Text Chat Archives - FridayLive! April 11, 2008

  John Munro, Univ of Virgin Island:no blizzard here -- not even a dairy queen...

  John Munro, Univ of Virgin Island:really, I'm sorry!  Really.

  Charles Ansorge, University of Nebraska, Lincoln:Wow.  You were really dumped on.  We escaped the storm.  Got lucky.

  Charles Ansorge, University of Nebraska, Lincoln:We, too, are expecting mild conditions early next week.

  Charles Ansorge, University of Nebraska, Lincoln:I've did the sound wizzard.  I should probably check my mike, too.

  John Munro, Univ of Virgin Island:chuck, you're much higher level than lisa

  Sally Gilbert, TLT Group:Hey Karen - good to "see" you

  Karen Casto, Western Washington University:Thanks, Sally. Good to be here.

  Karen Casto, Western Washington University:Sounds good to me.

  Maureen Greenbaum, Union County College:but loudere than others

  Jennifer Mayes, Lake Land College:I agree. He's still louder.

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Nice slide, photo, & quote!

  Steve  Ehrmann:Steve, if you're talking, your mike isn't on'

  Maureen Greenbaum, Union County College 2:no sound

  Maureen Greenbaum, Union County College 2:yes

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Home base for this exploration:  http://www.tltgroup.org/strategies/SmallSteps.htm

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Very first discussion of TLT Roundtable:  11/11/94

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Home page for TLT Roundtable Resources:  http://www.tltgroup.org/tltr.htm

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Gopher - because that was U. of Minn mascot and that's where that forerunner of Web browsers originated!

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Again, Chuck is great example of "Compassionate Pioneer" - http://www.tltgroup.org/CompassionatePioneering.htm

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:for more info about LTAs:  http://www.tltgroup.org/ltas.htm

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:I think his self-introduction and his comments about his career path being helping others sounded to me like the very definition of a Compassionate Pioneer.

  Lisa Star, Tech Support, TLT Group:The LTA website is at - http://www.tltgroup.org/ltas.htm

  Lisa Star, Tech Support, TLT Group:The Collection is now at - http://tltgroup.wordpress.com/low-threshold-applications/

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Every LTA is intended to include the kind and amount of info that will enable a potential user to learn enough to get started in less than 30 minutes (often less than 10)

  Sally Gilbert, TLT Group:We welcome new LTAs at any time!

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:One of the purposes of Brief Hybrid Workshops is to provide a structure and format that can be used to introduce someone in less than 15 minutes or so to begin using an LTA

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Many LTAs at first seem to the person who begins to share the idea that it is too obvious or too simple to tell someone else about... but it often turns out that most other people do NOT know how to use or do the LTA!

  Lisa Star, Tech Support, TLT Group:I would really like to revive submissions and if anyone is interested in helping with this let me know!

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Is one of our 10 principles of the small steps is that it saves time (as well as of course the short time to learn/integrate)?

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:And I would especially like to encourage people to develop Brief Hybrid Workshops that focus on a particular LTA!

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Bonnie, don't forget to add that Principle comment when we get to the 10? Principles in a littel while.

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Will do!

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Yianna Vovides of Geo. Wash. U. has begun videorecording brief interviews with students to elicit suggestions for improving courses - esp. large scale courses!

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Peter Felten of Elon University has spent time interviewing students in focus groups on their learning experiences and video-ed this (for longer term research)

  Leslie Harris, Bucknell University:I agree that "thinking small" is a great idea.  It means faculty members can make small steps towards a larger goal.

  Leslie Harris, Bucknell University:Do you need the larger goal as well, though: some "long-range plan"?

  Steve  Ehrmann:Chuck, Randy Bass and I did a TLT workshop for the U of Mass yesterday on the scholarship of T&L. One focus: using video to create 'think alouds' as students worked on math problems. Step 1: create video. Step 2: learn about problems that hinder students. Step 3: use Flashlight Online to both check whether students are like the student(s) who were videoed while also helping all students think about their own problem solving technicques in the class.

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Leslie - Do you need a larger goal beyond: wanting to improve your teaching and learning?

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:That's a pretty big long term goal.

