Full Panel
Panelists
Jacqueline Vickery (University of North Texas), Andrew D’Souza (Top Hat Monocle), Jeremy Hunsinger (Wilfrid Laurier University), Dennis York (York University)
Biographies
Jacqueline Vickery holds a Ph.D. in Media Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radio, Television, & Film at the University of North Texas. She conducts research on teens’ digital media practices as they intersect with issues such as digital equity, identity politics, digital literacy, privacy, informal learning, and school policies. Additionally, she is a 2012 MacArthur Foundation Digital Media & Learning Summer Research Fellow and has served as Managing Editor for the online journal FlowTV.org.
Andrew D’Souza is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Top Hat Monocle, a teaching platform leveraging mobile technology to significantly improve classroom engagement and learning outcomes. D’Souza’s articles on education technology have been published in Reuter’s Venture Capital Journal, Mashable and Business Insider.
Jeremy Hunsinger holds a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Tech. He is an Assistant Professor in Communication Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. His research agenda analyzes the transformations of knowledge in the modes of production in the information age.
Dennis York is a senior Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate Program of Education at York University. For the past two years, he has been involved in the evaluation of undergraduate blended courses at York University. His research interests include Web 2.0, emerging educational technologies, instructional design, e-learning, and the role of social media in facilitating teaching and learning in postsecondary education.
Panel Description
This panel brings together industry developers, researchers, and educators to discuss the transformation of technologies alongside the evolution of student skills and literacies in the 21st century college classroom. The style will be a structured conversation among panelist in which we draw from our research and experiences in order to critically discuss successes, failures, and strategies for using social and digital media in the classroom. At a time when traditional teaching methodologies and authority- driven academic knowledge is being threatened, learning shifts from “know the answer” to “know how to find the answer”. We are experiencing a change from teacher-as-expert to student-as-curator of their own personal learning networks. As such, college instructors, alongside technologies, must support critical, network, and social literacies as part of formal learning in order to prepare students for future careers and success. Additionally, as educators we should incorporate digital media tools that facilitate collaborative and participatory modes of learning, both in and out of the classroom.
We are at a critical juncture in which some educators are embracing new technologies in order to facilitate learning and literacies, while others are still attempting to prohibit and control the use of digital media in the classroom. The conversation will address practical issues of incorporating digital media as a tool for education, as well as provide an opportunity to critically discuss the possibilities and limitations of using social and digital media in the classroom. As we look to the future, students must develop the digital skills and literacies necessary to participate and thrive within their own social networks. As educators, it is our responsibility to guide and prepare students to be active, engaged, and responsible digital citizens.
Vickery incorporates blogs, wikis, and Twitter into the classroom as part of course requirements. She has found that Twitter bridges divides between formal and informal learning, facilitates engaged learning, and enables students to tap into and curate their own knowledge communities. At the same time, there are many challenges, including student resistance to the collaborative and participatory nature of 21st century learning. D’Souza demonstrates and explains how a web-based classroom response system can revolutionize student interaction and participation in large classes. He makes evident how new tools can foster collaborative and dynamic classroom experiences. Hunsinger is a strong supporter of student oriented learning experiences and advocates for the position that the problem with social media in the classroom is neither the technology, nor students’ use of technology, but it is a failure of classroom and learning experience design. He proposes an integrationist approach to resolving this conflict that seeks to unite student enthusiasms and practices with the learning and curriculum of the university course. York explores opportunities and challenges of integrating user-generated Web video into a new instructional model for university education designed to facilitate 21st century learning skills. In the proposed model, he suggests that instructors should give students freedom to select user created web video content that would provide context to their learning and help them better understand the course material and encourage them to engage in active and deep learning.
The structured conversation is both theoretical and practical – addressing questions that range from ―how can educators equip students with necessary and future digital literacies and skills‖ to ―what are innovative ways to incorporate social and digital media into educational curriculum‖? Together the panelists discuss and demonstrate how educators can foster collaborative, user-generated, and participatory modes of learning in the college classroom, while at the same time the panel addresses the challenges and complications that inevitably arise.