OER’s, DL’s, Reuse & Culture

and i’m trying to get it back on technological pedagogical content knowledge. i recently got back from a short term delegation with the christian peacemaker teams to the occupied country of palestine. re-entry from such an experience, after witnessing what i’ve witnessed, into the world of educational technology isn’t that easy. when you’ve spent the night in a refugee camp, stood with palestinians at road blocks, heard stories of children afraid to go to sleep at night because the next morning they have to walk to school by an illegal israeli settlement and are afraid of getting attacked (which happens), been cursed at by israeli settlers simply because you are witnessing their crimes, walked through 3 check points to go to the ibrahimi mosque / tomb of the patriarchs (like your palestinian friends have to do when they go pray there), have seen the economic devastation caused by illegal israeli settlers in the old city of hebron, have stood by the wall and heard story after story about the terrible effects of the wall on the palestinians - and after only a few days  of this have stopped being surprised at each and every heart breaking story of the occupation (yet are still able to feel the sadness at each and every story), your life changes.  coming back to the academy isn’t easy.  coming back to research isn’t easy.  processing such an experience.. one that was not only filled with such horrible stories, but was blessed with the kindness and graciousness of a people who are wrongfully demonized in the west, isn’t easy.  and so, i’m not writing here right now because i don’t have any new ideas about research.  i’m simply trying to put one foot in front of the other and process this experience, process what i have witnessed while trying to do adequate justice to each and every story i heard.  and i’m trying to get done what i need to do for the research group.  no new ideas, just the work of the group, while processing this.

so, yeah, that’s an over emotional post for an blog from academia, but when you’ve had such an experience it’s hard not to be emotional.  it’s hard not to be emotional when your heart has been touched, and when you know that the tax money you pay helps to pay for the horrible treatment of your new friends.  it’s hard not to be emotional when you’ve been witness to a genocide that, after 60 years, is still going on.  a slowly suffocating genocide.  *sigh*

clint rogers is busily asking the hard questions that we all - esp. those of us in an education field - must ask ourselves.   in his post “The Ideal Mindset for Intercultural and Interfaith Communication and Collaboration” he asks this question:

What do you think helps for the most productive interfaith/intercultural communication and collaboration?

i posted an answer, but i also need to spend some time thinking about it as well.  here’s the meat of my response:

 i agree with V (the comment above mine) about God. last Sunday (Fast Sunday) i got up to bear my testimony again. i talked about my trip to Palestine and some of the challenges I think i’ll face - most of which revolve around this very question. so how to approach it? what is the mindset i need to carry? i need to remember that we are all children of God. the Israeli’s, Palestinians, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Wiccans, UU’s, Hindus, Atheists, Agostics. now i know that not all members of those religions believe in God like i do, but that’s okay. it’s my view and it’s within myself that i hold it - i don’t have to tell them that’s how i am viewing them. if i can look at an Israeli soldier who is harassing an innocent Palestinian and remember that s/he is a child of God, or if i am witness to a suicide bombing or rock throwing by Palestinians and remember that they are children of God then I am automatically in a different space. again - i agree with V here - God is Love. if i can walk into a situation loving someone because they are - like me - children of God then i am automatically in that better space of viewing them with love, and hopefully respect as well. i just need to make sure i remain grounded there during the heat of things - if they get there.

so - what do you think?  go read and answer if you can.

i don’t think anyone reads this, but just in case.  here’s a question.  is anyone else concerned with the environmental impacts of these computers that are currently at the very core of the field of instructional technology?  i have an opinion, and if you know me, or even read this blog at all, you’ll probably know what it is.  and to that end - if you are concerned about the environmental impacts, do you have a proposal for dealing with them?

just a quick fyi.. there is an interesting class happening at stanford right now: Peace Innovation. Basically bringing in web 2.0 tools to help with the peace process. there’s also a facebook site for it: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=25747795577 - where those not at stanford can participate in some way with the class. i’m excited about the class and trying to make a point to participate as much as possible with it. at this point i don’t have any ideas about using web 2.0 for peace, but it is something i want to understand and be able to do.

i’m starting to think more about my dissertation and getting ready for it. while i’ve definitely read up on technological pedagogical content knowledge, at this point i don’t think i have quite the grip on it that i wish i did. i’m still trying to understand the completeness of what is being discussed in hopes that i can some how quantify - in our work here at usu - pre-service or in-service teachers gaining, using, transferring it. i want to avoid self-report if as much as possible, but one prof - in a terribly brief conversation - says that i won’t be able to avoid it.

