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Jesse Stommel was the keynote speaker at the Second Annual ASSETT Teaching with Technology Symposium. ÌýAbout 50 CU faculty and staff representing more than one CU campus attended his talk, "Rewriting the Syllabus: Examining New Hybrid and Online Pedagogies."

ASSETT Director Michele Jackson led an introduction about what it means to teach with technology. ÌýShe thanked the audience andÌýsaid, "None of what we do would work without you. ÌýThank you for being engaged. ÌýThank you for being part of our community."

CU Boulder Associate Professor of English R L Widmann introduced Stommel.

Stommel began his talk with open ended questions for the audience: 'Why do we use technology? ÌýHow should we handle technology?' ÌýHe encouraged the audience to thinkÌýcritically about technology.Ìý Stommel launched an interactive activity, inviting the audience to shout out what came to their minds when it came to 'chalkboard pedagogy' versus 'digital pedagogy.' ÌýStommel captured the audience's ideas on two white boards.

Stommel first asked the audience, "What do we associate with chalkboards?" ÌýThe audience brainstormed the words: "Dust, flexibility, reliable, erasable, immediacy, not password protected, in the moment, slow technology, interactive, physical, bold, and temporary." ÌýOne faculty member mentioned that, with such live learning, you can see the "ahaÌýmoment happen or not happen"Ìýin students' eyes. ÌýOne professor said she preferred the flexibility to draw arrows on the board to connect different ideas with each other. ÌýAt the same time, the audience also acknowledged how potentially intimidating and vulnerable live writing on a chalkboard can be, especially when inviting students to interact.

Next, Stommel asked audience members, "What has been effective about digital pedagogy as a teacher or a learner?" ÌýThe dry erase board brainstorm that ensued included the ideas, "Long lasting, share-able, unreliable, expensive, 24/7, scale-able, searchable, compute-able, manageable, pre-planned, pre-scripted, improvisational, asynchronous, as needed, spell check enabled, reliable, and archive-able." ÌýOne audience member said that the digital space can open up more opportunities for students with disabilities and even for students who have to stay home sick.

Considering an Interactive Syllabus

Then, Stommel led a discussion about online learning, first detailing the growth that is already taking place in online courses at post secondary institutions. ÌýStommel recommended professors put as much consideration into setting up their online classes as they would any other class. ÌýHeÌýencouraged the audience to involve their students in the evolution of a course's curriculum, and he quoted Dave Carnier in saying, "Curriculum...is constructed and negotiated in real time by the contributions of those engaged in the learning process..." Ìý He usedÌýaÌýjazz metaphor of improvisation: "The joy in the song is when you break from the melody...A syllabus is something you create in advance, but we're open to improvisations." ÌýHe encouraged faculty to be open to incorporating students' needs and interests into the syllabus. ÌýStommel suggested that professors could even invite students to co-author the syllabus. ÌýThe group discussed actually putting a syllabus into a Google Drive document open to students to contribute. ÌýOne audience member suggested giving students standards and asking them how they would like the standards taught throughout theÌýsemester: what kinds of homework at which points in the semester--collaborative, small projects or big projects? ÌýStommel agreed, saying, "Teachers need to talk less and listen more."

Stommel stressed the importance of forming an online community with students and remembering that they are real people. ÌýHeÌýtouched on the nuts and bolts of actually planning an online course. ÌýStommel addressed the challenges that professors encounter in learning to use online learning management systems, saying, "When we teach online, we haveÌýto build both the course and the classroom..." ÌýThe group even discussed students taking collaborative notes together during a lecture on a Google Drive document. ÌýStommel said that, "More and more, learning is less about critical thinking and more about critical contribution."

An audience member suggested the idea ofÌýonline learning as a more affordable alternative to the traditional university model, and the discussion turned toward online learning as a mechanism to help "higher education to survive." ÌýStommelÌýstressed that professors should remember the principle that, "Learning is emergent...Educators at every level must begin byÌýlistening toÌýand trusting students...The teacherÌýstands to learn more from students about online learning than we could ever teach."

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After Stommel's talk, Religious Studies Professor Holly Gayley receivedÌýthe 2013-2014 ASSETT Teaching with Technology Award. Then,Ìýaudience members were invited toÌýbrowse hers and other faculty seminar participants' demonstrations of use of technology in teaching. ÌýThese faculty participated in both the Teaching with Technology Faculty Seminar and the Hybrid and Online Course Design Seminar.