Volume I: Issue 2 October 2007

Fluency in Information Technology (FIT): Are We There Yet?

Anne H. Moore, Virginia Tech and Louis Fox, WCET

It’s no secret that being fluent in information technology has become essential to success in higher education. For over a decade, colleges and universities have been integrating technology into their teaching and learning. In tandem with widespread institutional support for new computers and software, many faculty have recognized the need to learn basic, contemporary computer skills and keep them current. Some faculty have become agents for transforming teaching and learning within their institutions, and have advocated change in their professional organizations to meet the need for technology-assisted learning and discovery. Others are actively driving change across academic community sectors and institutional boundaries, helping colleagues learn skills and advance concepts fundamental to fluency in information technology.

Is this enough? In 1999, the National Research Council (NRC) published the results of a two-year study of information technology literacy. The study was requested by the National Science Foundation (NSF) because the ubiquity of computing, information, and communications technologies in modern life calls for a better articulation of what everyone needs to know to be productive citizens.

Although the NRC’s Being Fluent with Information Technology report is eight years old, we still have much to learn, and apply, from its findings—especially the tendency to focus on skills when approaching technology literacy. According to the report, people need a complement of knowledge and related abilities to be “fluent in information technology” (FIT). The report describes FITness as a long-term process of self-expression, reformulation, and synthesis of knowledge in three realms:

“Contemporary skills, the ability to use today’s computer applications, enable people to apply information technology immediately…are an essential component of job readiness…[and] provide…practical experience on which to build new competence.

Foundational concepts, the principles and ideas of computers, networks, and information, underpin the technology…explain the how and why of information technology…give insight into its limitations and opportunities…[and] are the raw material for understanding new information technology as it evolves.

Intellectual capabilities, the ability to apply information technology in complex and sustained situations, encapsulate higher-level thinking in the context of information technology…empowers people to manipulate media to their advantage and to handle unintended and unexpected problems when they arise…[and] foster more abstract thinking about information and its manipulation.” (NRC, 1999, pp. 1-5)

Indeed, faculty have played a major role in advancing basic skills and foundational concepts—two of the three areas that the NRC says are required for getting FIT. But higher education needs greater emphasis on advancing the intellectual capabilities that the NRC says are most important to being FIT. According to the report, students should be able to “engage in sustained reasoning; manage complexity; test a solution; manage problems in faulty solutions; organize and navigate information structures and evaluate information; collaborate; communicate to other audiences; expect the unexpected; anticipate changing technologies; and think about information technology abstractly.” (NRC, p. 4)

The NRC report suggests goals for instruction that involve the educated use of information technology. It also offers an intellectual framework that can help distinguish between achievements (results of a particular time) and learning outcomes (results over time) when assessing what competencies students need. This proposed framework might also help differentiate among research (of teaching and learning theories), evaluation (of learning programs and processes), and assessment (of learning outcomes) as scholars and their audiences seek to show who and what measures up or makes the grade. Although the specific skills for each area change with the technology, the concepts are rooted in the basic information and abilities required to function in technology-enabled environments.

To make matters more complex, many of the broad goals for intellectual capabilities related to FIT apply across other disciplines. That is, in order to use discipline-specific digital information effectively, students must demonstrate not only FITness, but also information literacy related to the particular discipline they’re pursuing. What does it take to determine whether students have acquired the intellectual capabilities for FITness in the context of other technology-enabled disciplines? We must, for example, ask what achievements look like in sustained reasoning while considering what kind of technological fluency might be brought to bear to demonstrate sustained reasoning in that discipline. In this interdisciplinary iteration of FITness, discipline-specific information and technology tools are obviously joined. They come together as interacting variables in the same teaching and learning plane; students must have information literacy in a discipline and be FIT in order to use information technology effectively. (NRC, pp. 48-49)This means that higher education must set goals for both, and must design assessments to measure student success in realizing them.

