This presentation has only 1 session:

• Friday June 06, 1:30 MST in room SC 206 B

Video Archives

• ttix08_251.mov

(videos require Quicktime)

Teaching Beyond the Book

Purpose of presentation:
This Presentation is meant to introduce the thought and possibilities of using the Internet as a viable and up-to-date data source for teaching.
In many fields of study books are outdated before they make it to the shelf. There are often Internet sources that are updated by experts in the field that are far more current.

Objectives of the presentation:
• Discuss the possibilities of using open free resources in a classroom
• Show examples of ways to “Teach Beyond the Book”
• Show ways to bring Open Education into our online classrooms.

Practical applications:
In practically any discipline we can utilize the up-to-date information available via the Internet to add to our teaching strategies.
There are many subjects that due to available content online can be taught entirely without a text book, thus saving students money

Relationship to the conference theme:
This presentation shows ways to utilize the knowledge made available by technology and making it part of our teaching strategies?

There was a time when education was teaching someone all you knew about a subject from a textbook; resources vastly available through the Internet and other means are changing that. We can now change our method of teaching to that of directing students to information available on the web and simply assessing knowledge gained. We now have the ability to teach beyond the book and even beyond our knowledge by utilizing the combined knowledge of experts around the world.
We are rapidly engaging an age where we have access to more information on a wider range of subjects than the world has ever seen. With a bit of common sense and a good search engine, the supposed “uneducated” are redefining intelligence. There are blogs and wikis and other various Internet sources that contain up to date information about almost every subject imaginable. Why not use them?
I heard a saying once that went something like “All of Us Are Smarter than Any of Us”. The Internet and other online tools now offer an opportunity for global scale collaborative thinking. An amazing door to combined intelligence that allows us to stay up-to date with the rapidly changing disciplines we attempt to teach in our Universities.
Truth and knowledge are not solid unchangeable objects. What is thought true today may not be so true tomorrow and what was thought to be true yesterday has given way to new theories and ideas today. Our education system should be as liquid and changeable as the truth or perception of truth that it tries to pass along. Staying abreast of current knowledge can be much easier done via a medium (Internet) that allows for not just change but instant change.
Our education system should be not be enclosed behind doors, but instead be a window of opportunity. “Open Education” is a bit of a paradigm shift, but perhaps it is something we should pursue and use as a teaching tool to stay current in Fast-changing fields.

Biography
I was raised in Malad Idaho and as a child tried hard avoid school. After finishing the unavoidable, college was not expected or on my “to-do-list, at least until I spent several years working in construction. It is amazing how manual labor can make you ponder getting an education.
Utah Valley State College was the path I choose to attempt to join the intelligent and soon began a new career in the IT field at UVSC. I spent four years working at the Orem based college full time and continue to work on a part time basis in their distance Education department. I am now working full time for the Georgia Board for Regents as a Blackboard Vista trainer with an office at Georgia Southern University.