Position responsibilities for Dr. Arifa Garman:
- Update Florida Shines website with Gulf Coast State College online courses Florida Shines
- Provide professional development for faculty
- Maintain Faculty Resources page Faculty Resources
- Provide best practices for engaging online learners
- Voki uses an avatar with your voice Voki
- Powtoon Powtoon
- Camtasia
- Snagit
- Google Docs
- Blackboard Collaborate
- She is the expert and faculty feel incompetent compared to her and sometimes unwilling to try new technology
- She must research and then learn how to use the technology
- Budget constraints
- Natural science division had low success rates in online science classes about 60% success Natural Sciences
- Trained faculty to add camtasia video/audio to courses
- Raised success rates to 90%
- Developed an online peer tutoring system
- Started strong with a lot of student usage
- After the 1st year usage began to fall
- System cancelled
- Look for early adopters among faculty and train them on new technology
- Have them train the other faculty
- Look for new technology
- new tablets coming out that integrate with smart phones
Thanks for the interview. It was very interesting.
ReplyDeleteThere's a theme that I've noted in these interviews - utilizing experienced technology users as a resource for the novice user. Your interviewee also mentioned encouraging the "early adopters" in their use of technology so that enthusiasm will spread to colleagues.
I also wrote down two or three of the programs mentioned. I am always listening for success stories. I am going to see if Voki or Camtasia will be helpful in my science classes. As mentioned in the interview, time is required to keep current with apps and software options. Sharing successful ideas with other learners and faculty is helpful for all.
Including the "failure" story was also beneficial. Those experiences are at least as important as the successful programs. Technology is helpful if the instructors and students are willing to use it.
B - good interview. The one thing I have pulled away from this class, specifically these interviews is the new technology that has been used for the presentation of interviews, and other media. Our students, yours and mine expect us to adapt to the changing academic world, and this means adapting to the use of technology. In short, if education does not meet the needs of learners within the context of their lives, they simply will not participate, or their participation and benefit from the endeavor will be minimal (Cox and King, 2011, p. 107). We have to create a classroom, in this case, most likely an online classroom that can appeal to the student, and not only draw them in, but keep them in.
ReplyDeleteSource
Cox, T.D. & King, K.P. (2011). The professor's guide to taming technology.Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Very interesting interview Barbara! I could almost hear the excitement in your interviewee's voice as she discussed the different technologies! I was particularly struck by her observation regarding SME's and the potential of the technology overwhelming them. I found I had a great deal of fear regarding some of the new technologies we were learning about and was almost overwhelmed myself! I did note some of the programs your subject mentioned. I hope to use her example and remember that everyone has to learn new technology and allow for a learning curve. The outline you provided was great as well. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteDr. Arifa Garman sounds like such a great resource! I wish I had her to be a mentor! It is a shame her colleagues feel intimidated by her knowledge of technology, though I can understand the need to “save face” and not appear incompetent. I think she has a good idea about training early adopters of technology and using them to train other faculty, it probably will help with the intimidation factor. I have faced a similar problem in my work. I am the department trainer and everyone views me as the “expert.” I’ve been there the longest, 5 years longer than the next person. I know I have so much knowledge and I don’t want to be intimidating either.
ReplyDeleteI put myself out there, so to speak and be in that “risky zone” that Dr. Garman described about feeling vulnerable and incompetent so that I can learn something worthwhile that I can use to train in the future. I have done it for so long now that I have no problems admitting when I don’t know something, but how do you instill that in others? We can face that when trying to integrate technology into our training or classrooms. If our learners are intimidated by the technology and won’t admit it, I think it is going to hinder their learning.