Stephanie Fells

Concurrent Track
Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore – how to engage your "digital-native" Millennial students
  Session II, Thursday 11:45 - 12:45

Biography

I have been a teacher since 1983. I have grown and changed as an educator as my students have changed. I went from being an educator to an “edutainer”. I chose to embrace the challenge rather than run from it. The Web 2.0 technologies cater to our digital-native Millennial who create and consume content on the Web. It's where they live. I teach information technology courses at Berkeley College. I am in a PhD program at Capella University concentrating in Instructional Design for online learning.

Abstract

Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore. Today's students are not consume content, hey create it. Come find out how Web 2.0 technologies can bring new life to your courses and engage your "digital-native" Millennial students in learning activities that are both educationally sound and fun.
Presentation Content

The core of the presentation revolves around exposing the audience to an overview of Web 2.0 technologies -- Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, Vodcasts, social bookmarking. Each segment begins with a definition, followed by a video that talks about or demonstrates the technology and then discussion of some "in the bag" lesson plans that can be used or modified with that technology. We visit the sites where the lesson plans are and I also provide handouts. Depending upon the time constraints and Internet access, we could also go to some of the sites and actually have the participants work with some of the technologies. The Web 2.0 technologies of Google and Google in Education are also reviewed. I gave this presentation -- 2 hours -- to 23 teachers in a public school district as part of their faculty development and when it was done they wanted to know when I was coming back so they could actually start learning to "do" all these things. Their own hands-on activities of actually creating blogs, wikis, etc. could not be done within the two hours. They are coming back in May for the next session, where we will actually build the objects.

I am currently working on a PhD in Education concentrating on instructional design for online learning environments. This presentation was originally tailored to one of my course projects. I presented it at the Woodbridge Township Summer Institute last summer and was asked to provide a faculty development workshop last week. This information will provide instructors with an overview of the technologies that can be adapted to their discipline to engage, rather than to enrage their students and make the learning relevant, fun, and student-centered. The next phase of this presentation will add issues regarding issues such as privacy, copyright, FERPA, etc.

You may bring your laptop to this session.