When All Students Have Thinkpads

A Presentation at the First Annual ThinkPad University Conference

Orlando, Florida, April 15, 1999

by David G. Brown

Wake Forest University

Outline of Remarks

• Introduction

• Update re Wake Forest

• The Most Important Thing to Remember about Computers & Teaching+Learning

• Your Lists of Lessons Learned

• Update re ICCEL

Why All Eyes Are On US

• Top of the Line Computers

• Portability

• Significant Standardization

• Fullest Service Vendor

• Fund to Succeed

New Computer & LoadUndergraduates + MBA + Med School + Divinity School

• Pentium II 333Mhz• 6 GB hard drive• 128 MB RAM• 14.1 Active Matrix• 4 MBPS InfraRed Port• Lithium Ion Battery• SVGA video out• 56 KBPS Modem• Ethernet, CD ROM

• Windows 98• MS Office Prof 97• Netscape 4.5• Norton AntiVirus 5• Dreamweaver 2• SPSS 9.0• Maple 5.1

What’s New at ICCEL?

• June 16-18 Conference for faculty re “How to Computer Enhance Your Teaching” http://iccel.wfu.edu

• Electronically Enhanced Education: A Case Study of Wake Forest University ($10)

• Always In Touch ($10)

• Active Planning for Conference Schedule Next Year

• Consultancies (often video)

Recent Passion

• Communication

• Collaboration

• Customization

• Interactive

• Interdependent

• Individualized

From the times of

Craft Guilds & Small Townswe have “known” that ---

• Most learning is collaborative

• Frequent feedback increases learning

• Loyalty-to-group motivates learning

• More time on task usually means more learning

Beliefs of 91/93 Vignette AuthorsPedagogy and Philosophy

• Interactive Learning

• Learn by Doing

• Collaborative Learning

• Integration of Theory and Practice

• Communication

• Visualization

• Different Strokes for Different Folks

From Interactive Learning Forthcoming June, 1999From Anker PublishingDavid G. Brown, Editor

Computers Enhance My Teaching and/or Learning Via--

PresentationsBetter--20%

More Opportunities toPractice & Analyze--35%

More Access to SourceMaterials via Internet--43%

More Communication with Faculty Colleagues, Classmates,and Between Faculty and Students--87%

Source = Wake Forest Students and Faculty

Computers allow people----

• to belong to more communities• to be more actively engaged in each

community• with more people• over more miles• for more months and years• TO BE MORE COLLABORATIVE

YOU NAME LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT--

Marketing

Assessment

Teaching and Learning

Administrative Computing

Cost Savings

Rules for Play

• Divide into Teams of Four

• Chair = Name That’s First in Alphabet

• Recorder = Name That’s Second

• Team Writes Down the BEST Two Lessons in EACH of the five categories

• Each Team Posts Ideas on the Wall So We Can Vote

Guidelines for Voting

• Put Blue Dots on the Ten Most Important Lessons Listed (excluding your teams’)

• Put Yellow Dots on the Three Greatest Ideas that are worth considering to take back home and apply.

• Put Red Dots on all lessons learned that would not apply at your campus

• THE TEAM WITH THE MOST BLUE + YELLOW DOTS WINS A REAL PRIZE

Highest Vote Getters re Lessons50+ PEOPLE FROM ABOUT 20 THINKPAD USING COLLEGES

• Top Administration must experience the technology

• Buy the computers coming off lease for resale at cost to the parents of incoming freshmen so they can communicate w their children

• Reduce support/training costs by building better on line self help solutions

• Market the whole program, not just the hardware

• Integrate campus information systems to the laptop program to facilitate

• Students need to be more utilized for t&l of faculty

• Define measurable objectives

RESPONSIBIL

ITY

OPPORTUNITY

THINK MASTER-APPRENTICE

Spend $s on CCC + Don’t Wire Every Seat + Avoid Sinkholes

David G. BrownWake Forest University

Winston-Salem, N.C. 27109336-758-4878

email: brown@wfu.eduhttp//:www.wfu.edu/~brown

fax: 336-758-4875