CUNY It Conference 2013 Collaboration 2 Presentation

8/13/2019 CUNY It Conference 2013 Collaboration 2 Presentation

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Vee Herrington, Ph.D., Chief Librarian

and Director of Academic Technology

Katie Wilson, Social Sciences Instructor

Robert Klein, Director of IT

Gibsy Leno, 2ndYear Student, Guttman

CUNY IT Conference: December 2013

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OVERVIEW OF PRESENTATION

What, Why and How?Research in this area

What technology did we need?

Implementation of the Activity

Evaluation of the Activity

Hear from a Student Representative

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ORIGIN OF THE IDEA

Katie to Vee:I would like my Sociology

students to Skype globally with

other students!

Sounded easy !!

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WHAT?This was the pilot activity of a proposed more

comprehensive study designed for City Seminar I

in the Fall (2014) that included:

Collaboration across the college

(IT/Library/Faculty) Student collaboration in a social media-based

global learning activity in a Sociology class

Utilization of diverse technologies

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ACTIVITY GOALS

1. Explore the use of social networking technology Familiarize Guttman Sociology students with the CN social

networking platform, utilizing Mediascape technology

2. Meet students from around the world and learnabout their lives

Cross-cultural collaboration Understand cultural differences Expand students views of multiculturalism Reflect upon ones identity and examine diverse values and beliefs

globally

3. Engage in a small, sociological pilot activity about thecollege experience with students from both Guttmanand elsewhere in the country and globe

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SOCIOLOGY STUDENT LEARNING

OUTCOMES

Increase Cross-Cultural communication Improve understanding of a different culture

and society

Hone social media-based literacy skills

Write for a global audience

Learn interview/questionnaire design and

implementation models

Research shows that the design of the

lesson is extremely important for success

for this kind of an activity (Wang, 2011).

Vee to Katie: What are you wanting the students to do?

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WHY?

This Collaborative ActivityFi ts our Schoo l Model Learning communities, reflection, student

centered, activity-based, ePortfolios and

collaboration are central to the pedagogy ofGuttman Community College

Preparing college students to become globalcitizens with intercultural communication skillsand sensitivity to cultural differences has become

one of the important tasks in higher education(Wang, 2011).1

Wang, C.-M. (2011). Instructional design for

cross-cultural online collaboration.Australasian

Journal of Educational Technology, 27(2), 243-

258.) 7


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HOW

Leveraging the high tech environment of

Guttman, an authentic learning experience in

global collaboration was conducted to achieve

the student learning outcomes in a Sociology

class using: Mediascapes with laptops

Course Networking (CN)

CN mobile app

Digication ePortfolio

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9/24Mediascape Technology: A Place to Collaborate 9


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BACKGROUND RESEARCH*

Challenges of offering cross-cultural

collaboration should not be underestimated!

Finding students globally is a challenge

Language barriers/cultural differences in online

collaboration

Time zone problems

Technology issues

Design of the assignment in a virtual space very

important: teacher is key

Need student accountability; formal activity

Wang, C.-M. (2011). Instructional design for cross-

cultural online collaboration. Australasian Journal of

Educational Technology, 27(2), 243-258.)

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PICKING THE RIGHT SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM

Synchronous (like Skype) Asynchronous (like Facebook)

Immediate Time Zone not important

More closely resembles face-to-

face conversations

Allows students to connect at their

own convenience: Flexible

Immediacy solicits a timelyresponse

Language not a problem: Studentscan prepare dialogue, use a

translation tool

Can sustain dialogue and

collaboration over a period of time

Can capture the history of the

interactions

Starting out wanting synchronous, changed our minds after doing some r11


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Platform Free Global Cloud-

based

Designed for

Education/FERPAFacebook

Google

Hangout

ooVoo

Vsee

WizIQ

Skype

Course

Networking

THE SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOL HAD TO MEET ALL 5

CRITERA

In addition:

Had to be very easy!

It had to appeal to the younger generation: A Facebook

like interface!

