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. A research strategy called “photovoice” (Wang & Burris, 1997) has been adapted to become an interactive online teaching technology (Perry, 2006). The photovoice (PV) teaching strategy involves the use of a digital image combined with a reflective question that challenges student thinking on a course topic. 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). The project we are proposing involves the creation on a sharable database of previously created PV learning objects that could be used by educators in many disciplines.
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: 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 resource database 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 develop a database resource center of PV teaching objects and inform online educators re the availability and usefulness of this tool.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 including eduction, nursing and health, science, and humanities.br />
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 beginning library of photovoice learning objects (not currently in a shareable database) 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 the Social Presence Scale (Richardson & Swan, 2003) and the Classroom Cohesion Scale (Rovai, 2002).
Another indication of success of the project would be if users contribute PV teaching objects that they develop to the database resource center.
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. 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). The creation of the photovoice database resource center would provide users of "the commons" with access to a new creative teaching resource.
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. Funds could also assist in the development of the a wide range of photovoice learning objects (digital photography and question development) and in categorizing and cross-listing learning objects. Assistance would also be used to disseminate information about the existence of the database resource center and how to use PV. This project would need database development expertise and photovoice learning object development skills.
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. What we need is the technical assistance to take the learning objects we have and put them into a database resource center that users can access. With appropriate technical expertise to establish and maintain this database we will have the first step in success.
The second challenge involves keeping the database updated and making it larger by adding new images and questions. This could be addressed by having design and technical assistance approximately 1 day per month in the beginning. It is anticipated that as this resource center becomes more well known users would contribute their own PV learning objects to the database helping it to remain current and to grow.
The third challenge is making potential users aware of this resource. This would be accomplished by sharing the resource on the commons, presenting research related to PV at conferences and publishing article related to the project/PV teaching tool.
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 the database resource center would require very little ongoing funding. Additional development and updating of of photovoice learning objects could be provided by the users as noted above. 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 has 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 and to make it useful to educators from a larger variety of disciplines. 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.
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 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 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.
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