Program

Overview | Schedule at a Glance | Full Program | List of Presenters

The interactive program below contains the most up-to-date information.

Wednesday, March 12 Thursday, March 13 Friday, March 14

Wednesday, 9:00 am to 10:30 am

Roundtable discussion: UNC Distance Learning Forum/TLT Distance Education Interest Group Track: Distance Education Presenters: James Sadler Related Material: Eduventures presentation	Grand Ballroom 2
This is a meeting of the UNC Distance Learning Forum and the TLT Distance Education Interest Group.

Formal presentation:
A New Perspective on Course Redesign: Customizing the National Center for Academic Transformation’s Approach for UNC
Track: TLT Pedagogy
Presenters: Hilarie Nickerson, Lisa Fiedor

Capital Ballroom A&B

The National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT) promotes models and processes for redesigning large-enrollment introductory courses to improve student learning and potentially reduce costs. With assistance from the NCAT, in 2004 UNC conducted a pilot project to implement redesigns in a small number of such courses. Using what we learned from this experience, in 2007 UNC undertook a broader course redesign initiative. If you want to learn about the basic concepts behind course redesign and find out how they can work in any course, then this session is for you. The presenters will also briefly describe how the TLTC is supporting UNC campuses, programs, and faculty who are participating in redesign efforts.

Roundtable discussion:
Faculty Christmas Wish List: Notice to Industry Creative Solutions From the Users
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Annette Greer, Maria Clay

Grand Ballroom 1

This roundtable session is designed for faculty users who have creative recommendations for "what ifs" and "wish lists" for courseware problems in Blackboard. The session is NOT for griping but for putting forth brainstorming that generates innovative solutions from users that can be passed to developers for consideration. This roundtable session opens dialog for industry and faculty to share perspectives. A representative from Blackboard will be present to listen to our suggestions and provide feedback.

Roundtable discussion: UNC Digital Object Repository Steering Committee Track: TLT Tools Presenters: Lori Mathis	Boxwood
This working session is a meeting of the UNC Digital Object Repository Steering Committee.

Wednesday, 11:00 am to 11:30 am

* Featured Session * Formal presentation: Opening Welcome Session Track: Other Presenters: Frank Prochaska	Capital Ballroom E, F, G
Frank Prochaska, executive director of the UNC TLT Collaborative, will summarize the highlights of the conference program, with assistance from other UNC representatives.

Wednesday, 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

* Featured Session *
Plenary session:
Open Access Education - Building Communities and Sharing Knowledge
Track: Other
Presenters: Richard Baraniuk

Capital Ballroom E, F, G

A grassroots movement is sweeping through the academic world. The "open access movement" is based on a set of intuitions that are shared by a remarkably wide range of academics: that knowledge should be free and open to use and re-use; that collaboration should be easier, not harder; that people should receive credit and kudos for contributing to education and research; and that concepts and ideas are linked in unusual and surprising ways and not the simple linear forms that traditional media present. In this talk, I will overview the past, present, and future of the open access education movement in the context of Connexions (cnx.org), which invites authors, educators, and learners worldwide to "create, rip, mix, and burn" textbooks, courses, and learning materials from a global open-access repository.

Wednesday, 1:40 pm to 3:10 pm

Hands-on workshop:
Engage Your Students in the Live Online Classroom
Track: Other
Presenters: Sam Eneman

Related Material: Slides

Judicial

Soon you may be making the leap to teaching live online classes. Or maybe you have already begun. This workshop is for you! Your challenge is to engage your students when you don't have the usual visual clues in a face-to-face setting. In this session, you will learn valuable tips for facilitating successful sessions and managing the tools in your Synchronous Learning Management System (Centra, Elluminate, etc.). You will also experience activities you can take back to your online classroom.

Advance registration for workshops is not required; however, seating is limited and is on a first-come basis.

Wednesday, 1:40 pm to 2:30 pm

Formal presentation:
Leveraging LMS Data for Strategic Campus Support
Track: Distance Education
Presenters: Stacy Smith, Charlie Morris

Related Material: Slides

Capital Ballroom G

This session demonstrates how the faculty support team at North Carolina State University uses reporting data from Blackboard Vista to effectively plan outreach and support activities. We will highlight specific initiatives and ask participants to share proactive support strategies that work on their campuses. To increase audience participation, interactive polls will be conducted throughout the session with hand-held "clickers."

