Education Software

Is technology really killing the lecture?

Thursday, August 19, 2010 by Katie Hahn

Today I read an article on the Wired Campus blog (The Chronicle of Higher Education) about professors at NYU using podcasts and lecture capture technologies to free more time during class for personalized instruction. This teaching technique is trending upward rapidly, but it isn’t necessarily new. One of my favorite presentations about this methodology is called the Upside-down Classroom by Dr. Dave Berque from DePauw University. He has been presenting on the Upside-down Classroom for many years (watch a presentation here). Is technology really killing the lecture? - interactive education software, lecture capture, record and replay notes

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this approach, let me explain. Using this method, first the instructor must prepare a presentation/lesson and record it in some fashion (whether that is in DyKnow, podcast, videos, etc). Then before class, students view the pre-recorded presentation (as homework). The idea behind this approach is nicely put by Dave in his 2008 WIPTE paper titled “Turning the Classroom Upside-down Using Tablet PCs and DyKnow Ink and Audio Tools.” Here is an excerpt from Dave’s 2008 WIPTE paper:

“The approach is called ‘upside-down’ because the traditional classroom lecture now occurs outside of class, while the active learning that is often associated with completing out of class homework assignments now occurs during the class period while the teacher is present to coach, support and challenge students as appropriate.”

Giving the “lecture” or “presentation” to students before class allows the teacher to utilize in-class time for active learning activities and/or personalized instruction to reinforce the concepts learned in the pre-recorded lesson. Another wonderful educator utilizing this technique is Jeff Edmonds from Catherine Cook School in Chicago, IL. He blogs for Digital Learning Environments and in this post (“Pre-recording Lessons Provides 1-on-1 Time”) he discusses the benefits of utilizing a technique similar to Dave’s upside-down approach.

If you read the comments on the Wired Campus blog post, you will see there is are mixed feelings about this style of teaching: some educators have “tried” it and said it didn’t work, others are excited about the possibilities. Regardless of your stance, I think we can all agree the real question here is… is it really best to spend your limited time during class lecturing to students, or conducting active learning exercises while giving more personalized instruction. I venture to say that most educators would choose the latter.

The most important piece of knowledge take away from these educators at NYU, Dave and Jeff is that, unlike the title of the Wired Campus article, lecturing doesn’t necessarily need to be “killed” perhaps it just needs to take on a new form. Maybe the Wired Campus blog post should have been titled “Killing the Traditional Lecture with Technology” instead of “Killing the Lecture with Technology.”

On a somewhat related note, does everyone know what WIPTE is? It’s the Workshop on the Impact of Pen-based Technology on Education. If you’re considering tablet PCs or have tablet PCs, this is a great conference to attend. I also highly recommend picking up a WIPTE Book (you can order one at Amazon or contact web20@DyKnow.com and we might be able to wrangle one for you).

Alvarado ISD Case Study - Increased Computer Usage from 40% to 90%

Friday, August 6, 2010 by Katie Hahn

In my last post I alluded to our pending case study with Alvarado ISD and I'm proud to announce it is now available for your reading pleasure! Ok, we actually released the case study at ISTE but it’s been a hit and I want to share it with everyone who reads our Alvarado Independent School District and DyKnow Software blog.

A little background on AISD - the district serves roughly 3200 students and faculty in a 75% economically disadvantaged community. Despite their economic status, AISD has a one-to-one netbook program in the Intermediate School and recently purchased more laptops to expand the program into the middle school.

Kyle Berger (who I wrote about here) is the mastermind behind AISD’s one-to-one computing program. Kyle thinks like a businessman - this is somthing I realized during my discussion with him for the case study. Like I said before, he is very unique in his approach. That is why I'm not surprised to see lots of great articles popping up about his program. I was thrilled when I read this article by Ken Royal over at Scholastic. Ken discusses in-length Kyle's unique “entrepreneurial” approach. Some of the things Ken discusses can also be seen here in our Creative Tips from AISD for a Successful One-to-One Computing Program but I definitely encourage everyone to read his article.

On a side note, Ken also has a personal site dedicated to technology in education. It's a great resource for anyone who is interested in keeping up with the rapidly changing technology landscape. The site is called Educators’ Royal Treatment. Go to his site and check out this great article about AISD’s “Caught on T.A.S.K.” program. It’s a must-read if your looking for creative ways to drive teacher adoption or encourage them to integrate technology.

There is so much information in this post I think I need some quick links so here you go:

· Alvarado ISD and DyKnow Case Study: Getting Teachers Comfortable with Technology

· Scholastic: The Royal Treatment – District IT Gets the Business

· Educators’ Royal Treatment Web site

· Educators’ Royal Treatment: Caught on T.A.S.K.

Embedded content in 5.3

Thursday, July 29, 2010 by Joel Dart

A DyKnow panel takes on many roles depending on the specific needs of a class. The panel has always been a writing surface/whiteboard. This role is the most obvious as, by default, creating a new notebook gives you a blank panel and selects the pen tool. Additionally, our files are called notebooks, an obvious allusion reinforcing this metaphor. When I think of a DyKnow panel, I typically think of this role, but there is another fundamental role the panel plays: a content portal.