  Steve  Ehrmann:There are at least two senses of "thinking big". One, that Steve alluded to, is investing big dollars and time in taking a great leap forward. Another sense of 'thinking big' is exempified by Chuck's effort to develop a collection of LTAs (one bit at a time). thinking big is very helpful in assuring that small steps add up to something cumulative.

  Necia Parker-GibsonUniversity of Arkansas:lots of small long term goals with good results better than big goal with no or indifferent or bad results...

  Michael Dabney, Hawaii Pacific University:I have a big goal that is being implemented in small steps...mic

  Debbie Faires, San Jose State Univ, SLIS:I helped faculty learn to use tabbed browsing to speed grade entry and comments in Blackboard

  Necia Parker-GibsonUniversity of Arkansas:like a good reference transaction!

  Necia Parker-GibsonUniversity of Arkansas:yes, indeed

  Lisa Star, Tech Support, TLT Group:Yes

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:sound good mike

  Debbie Faires, San Jose State Univ, SLIS:Yes, we're hearing you

  Leslie Harris, Bucknell University:Yes, we can

  Charles Ansorge, University of Nebraska, Lincoln:yes

  Lisa Star, Tech Support, TLT Group:Sounds good

  Karen Casto, Western Washington University:I can hear you.

  Chérie Dodd, IU Kokomo:yes

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:We're now hearing Mike Dabney via the phone conf call bridge that is connected via Sally Gilbert's computer

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:I think Steve E's point brings us to larger goals/bigger goals involve more people (and get bigger and bigger as the number of people increase (departmental goals, institutional goals).

  Steve  Ehrmann:Challenge: how to create environment in a university that supports improvement in 'thinking small'. For example supporting the work of compassionate pioneers. Another: a well-indexed collection of LTAs. Another: providing trained students to help faculty. The TLT Group has been working on an expanding set of techniques for helping larger numbers of faculty each take small steps.

  Sally Gilbert, TLT Group:how long did that take, Mike?

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Do small steps generally involve fewer people?  How do we track (or do we) how small steps grow?

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Email challenge: long or short?  frequent or infrequent?

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:It's nice to pose stories and promote dialogue.  Great idea.

  Chérie Dodd, IU Kokomo:It would be nice to have good links to some of the training materials people are putting on YouTube for Web2.0 collaborative tools .. i know you link to one on google docs .. it reminds me of what you were talking about the LTAs

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:We're switching the order/agenda and jumping to Mike's part about invovlement of admins;  then we'll go to Sally's part

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Good idea Cherie.  I know that Ray Purdom's MERLOT collection is a good example of collecting learning objects helpful and relevant to teaching/learning and faculty development.

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Process and collaboration is critical for larger level change (and larger steps).

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Small (that need to be small);  Big (that need to be big);  Small (portion of big);  Big (that depends on starting Small)

  John Munro, Univ of Virgin Island:is there a tech-tool that could be used to collect responses to those questions for next week?

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Mike - I've done more with trying to have groups where faculty, administrators and staff all have equal voices on committees where decisions need to be made and shared.

  Lisa Star, Tech Support, TLT Group:Only heard you for a moment

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Wherever such connections and involvement can be made, more progress can happen.

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Sally - can't hear you..a little better, but low now... better, but noise

  Leslie Harris, Bucknell University:It was better, but there was an echo echo echo

  Sally Gilbert, TLT Group:sorry

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:better

  Necia Parker-GibsonUniversity of Arkansas:better

  Leslie Harris, Bucknell University:Better

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:better

  Karen Casto, Western Washington University:Sounds pretty good.

  Lisa Star, Tech Support, TLT Group:better

  Chérie Dodd, IU Kokomo:better

  Michael Dabney, Hawaii Pacific University:excellent

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:yes

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:yes

  Necia Parker-GibsonUniversity of Arkansas:yes

  Lisa Star, Tech Support, TLT Group:You can use your scroll button to increase the text size

  Lisa Star, Tech Support, TLT Group:It is under the slide you are seeing in the lower left corner

  Necia Parker-GibsonUniversity of Arkansas:woops, lost sound

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Steve asked me to mention this again: Is one of our 10 principles of the small steps is that it saves time (as well as of course the short time to learn/integrate)?

