Montgomery College
Inside This Issue
Enthusiasm as a Part of
Professional Development .... 1
Tammy Peery Wins State
Award .................................... 3
From the Editor .................... 3
From the CTL Director ......... 4
Mark Your Calendar for
Professional Development
Saturday Series (PDSS) ........ 4
Writing in the Disciplines at
Montgomery College: Past,
Present, and Future............... 5
Quote of the Month ............... 5
How Can I Get My Students
Involved in Meaningful
Learning ............................... 6
CTL Workshops ..................... 7
Bringing Web 2.0 Ideology
to the Classroom ................... 8
Guidelines for Contributions
to Focus on Faculty .............. 8
Teaching Our Digital
Natives .................................. 9
Focus on Faculty is published by the CTL to offer faculty a place to share information about teaching and learning.
Center for Teaching and Learning April 2010
Enthusiasm as a Part of Professional Development
by Stephen D. Cain, Instructional Dean, Natural & Applied Sciences, Busi-
ness, Management & Information Sciences, Takoma Park/Silver Spring
“Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.”
~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet and philosopher
Your enthusiasm makes a difference.
No matter what subject you teach, no matter whether the course is advanced or developmental,
no matter how well prepared the students are, your enthusiasm makes a difference. Students
respond to a faculty member who is enthusiastic about the subject matter, about teaching,
and about students succeeding. Enthusiasm is contagious.
Teaching isn’t just a job. It’s a profession. Most community college faculty have come into
the profession to do good and be a force of change in the world. They embrace the chang-
ing-lives mission of Montgomery College and live out that mission every time they interact
with students. It is not uncommon for
faculty to cheer on their students as
they complete a course, complete a
program, or complete a degree beyond
Montgomery College.
But who cheers on the faculty? How do
faculty continue to grow themselves?
The answer: professional develop-
ment.
Professional Development
At certain times we pause to reflect
about our own professional develop-
ment. One example occurs during the
self-evaluation of the faculty perfor-
mance review. In this exercise, faculty members are asked to list professional development
activities and write about how those activities have supported their work.
Thinking about professional development during a performance review is good, but it’s not
enough. Reflection about growing as a professional must be an ongoing process, one that is
sparked daily by experiences with students and with colleagues.
There are at least three major types of professional development activities. The avenues a
faculty member chooses to pursue depend on unique personal factors and needs.
(See Professional Development, continued on page 2)
 A Publication by Montgomery College Faculty
Montgomery College Center for Teaching and Learning
(Professional Development, continued from page 1)
Those three types are:
1. content knowledge (what we teach)
2. pedagogy (how we teach it)
3. the “industry” (where we teach)
Each of these is important and is explored further in the fol-
lowing paragraphs.
Content Knowledge
To enhance content knowledge, many faculty belong to profes-
sional organizations in their field. After completing a master’s
or a doctorate and launching a teaching career, faculty are ex-
perts in their fields. Every field of study is constantly creating
new research and new knowledge, and faculty benefit from
staying aware of developments. That awareness manifests itself
in improved course content for students and sometimes new
courses or even new degrees. We often think of curriculum as
set and final (especially after successfully completing a cur-
riculum proposal process), but curriculum is a living thing.
There are many ways to develop content knowledge. Attending a
conference of your professional organization is a good start. Read-
ing the organization’s journals and newsletters is another. Net-
working with individuals within the organization is also helpful.
Pedagogy
Experience is a powerful teacher. A faculty member new to the
classroom may come with ideas and philosophies about how
teaching and learning will occur, only to have some of those
notions challenged after working with real students. These
experiences often lead to creative re-shaping of assumptions
and methodological experimentation, usually for the better.
A second-year teacher is almost always better than he/she
was in the first year. There’s often continuous improvement
every year during the career of a conscientious professional.
Understanding what is happening in the brains of stu-
dents during the learning process is a challenge for every
educator. Brain science is more sophisticated now than
ever before and offers more potential into understand-
ing how learning occurs. Remembering what it is like not
to know something is a powerful mindset for a teacher.
Students’ internal motivation is critical to their success.
Having an appreciation for things to say (or not say) and
things to do (or not do) in class can impact motivation.
A famous songwriter once said, “you can’t start a fire with
2
April 2010
out a spark.” Students have to have an inner spark, but faculty
can influence whether or not it explodes in flame. Technol-
ogy continues to shape and re-shape the teaching/learning
experience with new possibilities for faculty/student com-
munications, research, and
access to information.
A famous songwriter These include software
once said, “you can’t and Internet instructional
start a fire without tools, social networking
a spark.” Students services, and podcasting.
No one faculty member
have to have an inner
has to be an expert in all of
spark, but faculty
these things, but everyone
can influence whether should be aware of their
or not it explodes in capabilities and use them
flame. as appropriate to increase
student engagement.
There are many opportunities for professional development
in pedagogy, including attending professional educational
organizations’ conferences and reading their journals. In addi-
tion, Montgomery College’s Center for Teaching and Learning
offers many relevant workshops and programs.
The “Industry”
We who are in the higher education “industry” provide a
critical service for the advancement of individuals and of
society in general. Higher education is a completely dis-
cretionary activity; no one must avail themselves of what
we offer, yet millions seek us out every day. There are over
1,100 community colleges in the U.S. and more than twice
as many universities. Developing knowledge of how these
organizations operate and evolve is another important aspect
of professional development.
Every organization has certain structural components that
create ways for people to interact with each other. Different
units have different responsibilities, and people within the
units have some subset of the unit’s role in the organization.
Every faculty member, staff member, and administrator is a
member of a team. Growing in understanding of how team
members work together effectively and how a college operates
effectively is a matter of organizational development.
The professional development opportunities for learning about
teams, communication, organizations, and leadership all fall
under this category. All employees, but especially those in
leadership roles, can benefit from programs aimed at orga-
nizational development. In addition, many higher education
professional organizations exist to enhance the understanding
of the “business” side of higher education. The opportunities
these provide through their conferences and journals are also
valuable.
(See Professional Development, continued on page 3)
 A Publication by Montgomery College Faculty