Panel discussion:
Compare and Contrast: Assorted Experiences with Course Redesign
Track: TLT Pedagogy
Presenters: Hilarie Nickerson, Amy Martin, Anna Lee

Capital Ballroom A&B

As envisioned by the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT), institutions can improve student success, as well as enhance institutional efficiency and effectiveness, by maximizing learner engagement in classrooms and online. In this approach, whole courses are redesigned to emphasize active learning, to use technology to provide independent learning opportunities, and to offer ongoing interaction, assistance, and feedback to students. In this session, you’ll hear from panelists who have had a range of roles in the process of redesigning a course using the NCAT methodology.

Panel discussion:
Hybrid Course Development: How Far Can You Go and What Do You Need to Get There?
Track: TLT Pedagogy
Presenters: Diane Zablotsky, Paula Eckard, Oscar Lansen, Kay Starnes

Capital Ballroom E

This panel will address the process of developing hybrid courses with the goal of offering an entire minor in a hybrid format. The panel is comprised of a college administrator, program coordinator, and faculty who have developed and taught hybrid courses. Panel members will provide an overview of administrative factors, resources, team development, course creation, launching a course, and assessment. They will describe one model for utilizing multiple levels of university resources and the coordination involved in reshaping the format of course offerings. Their shared experiences will provide a dynamic format for exchanging ideas around developing hybrid courses and the pluses and minuses of offering multiple courses in the same program in that format. The panel will move beyond describing their work to showing examples from their classes that are successfully being presented in the hybrid format.

Formal presentation, sponsored by Cisco:
21st Century Learning Environment
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Dr. Tracey Wilen-Daugenti

Sandalwood

Next-generation Internet technologies, including Web 2.0, multimedia, virtual presence, gaming, and mobile devices, are transforming education. Join Dr. Wilen-Daugenti as she describes education institutions where learners access experts, lectures, content, courseware, collaborative dialogs, information exchanges, hands-on learning, and research - no matter where they are located. The 21st Century learning environment will remove barriers to learning and research - improving the quality of education.

Formal presentation:
A Nursing Theory Course Enters a New, Virtual World
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Lorraine Stanton, Sonya Hardin

Capital Ballroom C

Dr. Sonya R. Hardin, associate professor, School of Nursing, has collaborated with UNC Charlotte’s Faculty Center for Teaching and e-Learning to offer a virtual learning environment as a new teaching approach. Her graduate level nursing theory students used Second Life to submit and display an aesthetic art project based on Florence Nightingale’s theories of nursing, as well as for virtual class meetings. This presentation will spotlight the actual projects that the students created for Second Life, and explain the advantages and disadvantages of this innovative method over previous teaching methods. We will share the students’ subjective response to this project, which despite some challenges, was overwhelmingly favorable. The frustrations and successes that occurred during the process of adapting to this new technology will be discussed. Lastly, we will present some ideas for how the use of Second Life might be improved and even expanded for future semesters.

Formal presentation:
Establishing a K-20 E-Learning Infrastructure for North Carolina
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Bill Randall, Frank Prochaska

Capital Ballroom D

Since the NC e-Learning Commission was created in 2004, a very real focus has been established in North Carolina to provide e-learning resources for all learners. The NCCCS is developing a robust & integrated 21st Century e-learning infrastructure that offers students and instructors a new array of tools & resources. These include broadband connectivity, online learning objects & modules, collaboration tools, online help desk, staff development resources, and enhanced capacity to develop digital instructional content. This session will provide a status report on these, how they came to be, and how they will integrate to enhance instruction & learning across our System.

Formal presentation:
Nine Myths About Web Accessibility
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Jason Morningstar

Capital Ballroom F

“Making a web site accessible is complicated!” “We don’t have any blind students, so I don’t need to worry about accessibility!” “I run my pages through Bobby, so I’m covered!” “It’s not like there's a law or anything!” These myths—and five other equally silly notions—will be dispelled during this friendly introduction to the topic. Come with your questions and war stories about web accessibility.

