Difference between revisions of "Grants/Development of “Photovoice Online” an Innovative Teaching Technology"

Describe the project you are proposing as clearly as possible in just five sentences.

Teaching online requires inventive approaches on the part of the instructor in order to facilitate an optimum educational experience. This project involves the adaptation of a known research strategy called “photovoice” (Wang & Burris, 1997) to become an interactive online teaching technology. As online educators we have experimented in a very beginning way with the use of photovoice (PV) in two graduate classes in the Masters of Nursing and Masters of Leadership Programs at Athabasca University. On initial assessment it appears that PV has great potential to influence the distance learning experience in a positive way. Specifically PV appears to focus student attention, stimulate creative thinking, and help create community in the online environment (Perry, 2006).

Detail the tangible project output (e.g., paper, blog post, written materials, video/film, etc.; this would be in addition to the final written report that successful grant recipients will be expected to deliver to CC at the conclusion of the project).

The outcomes of this project would be to: - translate the PV research strategy into an online teaching technology, - trial the PV teaching strategy and make refinements, - create a shareable database resource centre for educators who would like to use PV, and to - disseminate details regarding the PV online teaching strategy including how to use it, the location of the PV resources resulting from this project, and the possible positive benefits of PV to distance learning.

Describe the community you are targeting. How would the project benefit the community?

The community targeted is online educators in any discipline. Specifically the purpose of the project is to invent a new teaching technology that can be used by online educators around the world in their courses. The most tangible outcome would be a unique, highly usable, creative interactive teaching technology and a database of photovoice images and associated questions that could be used by online educators in many fields.br />

What is your relationship with the community you are targeting? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in related projects?

I have been teaching online at Athabasca University for the past 10 years in both undergraduate and graduate courses in the Faculty of Health Disciplines. My teaching philosophy is based on using creative teaching strategies to engage learners and encourage them to take risks and achieve high levels of academic accomplishment. I believe strongly in the importance on interaction in the online classroom and invent and use teaching approaches that make me real to the virtual learner. Most recently I have been studying artistic pedagogical technologies (APTs), online teaching tools founded in the arts. Photovoice is one of these strategies that has already proven successful. However it is not well known in the online teaching community and a prepared database of photovoice learning objects (the goal of this project) would provide other online teachers with a resource they could use in their own teaching. I am the best person for this project because I have experience with photovoice, I have a numerous photovoice learning objects to share and the resources to develop more.

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact - on your main participants? Other contributors? On the larger community?

Once the photovoice database and resource center is developed and offered to the online teaching community the use could be tracked. The more users who access and employ photovoice in their courses the more successful the project would be. I propose that we follow-up with those who use photovoice in their courses to determine the impact of the teaching strategy on students and instructors. I am currently studying the effect of photovoice in selected courses using several measures focused on students and instructors who consent to participant. These measures are -

How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement?

Our research team would head the project. The team includes Dr. Margaret Edwards, RN, PhD Professor, Athabasca University and Cynthia Menzies, BEd, MHS (student), Athabasca University and me.

I anticipate that the photovoice database resource center once created could be accessed by hundreds of educators worldwide (English speaking). We would solicit a group of approximately 20 users to test the database once it is established. Once the database is functional we would advertise its availability on CC sites, in scholarly conference presentations and papers published in academic journals read by online teachers.

Describe how your project will benefit Creative Commons' mission to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content) in "the commons".

Photovoice is a creative teaching strategy. Online teachers need creative teaching technologies that maximize interaction, social presence, and community. There are few references in the literature related to specific non-traditional online teaching technologies. Our team published findings related to three interactive online teaching technologies (photovoice, virtual reflective centers, and conceptual quilting) demonstrating positive educational outcomes (Perry & Edwards, 2005; Perry & Edwards, 2006; Perry, Dalton, & Edwards, 2009). Interestedly these three strategies are founded in the arts (visual arts and drama). Such artistic approaches value aesthetics as well as reason (Schneiderman, 2005. The aesthetic nature of artistic based pedagogues links them to creativity.

The worth of the arts as a teaching tool has been recognized in face-to-face education (Brett-McLean, 2007) yet the translation of creativity and artistic pedagogy to the online classroom seems to be a new idea. Researchers say there is a need to move from traditional pedagogies which no longer satisfy today’s learner and to “develop and implement alternative interpretative pedagogies” (Brown, Kirkpatrick, Magnum, & Avery, 2008, p. 283). 

With the growth in communications technology, current students exhibit very different learning characteristics. Coined the “net generation,” today’s learners are “digital natives who are connected /wired,” and who “use multiple forms of communications” (Skiba, 2006, p. 162). Skiba concludes, “This generation views learning as a social and constructive activity that must be experiential, engaging, interactive, and collaborative” (p. 103).

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use. What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs?

This project will require technical assistance with the development of a searchable database resource center that will house the photovoice images and affiliated questions. Members of the research team are skilled in the development of the photovoice learning objects (digital photography and question development) and in categorizing and cross-listing learning objects. This project would need database development expertise.

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them?

Challenges would be minimal. We have an idea for a creative teaching tool and a vision for how this resource could be accessed and used by educators around the world. What we need is the technical assistance to take the learning objects and house them in a database that can be shared. With appropriate technical expertise to establish and maintain this database we will have the first step in success.

Part two of the project involves measuring the usage and effect of the photovoice learning tool in various classrooms. This challenge involves research expertise and the time and resources to follow-up with users to gather their feedback and then to make necessary adjustments to the database.

The third challenge involves keeping the database updated by adding new images and questions. This could be addressed by having design and technical assistance approximately 1 day per month.

How do you plan to sustain your project after the Creative Commons funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future?

Once this is an established product it would require very little ongoing funding. Athabasca University may provide technical support to a successful product as it could be a resource for faculty from all faculties. Additional development of photovoice learning objects would be part of the normal workload of faculty involved in the project from the beginning. If additional funds are required to sustain the project grants would be sought from other funding agencies such as the Western Regional Canadian Association of Nurses who have funds dedicated to innovative educational projects.

How can this project be scalable, or have a scalable impact?

Yes it is scalable. Additional photovoice learning objects could be added to the database to enlarge the amount of teaching material available. Additional users could be added as the teaching strategy becomes more well known and popular in educational communities. It may be necessary to add memory etc. to the system as the amount of educational material offered increases by this addition would have a proportional impact on performance.

What resources and support do you expect Creative Commons to provide to your project to ensure its success (if any)?

Technical assistance with database resource center development and opportunities to make g Creative Commons members aware of the photovoice resource are the two primary needs for this project to succeed.

Describe how your organization currently communicates with its community members and network partners. (100 words)

Athabasca University is a leader in open and distance university education. It is well positioned to provide reduce barriers to post-secondary learning to students around the world. Communication with stakeholders around the world (students, faculty, support staff, researchers, governments, policy makers, alumni) is largely through electronic means.

Legal

No