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:As well as is "Just in Time"

  Charles Ansorge, University of Nebraska, Lincoln:Small steps should build confidence

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Is the "Incremental" point included in one of these yet?

  Sally Gilbert, TLT Group:small steps aren't only for beginners

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:That small steps add up.

  Joanne  Clemente, Dominican College:I rhink rHr in approaching the compassionalte pioneers, use the medical model of see one do one teach one

  Sally Gilbert, TLT Group:what is rHr?

  Lisa Star, Tech Support, TLT Group:Closing Links http://www.tltgroup.org/fridaylive/closinglinks.htm

  Lisa Star, Tech Support, TLT Group:Archives http://www.tltgroup.org/tlt-swg/FL!/FL!past.htm

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Joanne, i'm not familiar with "see one do one teach one" - could you tell us a little more about that?

  Karen Casto, Western Washington University:Thanks everyone, bye.

  Steve  Ehrmann:See one. Then do it. Then teach someone else to do it.

  Sally Gilbert, TLT Group:can anyone answer Chuck'd question about examples of big [prjects on a shelf/

  Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene University:I didn't seee a response to a request for a definition of rHr

  Steve  Ehrmann:Bye Karen

  Sally Gilbert, TLT Group:Joanne,  rHr?

  Steve  Ehrmann:the list can be a seen as a mix of two lists: a) principles for me to take small steps, b) principles for me to help someone else take small steps. I think we should separate the two.

  Joanne  Clemente, Dominican College:FOR

  Joanne  Clemente, Dominican College:no it is jus the word for

  Joanne  Clemente, Dominican College:mistype

  Sally Gilbert, TLT Group:so it's not anything in particular- the point was See 1 do1 teach 1

  Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene University:Sad.  It sounded like such a great acronym

  Sally Gilbert, TLT Group:I'm with you, Howard

  Steve  Ehrmann:we could start with rH for prescription

  Steve  Ehrmann::-)

  Steve  Ehrmann:oops

  Steve  Ehrmann:Items 1 and 2 are from the list of "how to make your own small steps. Items 3 4 are from "how to help others make small steps:

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Joanne, I've done sessions where we start with a faculty demonstrating something as a kick off to the session and then help participants learn how to do it... and encourage them to take it back and use it (and share with a colleague/department.  Is that similar to what you mean?

  Steve  Ehrmann:Can we reframe item 4 in a positive way - what approach DOES avoid imposing, embarrassing

  Steve  Ehrmann:is a "principle" intended to apply in all circumstances? for example do you always start with a small group?

  John Munro, Univ of Virgin Island:preliminary brainstorm with interested folks to identify candidate tasks -- go away for a day/week and come back with small step solution

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Steve E - I also think that these may, as we generate more of these, parse out into larger categories: Time, Scope... with other related subpoints.  I'm sure this will still grow.

  Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene University:For number 4:  Affirming and empowering? Or enabling (although that has a negative connotation in counseling circles

  Charles Ansorge, University of Nebraska, Lincoln:I think "safe" is the right term to use.  I suggest keep it.

  Steve  Ehrmann:Re #7, I'm not seein the context.  Whose plan? Is this a principle for osmeone taking small steps while also defending herself against attack?

  John Munro, Univ of Virgin Island:good results quick are their own defense

  Charles Ansorge, University of Nebraska, Lincoln:EVERYONE likes encouragement.  Especially important for someone learning something new. 

  Steve  Ehrmann:#8 - applicability depends on scale. If you're talking about the U of Nebraska, "keeping track of the small steps and who's making them" can be a big job, and can be seen as intrusive.

  John Munro, Univ of Virgin Island:nope

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Good point Charles! Encouragement to the small steps implementor is important.  From what source do you think?