Demonstration:
Assessment of Wiki Contributions Through Online Peer Review
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Edward Gehringer

Related Material: UNCTLT08.ppt

Boxwood

Wikis are becoming widely used in education. But assessment is a hurdle, due to the large amount of writing produced by the students. Several strategies are possible. With self-assessment, students write up summaries of their contributions and submit them to the instructor for evaluation. Group-based assessment has students work in groups and rate the contribution of each group member. Peer review provides a scalable solution, with each student reviewing a few other students' work. We will compare experiences using these strategies and demo our rubric-based online peer –review system, which has been used in several courses, ranging from computer science to Biblical studies. We will offer attendees the chance to participate in creating their own wiki page and reviewing others’ contributions to the wiki. However, attendees without laptops will be able to follow and learn from the presentation. Thus, it should be considered a participatory demonstration rather than a workshop.

Demonstration:
Taming Wild Wild Web 2.0: The Moodle Mixture
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Rachel Radom, Shane Baptista

Dogwood

At the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, Shane Baptista, computing consultant, Center for Teaching Excellence, and Rachel Radom, instructional services librarian, Randall Library, collaborate to incorporate the open source course management software (CMS) Moodle into a three-credit hour, 100-level information literacy course. The instructor uses Moodle not only as a tool for course management, communication, and reflection, but also as a virtual learning object with which students comprehend and utilize a variety of Web 2.0 technologies in a single environment. The strength of the open source model, which allows for uncomplicated and evolving integration of Web 2.0 tools into the CMS, will be discussed. In particular, students' experiences creating content in Moodle will be compared to and contrasted with their content-generating experiences using blogs in a proprietary environment. Included will be observations on teaching and learning with blogs and Moodle as well as the unique benefits and limitations of Moodle.

Wednesday, 2:40 pm to 3:10 pm

Formal presentation:
What Technologies Are They Using?
Track: Research
Presenters: Karen Smith-Gratto, Barbra Mosley, Alecia Jones

Capital Ballroom A&B

Before investing extensive time into the development of materials and activities using various technologies, it is essential to determine what the student population uses. We designed a survey that provides information that could contribute to this decision-making process and save resources. Data types included: demographic data; types of technology; and frequency of type use. Three hundred-two participants ranged in age from eighteen to fifty-nine. Demographic data included: gender; academic level; age; and race. There were seventeen items about frequency of use of different technologies, which included both hardware items and Web-based applications such as instant messaging, and seventeen items that asked participants to indicate if they had used the technologies for personal, work, school, or other purposes. Descriptive data was used to examine the survey results. Due to interest during the presentation of partial data last year, we will distribute a copy of the survey.

Formal presentation:
The UNC-System Collaborative Pilot Institutional Repository
Track: Libraries
Presenters: Tim Bucknall

Capital Ballroom G

The traditional scholarly communication model is somewhat strange. Universities pay their faculty to conduct research. The results of that research are often given away for free to commercial publishers, who then charge increasingly exorbitant sums to sell that same information back to the universities in the form of academic journal subscriptions. But could outrageous journal price increases continue if faculty made their scholarly output freely available on their own institution's Web servers? Many universities are now experimenting with the concept of an institutional repository (which is intended to supplement and not replace peer review and formal publication). The libraries of UNCG, ECU, UNCP, UNCW, and Appalachian State are working together to develop software that will make much of their universities' scholarship readily and freely available to the global research community.

Formal presentation:
Being Transparent About The Skills We Are Building
Track: TLT Pedagogy
Presenters: Cristine Clarke, Ed. D.

Related Material: Using Technology to Enhance Critical Thinking

Sandalwood

The oddest thing about teaching honors psychology is that I don’t really teach psychology! The theories of Freud, Jung, and Skinner are a platform to teach critical thinking skills that students will need in life and learning. According to Malcolm Knowles’ Adult Education Theory adult learners respond best when they can apply their knowledge immediately. According to Rodger, et al. (2006) today’s students are evolving into these types of learners as a result of their complex multitasking relationship with technology. So the challenge is to move from a framework of text driven, single task, lecture based teaching to multimedia, multitasking problem solving. One way to do this is to connect the course content to skills our students want and need. In this session you will learn how being transparent about the skills your course builds will assist you in capturing student interest and motivation and improve outcomes.