The shared whiteboard metaphor maps easily to the moderator writing notes and those notes being sent to all the students, but sharing now includes prepared content, PowerPoint slides, polls, and web pages. The panel in many cases is very different from a writing surface, and it's in this vein that embedded content was added to 5.3.

Lets say you find a website with a really interesting piece of content. The most obvious example of this is YouTube where you have a video you'd like to share with your students. Previously, you could embed webpage for the video, but now you can right click the video select "Copy embed html" and in DyKnow's insert Web Page dialog paste in that code to share only the video. No ads or comments, just the content you wanted to discuss. YouTube has streamlined this process with the context menu option, but Scribd, VoiceThread, Google Fusion Tables, and many other online tools only require you to find the Embed or Share buttons and copy/paste.

Features are nice, but what's the point? To me the point is that we can do better than text and images. If you're moving your materials to a digital form, that form should act like one. Digital media link, animate, and interact with you, and increasingly these media are more important in the classroom. So whether you're wanting to embed a social media tool to spark discussion or you're wanting to use a specific tool for a class activity without giving full access to the browser, 5.3 has what you need. Check it out and let us know what you think.

From PowerPoint to DyKnow: A View from the Ski Slopes

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 by Dave Berque

My brother and I learned to ski as young children. We learned naturally, as kids are prone to do, by watching our older friends. We had no formal instruction, and we had the bruises to prove it! My parents, eager to share our interest, decided they would learn to ski too. However, they took a much more rationale and systematic approach. They used a technique, popular at the time, called the "graduated length method." On the first day, newbie skiers use very short skis (only a foot or two long) and practice on gentle slopes. Each day the student is graduated to a new pair of skis, with each new pair slightly lengthened as compared to the previous day. Similarly, the student is introduced to more challenging slopes with each passing day. As much as I hated to admit it, by the end of a five-day week my parents had relatively few bruises and were skiing as well as my brother (they were probably skiing as well as me too - but that I will never admit).

What would a graduated length method look like if it were used to help teachers become comfortable with technology to enhance student learning? Could this approach help teachers adjust to interactive teaching software in as few as five days? My guess is that it could - and that it could do so very effectively. Here is what this approach might look like if applied to helping a teacher graduate from PowerPoint to DyKnow learning software.

Day One: Create, Present, and Annotate
Before class the new teacher should create his or her content in PowerPoint as usual, optionally reusing existing content including content that comes with a text book. PowerPoint animations (fly-ins) may be included if they are helpful. At the start of class the teacher should start a session, selecting the PowerPoint content as prepared notes. During class the teacher should highlight, underline and optionally annotate the notes for emphasis. Although the teacher will be running a session today, the students will not join it. The session is running only to practice in preparation for day two.

Day Two: Get Students to Take Notes and Check Student Status
Since the teacher is now comfortable starting a session, importing prepared content, and making annotations we are ready to move on. Today students will join the session and will be asked to take notes in the private notes area. Additionally, on at least one PowerPoint slide (more is better), the teacher should provide an area for the students to respond to an open-ended question such as: "What do you consider to be the most important point(s) we discussed today?" A content specific question can be used in place of this generic question if desired. After the students have written their responses, the teacher should orally confirm one key point from the class and then should ask the students to set their DyKnow status to indicate their level of understanding of the point. If desired, this process can be repeated for additional key points.

Day Three: Add in Some Polls
In preparation for today's class the teacher should insert at least one DyKnow Poll into their PowerPoint notebook. For example, the teacher might plan to start class with a poll that reviews a key point from a reading assignment or from the previous class meeting. During class the teacher should ask students to respond to this poll -- the results should be displayed and optionally discussed.

Day Four: Collect Student Panels
In preparation for today's class the teacher should create at least one slide that has room for the students to complete an instructional activity so their answers can be shared with the class. For example, the student might be asked to briefly summarize a reading, to translate some sentences from one language to another, to solve some math or science problems, to label parts of a figure or diagram, to draw some graphs, and so on. During class students should be encouraged to use panel submission to share their work with the class, allowing the teacher to compare and contrast some of the student submissions.

Day Five: Your Choice
As we approach full-length skis, teachers should be encouraged to select their own new instructional technique to try. Techniques such as participant chat, participant control, embedding web content, work groups, returning collect work and screen grab are just some of the possibilities to consider.

I am going to give this a try the next time I orient a new DyKnow teacher. If you try it first post here and let us know how it goes!

Building Institutional Support for your Technology Innovations

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 by Dave Berque

Next weekend my university will be visited by prospective students who want to learn about our campus and programs. Each student will be eager to make a good impression... and so will the university. In these days of increasingly competitive admissions it is certainly in a school's best interest to point out their strengths during this important recruiting events. And showing how a school uses technology to enhance student learning is a good way to do just that.

As part of our recruiting weekend I will be teaching several mock classes in one of the pen-based classrooms I regularly teach in. Since I use DyKnow interactive teaching software in all of my courses it is only natural for me to use the software during these mock classes. The students and their parents will participate in hands-on teaching examples from my own discipline (computer science) and I will also borrow some examples from my colleagues who use DyKnow in eleven different disciplines at DePauw including Japanese language, economics and psychology. When I gave a similar session for prospective students a few months ago 22 out of 24 participants rated the session as "excellent."