Demonstrating fluency in information technology and competence in a chosen discipline at the same time will not be an inconsequential task for higher education; this long-term, thoughtful work involves comprehensive development programs for faculty, students and institutions in order to be successful. Fortunately, the NRC report may provide a useful framework to separate approaches to technology-enabled teaching and learning according to the three general categories identified. Using “basic skills,” “foundational concepts,” and “intellectual capabilities” as broad rubrics may help differentiate types of development programs—and companion assessments of their efficacy. It may also help sort through the myths and realities of technology-enabled teaching and learning efforts. Finally, it may lead to a recognized set of practices that benefit learning for faculty and students in technology-enabled environments—environments that are, increasingly, important to success in learning and in life.

Note: A free online version of Being Fluent with Information Technology is available from the National Academies Press website (http://www.nap.edu/)

MEMBER FEATURE:
Louisiana Community College Improves Online Student Services

By Luke Dowden, Director of the Center for Learning Assistance

Bossier Parish Community College

Bossier Parish Community College (BPCC) is located in Bossier City, Louisiana, a part of the Shreveport-Bossier City urban center of Northwest Louisiana. This fall, the College enrolled more than 4,900 students, the largest enrollment in its 40-year history as a community college.

In August 2006, I joined the staff at Bossier Parish Community College as the new director of the Center for Learning Assistance. I recognized the need to improve online student services at the College after speaking with several of my new administrative colleagues, but did not know where to start. As a result of some research, however, I discovered a WCET model for organizing a “vision team” charged with improving online student services. This model, Beyond the Administrative Core outlined at http://www.wcet.info/services/studentservices/beyond/, provides a step-by-step approach for colleges to begin the dialogue for improving online student services.

Administrators, student service staff and students participated in our campus “vision team“ which immediately focused on the need to conduct a self-study of its online student services with a specific interest in using the audit services offered through WCET’s Center for Transforming Student Services (CENTSS). With a grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents SELECT grant program, BPCC contracted with CENTSS to conduct an independent audit of 11 online student services areas. CENTSS consultants interviewed members of the vision team, student services departments, and computer services. The consultants were provided access to BPCC’s web infrastructure as guest students.

In May 2007, BPCC’s vision team received the final report, a comprehensive snapshot of how the college was serving students online. The CENTSS audit concluded that BPCC’s website did not adequately represent the true community attitude present in staff interviews. Moreover, the College learned that many student services areas had not evolved to the interactive levels desired by current students. Two major benefits emerged from the independent audit: (a) an independent voice to question the current website organization and (b) individual targeted reports for each of the 11 services areas with recommendations for short-term and long-term improvements.

Vice Chancellor Karen Recchia notes that directors within the Division of Student Services gained a better sense of their individual departments’ image on the web. This realization stimulated planning on improving the site and converting it to a more customer-centered approach. “To the Student Services Division, image plays a major role in providing excellent customer service to our students and to our community,” said the Vice Chancellor. “Because of the recommendations of the CENTSS audit, the members of the Student Services Division have begun to work diligently to improve our websites in order to reach the interactive levels desired by today’s technologically advanced students. We appreciate and value the work done by CENTSS consultants. We will continue to use and to implement these recommendations to improve our online student services.”

Kathleen Gay, director of Educational Technology and Co-leader on the grant, echoed similar sentiments, “Through the CENTSS audit, the Division of Educational Technology has made several improvements to our presence on the web. Access to our site will now be more user-friendly and interactive for our students who are technologically advanced. We have also created an online version of our student orientation for online courses that allows for more flexibility for our adult students who are working and taking care of family obligations. I think this whole process has enabled all of us to realize the importance of working together as a team in order to provide our students with the best possible college experience that we can give them.”

The CENTSS audit could have easily been an academic exercise, serving no real purpose, yet, it produced some solid results. BPCC Website Manager Eddy Smith summarizes the results best, “I am enjoying the challenge to improve the site and make it more student-friendly by providing easy-to-find information links and incorporating World Wide Web Consortium (WC3) standards for accessibility.”

The Center for Transforming Student Services (CENTSS) is a joint project of WCET, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, and Seward Inc. CENTSS is located at www.centss.org.