Formal presentation:
Exploring the Role of Web 2.0 Technologies in Higher Education
Track: TLT Pedagogy
Presenters: Richard Hartshorne, Haya Ajjan

Capital Ballroom D

While students today are immersed in a culture of cell phones, text messaging, YouTube, wikis, social networks, and other Web 2.0 applications, faculty still have not made the switch to these emerging technologies and use course Web sites and e-mail as their predominant means of connecting with their students. Are faculty members missing out on the opportunity to better connect with their students by not utilizing the Web 2.0 tools available today? What are student perceptions of the role and benefits of Web 2.0 technologies to supplement in-class learning. This presentation will examine the results of two studies assessing faculty’s awareness of the pedagogical benefits of Web 2.0 tools, factors that influence faculty’s decisions to adopt these tools, and student perceptions of the role and benefits of Web 2.0 technologies as instructional tools. Additionally, this presentation will discuss “best practices” utilizing Web 2.0 technologies in higher education.

Formal presentation:
OpenSeminar in Research Ethics: Improving the Effectiveness of Pedagogy by Combining Technologies
Track: TLT Pedagogy
Presenters: David Edelman, Gary Comstock

Capital Ballroom F

Traditional pedagogical approaches to the teaching of research ethics have been shown to be ineffective in providing students with a means of dealing with ethical issues they encounter after graduation. Our approach is to combine two technologies to form a comprehensive teaching system, the OpenSeminar in Research Ethics. An interactive open-source online course covering major ethical topics is combined with an online community where students can establish relationships with faculty and peer mentors and discuss research ethics issues. The community encourages students to form active, long-lasting collaborations and see themselves as part of the larger research community. Students are encouraged to post photographs, make "friends" lists, and chat both one-on-one and in group discussions of research ethics issues. This presentation, which will include a demo, would be of interest to any college-level instructors who are open to augmentation of standard classroom pedagogic methods with community-forming techniques.

Formal presentation:
Transformational Leaders:Utilizing Technology Enhanced Learning to Improve Outcomes in Science Education for NC Teachers
Track: TLT Pedagogy
Presenters: Gail Hollowell, Cassandra Palmer, John McLean, Olubukola Banjoko

Grand Ballroom 2

The purpose of this study is to identify the professional development needs of teachers involved in the Technology Enhanced Learning in Science (TELS) Program. These teachers are perceived as leaders in the science educational area by their counterparts and their principals. This presentation will concentrate on principles of science teachers regarding their expressed needs for implementing technology and inquiry based learning techniques into their classrooms. This research will address the following questions: (1) what are the barriers to technology-rich inquiry pedagogy in urban science classrooms, (2) what kinds of programs and support structures allow these barriers to be overcome, and (3) are selected demographic variables of teacher leaders related to the transformational leadership behaviors of TELS teacher leaders? Findings from this study may lead to a new framework for supporting teachers and principals in designing professional development for teachers that promotes the increased integration of educational technology and inquiry methods in science classrooms.

Formal presentation: An Open-Source Collaborative: The Moodle Project Track: TLT Tools Presenters: Lori Mathis	Capital Ballroom E
The University of North Carolina and North Carolina Community Colleges are planning central Moodle services housed at MCNC. Current services planned include hosting, training, and integration with Datatel and Banner.

Formal presentation:
Student Tablet PCs: Laptops with a Twist
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Kathleen Kyzer

Capital Ballroom C

The tablet PC is an example of a technology that is in early stages of adoption. It appears to have great potential for some courses and disciplines, but there are still a number of questions regarding its widespread adoption. Two groups at UNC Chapel Hill, Student Government and Information Technology Services, have partnered to explore, document, and assess the efficacy and value of tablet PC technology as a learning tool. Twenty-five students, representing a wide range of majors and grade levels received the loan of a Tablet PC for the academic year and were asked to integrate it into their student life. This presentation will focus on strategy for selecting participating students, crafting appropriate orientation and training option, building a community of interest, developing an assessment model for the pilot, and student feedback.

