SICET 2007
Convention
 The
Third SICET Annual International Convention was successfully held
as part of 2007 AECT International Convention 'Learning Within
the Kaleidoscope: A Culture of Technology' in Anaheim,
California on October 23rd - 27th, 2007. View the photos
taken during the conference to share the excitement.
Twenty-five proposals were received on
the due date. Among them, ten proposals were accepted as concurrent
presentations; eight proposals were accepted as roundtable presentations;
and five proposals were accepted as poster presentations. The
presentation titles, authors, and abstracts are listed below for
your interests.
Concurrent presentations include:
1. Cultural Perspectives on Instructional
Technology Consulting
Presented by: Xiaoxue
Wang, Georgia State University
This study, through interviews with professors
both in China and in the USA, examined instructional technology
consulting from cultural perspectives. The purposes of this study
were (1) to reveal essences and insights of instructional technology
consulting, (2) to explore cultural factors by comparing and contrasting
the similarities and differences of instructional technology consulting
in China and in the USA, and (3) to seek implications for better
consulting practice in different cultural settings.
2. A Survey Study about Online Learning
Experience in the United States: The Perspectives from Taiwanese
International Students
Presented by: Chun-Min
Wang,
This study examined Taiwanese international
students' online learning experience in the United States. The
online survey intended to understand the students' opinions about
online interaction, challenges, instructional design, and the
differences between online and traditional face-to-face courses.
140 responses were received from students attending 58 different
universities across the United States. The results show that they
felt generally positive about online courses, but there were also
several factors that influenced their learning experiences.
3. Online Group Projects to Enhance
Peer Interaction
Presented by: Feng-Qi
Lai, Indiana State University
After teaching an online Instructional
Design course for three years, the author found the collaborative
learning part needed improving. In order for more peer interaction,
a group-project format was implemented. Did it help? What was
the format? What was the way to ensure fair grading for each student's
contribution to the group project? What were students' evaluations
on the group project approach for the online course? The author
will share her experience and results with attendees.
4. Essay Writing in Chinese WebCT Discussion
Board
Presented by: De
Zhang, Bethel University
This paper reports on a classroom-based
study on the use of Chinese WebCT discussion board to support
essay writing in a second year Chinese language class which consisted
of mostly heritage learners at a U.S. Midwest university. The
study aims to fill the void in the research literature on both
computer-assisted Chinese writing pedagogy and heritage language
instruction.
5. Impact of Online Instruction on
Students' Learning Styles and Motivational Beliefs
Presented by: Yuliang Liu, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Hao
Yang, State University of New York at Oswego
This quantitative study was designed to
investigate how online instruction affects online learner's learning
styles and motivational beliefs. This study using the one group
pretest and posttest experimental design involved 32 students
in two online sections of a graduate course in fall 2006. Significant
statistical differences were found in several learning style and
motivational belief scales between pretest at the beginning and
posttest at the end of the online course. Implications resulted
from the study.
6. Does Online Teaching Presence Really
Help? - an Investigation of Relationships of Online Teaching Presence
and Learning
Presented by: Hong
Zhan, Northern Arizona University
This presentation will describe an experimental
study to explore the effect of teaching presence on student learning
outcomes in fully online undergraduate level courses. Student
learning outcomes were investigated in three learning environments
where teaching presence was designed to be at different levels.
The study found that the learning outcomes in the three learning
environments were not significantly different. Although student-perceived
teaching presence were significant different among the three sections,
student learning outcomes was not related to the teaching presence.
Implications for online course development and online teaching
will be discussed at the presentation.
7. Modeling in Information Technology
Research: A Model of Models
Presented by: Leping
Liu, University of Nevada, Reno
This proposed paper introduces the major
types of models and modeling procedures in educational research,
and discusses a variety of examples of modeling from our experiences
of research in the field of information technology in education.
Theory-based, research-based, and literature-based modeling are
introduced.