Given the importance of technology to high school students it may not be surprising that 18 year olds have found my mock classes to be exciting. What may be more surprising is the similar interest that has been generated at the other end of the age spectrum. For the past four years I have also offered hands-on mock DyKnow classes to members of our 50th year reunion class during alumni weekend. These participants have been very impressed by the way the classroom has changed since they were in school.

Whether my mock classes have been offered for prospective students or alumni it feels good to know that I am contributing to the larger University mission. And, of course, it never hurts to build a strong base of administrative offices on campus who understand the importance of technology in the classroom. This base helps maintain DePauw's culture of institutional support for continued technology innovations - and I will continue to work to build it at DePauw. How can you build a base at your own school?

The Class

Friday, February 12, 2010 by Joel Dart

In case you missed it, a class at Denver University created a great parody of the Office. In the video, Michael (the teacher) struggles to teach students about technology in the classroom.

Students complain they're not using the expensive technology they were required to buy. They complain that other students are distracting them by looking at Facebook the whole time. They call Michael out as he uses technology for technology's sake (the Skype scene is hilarious). Simply put, this class nailed it.

It's an often overlooked reality that technology in the classroom doesn't make teaching better. Recently I saw in the DyKnow twitter stream this article about one-to-one laptop initiatives being only as effective as their teachers. This is a pretty common-sense point but an important one nonetheless. Teachers effectively using technology in the classroom is what makes teaching better. In the end of "The Class", the students lay it out simply for Michael asking for collaboration, better use of Blackboard, less reading from PowerPoint slides, and more active roles in the class. In some ways (such as "don't read directly from the PowerPoint slides"), students are merely asking that you don't let technology get in the way.

So to beat a dead horse, technology is a tool and you should always choose your tools to fit the job to be done. I work at DyKnow because I know firsthand of the benefits that can come from effective use of DyKnow in the classroom, but that doesn't mean there aren't many ineffective uses. So how do you get from "The Class" to "the class of your dreams?" I think Michael actually gets it right when talking to his students. January's Educator of the Month Mandie Mathany from Auburn Jr. High School stressed that each class is different. This takes a lot of tenacity and a lot of getting to know your class. If students are initially intimidated by this conversation, you can have students submit their concerns anonymously (go to the Options dialog and check Allow Anonymous Panel Submission in the Session section). Once you and your students are on the same page, you can work together to create the active classroom environment that best suits their needs using the tools to that end.

The iPad makes a big splash

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 by Joel Dart

So have you heard about the iPad? It's the Apple tablet that has been discussed for years and many thought was fully realized by the iPhone and iPod Touch. The iPad is an additional device to accompany your phone and laptop computers (in the future, everyone owns a messenger bag). It is supposed to define reading on the web, and by making multi-touch the primary input, it will push application development towards more natural interfaces. But does it have a place in education? There have been two very interesting arguments that I hear about the iPad.

The first argument adamantly warns that the iPad is designed as a consumer device unfit for active-learning classrooms. There's no camera, keyboard, or Flash support (things current netbooks and tablets do have). You can have an amazing classroom without these things, yes, but you should choose your technology to support your pedagogy not the other way around. This is an interesting argument, and one that I didn't anticipate being so frequently posted on Twitter and in the blogs I read. It's hard to type on an on-screen keyboard. Even when the keyboard is full screen, creating papers, blogs, and wikis (and all the other text-based projects) will be difficult. Additionally, selecting text (a staple of formatting and editing) on the iPhone/iPod Touch is a slow error-prone process. It is presumed that this will additionally be the case for the iPad. So with all the beautiful video and great online reading experience, from a pure learning standpoint, aren't you back to some form of sage on a stage?

The other interesting argument I hear about the iPad is somewhat of an answer to the first argument yet simultaneously the same answer. The other argument is that the iPad will have a place in education but probably not in the first wave. While the former crowd focuses on the now, this crowd hopes for a better tomorrow. Many assume that the features we're wanting now will be in later versions, and that this initial iPad release is the tip of the iceberg for future innovation. The iPad will force all computer manufacturers to produce beautiful, well-designed products, and the magic of multi-touch will create a new breed of easy to use applications by necessity. For instance, check out Apple's demo of iWork during the presentation:

(or here for the full Keynote)

What's interesting to me is the emphasis in the additional gestures and ease of use features highlighted in the keynote. For example when discussing Numbers, Apple's spreadsheet program in iWork, there was a point where they emphasized how easy it is now to highlight a section of a pie chart by moving it out with your finger. This action, in the past, has been an incredibly complicated series of actions that would have proven to be so unnatural and indiscoverable on a touch device that they would have essentially not existed. My guess is that the same code that lets you move out the section with your finger could also let you move out the section with your mouse. But the point is that the much simpler user experience was added because of the necessity to do it on the form factor. The point is that yes maybe with current project editing paradigms, the iPad will not be a capable production machine. On the other hand, it could mean that for that very reason new gesture-based editing paradigms will be created that are far easier and will make us more productive.

