Notes

Outline

A Catalyst for Collaboration: Supporting Teaching with Technology through Partnerships

How do you scale beyond the early adopters to reach wary adopters?

We have chosen the Catalyst Initiative.

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Developing for a purpose How do you balance technology and pedagogy? Diverse development team: Technical Communication, Computer Engineering, Biology & diverse undergraduate staff. Strong goals: To help teachers teach and learners learn.

Developing for a purpose Locate developers near faculty: Catalyst developers located in the Center where they assist faculty, teach workshops, and conduct needs assessments. Follow a development cycle focused on the educators: Institute participatory design techniques. Conduct usability studies.

In-house development? Modularized tool kit gives educators the power to innovate. Educators use the pieces they want. Integrate technology as needed. Have a direct influence on new features. Ability to customize to campus needs. Not locked into a specific vendor.

Collaborative Development The educator is central: Get feedback at every step of design. Process is more important than product. Direct communication between developer and educator. Make feedback and interaction easy. Value educator’s ideas and time.

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Step 1: Needs Assessment Extensive interview What’s the pedagogical goal? What’s the applicability to others on and off campus? What’s the impact on teaching and learning? What’s the technology and can we implement it?

Step 2: Design Review (repeat) Develop screen designs &  review Conduct informal and/or formal usability studies. Review for terminology, understanding, and concept. Involve PETTT, students in educational technology, designers and other interested parties.

Step 3: Build Program the systems Build to interface with existing teaching tools Class lists UW NetID Existing computing infrastructure Use internet standards CGIs, Apache, Perl, JavaScript Not locked into vendor

Step 4: Testing Release code for testing Limited announcement to interested faculty. Actively seek feedback. Use logs and database statistics to follow-up with instructors. Ask how faculty “integrated” the technology into the curriculum.

Step 5: Catalyst content Develop Catalyst content Workshops Documentation Profiles Teaching (pedagogy) Student guides How-to pages Quick guides Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Support Goals: Answer support mail within 4 hours. Make updates and fixes immediately. Developers are accessible to faculty for questions and ideas. Continually log ideas for improvement and new functionality. Actively solicit feedback.

Challenges Saying no What qualifies as a “campus-wide” need? Scalability Server software and configuration. Developer’s time in tech support versus new development. Keep process intact while growing development team.

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Researching science of learning Informing design and development Disseminating innovations

Goal PETTT seeks to enhance the effectiveness of                                     the University of Washington's faculty and thus of the institution itself, by creating a campus framework to promote the thoughtful                                     exploration, development, assessment, and                                    dissemination of next-generation technologies                                     and strategies for teaching and learning. Source: http://depts.washington.edu/pettt

Approach

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Dissemination Conducting logfile analysis Conducting online survey (to characterize users and site effectiveness) Conduction interview with designer/developer Effective facilitation of online discussions Authoring and presenting streaming video

Coping with Info Information tsunami Gods must be Crazy Clint approach

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depts.washington.edu/pettt