In her POD post of 27 May 2005 11:40:36-0400 titled "JiTT - available
software?" Francine Glazer wrote:
"A faculty member in the English department at my school is
interested in using JiTT (Just-in-Time-Teaching), and is wondering if
there is any public-access software designed for warmups, whatfors,
etc. on the web, where he can create an account for his students to
use. I didn't know, but thought that some of you might..."
Steve Ehrmann responded [bracketed by lines "EEEEEEEE. . ."]:
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I like JiTT, and I'm guessing any survey or testing software can be
adopted to this purpose. Survey software will tend to organize
responses by question, while testing software organizes it by
student. For JiTT, you'd usually want the former, I think, so I'd
look into whatever survey software your institution already has that
might be sufficiently user-friendly for that faculty member.
Flashlight Online <http://www.tltgroup.org/flashlightonline.htm>
could be used for this purpose. Because the system is shared by 100+
colleges and universities, it's relatively easy for one user to copy
or adapt a survey created by someone else at another institution.
That's the trick, really - a faculty community teaching similar
subjects who gradually develop/share a body of JiTT probes. The
software is secondary.
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It's good to know that there are at least two non-physicists who are
aware of pedagogical material developed by physicists, other than
"Peer Instruction" [Crouch & Mazur (2001)] and "Minute Papers" [due
to Berkeley physicist Charles Schwartz - see (Hake 2001)]. For a
listing of a few "interactive engagement" methods from physics and
their relationship to "learning theories" see Section IIC "Popular
Interactive Engagement Methods" of Hake (2002).
In "Classroom Communication Systems" [Hake (2004)], I wrote:
"[Classroom Communication Systems] may be more effective if used in
conjunction with activities such as 'Just in Time Teaching' (JiTT)
[Novak et al. (1999), Crouch & Mazur (2001)]. JITT induces study of
and thinking about course material PRIOR to the 'lecture.' "
Other JiTT references of possible interest are Gavrin (1996), Gavrin
et al. (undated), Mazur (2000), & Novak et al. (1998, 1999).
"It could well be that faculty members of the twenty-first century
college or university will find it necessary to set aside their roles
as teachers and instead become designers of learning experiences,
processes, and environments."
James Duderstadt (1999)
REFERENCES
Crouch, C.H. & E. Mazur. 2001. "Peer Instruction: Ten years of
experience and results," Am. J. Phys. 69: 970-977; online at
<http://mazur-www.harvard.edu/library.php>, search "All Education
Areas" for author "Crouch" (without the quotes).
Duderstadt, J.J. 1999. "Can Colleges and Universities Survive in the
Information Age?" In Katz, R.N. and Associates, eds., "Dancing With
the
Devil: Information Technology and the New Competition in Higher Education,"
Jossey-Bass.
Gavrin, A. 1996. "Web Physics: Devoted to Teaching and Learning
Physics with World Wide Web Technology," online at
<http:webphysics.iupui.edu/>.
Hake, R.R. 2002. "Lessons from the physics education reform effort,"
Ecology and Society 5(2): 28; online at
<http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol5/iss2/art28/>. Ecology and Society
(formerly Conservation Ecology) is a free online "peer-reviewed
journal of integrative science and fundamental policy research" with
about 11,000 subscribers in about 108 countries.
Novak, G.M., E. Patterson, A. Gavrin, and R.C. Enger. 1998.
"Just-in-time teaching: active learner pedagogy with the WWW." IASTED
International Conference on Computers and Advanced Technology in
Education, May 27 -30, Cancun, Mexico; online at
<http://webphysics.iupui.edu/JITT/ccjitt.html>.
Novak, G. M., E.T. Patterson, A.D. Gavrin, W. Christian. 1999. "Just
in time teaching: Blending Active Learning with Web Technology."
Prentice Hall; description online at
<http://webphysics.iupui.edu/jitt/jitt.html>.