I think both sides agree that we don't necessarily have that right now from the device and applications available. In many ways, I assume the reason why the apps have not been written is because it seemed impractical to create them for the iPhone, given its small size. It will be interesting to see what developers do with the new form factor. Nonetheless, classroom change does not come from what developers do but instead what teachers and students do. Time will indeed tell if the iPad will find its own place in education, if it will inspire other devices such as the One Laptop Per Child's XO3 (which they hope to price at $75) that will find a place in education, or if the device will not be the tool the classroom needs.

Looking the other way

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 by Joel Dart

To be clear, this is my blog and I am responsible for my own content. There are no inherent promises made by anything I say or talk about. I am careful to talk about a feature I'm working on only after I know it's making it into the product, but this blog isn't a press release. The point is, I'm going to talk about technology but it doesn't mean that DyKnow will be using that technology. With that disclaimer in place, away we go.

When I started this blog, I chose the name "looking both ways" because I felt that was my primary role at DyKnow. As a developer I spend a lot of professional development time keeping up with the latest technology, and as an edtech developer, I spend a lot of time keeping up with and understanding educational technology, classroom pedagogies, and learning. Along with tutorials and DyKnow features, I have mostly blogged about the latter, so I thought I might share things of interest in the former for a change.

Firstly, there's been the eReader craze this past Christmas season. This wasn't the invention of the eReader or creating digital copies of books, but this did seem to be the year that everyone started talking about it. The debate goes back and forth between praising the "stuff"-less future and mourning the passing of true ownership as you can't sell someone else your eBook (not to mention the 1984 scandal). When we first heard of the idea, my friends and I decided eReaders would take off once they entered the textbook market and drove prices down.

Secondly, there's a push toward mobile phone technology. Culturally, in the US at least, "there's an app for that" is instantly recognized (even with the DVR crowd who skip commercials). Google's Android phone OS is taking off as well with its many different flavors. And now one of the big industry pushes is towards 3 screens (tv, computer, mobile). This means there's going to be even more "apps" for, well, everything. To me this is one of the most interesting tech subjects as it relates to education. At first as I watched blog after blog and tweet after tweet discussing the plan of action for implementing smart phones and/or iTouches in the classroom, I couldn't quite place the underlying assumption. Many people asserted mobile phone integration with the same sense of inevitability as 1-1 computing often uses. Some people, however, have wisely noticed that an iTouch starts at $200 while netbooks start around double that.

Thirdly, there's a big advancement that, in my book, could never get as much love as it deserves: HTML5. This techology will give rise to web applications with drag and drop, audio/video, and even 3d animations... only with a browser. And when I say only with a browser, I mean without Flash, Java, or Silverlight installed in that browser (which you can't install on the iPhone/iTouch). The standard is still being created (and is officially a couple years out still), but you can already see the more advanced browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera implementing many of the features, and this has led to some cool proof of concepts and full on web applications including Google Wave. If you're using IE, you'll be in luck when IE9 comes out as at the last Professional Developer's Conference they announced HTML5 support. So why would you want web applications without plug-ins? Why is this cool? Fewer moving parts (browser + plug-ins vs browser) means fewer updates you have to worry about, potentially simpler debugging, fewer bugs.... that is if all the browsers implement it correctly. *sigh*

Speaking of web applications, Google is working on an operating system of their own that will run entirely on web applications. In fact Chromium OS is essentially going to be Google Chrome acting as an operating system. This will be another device you're not allowed to install plug-ins on. Additionally, there are questions of how useful it will be when not connected to the Internet, often considered a prerequisite to viewing web sites. I don't know if this one will really go anywhere, but I do find it very interesting and will be an excellent showcase of the power afforded by HTML5.

Third-point-fively, speaking of web applications, Amazon and now Microsoft have offered up cloud services where they worry about the IT and hosting pieces while allowing you to scale up or down your web services needs. In short, lets say you have seasonal demand *cough* school year *cough*. You need responsive servers during the busy season, but not really much if anything during the slow season. It'd be nice if the IT you pay for is the same as your demand, and that's essentially the idea behind cloud computing. Scale up or down as you will and you just pay for your usage.

Finally, there's the iSlate rumors. Apple is a closed book on the subject, but the speculation is fierce about the possibility of an Apple tablet. The general consensus on purely speculative rumors is that it will be a larger iPhone. I'm sure that everyone is missing something here as Apple doesn't usually just put out a product without something to talk about (ignoring Snow Leopard that is). So there's still a lot to hear about this one. Should I be the most surprised individual, I'd think the iSlate would be less of a tablet and more of a super eReader. They already have a Kindle iPhone app, and I can't imagine they're not after that market. I'd imagine there additionally will be some interesting notetaking capabilities built in with the readers.

So there's my current brain dump... and there's a lot of it because I've gotten really behind in talking about these things. In the future, I hope to be more timely. Sorry about that. Anyway, if you're interested in talking about these things comment away or if you have a different take, I'd be interested in hearing it. The future looks to be an interesting place indeed.

