More than 400 people attended the聽two day August 2014 Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology (COLTT) Conference at CU Boulder.聽聽Presenters聽explored a range of teaching with technology topics and programs,聽including: interactive science simulations, alternative formats for students with learning disabilities, e-books, MOOCs, digital gaming, podcasts, YouTube, Learning Management Systems, and the聽psychology of learning with technology.聽聽Participants represented Adobe, CU Boulder, CU Denver, CSU, Front Range Community College, Regis University, Red Rocks Community College, Metropolitan State University, and the Air Force Academy.聽 ASSETT sponsored 26 scholarships for CU Boulder College of Arts and Sciences faculty to attend the conference.聽 ASSETT staff spoke with聽participants聽about ASSETT programs.
CU Boulder Physics Professor聽Steven Pollock gave the keynote speech at the 2014 COLTT Conference.聽聽Pollock is the 2013 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support for Education National Teacher of the Year.聽聽 He is active in CU Boulder's聽Physics Education Research (PER) Group, through which Physics professors conduct research of Physics teaching.聽聽Pollock聽said that the PER has found that聽students achieve a better understanding of material in an interactive environment.聽聽He also said that the PER has found that Learning Assistants 聽(high performing undergraduates)聽achieve higher content mastery after they lead interactive聽learning sessions with lower level science students. 聽Pollock said that聽if these LAs pursue careers in K12 education, then they聽exhibit stronger science聽knowledge than they otherwise would.聽 Additionally, he suggested the聽implementation of聽 (Student Centered Active Learning Environments with聽Upside down聽Pedagogies)聽classrooms, which would feature round tables so that students would聽face one another in optimal position for small group discussion.
Presentations
ASSETT hosted one of the more than 70 sessions at the 2014 COLTT Conference.聽 ASSETT Teaching with Technology Consultants Jacie Moriyama, Amanda McAndrew, and Nisha Azimova聽spoke to a full house during 聽 The consultants聽presented various formative assessment聽technologies, including聽screencasts, Camtasia, Voicethread, Jing,聽iAnnotate,聽Screenr, and SnagIt.
Additionally, Angela Galik of Red Rocks Community College聽presented research聽about the pros and cons of our growing dependence on electronic devices for learning during her聽'Tech and the Brain' session.聽 Galik聽explained our generational shift from deep attention (thoroughly reading one book without doing anything else) to聽hyper attention (changing focus rapidly, such as stopping work on a project to聽respond to an email because of 聽the flashing alert in the corner of聽the computer screen).聽聽Galik discussed the stress responses involved when we try to balance these distractions while maintaining productivity.