Demonstration:
DATA (Democratic Assessment Technology Approach)
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Chet Dilday

Boxwood

DATA (Democratic Assessment Technology Approach) is an assessment system that uses so-called Web 2.0 technologies such as social networking to construct effective assessment procedures for teaching methodologies. The main components of the DATA system include: 1. A wiki type Internet site for posting, finding, and downloading teaching resource modules. 2. A centralized database for storage of assessment data on the modules. 3. Use of desktop, laptop, PDA, and especially smart phones to enter the assessment data from the classroom or internship sites. The “Democratic” part of the title of the system refers to the social networking aspect of presenting the teaching resources and the availability of the assessment database information to all stakeholders. A demonstration of a working prototype of some of the components will be shown during the presentation. Audience interaction through their laptops or smart phones with the prototype will be encouraged.

Demonstration:
Stream...Cast....Blog? Fishing for New Ways to Feed Your Digital Content
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Neil Torda, Phillip Garrison

Dogwood

Faculty and training professionals have many different options for delivering digital content to end users, such as streaming, progressive download, or podcasting. In the past, each of these delivery methods has operated as an island of digital storage. Once people learned how to get to one of the islands, they were reluctant to try new methodologies. The faculty center at our university began to research ways to bridge those islands, allowing for a central repository of digital content. This presentation will describe how this new, easy to use system allows faculty to feed their content into multiple delivery streams without having to upload their files to multiple servers.

Wednesday, 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm

Hands-on workshop:
Second Life: Real Teaching and Learning in a Virtual World
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Anthony Curtis, Lynda Aiman-Smith, Lorraine Stanton, Arthur Taylor, Cris Crissman, Claudia Kimbrough, Tony ODriscoll, Robert Orr, Judith Curtis, Ed Damman, Kathleen Kyzer, Angelia Taylor, Christian Felkl

Related Material: Second Life Machinima

Judicial

Team of twelve experienced university faculty and two undergraduates offers a strong and deep introduction to what Second Life is and focuses in depth through extensive experience and subject matter expertise on how and why SL applies to real-life higher education and libraries. Many examples will be shown and explained. A general overview for teaching and learning with expertise in best practices for use of SL for educational purposes including individual and collaborative course instruction, degree program delivery, library reference and research, administrative procedures and concerns, etc. Assumes audience has little to no familiarity with this virtual world where more than 100 colleges and universities, plus numerous university libraries and public library systems, operate facilities. The audience will travel in SL for hands-on observation that will reveal the virtual world in general, then move through North Carolina campuses to other in-world universities and other relevant places in SL. After the presentation, the team will offer a follow-up panel discussion.

Advance registration for workshops is not required; however, seating is limited and is on a first-come basis.

Wednesday, 4:30 pm to 5:20 pm

Demonstration:
Simple Media Creation for Librarians
Track: Libraries
Presenters: Michael Alewine, Cynthia Saylor

Boxwood

This session will present the basic use of a few media applications, such as Audacity (free), Microsoft Photo Story (free), and Camtasia (not so free). We will present examples of how UNC Pembroke’s Mary Livermore Library makes use of these products for informational podcasts, marketing and community service videos, and information literacy guides and tutorials. We will spend at least half of the session demonstrating the basic functionality of each tool. The session will be fun and interactive. We will also provide useful guides and handouts for participants.

Formal presentation:
Digital Media: How Is It Changing Learning?
Track: Distance Education
Presenters: Emily Castleberry

Capital Ballroom E

A digital forum to combine virtual and face-to-face cross cultural experiences among students in programs such as Teach for America, the Peace Corps, and study abroad programs through a Second Life "homesite". Let’s imagine the possibilities together!

Formal presentation: Promoting and Ensuring Online Quality Track: Distance Education Presenters: Laura Rogers, Candace Ring	Capital Ballroom C
This session will summarize NCCCS's and UNC's current efforts to promote and ensure quality in all online programs and courses. The second half of this presentation will be a roundtable discussion with the audience on additional ways the two systems can enhance quality in all online offerings.

Formal presentation, sponsored by Sonic Foundry:
Rich Media—Expanding Your Reach in Higher Education
Track: Distance Education
Presenters: Matthew McCurdy, Shane Conant

Sandalwood

The advent of automatic classroom-to-Web recording technology has dramatically increased the effectiveness and reach of professors and educational institutions. Through the use of multimedia classrooms, knowledge can be shared with a worldwide audience of students regardless of geographical barriers. This presentation examines the effectiveness of new technologies, including Mediasite by Sonic Foundry, both in reaching larger audiences as well as improving student outcomes.

