Highlights of the 2003-2004 Academic Year

• Integrating Case-based Tutorials into the MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Core Curriculum, Hal Abelson, Lori Breslow, Tom Clay, Gerry Sussman
• The Visual Understanding Environment: Moving from Data to Meaning, David Kahle, Tufts University
  Director, Academic Computing, Principle Investigator, Virtual Understanding Environment (VUE) project
• Lessons Learned: Findings from the Assessments of New Initiatives in Educational Technology at MIT (2000-2003), Lori Breslow, Director of the MIT Teaching and Learning Laboratory
• Moving Beyond Build vs. Buy - An "Open" Strategy to Sustain a Diverse Ecology of Educational Tools, Joseph Hardin,University of Michigan, Jeff Merriman, MIT, Brad Wheeler, Indiana University
• Open Pedagogical Knowledge:How Technology Enables Faculty and Educational Institutions to Build Collective Knowledge of Teaching and Learning, Toru Iiyoshi (Streaming Media Recording)

Tuesday, May 11, 2004, 1:30pm — 3:00pm, Grier Room (34-401A)

Integrating case-based tutorials into the MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science core curriculum

• Hal Abelson - Class of 1922 Professor, Dept of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
• Lori Breslow Director of the Teaching and Learning Laboratory & Senior Lecturer
• Tom Clay - founder and principal of Tom Clay & Associates
• Gerry Sussman -Matsushita Professor of Electrical Engineering, Dept of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

Abstract
For the past two years, the four of us, together with Alex d'Arbeloff, have been developing a new pedagogical model for subjects taught in the EECS core curriculum. We incorporated case-based tutorials taught by practicing electrical engineers — most of whom are MIT alumni — into an experimental version of "Circuits and Electronics" (6.002) in the spring semesters 2003 and 2004.

This work, sponsored by the d'Arbeloff Fund for Excellence in MIT Education, is a pilot designed to inform a major revision of the EECS core that will commence this summer under continuing d'Arbeloff support and support from the Cambridge-MIT Institute.

In this talk, we'll review the goals of our experiment, report on our experiences, share our evaluation findings, and solicit your advice on how we should next proceed.

Our approach has several noteworthy aspects:

• Basic material is introduced in conjunction with cases that expose students to more complex engineering problems than in the mainstream curriculum. The cases are studied in small tutorials that require students to assume active and collaborative roles in their study.
• The tutorials are led by engineers from local industry. Our intent is to introduce students to how practicing engineers think, and also to demonstrate how to increase the educational resources available to the Institute by drawing upon talent from our alumni body and local industry.
• The course includes novel on-line computer exercises and a new software tutoring system that incorporates artificial intelligence techniques (constraint propagation and truth maintenance). This part of our research is being pursued in collaboration with Peter Robinson of the Cambridge University Computing Laboratory.
• We have conducted extensive evaluations to assess the feasibility of this approach and the issues to be addressed in attempting to scale it to larger class sizse. These studies also provide insight more generally into the use of case-based tutorials in engineering education.

Biographies

• Hal Abelson is Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is winner of several teaching awards, including the IEEE's Booth Education Award, cited for his contributions to the teaching of undergraduate computer science. He is co-director of the MIT-Microsoft Research Alliance in educational technology and co-head of MIT's Council on Educational Technology.
  
• Gerry Sussman is Professor of Electrical Engineering. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a recipient of the ACM's Karl Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award.
  
  Abelson and Sussman are the developers of MIT's introductory computer science subject 6.002, and (together with Julie Sussman) coauthored the course's introductory computer science textbook "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs," which has had a world-wide impact on university computer-science education. For this and other achivements they shared MIT's Amar G. Bose award for teaching in 1991.
  
• Tom Clay is founder and principal of Tom Clay & Associates. Drawing on his rich and varied background as an organizational effectiveness, learning and evaluation consultant, corporate university founder/executive, cultural anthropologist, teacher, and market researcher, Tom helps companies and educational institutions formulate learning strategies, plan and implement eLearning programs, conduct research on the corporate and academic learning marketplace, and assess and evaluate eLearning and other educational programs. In addition to MIT, Tom has worked with Boston University and Universitas 21 Global, a Singapore-based virtual university. Trained both as a cultural anthropologist and in business, Tom holds a B.A. in sociology/anthropology from Carleton College, an M.A. in cultural anthropology from the University of Chicago, and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
  
• Lori Breslow, Ph.D. has been the Director of MIT’s Teaching and Learning Laboratory (TLL) since its inception in 1997. TLL works with faculty, administrators, staff, and students to strengthen the quality of education at the Institute. Dr. Breslow oversees the administration of TLL and has developed a number of its programs and services. She has also supervised many of the projects undertaken in assessment. For five years she wrote the column, “Teach Talk,” for The MIT Faculty Newsletter, and she teaches a Ph.D.-level course, “Teaching College-Level Science.” Dr. Breslow is also a Senior Lecturer in the Sloan School of Management where she teaches courses in managerial, professional, and intercultural communication. In addition to studying the impact of educational technology, Dr. Breslow’s research interests are in interdisciplinary education and peer learning.

2003 - 2004 Academic Year

Previous Crosstalk Events

Monday, May 3, 2004, Noon to 1pm, W20 — West Lounge

Abstract

David Kahle, as Principle Investigator of the Virtual Understanding Environment project, will discuss some of the challenges of teaching and learning with digital resources that stem from a lack of tools for making digital information visible and meaningful. He will present recent work on the Visual Understanding Environment (VUE), an application designed to provide a concept mapping interface to digital materials. Using VUE, faculty and students may visually structure, organize and annotate digital content to better understand and communicate how ideas and digital content are related. For further information see: http://vue.tccs.tufts.edu/.