8. Publish or Perish: Publishing Scholarly
Articles in Educational Technology
Presented by: Steve
Yuen, The University of Southern Mississippi
Patrivan Yuen, William Carey University
This presentation will provide complete
journal information over 40 journals that are appropriate for
the publication of articles in educational technology. Also, the
presentation will discuss the types of journals, types of articles,
manuscript components, journal submission and peer review process,
and steps to publishing in academic journals within the field
of educational technology. Furthermore, the presentation will
provide tips to getting published and offer helpful suggestions.
9. Bridging Theory with Design: An
ID Model Approach to Design Educational Games
Presented by: Feng-Qi Lai, Indiana
State University
How do we design educational games that
are effective, efficient, and appealing? How do we design educational
games that are interactive and motivational? How do we design
educational games that are diagnostic and adaptive? The author
will share with attendees her perspectives of bridging theory
with design in producing educational games using a real-world
product for early literacy learning as an example.
10. Expanding Classroom Boundaries
with Podcasting
Presented by: Steve Yuen, The University of Southern Mississippi
Patrivan Yuen, William Carey University
This presentation will provide a brief
overview of podcasting, discuss the potential uses of podcasting
in education, provide tips for producing a podcast and integrating
podcasts into classrooms, examine issues and implications related
to podcasting for teaching and learning, and discuss the best
podcasting practices.
Roundtable presentations include:
1. The Learner's Role in Creating Electronic
Portfolios
Presented by: Shuyan Wang, The University of Southern Mississippi
Using electronic portfolios as an assessment
tool not only changes the way of assessment, but also changes
the ideology of teaching and learning because curriculum and teaching
methodology are influenced by how students' progress and achievement
are evaluated. Findings from this study show that creating electronic
portfolios not only helps students develop technology-related
knowledge and skills as well as critical thinking and problem-solving
skills, but helps students become active, independent, and motivated
learners.
2. Features of Online Publishing and
a Model of Dynamic Research in Information Technology in Education
Presented by: Leping Liu, University of Nevada, Reno
Introduces the unique features of online
journals in the field of information technology in education,
a model of dynamic research with which researchers can generate
series of research idea, and tips to write and publish in academic
journals.
3. Supporting A Knowledge Building
Community, The Technological Dynamics in an Online Course
Presented by: Huei-Lien Chen, Kansas State University
Pearl Chen, California State University, Los Angeles
Come to learn a case study of factors that
promote and inhibit knowledge building activities in an online
environment. Analysis of knowledge building indicators and learning
outcomes with respect to the technological dynamics (Scardamalia,
2002; 2003) of two electronic communication tools (chatroom and
message board) and two knowledge construction tools (concept mapping
tool and web authoring tool) will be discussed. Practical implications
for promoting a virtual knowledge building community will be considered.
4. Scaffolding Instruction for Chinese
Heritage Language Learners
Presented by: De Zhang, Bethel University
This presentation will include both the
rationale and specific strategies for scaffolding instruction
for Chinese heritage language (CHL) learners in online technology-supported
learning environments. The technology-mediated strategies promote
linguistic, academic, and identity development of Chinese heritage
language learners in the U.S context.
5. Blogs in Chinese Higher Education
Presented by: Shuyan Wang, The University of Southern Mississippi
Yajie Chen, Inner Mongolia University of Technology
Ying Chen, Beijing JiaoTong University
Blog has been increasingly used in every
field in the present society. It is becoming the mainstream medium
in communication and virtual communities. This in-progress study
will investigate and explore the influence of blog in China and
its implications in Language classroom in Chinese higher education.
6. Never Too Late: Teachers' First-Hand
Project-Based Learning Experience in Learning Technology
Presented by: Huei-Lien Chen, Kansas State University
Project-based learning teaches students
the critical thinking and collaborative skills they will need
to succeed in the future. However, whether classroom teachers
are themselves equipped with the ability to collaborate on a project
is another question entirely. This case study looked closely at
teachers' first-hand experience at collaborating within an online
learning management system. This roundtable discussion presents
study findings, proposing a PBL framework that might be employed
to support online learning in higher education.