Formal presentation:
ThinkLink: UNC System-Wide Jam on Quality of Online Instruction
Track: Distance Education
Presenters: Dr. John DuVall, Matthew Powell, Margaret Ohara, Biwu Yang, Chris Weaver

Capital Ballroom G

An online ThinkLink, reinventing the concept of JAMS offered worldwide by IBM Corporation, was conducted by the Office of Academic Outreach at East Carolina University on April 18th and 19th, 2007. The event was co-sponsored by the UNC GA Office of the President, and the University of North Carolina Teaching and Learning with Technology Collaborative. Letters of support were provided by UNC System Provosts. 397 faculty/staff from the UNC System universities participated in active dialogue on three threads: (1) Support Needed to Teach Quality DE Courses, (2) Ingredients Necessary for Quality in DE Courses, and (3) Assessment of Quality in DE Courses. Faculty, staff, and graduate student facilitators were responsible for keeping the discussions on topic. Seventeen faculty/staff members served as Text Analysts. Data was analyzed by Technology Advancement Center and affiliates and used to generate 52 individual text analysis reports. Text analysis software was used to refine summary reports.

Formal presentation:
3D Virtual Laboratories: Getting Serious about Designing Games for Online Education
Track: TLT Pedagogy
Presenters: Amanda Robertson, Mike Cuales, Ben Huckaby, Brian Lee, David Shew

Capital Ballroom D

How do you effectively engage students in the lab experience in an online science course? This question is recurring for most science faculty who teach online. In this session we will demonstrate one solution: a 3D virtual game that simulates an active laboratory. Students use multiple lab stations and a digital notebook to record their observations, form a hypothesis, perform tests, and document their experience. We'll show how you can design and include a data-mining system to track user experience and assess both instructional and multimedia value. We’ll also share the secrets of getting a project like this off the ground, what resources are needed, and why we believe games like this one offer one of the best solutions to learning lab material online. At the end, we’ll facilitate a discussion to see what works for you in teaching labs online.

Formal presentation:
Demonstration of the North Carolina Learning Object Repository (NCLOR)
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Bill Randall, Lori Mathis

Capital Ballroom A&B

The NCLOR is a reality and will be demonstrated in this presentation by two of the four “Team Leaders” responsible for creating this digital content repository. This presentation will showcase how the NCLOR will enable community college and university faculty and staff to catalogue, search, access, and share digitized learning/teaching content. Functionality of the NCLOR will be demonstrated by independent use and access through course management systems.

Formal presentation:
Meeting the Challenges of Teaching Geological Sciences via Distance Education
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Lloyd Mitchell, Francisco San Juan, Thomas Rossbach

Grand Ballroom 1

There are a variety of challenges inherent in teaching geological science via distance education. Challenges such as how best to incorporate laboratory components are further enhanced when teaching rural and minority populations. Working together as a team, geology educators at Elizabeth City State University, an historically black college, have developed three different curriculum design approaches to meet these challenges. Utilizing descriptive text, images, and data of real time Earth events, a variety of static and motion images of Earth structures, materials, and geologic processes, geology faculty created innovative approaches that address these challenges while incorporating an understanding of rural and minority population needs.

Formal presentation:
Wearable e-Learning System
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Jayfus Doswell

Grand Ballroom 2

Mobile Augmented Reality Systems (MARS) have the potential to provide continuous and autonomous instruction to human learners anytime, anyplace, and at any pace. MARS-based learning provides the advantage of a natural human-computer interface, flexible mobility, and context-aware instruction allowing learners to develop psychomotor skills while interacting with their natural environment with augmented perceptual cues. These perceptual cues combining multi-modal animation, graphics, text, video, and voice along with empirical instructional techniques can elegantly orchestrate a mobile instructional tool. The challenge, however, is building a MARS-based instructional tool with capabilities for adapting to various learning environments ranging from traditional schools and outdoor learning environments to the workplace. The paper will discusses a novel mobile augmented reality architecture to implement advanced wearable e-learning applications to deliver personalized instruction.

