Workshop Retrospective

Retrospective of July's MANTLE Workshop at George Mason University

The MANTLE Workshop at George Mason University in July of 1995 was a success. There were a total of 33 participants/presenters from 22 institutions and organizations. The workshop provided a chance for representatives of the MANTLE institutions to share activities, experiences, and expertise; an opportunity to explore new ideas, new relationships, and new ways of teaching, learning, and evaluating; and it was a time to begin creating a shared vision of the future, collaborative ventures, and new strategies for ongoing communication.

The workshop opened on Sunday evening July 23 with a reception and dinner at George Mason University. After welcoming remarks from John O'Connor, GMU's Vice Provost for Information Technology, and Alan Daley, Director of External Relations from Bell Atlantic, Chris Dede gave the keynote address that set the tone for the workshop. Telecommunications technologies are clearly transforming the world of business and entertainment, and it is up to educators to determine how best to use these technologies to meet the ever-changing demands of education. Using the emerging information tools challenges educators to rethink approaches to teaching and causes us to look at the opportunities that might not otherwise be available to us. We were thus charged to think creatively and constructively about how the infusion of information technologies will help us meet educational needs.

Starting on Monday morning, we had a series of presentations by individuals representing activities in the states in the region including: New Jersey, Delaware, Pennslyvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. It was clear from these presentations that there is an enormous amount of activity going on in the region in the area of distance/distributed education at the K-12 and higher education levels. Reports from New Jersey, West Virginia, and Delaware made it clear that millions of dollars are being allocated by state agencies for distance learning. In almost every case, the agencies recognize the importance of professional development for teaching faculty. What is not clear in most cases is just how the professional development of the faculties will begin and how it will be sustained. The various presentations gave rise to the discussion of future MANTLE workshops or conferences that would focus on helping faculty in specific domains of knowledge (humanities, science, arts, etc.) come to grips with the power and the potential of the emerging technologies. We also discussed the possibilities of offering online workshops or seminars that would help faculty sustain their professional growth in the application of these technologies to their own teaching areas. Specifically, Tom Lancaster from New Jersey Intercampus Network (NJIN) would like to explore the possibility of holding a faculty-oriented conference in the summer of 1996 in New Jersey. Other discussion focused on possibly adapting George Washington University's current program in Educational Technology Leadership curriculum that is delivered exclusively as a distance learning program as the basis for online seminars and workshops.

Participants were able to learn more about what others were doing and to share expertise through a series of field trips to: Fairfax County School Chappel Square facility, the Extended Learning Institute at Northern Virginia Community College, and the telecommunications facilities at George Washington University. Participants became familiar with what was going on at GMU through the use of the IDO facilities, the exposure to the IDO Web page, and a viewing/browsing area where participants could view GMU's video Distance Learning: Change and Challenge On Campus.

Our vision of the future was shaped by three other experiences. Nat Kannan from University Online presented the UOL software and approach to publishing courses via the World Wide Web. A visit to the Bell Atlantic Video Services installation in Reston gave the group a first-hand look at video-on-demand. The screening of Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers: A Story of the Christopher Columbus School was followed by an enthusiastic discussion led by two representatives from Union City Public Schools -- Tom Highton, Superintendent, and Annette Kaplan, Educational Supervisor. Clearly, the Union City story "opens a window to the future." The changes in Union City are occurring because teachers are committed to improving instruction and are willing to explore the new tools and opportunities presented by communications technology. We will get a VHS copy of the video to any MANTLE member institution that makes a request via e-mail.

Participants also took part in a number of hands-on tutorials for small groups that dealt with topics as diverse as how to develop a good telelecture to developing skills and knowledge of the World Wide Web. The Instructional Development Office laboratory was opened to participant all day and into the evening and was staffed by a technician who could help participants use Web-based resources. Participants were able to look in-depth at sites they had been introduced to in various workshop sessions. For example, Steve Saltzberg presented the template for Web-based courses that is being employed at Virginia Commonwealth University. Jim Rieker introduced the group to some course development activities at Penn State University which can be accessed via the Web; and of course participants could look at the tools being offered by University Online.

The last session of the workshop focused on the important topic evaluation/assessment and was led by Steve Ehrmann of the Annenberg project. He took the group through a series of activities that would help them plan good evaluations and shared the current state of Project Flashlight that is developing evaluation/assessment tools that can be shared and adapted by institutions engaging in distance/distributed education activities.

Click here for a list of MANTLE Members by state.