“At what point does practicality trump pedagogy?”

“At what point does practicality trump pedagogy?”

That was a question I asked Tuesday at the SL Education Roundtable, which is held each week at 2:30pm PST (which is 5:30pm EST) on the Montclair State CHSS Island. Each week we start off with a subject and the conversation just goes from there. The session is only supposed to be an hour long but inevitably people stay longer.

The topic for our meeting on Tuesday the 11th was “Would your central IT shop say that your institution was ready for Second Life”. We had a number of instructors there and even a few IT people. Some of the instructors were complaining that the IT people didn’t even want to look at, or talk about, Second Life. Some of the IT people complained that all instructors do is demand, without caring what impact something might have on the organization as a whole. Both, of course, are right – for the most part. I sat and listened to the conversation with some interest because I’ve been part of this very conversation for so many years. As the founder and current co-leader of the EDUCAUSE Distributed Technology Support Constituent Group, we hear this all the time.

So, here is where my question came in. At what point does practicality trump pedagogy? At what point does an instructor’s request for the use of a tool in their teaching outweigh the technology shop’s ability to say, “no, you can’t.” At what point does something drain on the resources so much that an instructor simply can’t do what s/he wants? Of course, either answer is mangled up by an additional complication and that is the institution’s attitude toward this type of technology use.

I was astounded when one of the attendees told a story about the first night of class, a class in which this person was using Second Life. The class, although in SL, was taking place in a computer mediated teaching lab on campus. Someone from the central IT department came into the class and argued with the faculty member, in front of the class, that Second Life should not be used and that it was not appropriate.

I asked if the person who did this was just some rank-and-file employee or if it was, perhaps, the Director of IT. The answer – just some technician. I was flabbergasted. This shows a clear disregard for not only the educational process (certainly the conversation could have waited for some time when class was not in session or the tech could have pulled the instructor out of the class to talk) but it inverts the Pyramid of Educational Importance. Its not like this instructor has never used SL before or this was the first class at this institution to use SL.

So, the bottom line on this example is that it was an ill-prepared tech handling the situation poorly. But how much of it is that this is the somewhat hostile environment being created between techs and instructors at this institution. This just goes to show you, technical know-how is not the be-all-end-all.

MSU Professor in Article

I have a Google Alert set up for Montclair State and from time-to-time something pops up about a faculty member I know.

This is Carla Petievich from our History Department.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C03%5C11%5Cstory_11-3-2008_pg7_38

Happy Rez Day

I'd like to wish a Happy Rez Day to two of my most favorite people here at Montclair State.

Les Writer's 1st Rez Day was on the 16th - so this is belated - which is no reflection on the respect I have for Les. He teaches in our History Department and is, hands down, one of the most respected faculty members at MSU (just ask his students AND colleagues).

Garrett Congrejo's 1st Rez Day is today, the 21st. Thanks to his vision and leadership, the CHSS is no longer all alone out in the metaverse. We now have neighbors to our north and its very exciting watching that space grow and develop.

The Price We Pay

Many of you don't believe me when I tell you about all the wacky things that go on where I work. I know, higher education is a strange, but glorious, profession. I don't disagree. I also know that it attracts some unusual folks - as faculty, I mean (well, staff too, I guess). Ok - we're almost all an odd lot, truth be told.

I'm not going to comment on the content or the faculty member - I'll let the article speak for itself.

http://media.www.themontclarion.org/media/storage/paper374/news/2008/02/14/Opinion/The-Price.Is.Right.With.Dr.Theodore.Price-3210744.shtml

I encourage comment.

Happy Rez Day

A VERY VERY Happy Rez day to my dear friend Mystical Cookie. I would be nowhere close to where I am in SL without Mysti.

First, she create the greatest HUD every, the MystiTool. Second, about a year ago she bought her first sim, Nevi, and I was a major tenant there, owning, at one point, nearly 1/5 of the sim. I have since sold all of that but the original parcel. But Mysti didn't stop with Nevi, she added Adeo, Cila, Avendale, Avendale Ruins, and soon (we hope), Myla will be moved over to join us.

On a personal note, Mysti has been there every time I had a question or needed advice. Most of my building skills are thanks to her direction and anything I know about scripting (which is darn little) is only because she has been so patient.

Thanks for being a great liege, a leader, and a good friend.

ENWR class update

Things have really started to come together for my Introduction to College Writing I class. At the start, we had some turnover. I believe this is in part because the pop up students get is rather generic. If that message could be customized, that would be wonderful. Even if it couldn’t be customize for each class, if we had more than one classification, that would even be better. Right now all is says is that many of the classes are going to take place online.

I reached out to those who were in BlackBoard prior to the end of last semester. I reached out again after the new year, also through BlackBoard. A few days before classes started I sent an email to each individual, not through BlackBoard, and used their MSU email address as well as the email address they have listed in WESS. I was fairly clear in all the emails that there was a strong technology component to this course and to contact me with questions.

Once the first day of class came and went a few students got it and decided it was not for them. The problem, of course, is that a student leaving at that point leaves an opening in the class, so other students can register – and some did. Some even registered right up to the registration deadline, which meant they missed two or three classes.

I don’t go over the syllabus on the first night and then let them go – we start class, so any student coming in after the second class is going to be at a disadvantage. Does this mean they can’t make up for it, no, of course not – a little hard work to catch up and they’ll have no problem. The key here is that the student should have contacted me as soon as they registered to find out what to make up. All but one did not do this. The students also get access to BlackBoard after midnight once the register. If it were me, I’d go through all the announcements and posting and see what I missed. Even when I was an undergraduate, I would have done that. Many of these students did not.

So, now the class is settled, we’re into Second Life, and almost every student is excited about it. We have had a problem using Google Docs to share papers and so tonight I’m going to have to can that and we’ll have to go back to paper. I was hoping to go paperless this time around, there are just so many advantages, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to work out. As the semester progresses, if it seems we might be able to go back to it, maybe we’ll try it again.

Tonight, Dr. Patty Kahn will be coming to our class to go over the RAVE/Campus Connect program. We’ll be using the phones for polling and also for the students to get announcement from BlackBoard and also get notification when they have a grade posted. Each student should have this phone already, its part of the fee structure. The only students who will not have it will be Junior who are not living on campus and Seniors. This group will be able to use their regular cell phone.

More as it comes up.

Montclarion flap gets even wider coverage

Here are just a few of the Google Alert hits I got today. If I get more in the future I'll add them here under and UPDATE with the date.

http://chronicle.com/news/article/3840/student-newspaper-at-montclair-state-u-gets-funds-restored

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/nyregion/31montclair.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin

http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/diionno/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1202017024159761.xml&coll=1

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/01/montclair_state_sga_students_n.html

http://www.intheagora.com/archives/2008/02/the_exploits_of.html

UPDATE: Here's another one I found on the 5th
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/editorials/story/7533230p-7435703c.html

UPDATE - Two more on the 6th
http://media.www.signal-online.net/media/storage/paper771/news/2008/02/06/News/Montclarions.Budget.Partially.Unfrozen.By.Sga-3189381.shtml

http://datanews-gh.blogspot.com/2008/02/funds-freed-for-montclair-state-paper.html

And, of course, now my blog adds to the mix. :-)