Demonstration:
Adapting Web Applications for Usability and Accessibility in the Classroom
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Greg Kraus

Dogwood

New and exciting applications appear on the Web on a daily basis. Sometimes they are usable; often they are inaccessible. How do we incorporate these new applications into curricula when they might be difficult for faculty to learn, and how do we make sure they meet accessibility requirements? Creating small Web applications that utilize publicly available API’s to interface with existing applications can often serve as a bridge for both usability and accessibility. This presentation will demonstrate how we transformed MIT’s Timeline software into a multi-user collaborative environment that is easy to use and accessible to everyone. We will show practices for transforming inaccessible data from applications into new accessible formats by using applications’ APIs. We will discuss high level concepts of these practices rather than using technical jargon. The source code for these projects will also be made available. A laptop with wireless connectivity is optional, but recommended.

Wednesday, 5:30 pm to 6:00 pm

Formal presentation:
Mixing Classroom Instruction with Elluminated CFL (Chinese as a Foreign Language) Learning
Track: Research
Presenters: Li Jin

Capital Ballroom G

This paper reports on a project investigating the effectiveness of integrating online teaching supported by the use of a synchronous instruction software—Elluminate—into face-to-face Mandarin classes at different levels. In the presentation, both qualitative and quantitative data will be presented to illustrate how Elluminated CFL classes—designed to complement as well as substitute for regular face-to-face CFL classes—were offered simultaneously on campuses in North Carolina and in China. The classes were offered at the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels. Students’ learning results, as well as a detailed discussion of advantages and disadvantages of using Elluminate in a foreign language class, will be presented. Participants of the presentation will be invited to try Elluminate during the presentation.

Formal presentation:
Considering the e-Book: A Library-CIT Investigation of the Sony Reader
Track: Libraries
Presenters: Randy Riddle

Capital Ballroom C

In the spring of 2007, the Duke CIT and Duke University Libraries cooperated on an internal investigation of the Sony Reader, a new portable device for reading e-books. This presentation will look at the effort as a model of cooperative efforts among staff in different campus units to investigate emerging technologies. The investigation considered viewpoints from a number of perspectives to spark interest, discussion, and debate and better inform possible later trials of programs and services with the larger campus community. The goals and methodology of the investigation will be presented, along with information about the outcomes and how they provide a "blueprint" for testing the Sony Reader and similar devices with faculty, students, and patrons.

Formal presentation:
A Support Strategy for Blackboard Vista Instructors
Track: Distance Education
Presenters: Patricia Gonzalez-McQuiston, Sheri Anderson

Capital Ballroom F

The purpose of this presentation is to share a strategy that UNC Wilmington has developed to address the need for technical and instructional support for faculty. At UNCW, e-Learning Support Specialists have to provide technical assistance as well as course design and development. A special HELP section was given to faculty members to give them direct access to support resources without having to call and wait for a response from the campus help desk. The HELP section began in the fall semester 2007 and includes a growing number of faculty members. It addresses common issues when using the Blackboard Vista Course Management System as well as instructional design tips and resources. The Technology Enhanced Learning Department is evaluating the use of the section and the quality of the resources available. Surveys and evaluations are being conducted to make improvements to the HELP section. As improvements are made and more faculty members are given access to the section, we hope to reduce the number of obstacles instructors face when using technology to enhance instruction.

Formal presentation:
Inquiry-Based Learning with Limited Instructional Time
Track: TLT Pedagogy
Presenters: Gail Hollowell

Capital Ballroom D

Currently North Carolina teachers have either four or five forty-five-minute blocks, or two ninety-minute blocks to cover material as designated by the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. This research study addresses why it was necessary to revise a Technology Enhanced Learning in Science (TELS) Mitosis and Meiosis module to adapt to limited instructional time. The two main guiding questions were: (1) how can the mitosis and meiosis module engage students in a more meaningful way to learn and value the cellular reproductive processes and (2) how can more inquiry and modeling be incorporated in the module considering this limited instructional time? Based on teacher feedback, revisions were made to the module that should allow students to better integrate their knowledge about these cellular processes. The TELS Center, a research consortium supported by the National Science Foundation studies how instructional technology can benefit teaching and learning in science and how instructional technology can improve science education for students in grades six through twelve.

