Redesigning a Communication Support System for Teachers 05/12/2000 Yasuhisa Kato Learning, Design, and Technology Master Project

2 Table of Contents Background –CASTL –KML –Workspace Learning Problems and Needs Design Principles Sneak Preview Future Work

3 CASTL Program The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Objectives –Foster learning for students –Enhance teaching –Share project work One year program for higher education, and two-year for K-12

4 Scholarship of Teaching (SoT) Three features –Being public (community property) –Open to critique and evaluation –Available for reuse Investigation of student learning

5 CASTL (Community I) Closed community Across the country Two face-to-face meetings a year –Including kick off face-to-face meeting 20 to 30 people Selected by their project proposal, not by their technological skill

6 CASTL (Community II) Wide variety of subject area –Chemistry, Mathematics, English, History –Business, Psychology, and Performing arts

7 KML The Knowledge Media Laboratory of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Functions –Developing online web-based communication tools, called the Workspace –Facilitating teachers to use a variety of media to present their investigation –Developing resources which promote the understanding and pursuit of the SoT. –Helping to build a larger network of teachers

8 Workspace For program participants and Carnegie staff Usage –Post and share project documents –Comments –Resources Component –A set of web-based communication tools –Online multimedia database Running from Jan. 1999

9 Workspace (Current system) Demonstration Scholar Workspace Listserv archive Program Documents, etc

10 What do they learn? Each participant has his/her own project. Different people have different goals. Each individual seeks to develop his/her her own scholarship of teaching and learning.

11 How do they learn? Self learning on campus Peer review –Face-to-face meeting –Direct or Telephone –Via the Workspace

12 Sample Project Prof. Stephen Chew Psychology, Samford University Using Examples in Teaching: Progress and General Reflection Focus on the use of examples in teaching. –What are the properties of a good example? –What is the best way to use examples in teaching? –What do students learn from examples?

13 Problems Participants do not actively post their project work and responses –Less posting, less feedback Why –Limitation of text only –No appropriate communication tool –Usability issues –Distrust of the new system/technology

14 Mailing list traffic (98)

15 Needs Establish a discourse –Profound discussion More feedback –Critical peer reviews Technical knowledge/skills –Advantages of tools Tools –Chat –Auto notification

16 Design Principles Media Richness –Text only  Multimedia Increase Interactivity Enhance Motivation Simple User Interface

17 Sneak Preview Development is in progress

18 Evaluation criteria Usefulness/Satisfaction –How helpful is the tool for the project work? Interaction –Frequency: Web access, Mailing list, etc. –Depth: analysis of mailing list, Posting Usability –What problems/difficulties? Needs assessment –What additional help/tool are needed?

19 User Testing Plan ObservationQuestionnaireTracking UsefulnessXX InteractionXX UsabilityXX NeedsXX

20 Schedule Implementation and System Integration (- 5/31) Initial setup and Data migration (6/1 – 6/11) CASTL meeting (6/12 – 6/23) –Orientation and Computer Lab Web survey (August or September) User Tracking (6/1 – 12/31) Evaluation & Redesign next version

21 Acknowledgement Professor Decker Walker Program coordinator Deborah Kim Carnegie Foundation Dr. Toru Iiyoshi Carnegie Foundation Dr. Tom Hatch LDTers

Thank you for your attention! Yasuhisa Kato

23 URLs The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: CASTL Program: rk/CASTL/castl.htm rk/CASTL/castl.htm Master project: