Session Title: Accentuate the Positive: Using Wireless Internet in the Classroom to Enhance Student Engagement
Resources:
- Download slide presentation
Time & Date: 9:00 A.M. – 9:45 A.M., Friday, June 19, 2009
Location: Rm. 260, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre (IKBLC)
Session Description: The broad availability of wireless Internet access in university classrooms is presenting challenges and opportunities not previously experienced by university teachers. While many professors are struggling with the inevitable questions regarding the negative aspects of this new classroom environment, it is important to focus on the benefits that Internet access in the classroom can provide. This implies an exciting wealth of new opportunities to engage students in ways that will compete successfully with these potential distractions, enriching their learning environments and keeping them keen.
Accessing applications such as instant messaging systems, social networks, and an unlimited array of entertainment options will, indeed, provide competition for students’ attention during class, and must be actively addressed, so this collaborative session will briefly discuss strategies for the effective management of the wireless classroom (dealing with the potential distraction).
The session will, however, primarily focus on the power of the Internet to enable an endless number of valuable classroom activities and projects that will allow students to take control of their own learning and construct their own knowledge through personal explorations using the staggering array of Internet resources that are freely available. Participants in this session will examine several examples of technically creative activities currently being applied across a number of disciplines, and will be encouraged to “think outside the box” in coming up with some potential uses for Internet in the classroom that have not previously been widely applied.
Conference Stream: Learning & Teaching
Session Format: Collaboratory
Presenter: Carol A. Miles, Ph. D.
Presenter Bio: Dr. Carol Miles is director of Learning Technologies and Teaching Support at Carleton University where she is responsible for instructional technologies as well as distance learning initiatives and faculty development.
