes from the text of the pages.

Write my own stinkin’ teaching philosophy.