Why I've been a bad blogger

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 by Joel Dart

It's the beginning of January and that means everyone is talking about their goals for starting a new leaf which obviously means that you have to take a big step back and see where you're going wrong. Me? I'm a bad blogger. To be sure, I feel that I write quality posts, and I do write at least once a week. That's not the problem I'm talking about. My problem is that I don't comment on other blogs.

So why does this matter and why should I (or you) be better at commenting? It basically becomes a question of "what is a blog" and "when is it useful." One interpretation of a blog as expressed on Wikipedia is that a blog is a website that contains regular entries of "commentary, description of events, or other material such as graphics or video." This leads into the "when is it useful" question. To answer this question, I'm going to employ a few analogies (stick with me as I promise this has some relevance).

A blog can be used like a diary. You can write up your personal thoughts and lock it away where no one but you can use it. A blog can also be like a newspaper. You can broadcast your thoughts and make them available for anyone to read. The more people who read it the more valuable it becomes. In the former case, the utility of your blog is limited to how much you personally can get out of the blog.

My Good: a blog viewed by one person is only valuable to that person

In the latter case, the utility of your blog is limited by the number of people reached by your posts. This value of the network is described by Metcalfe's Law (if you're interested).

Our good: a blog's value is increased in relation to the number of people that read it

It's also intuitively understood when you think about how useful your phone is if you had the only phone in the world vs if there were two in the world vs if there were ten in the world etc. But I must correct myself. Above I said your blog is limited by the number of people reached by your posts, but I should have said can be.

Can be? I say this because we're living in the Web 2.0 world (guh, forgive the cliche). A blog can be a newspaper but it can also be a gathering place thanks to the ability to comment, rework, and discuss. As part of a social network, the blog reaches not only individuals but also groups (described by Reed's Law if you're interested).

Individuals connected to groups connected to groups connected to individuals...

Think of a group you're actively involved in and how each person brings a unique set of perspectives to that group. This person in many ways is acting as a link to other groups. But imagine how sad it would be if no one in your group ever talked. Imagine if the group never engaged each other. This is me. This is why I'm a bad blogger.

I am a follower of many blogs, but I'm a commenter on almost none of them. I do this because I feel a bit out of my league or that as a software developer and not a teacher/school administrator my experience and ideas are not welcome. Sometimes it's to avoid sounding ignorant or amateurish. All of these are bad reasons to withhold. By not engaging, I'm not only hurting myself but I'm decreasing the value of the blogs I follow. Plus, we're all learners regardless and chances are if they're freely sharing their blog posts with the world, they're there to help. So this year, I want to do a better job engaging and challenge you to do the same. There's a lot going on in technology, education, and in the DyKnow community and it's important we all do what we can to keep each other up to date and growing. If you have a question, ask. If you have a perspective, share. After all, the least we can do for students is to model the engaged classroom with our own learning.

Project Based Learning

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 by Joel Dart

My old high school, where my dad still works, has jumped straight into Project Based Learning (PBL) by adopting the New Technology High School model. Each time I come home, I make sure to get the latest scoop on how they're adapting to this vastly different teaching model. In PBL content and standards are learned by students as they are necessary to accomplish the project at hand. Teachers must design projects that will challenge and engage students as well as cover the subject matter necessary, but after the planning stages they spend less time as instructors and more time as advisors for student projects.

My educational background has been filled with the traditional lecture and exercise models where classtime is centered around topics, content, and discussion. In this environment, I feel that DyKnow Vision absolutely thrives providing features for collaborative note taking, quick assessments, backchannel discussions, and lecture capture. Work Groups encourages group exercises and provides tools for students to collaboratively work together, but this is still centered around the DyKnow panel which may not be appropriate for every project. So from my silo (and I encourage anyone who knows better to prove me wrong), DyKnow Vision can be somewhat of a clunky fit for PBL. Yes, even in PBL the lecture is not dead, and there are going to be many times where a replayable example or class discussion would benefit the students' project objectives, but it is definitely not the everyday class tool that I used in college.

But I think Monitor is coming into a unique situation. I've mentioned before that Monitor is not the favored son in my book, but many of the newer interactive features we have been and are currently adding to Monitor (including remote control, screen broadcast, and chat) are uniquely suited to providing this advisory role. By switching the chat mode to be to moderator only, students can be working in their groups and can quickly chat you a question that only you see. You can then send a quick reply back. If there are technology questions, you can view the student's screen and even take control to show them what to do. All of this can quickly and easily be done from your desk. This means that the easy problems can be fixed easily, so you'll have more time to focus on more complicated matters (the kinds of problems where you really need to walk over and talk things through).

2009: A Year In Review

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 by Kristy Guthrie

As the year comes to an end, I believe it's important to look at all of the great things that occurred in the past 12 months for DyKnow, for our customers, and for education, in general.