Had to have features such as reflection and

accountability built in, as well as a good notification

Reviewed:

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http://www.thecn.com/1160101 13
http://www.thecn.com/1160101http://www.thecn.com/1160101


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DEFINING FEATURES OF CN

Developed specifically for education and global collaboration

Comprehensive posting and reflection tools

A reward system built in (Anar Seeds) Monitors the level of student activity Get points for liking or reflecting on a post

Extensive notification system

Personalized social networking Learning groups (Courses)

Interest groups (Conexus)

Tools built-in Quiz Assessment of experience Pool Translation tool

Synchronous and Asynchronous

Anar is the Persian

symbol for ambition

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IMPLEMENTING THE ACTIVITY~ BALANCE OF STRUCTURE AND AUTONOMY ~

Over course of 3-4 weeks, students engaged with the CN site both

within class, and on their own time

Session 1: Students familiarized themselves with the site and the

technologycreated a personal profile

Session 2: Students were assigned to a Research Team based onone of 6 sociological themes; Started to create Conexus and

questionnaires; Connected with at least 1 global student

Session 3: Research Teams completed Conexus Research Teams

completed questionnaires and reached out to students via the CN

Complete autonomy for the students

No instruction on using CN

Idea was to let the students explore

and figure it out

Let them have fun!! 15


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THE STUDENT ASSIGNMENT: THE TASKSession 1:

Students access the CN assignment from the Sociology Course ePortfolio

Using Individual laptops, students are asked to create a personal CN profile and

write a brief personal bio Each student chooses one of the 6 Sociological themes on which they would like to

focus for the activity

Session 2:

Students meet as a team at the Mediascapes and create a CN Conexus (like aFacebook interest group) based on their theme; each individual student is asked tobe invited to the Conexus by the moderators or they can search and join

Student teams are asked to write a description of their theme on the Conexus pageto give their page an identity (i.e. videos, images, links to articles, etc)

Students begin to invite other students from their Sociology class and globalstudents to their Conexus

Teams begin to create a survey using the CN poll feature that poses questions (5quantitative questions and 5 qualitative questions )related to their theme

Session 3 : Students finish inviting other students from their Sociology class and global

students to their Conexus

Teams complete writing and administering the survey questions using the CN pollfeature

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LEARNING OUTCOMES : ACHIEVED!

Increased Cross-Cultural communication

Improved understanding of a different culture andsociety

Honed social media-based literacy skills

Wrote for a global audience

Learned Interview/questionnaire design andimplementation models

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IN SUMMARY: TECHNOLOGY USED IN PROJECT

Mediascape technology- Physical space for

collaboration

Course Networking (CN) -- Social networking

CN App

Digication ePortfolioShare and showcase work

The DepotAssessment

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The Depot is a data collection tool

developed by the Guttman IT

Department

Can be used to collect any type ofdata over the internet

Used this tool to administer a survey

to the students about their

experience

10 questions using a Likert

Scalefocusing on technologyand activity

THE EVALUATION OF THE ACTIVITY

Did the students like the

activity and the

technology? 19


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EVALUATION OF ACTIVITY

1. CN was good for cross-cultural collaboration with students from other parts of theworld.

2. I was motivated to interact with the global students.

Students liked CN

and were

motivated!

Strongly Agree/Agree

Undecided

All ten questions were answered in the positive re: the activity

and the technology used! 20


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EVALUATION OF ACTIVITY

90% of the students felt satisfied with the

number of global students they got to interact

with!

Strongly Agree/ Agree

The only

negative

response inthe survey

was this

3%!

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CONCLUSIONS

All of the students ended up being from Slovenia

Language did not seem to be an issue

Instructor and students pleased with this initial activity

All learning outcomes were achieved!

Sociology class met only once/weekoutcomes might be better

with a class that meets 2-3 times/week

Needed more time to develop cross-cultural relationships

3 months would be ideal

Global students were eager to participate

The thought of talking to students from NYC was motivating for

them

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STUDENT FEEDBACK : GIBSY LINO (2ND YEAR)

1.) What was successful

2.) What was challenging

3.) Suggestions

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THANK YOU!

QUESTIONS?

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CUNY It Conference 2013 Collaboration 2 Presentation

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