WOW Award Honors Five for Outstanding Use of Educational Technology

The WCET Awards Committee recently named five new recipients of its WCET Outstanding Work (WOW) Award. “The WOW Award represents a way to recognize and celebrate the best and most promising practices within the WCET community,” said Paul Wasko, WCET Awards Committee chair and assistant director for e-learning services for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.

Recipients of the 2007 award are:

· Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium: A Multi-state Collaborative eTutoring Program. Currently meeting the online tutoring needs of 34 institutions of higher education, CTDLC’s eTutoring facilitates the sharing of institutions' tutors on one schedule via one platform that is accessed by all institutions' students. This process enables these colleges to offer their students online tutoring services in a variety of disciplines, 7 days a week. Contact: Carolyn Rogers, crogers@ctdlc.org.

· American Academy McAllister Institute (AAMI) of Funeral Service: The Online College for Funeral Service Education. Seeking to meet a large national unmet need, AAMI decided to launch a comprehensive, fully online degree program in funeral service. Starting from scratch, AAMI rallied its faculty, sought contracted advice, and offered all its courses online (except for a clinical capstone experience) in less than one year. Contact: Regina T. Smith, rtsmith@funeraleducation.org.

· Kansas State University: ExpanSIS- A Multi-institutional Student Information System. Developed by K-State’s Institute for Academic Alliances and Office of Mediated Education, this service meets the needs of consortia in which students register at their local institution for courses taught by a partner institution. ExpanSIS is a secure, web-based system that facilitates the exchange of course and student information among partnering institutions. Contact: Debra Wood, dwood@ksu.edu.

· Minnesota Online: Support Center. Created by agencies interested in fostering student- and customer-centered services, the Support Center meets the needs of high school students, college students, active-duty military, and veterans throughout the state and throughout the world. Users may search online FAQs, ask questions online, obtain help through online chats, or call for assistance. Contact: Teresa Theisen, teresa.theisen@minnesota.edu.

· Rio Salado College: Online Teacher Education Program “Virtual Practicum” Experience. Through professionally developed videos, students learn about classroom situations that that they might not encounter through their normal practicum or student-teaching experience. The Virtual Practicums are created by master teachers in areas that students find difficult, such as phonics, classroom management, structured English immersion, and special education. Contact: Janet Johnson, janet.johnson@riosalado.edu.

WOW Award recipients will be honored at the WCET Annual Conference. Along with some returning WOW recipients from recent years, they will present more details on their innovative programs.

WCET Annual Conference Set for Atlanta on November 7

Join us for WCET's 19th annual conference, all set to be this year's premier professional development event in e-learning. It will be held November 7-10 at the four-diamond Omni Hotel at the CNN Center in downtown Atlanta.

This year’s planning committee pulled out all the stops to design a program absolutely packed with e-learning's most pressing and intriguing topics by many of the field's most creative thinkers and innovators. Featuring more than 50 breakout sessions and inspirational general session speakers, you’ll be hard pressed to decide which ones to attend. Speakers such as...

• Christine Farris, a professor at Spelman College and Martin Luther King's only

sister, will address the theme Making Good on the Promises

• Peter Smith, former ADG/ED for UNESCO will address how technology is

transforming education around the world. (We are especially pleased to have a

large delegation from China attending the conference on Friday.)

• As a college president in both the U.S. and Canada, Richard Skinner has been a

visionary who guided both institutions to leadership positions in the use of learning

technologies to serve both traditional and distance students. Now with the Association

of Governing Boards, Skinner will outline his inspirational vision of the 21st Century as

the Age of Learning - where continual learning is the central driver of the economic

engine.

• Kay Gilcher, from the Office of Post Secondary Education at the U.S. Department

of Education; Steve Crow from the Higher Learning Commission; Belle Wheelan

from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools; Marshall Hill from

Nebraska's Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education; and Alan Mabe

from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will jointly address the topic of

supporting and evaluating e-learning quality.

We’ll be right across the street from Centennial Olympic Park, the world’s largest aquarium, the recently opened New World of Coke, and CNN's studios. Check out the optional pre-conference workshops, the pre-conference tour of CNN studios and the post-conference tour of Atlanta, too!