  John Munro, Univ of Virgin Island:it helps planning/scheduling to have these steps

  Leslie Harris, Bucknell University:Isn't there an evolutionary principle behind the previous idea

  Leslie Harris, Bucknell University:Sometimes, evolution occurs with a series of very small changes

  Sally Gilbert, TLT Group:can't roust him

  Leslie Harris, Bucknell University:Until that leads to a transformation

  Leslie Harris, Bucknell University:Actually, I mean #11, right here

  John Munro, Univ of Virgin Island:you learned what did'nt work

  Leslie Harris, Bucknell University:And . . . it doesnt' have to lead to a transformation

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:ONe kind of category distinction for our "principles" - A.  Small steps that have fairly direct consequences that are worthwhile enough to justify the modest effort/resources that were necessary

  Leslie Harris, Bucknell University:We do that with teaching people to use Blackboard (for example).  Start just by putting your syllabus online.  That is good in itself.  It helps students.  Then . . . think about adding more course materials.  Then . . . perhaps online readings.  Then . . . Use some other tools?  Each one of those steps has advantages, without necessarily any further "progress".

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:B.  Small steps that might be worthwhile in themselves, but are being advocated and supported primarily becasuee of the way that they contriubte in an incremental way to a much bigger or lionger term accomplishment

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Leslie, very helpful example!

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:It has to "work" (?)

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:SteveE - can you say briefly what you mean by "sticky" and "cumulative"?

  Charles Ansorge, University of Nebraska, Lincoln:I really like Leslie's example.  Think of using Bb as a journey and not a destination.  Don't try and accomplish everything with respect to t he tools of Bb in one semester or year.  Think of the process as being incremental.

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:SteveE:   Some examples are worthwhile (or "they woirk" ) ONLY if a larger, longer term goal is achieved.

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Bonnie:  adds that we must include WHO decides wheether something is worthwhile or works!

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Bonnie:  Suggests that some "small steps" may be valuable ONLY if they are "timely" -

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Bonnie:   Principle - Small Step must have "sufficient" results in a short time [may be complex about who decides the measures of time, accomplishment]

  Charles Ansorge, University of Nebraska, Lincoln:Among other things Bonnie is talking about the "stickiness" of the step and then building in follow-up.

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:Bonnie - another principle - networking and building with colleagues

  Charles Ansorge, University of Nebraska, Lincoln:Bonnie, thanks for those great thoughts.

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Thanks for the supportive encouraging comments Charles. (yep we all need it).

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:SteveE:  small step works so well in itself that the person taking that step needs no other justification or reward;  others are not justified solely that way

  Charles Ansorge, University of Nebraska, Lincoln:The Excel spreadsheet was an important small step that was very "stick" for the faculty member and has had a long-term effect on him.  He continues to thank me years after the small step HE took on his own with a little help.

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Steve E - this is a very real example - seen it many times.

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Charles' example saves time... the Physics example sucks time... This can be a real factor for faculty long-term adoption.

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Especially if you don't see the immediate effect on learning.

  Charles Ansorge, University of Nebraska, Lincoln:Building an understanding of data analysis in statistics is associated with a series of small steps that lead to the final outcome of a project where all the different pieces are assembled. 

  Steve Gilbert, TLT Group 2:AHA!  another issue - does the small step need to survive for some minimum duration to be worthwhile?   How do we identify the minimum?  Or does the necessary miniumum duration depend on some qualities or quantities of the kinds of change accomplished?

  Steve  Ehrmann:Amen, brother Steve

  Joanne  Clemente, Dominican College:Thanks Bonnie-Referring back to rHr in my previous post: It was just a mistake I meant to type the word "that". I hit the caps lock key -because my left hand was over one key and now I am embarassed!!!!  The original comment was just to consider using the medical model with the Compassionate Pioneers, which is to "see one" (a demonstration), "do one"(practice it) and then "teach one"(show another colleague)

  Charles Ansorge, University of Nebraska, Lincoln:This is an important topic to continue discussing.  It has obviously generated lots of discussion.

  Charles Ansorge, University of Nebraska, Lincoln:This is an important topic for faculty developers or technology coaches.

  Charles Ansorge, University of Nebraska, Lincoln:Thanks to all.....

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Thanks Joanne for that clarification.

  Steve  Ehrmann:thanks. Bye!

  Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene University:Thanks all.  Great stuff to reflect on.

  Gloria Green-Ridey, University of D. C.:yes we do

  John Munro, Univ of Virgin Island:learned a lot this afternoon -- big small steps?

  Chérie Dodd, IU Kokomo:thanks all bye

  Bonnie Mullinix, Educational Consultant:Joanne - That's what I thought you meant - but good to hear you confirm it)