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Thursday, February 26, 2009 from 4:10 PM - 6:00 PM (ET)
KMDI at 13, Knowledge Media Design Institute's 2009 Lecture Series in "Digital Media Research and Innovation at the University of Toronto"
Date:Thursday February 26th, 2009km
Time: 4:10pm - 6:00pm
Place: Bahen Centre for IT, Room 1130, 40 St. George Street, University of Toronto, St. George Campus
SUPPORTING LEARNING AND TEACHING
“New Ways of Teaching and Learning with Technology” by Jim Slotta, OISE
Professor Jim Slotta will present a new line of research, funded by CRC and SSHRC, that explores a rich form of learning where students collaborate with peers within and between classrooms to establish a knowledge base that will be used in subsequent scripted inquiry activities. In this way, we can achieve some elements of a knowledge community approach while retaining the strengths of scaffolded inquiry. Secondary science teachers, who are often unable to implement a knowledge community approach because of its open-ended nature, can apply this model to target specific curriculum topics. Extensions of this work to the topic of "smart classrooms" with rich new forms of human-computer interaction will also be discussed. Jim Slotta is an associate level professor of education in the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Education and Technology and co-directs the NSF-funded centre called "Technology-Enhanced Learning in Science” (TELS). His research employs technology-enhanced learning environments to investigate cognitive models of learning and instruction. He also promotes the development of open source materials for the learning sciences, and has recently designed the Educational Network and Community for Open Resource Exchange (ENCORE - see http://encorewiki.org).
“Digital Communication Technologies: Educational and Social Practices” by Clare Brett, OISE
This talk will focus on key issues in how new technologies are impacting upon how we teach, learn and collaborate, and uses an educational research project called GRAIL (Graduate Researcher Academic Identity on-Line) under development to illustrate some fundamental issues in adopting new technologies. A significant challenge to the effective use of new technologies in education is the evolution of social practices around those technologies and the discrepancies between broader social uses of new technologies and how those same technologies can be used in educational contexts. The talk describes challenges to design along the dimensions of public/private and individual/collaborative and uses data from a series of project research studies to illustrate the nature of these challenges and possible solutions. The taking up of new technologies in new ways requires the evolution of social practices of use-these practices simultaneously reflect and change our culture, and the evolution of such processes takes time. Clare Brett, Associate Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, at the University of Toronto, has research interests in the areas of teaching and learning in online and distance contexts; the social and cultural implications of technology use and the affordances of online environments for learning. She teaches in both the pre-service and graduate programs, offering courses in Educational Psychology; "Theories of Learning" and "Computer Mediated Communications." Clare has received the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching, 2006 and the CFI New Opportunities Fund Award, 2003. Recent major research grants include a 3 year SSHRC Standard Research grant entitled "Investigating Research Apprenticeship in Online Graduate Education." This project investigates the apprenticeship experiences and educational outcomes of students taking Master's and Doctoral degrees in Education primarily through online and part time programs. The research was developed in conjunction with a CFI infrastructure grant, a New Opportunities Fund Award, "Bringing Research Apprenticeship Online: Reconceptualizing Graduate Distance Education." In the third project she was a collaborator on an Initiative for the New Economy SSHRC collaborative grant: "Beyond Best Practice: Research-based innovation in learning and knowledge work".
“Technologies for Higher Education” by Jim Hewitt, OISE
New information and communication technologies offer exciting new possibilities for higher education. Professor Hewitt will review research conducted on some of these technologies, and discuss problems, barriers and obstacles, both cultural and organizational, that limit the instructional potential of these new tools. Technology on its own is unlikely to bring about sweeping changes in post-secondary education; benefits are most likely to be realized though a deeper understanding of how pedagogy, technology, and content knowledge can synergistically support and reinforce one another in the service of student learning.
Jim Hewitt is an Associate Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the educational applications of computer-based technologies, with a particular emphasis on discursive processes in collaborative learning environments. Dr. Hewitt's recent publications include studies of thread development in asynchronous distance education courses, sociocultural supports for knowledge building in elementary science classrooms, and uses of multimedia and online technologies for teacher development.
Moderated by Ron
Baecker
Ronald Baecker is
Professor of Computer Science, Bell Universities Laboratories Chair in Human-
Computer Interaction, and Founder, Founding Director, Chief scientist, and Interim
Director of the Knowledge Media Design Institute at the University of Toronto.
He is also Affiliate Scientist with the Kunin-Lunenfeld Applied Research Unit
of Baycrest (formerly, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care), Adjunct Scientist
with Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and Principal Investigator of the $5.5M
Canada-wide NSERC Network for Effective Collaboration Technologies through
Advanced Research (NECTAR). He has been named one of the 60 Pioneers of
Computer Graphics by ACM SIGGRAPH, has been elected to the CHI Academy
by ACM SIGCHI, and has been given the Canadian Human Computer Communications
Society Achievement Award in May 2005.
Other Maps:
Via MichelinThe Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI), founded in 1995, is a leader in interdisciplinary research and teaching at the University of Toronto. The work of this largely graduate research and teaching institute spans the scientific study of the ways in which media and media technologies shape, and are shaped by, human activity, and the practical work of founding an interdisciplinary nexus for the design of such media. Adopting a human-centred and participatory approach to design, our goal is to enhance human skill rather than diminish it, and to encourage creativity and innovation. People and their practices are at the heart of all we do.
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