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3 campuses focusing on innovative technology initiatives

As the school year gets underway across the nation, many institutions are launching new technology initiatives and programs designed to improve teaching and learning.

Educators love to share their successes, learn from the success of other institutions, and they also love to share lessons they learned along their journey.

eSchool Media and Xirrus have teamed up on the Innovate to Educate Awards [1] to give a national platform for educators to share what they’re most proud of in their colleges and universities. Here, we’ve highlighted the successes of four awards program applicants. Want to apply for the awards? You can do that right here [2].

(Next page: Three campuses dedicated to technology innovation)

[Editor’s note: This is the second part in a series featuring Innovate to Educate applicants. Find the first part here [3].]

Bossier Parish Community College
Allison Martin, Mobilizing MOOCs for Millenials: Open Campus at Bossier Parish Community College
One of the college’s top technology initiatives [4]:
Bossier Parish Community College (BPCC) created a series of free, open source developmental courses targeting both underprepared students prepping for placement testing as well as those enrolled in credit-bearing coursework. BPCC’s concept “Open Campus” was founded upon the premise reflected in multiple studies which suggest that high-need students struggle in purely online courses, yet students are motivated to persist when technology is a function of how they engage outside the formal classroom (Nihalani & Mayrath, 2010; Xu & Jaggars, 2013). To-date, 30,000+ students have enjoyed access to extended learning specifically targeting their needs and guiding them along unfamiliar paths. BPCC’s findings? …Completion can occur at higher rates when online adoption happens early and when students are given effective applications that fit into their everyday routines.

The University of Texas at Tyler
Julie Delello, Assistant Professor
One of the university’s top technology initiatives [5]:
I work with and teach pre-service teachers (PST) how to create augmented reality (AR) lessons for use with children in classrooms around the country. The technology is still somewhat novel and it has really sparked engagement from kindergarten to college. In fact 97% of PSTs stated they would keep using the technology. In the fall semester, in classrooms, these PSTs used the words amazed (n=30), excited (n=22), and attention getting (n=10) to describe the enthusiasm in the classroom. One PST noted, “There is one student in the classroom that is inclusion and that student even performed higher than she regularly would with the use of this technology.” Another PST remarked, “It was a very awesome ‘teacher’ moment, watching their reactions as the overlay popped out of the trigger image.” I thought my Aurasma was very basic, but the students thought it was the coolest thing in the world, and data showed learning improved overall, 68% of the time when compared to non-use of AR. In describing the reaction of the children to the playback of the lesson, one PST composed the following sentiment:

Butler Community College
Meg McGranaghan, Associate Vice President of Academics
One of the college’s top technology initiatives [6]:
Our Instructional Technology Department built three ‘learning’ glass boards for faculty to use in online classes or for supplemental purposed in face to face classes. Faculty reserve the room where the boards are housed and give short 5-10 minute lectures explaining problems, etc. The lectures are filmed using an iPhone or iPad. When the instructor is finished, an app called Flip and Rotate is used. The video is uploaded to YouTube. Faculty link the lessons in our learning management system. Students can then see the writing on the glass and the instructor giving the explanation. Seeing the instructor’s face and gestures improves understanding. One instructor skipped a week of uploading videos and his students responded quickly that they needed them right away.