Biography

David Kahle is the Director of Academic Computing at Tufts University and oversees Tufts' central academic technology initiatives, which include technology education for faculty, curricular technology design and development, and research computing administration. David’s research and development focus is the design of information systems and Internet-based technologies for learning and teaching. His experience includes the planning and development of networked learning environments in support of higher education, informal adult learning, and public outreach initiatives. David serves on the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, teaching courses on the design and development of online environments for learning.

Wednesday, April 14, 2004, 1 - 2:30pm, 4-237

Lessons Learned: Findings from the Assessments of New Initiatives in Educational Technology at MIT (2000-2003).

Lori Breslow, Director of the MIT Teaching and Learning Laboratory

The Teaching and Learning Laboratory was asked to manage the assessment of these initiatives. In this work, we have collaborated with MIT faculty and staff, graduate and undergraduate students, education graduate students from other universities in the Boston area, and assessment and evaluation consultants. Three years later, as we have reviewed our findings from these individual projects, we have identified a number of common threads among them. These commonalities have allowed us to draw several overarching conclusions about the use and effects of educational technology: what works, what doesn’t, and how educational technologies influence the learning environments in which they are embedded.

Biography: Lori Breslow, Ph.D. has been the Director of MIT’s Teaching and Learning Laboratory (TLL) since its inception in 1997. TLL works with faculty, administrators, staff, and students to strengthen the quality of education at the Institute. Dr. Breslow oversees the administration of TLL and has developed a number of its programs and services. She has also supervised many of the projects undertaken in assessment. For five years she wrote the column, “Teach Talk,” for The MIT Faculty Newsletter, and she teaches a Ph.D.-level course, “Teaching College-Level Science.” Dr. Breslow is also a Senior Lecturer in the Sloan School of Management where she teaches courses in managerial, professional, and intercultural communication. In addition to studying the impact of educational technology, Dr. Breslow’s research interests are in interdisciplinary education and peer learning.

• Lessons Learned: Executive Summary (PDF; html)
• Lessons Learned: Findings from Ten Formative Assessments of Educational Initiatives at MIT (2000-2003) (PDF)
• Lessons Learned: Powerpoint presentation (PPT)

Thursday, March 11, 2004, 12:30 Bush Room (10-105)

Moving Beyond Build vs. Buy - An "Open" Strategy to Sustain a Diverse Ecology of Educational Tools

Joseph Hardin,University of Michigan

Jeff Merriman, MIT

Brad Wheeler, Indiana University

Overall Abstract:

Software tools to augment teaching can facilitate the drudgery of course management, help students better grasp difficult concepts, or simply provide valuable experience with the disciplinary tools of the trade.  Providing a common environment that can support these different tools, however, has been difficult. Faculty, RAs and TAs build interesting applications to support the courses they teach, but over time they become hard to maintain. Often the original developers have graduated and gone on.  Try to get exciting software written at the University of Michigan to run in the course environment of Indiana University, and it's a non-starter. Tools developed at MIT can't be easily moved to Stanford; and, of course, those built at any of these schools aren't able to be easily run at MIT. 

With the commitment to build an open course management system implementation leveraging the work of OKI, the Sakai Project is defining a new way for software tools to efficiently exploit a common ecosystem.  Leaders of Sakai from Indiana University and the University of Michigan will join colleagues at MIT to describe this collaborative effort.

How Open Source Software will Serve Faculty Innovation and Sustainable Economics in Higher Education

Brad Wheeler, Indiana University

Abstract:

After a period of relative stability in the design and use of Course/Learning Management Systems, educational technology is poised for a burst of discipline-specific innovation in effective learning practice.  Innovation happens at the edges with faculty and students, but sustainability, security, and IT costs have inherent economies of scale in centralization.  Collaborative software developments – like the Sakai Project and the Open Source Portfolio Initiative – provide a new path for balancing innovation and sustainable economics.  This discussion will focus on the faculty-driven innovation opportunities that open source provides, and it will look ahead to 2005-2007 towards actions that can best advance institutional change in this next era for educational technology.

Biography

Monday, October 27th, 2003

Toru Iiyoshi

Abstract: The Knowledge Media Lab (KML) at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is working to take advantage of emerging technologies and new media to transform the knowledge implicit in effective teaching practice into ideas, theories, and resources that can be shared widely to advance teaching and student learning at multiple levels. These efforts are focused in three ways. First, the KML devises new means of helping faculty document and share their teaching practice and knowledge online by exploring new genres and models for multimedia-enhanced teaching portfolios. Second, the KML develops tools and resources that enable faculty and institutions to engage in this work more easily and effectively. Examples include web-based knowledge representation and management tools and collaborative online workspaces. Third, the KML fosters the exchange and use of newly generated knowledge. For instance, innovative ways of creating and using electronic portfolios in a variety of settings for faculty development and knowledge community building are being explored with some of the KML partner scholars, programs and institutions.

This presentation will focus on some of the critical issues around our work as well as the implications for the ongoing major educational open-source/open-content initiatives, such as the Open CourseWare Project and the Open Knowledge Initiative.

Dr. Toru Iiyoshi is Senior Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation and Director of its Knowledge Media Laboratory. Iiyoshi, a learning scientist and educational technologist who received his education both in Japan and the United States, has been awarded the Outstanding Practice Award in Instructional Development and the Robert M. Gagne Award for Research in Instructional Design from the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. His research focuses on design and evaluation of cognitive tools and interactive learning environments both for individual and collective knowledge acquisition and building.