Stimulus Money -- there was a lot of hype about extra dollars for educational technology and for keeping teachers in the classroom. A lot of that money has gone out to states and, hopefully, to individual schools and districts. Integrating technology in the classroom is important when trying to provide students with learning experience that promotes 21st century learning.
Netbooks -- These "mini-laptops" continue to be very desired by the k12 community. With these lower cost machines, large public districts are starting to implement 1:1 computing on a larger level. Teaching strategies are really starting to focus on the use of technology in the classroom.
Addition of numerous International Schools -- It seems that an endless number of International schools are embracing classroom technology at an astounding rate. Many are moving to a 1:1 computing program and are implementing DyKnow as a part of that program as well. We're glad to count them as customers and we love hearing about all of the great things they are doing (for example, when school is closed because of H1N1, classes continued to meet virtually with DyKnow).
The release of 5.2 -- it's amazing what our software can do and the enhancements get better every year (for example, the PowerPoint Plug-In). Here's a synopsis of what was new in 5.2...and there are a lot of things to look forward to in 2010 with 5.3. Three cheers to our development team!

These are just a few of the many highlights from 2009 -- I can't wait to see what 2010 brings!

Using DyKnow in a Large Lecture Hall

Wednesday, December 9, 2009 by Kristy Guthrie

As I've mentioned before, it's important for us here at DyKnow to recognize educators for their outstanding teaching strategies and integration of classroom technology.

This month we're recognizing Dr. Jean Adams of York University (Ontario, Canada). I personally had the pleasure of working with Jean and her colleagues as they evaluated DyKnow to determine if the product would meet the needs of her and other business school classrooms. You can read her profile and why she is our Educator of the Month, but I want to discuss some of the specific uses of the software in her class.

Engaging Every Student with Content Transmission -- Jean has a very large lecture class of about 400 each semester. DyKnow facilitates engaging all of those students via the technology. Jean knows that each of her students receive the lecture notes and can type additional information while in class.

Working in Small Groups -- The small collaboration group feature was something Jean was very excited about when she first saw DyKnow. With a few clicks she is able to separate the class into smaller groups of her choosing. These students can work together even if they are not seated near each other. In a way, this emulates interactive whiteboard technology for the small groups. They now have a shared space to collaborate--and they can easily submit their work to Dr. Adams.

Submitting Work in Class -- Speaking of submitting work, the students use the submit panel feature to send their work (either as individuals or as groups) to Dr. Adams. It's then easy for her to determine if she wants to share those submissions with the class or review them afterward. If she selects to look at them afterward, she can mark them up and send them back to students with the click of one button.

PowerPoint Plug-In -- Jean was very excited to hear this fall that we now have a PowerPoint Plug-In. She is able to create all of her content, including polling questions, ahead of time. She can click one button to have it convert into a DyKnow file and is still able make changes once it's in DyKnow.

This is just a sampling of Dr. Adams favorite features in DyKnow (I'm sure she uses others, too).

How are students spending their time?

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 by Kristy Guthrie

According to a recent survey, college "students are spending nearly 12 hours daily, on average, engaged with some type of media". I found this survey on the PRSA website. So half of a college student's life is spent using technology.

While this article doesn't go into detail regarding when these gadgets are used to engage with media, I'd almost bet cash-money that some of that time is during class.

Students are usin

g technology in the classroom -- sometimes as a distraction and sometimes for good purpose. The student could be surfing the web for classroom-related content, playing the "google jockey" perhaps. Maybe the instructor uses online classroom software, like an LMS, to post additional resources and homework questions. Students could be using their cell phones to send answers to polling questions via software for the classroom.

On the other hand, students could be playing FarmVille on Facebook or texting their friends about what happened at the weekend's big bash.

Whatever these students are doing, they are doing it with technology. Sooner than later, I believe more professors will embrace technology as a tool with purpose in education which will better help them engage and connect with their students.

**Photo from mediabistro.com**

Happy Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 26, 2009 by Joel Dart

I queued up a post to come out today as I assure you I am at home with my wonderful family, but I did want to take the time to mention how thankful I am for all those involved with DyKnow. I'm thankful for the dedicated employees that I work with from the sales, marketing, support, dev, and CRM teams who are tirelessly working to make DyKnow as good as it possibly can be and to help as many educators as possible take full advantage of technology in their classrooms.

I'm thankful for all you educators out there who use our product and are always pushing yourselves to make your classrooms better. I'm thankful for those that tweet, blog, or email encouraging words about the product and the ways you're using it. I'm thankful for you who are kind and motivated enough to present at conferences, webinars, or share on the community site to help spread the knowledge and experiences you've gained as well as consistently shatter my expectations for the way you would use DyKnow.

I'm thankful for all the IT staff that we work with when setting up the environment as well as when needing to troubleshoot technical issues. I'm thankful for all the network admins who may not feel qualified to run projects but know that if they don't do it no one will. I'm also thankful for the overworked staff (both IT and teachers) all fighting to make these classrooms successful.

So from the bottom of my heart, thank you to all of you. You've made this a very good year, and I hope the coming ones are just as wonderful.

The Fire Story: a narrative of cognitive load theory

Wednesday, November 25, 2009 by Joel Dart

So one of the themes I've seen in my reader the past few months has been the mentioning of cognitive load theory. It might be mentioned in someone's paper or passively mentioned en route to some other point, but it was enough for me to sit up and wonder "what's that?"

