TechTalks: Wireless Trends and Surprises in Teaching and Learning

TechTalks

TechTalks Event

Wireless Trends and Surprises in Teaching and Learning�

with guest expert Carl Berger, University of Michigan

September 14, 2000
[Audio (MP3) | Transcript]�

The archived audio recorded during the live event is available by clicking the Archived Audio event button, above. An edited transcript is also available.

What would encourage you to use wireless technology in everyday computing? Are there any real differences with wireless or is it just "removing wires?" Thinking of doing what we're doing now, how does wireless help? Will "AirPort" become the next "Largest campus network, yet unsupported" as AppleTalk once did (and is still doing on some campuses)? Thinking of a wild and outrageous use of wireless, PDA, PC and other tools, what will we be able to do with this technology that we can't do now? What is "Bluetooth" and should I get an appointment with the dentist? What are the most important experiences you have had with wireless PC?

It's no longer a matter of "if," but of "when" wireless is in your campus's future. Student expectations alone will mandate it. Come and listen in on September 14 to skim the leading edge with CREN. Plan now to send in your questions to expert@cren.net and join Howard and Judith on Thursday as they explore, with guest expert Carl Berger of the University of Michigan, the latest Wireless Trends and Surprises in Teaching and Learning!

Guest Expert

Carl Berger is a professor at the University of Michigan. He specializes in science and instructional technology education in the School of Education. He is also the Director of Advanced Academic Technologies in the Center for Advanced Research and Academic Technologies (CARAT) and Academic Liaison in the Office of the Chief Information Officer. As professor he is teaching Technological Capabilities, MAC 2001. He has recently taught: Research Methods in Cognition and Technology, Multimedia, Cognition and Instruction and Educational Software Design and Authoring, As academic liaison he works with faculty on the scholarly use of technology in teaching and learning and he has developed surveys and reports on faculty requirements for instructional technology (pdf) and faculty recognition and reward (Word). In the Center for Advanced Research and Academic Technology he works on new tools and teaching and learning techniques such as wireless technologies and the Visible Human Project.

Co-Hosts

Howard Strauss, Manager of Academic Applications at Princeton University, is TechTalk's Technology Anchor.

Co-Host Judith Boettcher is CREN's Executive Director. Together, Howard and Judith will ask the really tough questions—and relay the questions you email to them at expert@cren.net.

Background & Resources

Previously-archived CREN Tech Talks, with audio, transcription, and hyperlinked resource lists, are great, bookmark-able resources. Here are a couple of earlier events about wireless computing on campus: Wireless Networking Directions (10/99), Wiring for a Wireless Campus (9/23/99), and Wireless Networking Directions (2/25/99).

What about those student expectations? Read The Information-Age Mindset: Changes in Students and Implications for Higher Education (pdf) by Jason L. Frand and Student Expectations of Information Technology Use in the Classroom by Jon Rickman and Mike Grudzinski.

Carl suggested these URLS:

The Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education creates curriculum of the sort that is quickly enhanced by wireless networking.
Sony's forthcoming Picture Book Laptop, with its rotating camera and 20 hours of battery time, is just another tiny step in the direction of technologies that are moving so fast that technology becomes "the easy part."
In the Syllabus Article from June of 1999, Turning the Kaleidoscope: Teaching and Learning Patterns in 2007 What Will We See?, co-host Judith Boettcher makes seven higher education predictions.
Here's a report on "gadgets" from last June's PC Expo: It may be called PC Expo, but gadgets rule the show this year.
Can wireless technologies help us teach in a world which has a surfeit of data and information?

Some additional resources for you include:

The official Blue Tooth website.
Unstrung is a wireless-focused site offering metacollections of related information, as well as brief articles of its own.
Our sponsor, Compaq, offers a wireless LAN product.
GPRS seems to be making headway in the UK.

Here are some pointers to specific campus programs:

The College of Mount St. Joseph goes fully wireless this fall, with students each getting appropriately-equipped PC Pros. For more current wireless journalism, check out Wired Online's The Wireless World collection of articles.
Evolving from "CyberZones," the entire instructional, research, and administrative campus at Drexel is live this fall for wireless connection to the Drexel network.
130-year old Switzler Hall, on the campus of the University of Missouri, Columbia, has a new wireless lab that allows notebook computers to be used all over the building.
Greenville College, in Illinois, went wireless in 1999.
As this article from the Universiteit Twente illustrates, wireless campuses are not just in the United States.
Boston College will walk you around its campus online, showing where you currently can or cannot connect without wires.
And, at Carnegie Mellon University, Wireless Andrew pushes the envelope for campuswide wireless computing.

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