To register for the conference, go to http://conference.wcet.info/2007/. The Omni Hotel is now SOLD OUT! Due to another conference in Atlanta, additional hotel rooms are limited. WCET has secured rooms at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel, but only until the block is depleted or October 15^th, whichever occurs first. Register online or call 1-800-325-3535 and request the WCET room block to receive the special group rate of $169.00. As this situation is changing, be sure to check the WCET conference website for additional updates.

Clustering: A New Way to Look at Online Search Results

By Nina McHale, Assistant Professor, Web Librarian

Auraria Library, Denver, Colorado

In the beginning, results were sorted by date. A researcher could arrange the hits retrieved in an online search in either chronological or reverse chronological order. A handy feature, but limited in its ability to tell the researcher which results were best suited to his or her needs.

Next came relevance ranking: a search engine, library catalog, or online database could detect for a researcher which items would be most useful based simply on the keyword(s) used to search. Relevance was a score given to items in a list of results based on how many times the researcher’s keywords appeared in it—the higher the incidence of the keywords, the more relevant an item was presumed to be. This simple term count, however, has proved largely unsatisfactory in practice.

Clustering, a third option for the display of online search results, has been steadily gaining ground in the world of online information. Rather than focusing on ordering a list of documents, as date sorting and relevance ranking do, clustering actively aids the researcher in the search process.

Researchers of all levels of ability often begin searching on a topic new to them with an overly broad keyword search, such as “terrorism.” A search on “terrorism” in a resource that clusters results might present a list of subtopics that includes “biological warfare,” “war on terror,” and “counter terrorism.” This allows a researcher to conceptualize a complex subject, and, if necessary, refine and narrow the search until a desired set of results—whether a list of books, articles, or websites—is achieved. Also, when results are displayed in clusters, the focus is on finding a group of related items, rather than just organizing the items in a list, as in date and relevance ranking. It can therefore speed the search process. This is certainly beneficial, as the number of online documents will only be increasing for the foreseeable future.

Some examples of Internet search engines that cluster results are Clusty, Grokker, Exalead, and Gigablast. The creators of Clusty and Grokker, companies Vivisimo and Groxis, are even making headway into libraryland by teaming with library product vendors to add clustered results to library search products. Grokker even takes the clustering concept a step further by providing a visual “map view” of search results in addition to a list of the subtopics. These smaller companies are using clustering results as leverage against search giant Google, whose patent-protected PageRank algorithm remains the exception to the rule when it comes to gauging the success of relevance ranking. See these clustering engines in action at the following URLs:

Clusty: www.clusty.com

Grokker: www.grokker.com

Exalead: www.exalead.com

Gigablast: www.gigablast.com

A New WCET Website Is Coming and It Will Be “Tagged”

By Russell Poulin, Associate Director, and

Paul Huntsberger, Web/Database Developer for WCET

“Where can I get more information?” and “Who can help me?” are two questions that are often asked of WCET members and staff. WCET will soon be unveiling a new web site with the goal of more easily answering those questions in mind.

How will we do it? By relying on “tags.”

Tagging is a way of categorizing information, so that it can later be searched in an almost endless number of ways. For those of us (shall we say) “more mature” folks, think of an index in a book. A page in a book may have several words in the index that lead you back to that page. For our more “tech savvy” crowd, if you have ever created a playlist in your personal media player, you have tagged information. A playlist is merely a tag that indicates what the songs have in common, such as the same artist, same genre of music (rock, country, hip hop, polka), or same mood (exercise music, romantic tunes, traveling music).

To assist in answering the “Where can I get more information?” question, each website page will include several tags to help you find it. Rather than trying to guess the structure of our web site, you’ll be able to choose from a list of tags that will more quickly get you to the information you are seeking.

To assist in answering the “Who can help me?” question, members will be encouraged to provide a list of tags describing their personal interests. Through the new community directory, members will be able to select an interest tag (such as “instructional design” or “pod casting”) to generate a list of others who share that interest. Of course, this will be voluntary, will be restricted to members, and will have some rules so that this privilege is not abused. We are a “cooperative,” and we will encourage you to participate and to help your fellow members.

Watch for more on the new website and our replacement for the WCET Online Community in the near future.