Cognitive load theory(CLT) is the branch of psychology that gave us the 7-digit phone number. It explores the capacity of the mind to retain information, something that is quite important to educators as well. The intro to the intro version of CLT states that the mind can only take so much load and there are three types of cognitive load: intrinsic, extraneous, and germane.

Intrinsic cognitive load describes the inherent difficulty in the subject matter. There is a greater load when reading Ulysses than there is reading Green Eggs and Ham. Simple addition is easier than calculus. It is noted that while there are strategies to manage this, intrinsic cognitive load is largely out of your control.

Extraneous cognitive load describes the unnecessary cognitive load present during instruction. An extreme example of this might be trying to learn a subject in foreign language. While the translation exercise may be very good for practicing the foreign language, it stands as a barrier to learning the subject being taught.

The final type, germane, is described as the load present when constructing schema (the unit of learning in CLT). These are (among many things) the connections and metaphors you might construct to explain and relate new information to past information. The mind is working when learning which does increase load; it's only that this load is the kind we want to increase.

So in comes the Fire Story, Dave Berque's story about his earliest days of teaching and coming to the epiphany that technology could aid him in engaging his students. As the story goes, Dr. Berque was forced to hit the ground running as an educator, teaching a theoretical computer science course. He explained the material, copying his notes on the board, while students copied the board into their notes. All the while, the class was disappointingly silent. Then one day, Dr. Berque noticed seven hands raised in his class of 150 people and excitedly called on one of the students. He was soon disappointed to learn that these seven students were only trying to inform him that the ceiling had caught fire after a light had exploded.

The extraneous cognitive load from furiously copying notes had become so overwhelming to the students that only 7/150 had noticed the ceiling was on fire. It seems fair to say that if students' minds were too overloaded for their survival instincts to detect danger, there was likely little room for new schema acquisition.

From this experience, Dr. Berque was inspired to create DEBBIE which later became DyKnow. Now his notes on the board are automatically transfered to students and he is free to focus on active learning activities designed to increase germane load and creating a more engaged (and less overworked) classroom.

It's important to note, in my opinion, that not everything Dr. Berque writes is automatically transferred to students. I think one of the problems with many PowerPoint presentations is that they after oversimplifying concepts down to a few bullet points they spoon feed you those points one at a time, reducing your need to pay attention. Additionally, I believe there is quite a bit of mnemonic potential in physically writing (in moderation). Dr. Berque takes advantage of this potential by using what is called "private ink." When he writes on the interactive whiteboard at the front of the class with private ink, students see what he's writing, but are forced to copy it into their notes. This helps provide emphasis on key concepts, which in turn will hopefully lead to better schema construction.

Taking notes on your homework

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 by Joel Dart

Lecture capture shouldn't be lecture preservation

From the moment it was suggested, I was almost giddy with excitement. Private notes is a special area where students can take notes without having to contend with the notes coming from the Session, so it simply makes so much sense that students should be able to use the private notes area to take additional notes when using Replay. Prepare to be introduced to my favorite feature in 5.3.

Alright, so I really just introduced you, but I can't figure out a way to verbalize my excitement over this. Students (okay anyone, but I have had students in mind this whole time) can replay a notebook and write any additional notes in the private notes area. It's a subtle addition, yes, but so was capturing audio and syncing it with the rest of your lecture content. But that subtle change is now being used to turn the classroom upside down by having students watch the recorded lecture before class and spending classtime going over more difficult exercises or discussing problem areas.

Simply put, learning is a living and continuous process that doesn't end when class finishes. If we've merely captured the lecture as if to put in a museum, we're really only becoming more efficient at being a sage on the stage (sage on the screen?). But by encouraging refinement of observations and making new connections, the captured lecture is more than a recording but instead a tool used by the student for his or her own investigation.

Along the same lines, I'm excited about what this means for the upside down classroom approach. I'm a firm believer in having your notes right there with the content (it's a lifesaver when reviewing or relearning material after several years), and now students can take notes that are linked to the recorded lecture. I'm not naive enough to believe this is some educational panacea, and perhaps I'm making a bit too much of this minor tweak. Nonetheless, I think this is a step in the right direction and am proud to be able to say we've added it to 5.3.
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Image adapted from Marshall Astor's original image found here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeontheedge/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Remixed under Creative Commons share alike license.
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Sending it back

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 by Joel Dart

Yes, another of the new features in DyKnow 5.3 is an upgrade to File Transfer to additionally allow students to send files to the moderator. Since DyKnow 5.1, Monitor has provided the ability for you to send a file or files to your entire class. Not only are you able to distribute files to your students, but also you can have the files automatically open in whatever the default application may be. You can let Monitor worrying about the details of passing out files and bringing them up on students' machines while you're getting started with class. This is great for passing out worksheets, but getting the worksheets back has still required a shared drive or email communication.

Now in 5.3, you can choose to have your students send you files. Students will choose which files to send, and then all the students files will be automatically downloaded and organized into a special folder for your assessment and/or critique. You'll also see all the student submitted files as they come in and the progress of each of the downloads (speaking of which, there are some upper limits on the amount of data students can send, so you won't be stuck waiting forever), though you can easily minimize this window and continue on with class.