i am beginning to look at studies - how have others measured tpck? most studies so far are qualitative. and while i do respect and think that qualitative is a perfectly acceptable and respectable way of understanding the world - it’s not the way i’m excited about doing research. i love quantitative measures. there’s a lot of logic there that works for me - rather than being a jumble of a lot of things that i have to put into a logical story that may or may not have clean edges - for me the quantitative measures are puzzle pieces that have to be turned in a very specific way to be able to fit into what is being measured. research becomes a puzzle, a game, rather than chaos. it’s all that math blood in me. it’s my grandfather in me - a man who loved nothing more than puzzles (of all sorts, from picture puzzles to rubiks’ cubes) and mastering them.

but back to my point. there are a lot of qual studies on tpck, but also some quant. i need to spend more time with those and then contact the authors to see about getting copies of their instruments. how have they measured it? have they been able to avoid that less-than-reliable self-report? and then once i can do that, can we then improve our professional development so that it is more aligned with problem based learning and we then have the ability to understand how effective we are at helping teachers and pre-teachers gain t knowledge within their own pck knowledge frameworks.

there’s yet another interesting discussion going on on ITFORUM about the multiple - paper format vs the dissertation as a path to finishing. the question was posed by a professor here at USU (so of course i noticed, because the results may have an direct effect on me) and the first answer to the discussion is given by another professor here.

as someone smack dab in the middle of this whole phd process - on my way to finishing coursework, anticipating comps in the fall, already starting to think about literature and methods and a pilot for my dissertation - i find the discussion of when the formal mentoring should start fascinating. when i first got here i was one of many in a research group and the prof i was working with just didn’t have the time to give to everyone - but i had some (and continue to have) senior phd students to turn to for advice (and sometimes a shoulder to cry on) about the process and research methods. since last april / may i’ve been incredibly lucky to be a part of a small research group. the availability of good mentoring available to me has gotten much better since being one of just a few rather than being one of many, and i could say that through the work it became some sort of formal mentoring of sorts. most of what i learn these days comes directly from my participation in this small research group. i may spend time in classes learning various kinds of research methods, but it is through the discussions, application and guidance from my professors that i am able to really make sense of what i learned in class (see apprenticeship models of learning, i know). it’s invaluable to my growth as a brand new scholar.

now - i am aware that there are those around me who aren’t so fortunate. i’m aware because i just watch others and because friends tell me. so should this idea of formal mentoring really limited to when the student finishes their coursework and starts the meat of their degree, or can it start earlier? should it start earlier? should programs make an effort to make sure that students who are teaching assistants, or otherwise not involved in a research group, get that valuable research mentoring that is such a key part of their experiences as a phd student? and if so - who among the faculty should be tasked with making sure that it happens? should it be the faculty’s concern if students not working with them in any kind of formal capacity receive that? or should it be up to the student to seek it out - to find it?

i don’t know the answers to all my questions. what i do know is that yes - this process of mentoring should start from day 1 and it should somehow be accessible to students who don’t know how or can’t access it. i am incredibly fortunate not only to have the background in academia that i do (my pop is a retired prof, ma is a retired associate dean, step-pop currently a prof - all careers at an research 1 institution), but also to be a forthright person who tends not to back off from asking for what i want (i am reticent a lot, but eventually i do kick my butt until i do it). but those not like me - to them it needs to be there, somehow.

because i recently switched chairs to someone who asked me to write a short prospectus on what i’m thinking about doing for my dissertation, i was forced to think a bit more about one of the two topics i’m considering (the other topic i’ve got a whole book chapter on, so i just copied and pasted from that and added a short paragraph)- understanding ‘the last mile’ in use of digital resources, re: what are teachers actually doing with them? how are they using them?

and because there was recently a discussion on ITFORUM about the fact that at a national conference there was a study being presented in a poster session about the differences between an online class vs a face to face class and how that research is actually a bit behind the times (in the eye of the beholder, really - it depends on the field, but in instructional technology, it is definitely behind the times) i began to wonder about no significant difference being applied to the last mile.

so now i sit here wondering - if there is a whole body of literature investigating how teachers adapt pre-fabbed curriculum - is there actually going to be any difference in how they adapt pre-fabbed curriculum with digital resources? as there is no significant difference between teaching online vs face to face (the significant difference isn’t with the medium, it’s with the people involved in delivering and consuming the medium) - will the medium really make a difference here?

any opinions? maybe this is worth a post on ITFORUM - at least worth sending the question to my research group - but we’re so busy these days - i don’t want to bother anyone, really. i’ll post it here, see if anyone responds - and then next time i run into my chair maybe i’ll ask her, and then if i actually get the courage i’ll send it out to ITFORUM, depending on responses i get other places.