Formal presentation:
Learning Outcomes in a Server-Virtualization Computing Environment: Self-Efficacy, Student Attitudes, and Beliefs
Track: TLT Pedagogy
Presenters: Brian Bouterse, Jennifer Forrester, Sammie Carter

Capital Ballroom A&B

This paper presents a teaching paradigm coupled with qualitative and quantitative learning outcomes from a higher-education course taught at North Carolina State University in the fall of 2007. Our method describes an approach to delivering each student his or her own computing environment enabled through a technology called virtualization. When teaching includes interaction with computers, our computing delivery platform empowers instructors to better serve their student’s computing needs both simply and with minimal strain on computing infrastructure. Providing students seamless access to computing resources creates a rich opportunity for constructivist and socio-cultural learning; our study measures the impact of such an environment. Through this study, the Friday Institute’s multi-disciplinary research team ensures both the technology component and student learning outcomes are addressed adequately.

Formal presentation:
Social Networking as an Instructional Tool
Track: TLT Pedagogy
Presenters: Todd Nicolet

Grand Ballroom 2

The use of social networking tools has grown over the last couple of years with sites and services like MySpace, Flickr, and de.licio.us, and instructors and administrators have begun to investigate what role these tools could play in higher education. This presentation will address the challenge of clearly defining what does and does not constitute social networking, assess research that investigates the effectiveness of social networking tools used as part of instruction, and synthesize current opinions on the promise of social networking and its expected future use within higher education. Finally, we will review how the promise and reality of social networking technologies have impacted the strategy and use of instructional technologies at the UNC School of Government. Participants will have the opportunity to see and interact with a wiki related to the presentation.

Demonstration:
Buiding a Grassroots Interdisciplinary Program: GISc at NC State
Track: TLT Pedagogy
Presenters: Hugh Devine, Jefferson Essic, Greg Robinson, Alan Gerber

Dogwood

We have developed a graduate program with no department and no permanent faculty or administration that supports more than 100 students per semester. The Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Science and its corresponding Technical Option in several master’s degree programs is a collaboration of thirty faculty from twenty departments ranging from civil engineering to communication. The program relies heavily on centrally supported software access via the campus initiative in virtual computing and on data availability through the NCSU Libraries GIS services. Students can employ very sophisticated analysis procedures and large data sets in exploring spatial relationships without having to journey to a laboratory or library facility. In addition, with appropriate wireless access any classroom becomes a GIS learning space. This session will highlight first the administrative successes and failures in instituting a grassroots interdisciplinary program and then display the use of the VCL and library data services in GIS instruction.

Formal presentation, sponsored by Optimized Learning, Inc.:
Moodle, Sakai, uPortal, Open Source Portfolio, Open Source Email
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: W. Butch Porter

Sandalwood

Sounds so promising but what are the differences, similarities, and how can I get started? Will these solutions work for me and my campus or are they just more of the same old headaches? At the 2008 TLTC Conference Optimized Learning Inc. (OLi) will be sharing with the attendees our LMS open source pilot to production offerings. At OLi, we are hosting Sakai and Moodle side by side, delivering consulting services on the parallel features as well as differences, and making available documentation around LDAP integration, system administration and faculty training, integration with the new statewide Learning Object Repository, and providing Open Source Portfolio Best Practices. We will also be sharing with the attendees information on our content conversion tools. Our goal is to provide you with a sampling of our solutions so that you can decide if a pilot program is right for your campus. OLi’s solutions are turnkey:software, consulting, hosting and training. See why such schools as Oregon Health, Abilene Christian, UC Santa Cruz, Foothill ETUDES and the UNC TLTC organization have selected OLi as their open source partner. OLi is a North Carolina Company. (919)521-5443

Demonstration:
Using Google Earth for Teaching and Learning
Track: TLT Tools
Presenters: Shawn Miller, Andrea Novicki

Boxwood

Duke's Center for Instructional Technology (CIT) recently launched an initiative providing grants and support for faculty looking to explore new visualization technology in their courses. As a result, CIT collaborated with faculty and students on several projects involving Google Earth for teaching and for student-created content. We will use projects produced by Duke faculty and students to demonstrate various approaches to using Google Earth for teaching and learning.