While this is a huge win for collecting documents and projects, the real magic is still in Vision's Panel Retrieval and Return Panels features. After you've graded student work in Vision, you're able to click the Return Panels button (on the Authoring tab) and DyKnow will automagically return the graded student panels to each of the student's class folder on the server. The File Transfer family in Monitor isn't yet that sophisticated, but for quick two way file transfers Monitor 5.3 is going to be great.

Though perhaps not obvious to those outside the DyKnow development team, student file transfer as well as chat has been a unique step for Monitor as students now are beginning to require elements of a user interface. Features such as Url Filtering and Application Blocking are really behind-the-scenes types of features, but students need some way to choose what files to send you. We've gone through several iterations already, and things are bound to change more once we start getting feedback from our Beta customers, but we are narrowing in on a fairly simple design for the student interaction pieces.

So I hope you're getting as excited about 5.3 as I am. Feel free to ask any questions you might have about any of the features I've talked about so far, and stay tuned because there's tons more to talk about still.

Upcoming Webinar: The Noisy Classroom

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 by Kristy Guthrie

Don't forget to register for our upcoming webinar: The Noisy Classroom: Using DyKnow software to encourage collaboration and discussion. It will be happening November 12 at 2:00 EST.

Our September Educator of the Month, Dr. Andrew French will lead the webinar and demonstrate how DyKnow software allows him to immediately evaluate student learning and adjust instruction based on understanding.

Dr. French uses Tablet PCs and our interactive teaching software to create a "noisy classroom."

Oh and don't forget you can always review previous webinars on integrating technology in the classroom on our webinar archive website.

Breaking the fourth wall

Friday, October 30, 2009 by Joel Dart

Laura (our company President) caught me while I was passing in the hallway not long ago and I have no idea how we got on this subject, but we started talking about theater and performance. I mentioned that I had done several musicals as a high school student and one thing led to another and the conversation ended by jokingly suggesting that we put on a company musical. No, we haven't discussed it since, but now that it's on the Internet we'll see if there are any YouTube videos in our near future.

Seriously though, in theater there's this notion of a fourth wall that is the front of the stage. The audience is stationed in their area where they observe and enjoy the performers stationed in their area. But during this time, there's no anticipated acknowledgement of the audience by the performers. There are times, however, that a performer will "break the fourth wall" and address the audience -sometimes even coming out into the audience to do so. The effect is a transformation in the audience's experience of the play going from passive observation to active participation.

Much has been written all over the Internet against the "sage on a stage" model of teaching (and if you haven't heard there are tons of opportunities for creating an engaged classroom with DyKnow Vision), but the wall I find interesting is the one created by Monitor. DyKnow's classroom management product has the word "Big Brother" thrown around to help describe its function. You as the teacher can impose limitations on websites and applications not to mention the thumbnail image of every student's computer in the class. You can even view the screen of any of your students in real time without the student knowing they're being monitored.

To me this is another fourth wall. For Monitor 5.3, the main push is for features that bust through that wall to take Monitor from a passive observation tool to a classroom participation tool. And I'm quite happy. It's my belief that classrooms need technology to be used to create connections more efficiently and abundantly, so why should classroom management tech not fit that as well. As I've mentioned before, we've been moving in that direction slowly with Remote Control and File Transfer. I've already mentioned that Screen Broadcaster is being added to Monitor as well for 5.3. But an interesting addition to the growing list of interactive features is Monitor Chat.

For me this is the big one. Chat's use has consistently surprised me on the Vision side, so I can only imagine the uses Monitor chat will get. But excited anticipation aside, I think this is important as it helps provide for the first time a feedback mechanism for educators using Monitor. Your students will be able to discretely ask questions or for assistance. They'll be able to strike up discussions with you or with their classmates (as in Vision, you'll have the ability to set chat to off, to you only, or to everyone). This is a different beast indeed, and I'm excited we're headed in that direction. So let me know your thoughts on including chat in Monitor. Is anyone planning on using it once 5.3 is released next year? How will this change the way you use Monitor?

DyKnow's activities at EDUCAUSE 2009

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by Kristy Guthrie

Next week, I'll be heading to Denver, CO for EDUCAUSE 2009. EDUCAUSE seems to be (and perhaps it) one of the largest High Ed conferences in the US. DyKnow attends every year.

This year we have a bunch of activities:

Hands-on Classroom: Dr. Vince DiStasi, CIO and professor at Grove City College, will lead several sessions on implementing technology in the classroom. The session, called "Active Learning: Selecting Technology for Your Environment" will be held 4 times during the conference. Check out this page for more information.
Concurrent Session: Dr. Dave Berque, Computer Science Professor at DePauw University, will present "Using Audio and Ink Recordings, Tablet PCs and DyKnow to Maximize Class Time - Teaching Upside Down" on November 5th, 2009 from 2:20-3:10PM in Korbel Ballroom 2B.
DyKnow Booth #1210: We'll have education software demos that showcase our classroom management software as well as our curricular software which includes classroom response technology, classroom capture and collaboration tools.
HP Booth #1110: See how DyKnow software combines with HP hardware for innovative and reliable classroom technology solutions.