Engaging students
through technology
Scott Moore
Associate Professor, BIT
Thurnau Professor
BBA Faculty Director
Instructional Technology Brown Bag
Ross School of Business
University of Michigan
October 16, 2008
Slides, notes, & web site access will be provided later.
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Technology is everywhere.
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Your competition.
3

Faculty are fighting
technology instead
of embracing it.
4

Faculty learn to use
technology to
engage students
with the material
5

Faculty use technologies that
feel familiar to students.
Computing
Internet, wikis,
sharing
Videos Photos, and
media generally
6

A wiki provides a welcoming
home for student involvement. 7

A time-out for questions
8

The professor generates the
initial content of the site.
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The professor generates the
initial content of the site.
9

Students generate much of the content.
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Students generate much of the content.
10

Students generate much of the content.
10

Students generate much of the content.
10

Some simple steps
make a big
difference.
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The daily schedule page is complete.
12

Assignment sign-up pages are
very useful.
13

A student’s personal wiki provides
a private space for doing work.
14

Students
reflect on their
experiences in
their personal
blog.
15

Track progress
Work record
Automatic backups
Students create their term
projects within the wiki.
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Track progress
Work record
Automatic backups
Students create their term
projects within the wiki.
16

Track progress
Work record
Automatic backups
Students create their term
projects within the wiki.
16

Track progress
Work record
Automatic backups
Students create their term
projects within the wiki.
16

Students do many assignments in
the wiki, too.
17

Videos can help engage students
outside the classroom.
18

Faculty can create tutorials.
19

YouTube makes it easy to share.
20

Requirements are modest.
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Presentations should be
conceived as an opportunity
for the students
to engage with you
and the material.
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Material Student
Teacher
Presentation
23

Structured,
visual story
Simple,
forceful visuals
Hand-drawn
visuals
A couple useful approaches are possible.
24

Simple tools are all that are needed.
Create
Use
Publish
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Simple tools are all that are needed.
No T
Create emp
late
s!
Use
Publish
25

Creating a
presentation
is a fully
engaging
process.
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Conception: Notes
Version 1 Version 2
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Organization: Template
Engaging students through technology by Scott Moore
Act I: I: Set up the story
Act Set up the story
The setting
The setting Technology is everywhere in the lives of our students.
The protagonist
The protagonist Faculty compete for student attention 24/7
The imbalance
The protagonist Faculty are fighting the technology instead of embracing it.
The balance
The balance Faculty learn to use technology to engage students with the material.
The solution
The solution Faculty learn how to use technologies that are feel familiar to students.
Act II: Develop the action
Act II: the action
5-Minute Column: Why? 15-Minute Column: How? 45-Minute Column:
The professor generates much Syllabus info
of the content and framework Announcements and Q&A
of the site. Blog entries
Notes
A wiki provides a welcoming Students generate much of the Exam questions
home for student involvement. content.
Industry updates
Other content sounds simple, Daily schedule
isn’t, but simplifies Assignments
management of the class.
Students write 8 blogs per All start private
semester reflecting on their The good ones get shared.
experiences with the class.
The student’s personal wiki Professor can track progress any time.
provides a private space for Students create their term A record of work is kept.
doing work. project within the wiki.
Back-ups of the work are always avail.
Other students can’t see these wikis.
Students do many of their
assignments within their Good answers are easily shared.
personal wikis as well. online, with or without other students.
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Faculty can create tutorials on
simple subjects.

Storyboarding
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Create slides
Convenient & powerful Students have
news search a need to
know
Scott Moore
BIT330, Class 9
The news never sleeps
overwhelming Learn about
the available
news tools
Use specialized news search
tools to monitor the news
Desired features
Why is news Focus
search
Legitimate
different? Response time Relevance
Current
Update speed Quality of sources
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Write the narrative To fix this imbalance students should use specialized news search tools to monitor the news. Yes,
they're specialized, and not just general search tools, because news itself has characteristics that
differentiate it from a standard Web page. Further, there's this sense of automated monitoring
because you can set it up so that information is sent to you instead of you having to go search for
it.
Use specialized news search
tools to monitor the news
Learn about To get to this desired state, today you're going to start learning about the major news tools, and
you're going to integrate this with your knowledge of RSS.
the available
news tools
Before we go any further, let's clarify why news search is different. Once we go over this, you
should better understand why there are news-specific search engines and why you should use
Why is news them.
search
different?
The first major difference is simply the focus of a news search engine. The search engine is very
Focus concerned with only using legitimate news sources. Journalism is a profession with standards and
a long history, and these news search engines want to include only legitimate news sources.
Second, a news search engine is focused on current events, so time and location are of the
Legitimate
essence.
Current
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Create public notes
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Perform!
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Publish results...after!
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An alternative that I have also used...
“Back of the Napkin”
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Will faculty find ways to use
technology to
engage
students?
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Faculty are losing the battle.
37

Faculty learn to use
technology to
engage students
with the material
38

More
attention,
more
learning.
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Try some of these yourself!
Presentations
Wikis Videos
Wiki: bit330f08.wikidot.com
Notes: “Brown Bag” in left menu
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