7. The Promise of Utilizing Mobile
Phones in Chinese Higher Education
Presented by: Xiaojing Duan, Shuyan Wang, Steve Yuen, The University
of Southern Mississippi
Mobile phones are increasingly becoming
an integral part of the daily life of Chinese. Given their high
popularity, the presentation will examine to what extent mobile
phones can be utilized for educational purposes in Chinese higher
education.
8. Involve Students in the Performance
Assessment Using E-portfolios: A Undergraduate Level Empirical
Study
Presented by: Rui Hu, University of Georgia
E-portfolios have been claimed to be an
alternative authentic assessment tool and their implementation
has been rapidly increased since the mid 1990's. Researchers claim
that e-portfolios can promote leaning; however, institutions tend
to use them for summative assessment. The purpose of this study
is: 1) to understand students' experience of peer review with
e-portfolios; and 2) to find out the ways that e-portfolio and
peer review can benefit students' learning. This qualitative study
using interviews, observations, and documentation studied students'
peer review in an undergraduate project-based course. The findings
indicate that both teachers' organization and students' autonomy
in peer review are pivotal.
Poster presentations include:
1. Blended Learning and Sense of Community:
The STEP Approach
Presented by: Hao Yang, State University of
New York at Oswego
Yuliang Liu, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
This paper presents how a sound practical
approach called STEP is implemented into a graduate blended learning
course in the fall semester of 2006. It reports the responses
of students in the course on effectiveness of STEP and perception
of sense of community.
2. Five Tens and Eighteen Circles:
A Chinese Professor's Perspective on Educational Technology
Presented by: Feng-Qi Lai, Indiana State University
What are the trends and issues in educational
technology in China? This session discusses this topic through
analyzing data that was collected via oral and written communications
with a well-known Chinese educational philosophy professor Xin-Min
Sang, who has focused on redesigning curriculum for educational
technology programs in China for almost ten years. His curriculum
design view of “eighteen circles” and advocating for
the “five tens” movement in China will be the focus
of this session.
3. Study of Sharing Technology of
Ontology-Based Web Course Resources
Presented by: Geping Liu, College of Distance
Education of Southwest China University
Changhua Zhao, School of Computer and Information Science of Southwest
China University
In this paper we discuss how to use ontology
to realize the course resources sharing in different E-learning
systems. We elaborate the characteristic of Web course resources
based on ontology. According to the standard of resources construction,
we discuss the technology of constructing course resources ontology,
and also provide an example of course resources ontology. Finally,
a framework of Web course resources based on ontology is proposed.
4. The development of the method of
collecting digital portfolios for Chinese learners of Japanese
on an e-learning system
Presented by: ChunChen Lin, Tokyo University
of Foreign Studies
In the area of language teaching, The conventional
ways of evaluation most often use a set of standardized tests.
But using learner portfolios enables us to evaluate how they have
made progress, as well as to measure their achievement levels.
In this presentation, we will show the newly developed system
and teaching materials, and suggest how we can conduct the collection
of the data. Analyzing the digital portfolios for the learners
of Japanese collected in this study will enable us to discover
new methods for language teaching.
5. E-portfolios, Reflective Thinking,
and Learning: A Review of the Literature
Presented by: Rui Hu, University of Georgia
Both researchers and practitioners need
a better understanding of the process of reflection as enabled
or fostered by the construction of an e-portfolio. At this time,
practitioners lack sufficient guidance for knowing when e-portfolios
will be successful and when they won't. With this gap in mind,
this literature review tries to address: 1. What are purposes
of the e-portfolio and factors for successful implementation?
2. What kinds of dilemmas do instructors face when implementing
e-portfolios?
SICET General Session
This session includes the introduction
of SICET, review SICET progresses in the past year, and preview
the development in the coming years. |