Montgomery College Center for Teaching and Learning April 2010

(Professional Development, continued from page 2)
Engaging in Professional Development
Although featured prominently above, conferences and
journals are hardly the only methods by which to engage in
professional development. There are many options, and those
that provide the biggest bang for the buck should be the first
to be considered in tight budget times. Some examples include
online seminars or recorded workshops on CD. Occasionally, a
conference speaker will come to an institution for a fraction of
the cost of sending many faculty to the conference. Closer to
home, our own CTL has a wide variety of excellent offerings.
And when it comes to journals, the MC Library has a col-
lection of journals, mostly electronic, that is second to none.
Many professional organizations offer blogs or other com-
munication venues to connect members who share ideas about
important issues. Those networking opportunities offer many
insights from colleagues in similar roles at other institutions.
Conclusion
Whether you’re involved in a performance review or not,
think about professional development. Examine your own
interests, your own strengths and weaknesses, and seek out
opportunities to grow professionally, whether it be in the area
of content knowledge, in the area of pedagogy, or in the area
of higher education. As you grow, you will kindle the spark
of your own enthusiasm for all you do. And that enthusiasm
is going to catch on. ™
Tammy Peery Wins State Award For
Distance Learning
by Bryant Davis, Professor of English, German-
town
“Twenty-eight, pregnant, and online”: that’s how Tammy
Peery describes her foray into teaching by distance learn-
ing. That was 11 years ago. Now, Tammy, an English
professor and department chair at Germantown, is the
Maryland State’s Distance Educator of the Year, joining
many of her colleagues at Montgomery College who have
recently won state awards for teaching. The Maryland Dis-
tance Learning Association (MDLA) bestowed the award
March 4th in Baltimore.
Tammy began teaching by distance learning at the sug-
gestion of Gary Pittenger, an English professor who has
since retired. Understanding Tammy and her husband were
starting a family, he urged her to teach online so her time
would be more flexible. That may have been how Tammy
began, but she has never slowed down. She co-chairs the
Montgomery College Distance Learning Task Group,
presents frequently at workshops, has developed a model
for the college’s common courses, has reviewed other
classes as part of the Quality Matters (QM) program, and
had one of her own classes approved as a Quality Matters
class. Oh, and she and her husband Emerson also have two
children. Congratulations to Tammy! ™

From the Editor

by Bryant Davis, Editor, CTL Newsletter

It seems remarkable that only a few short weeks ago we were immersed in the greatest snowfall our area has known. And
now we are within site of graduation. Along the way, the snow has melted, the trees have leafed out, and the days have
grown longer and warmer, an amazing transformation. Just as the world around us has altered, so have we. We, who have
dedicated our lives to teaching, have come to find that we have also changed. We are not the educators we were at the
beginning of the semester, and our hope is that we have become all the stronger, all the wiser, all the better.

This issue of Focus on Faculty addresses professional development. Steve Cain, Instructional Dean at Takoma Park/Silver
Spring, discusses a crucial part of our profession—enthusiasm. Miller Newman, CTL Director, tells us how we can design
our own professional development by drawing from resources here at the College. While other resources have become
less available, the CTL still hosts a variety of workshops and offers a number of services that can help us more become
the educators we want to be.

In other articles, Christina Devlin, English Professor, discusses one of the resources here at the College, which is the Writing
in the Disciplines Initiative. Joseph Nwoye, Instructional Designer for the CTL, answers the question “How do I get my
student involved in meaningful learning?” And Dru Ryan, the Coordinator of the CTL, looks at bringing outside technol-
ogy into the classroom, something almost all of us struggle with. Are Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites
hindrances in the classroom or helps? With the proliferation of computers and cell phones, we benefit by knowing more
about technology. In that way, Dru’s article brings a little professional development to us all. The students we teach now
are very different from the students we first learned to teach. Just as the world around us transforms, so do we, and so does
the world in our classrooms. Here’s to a brighter day for all.
3
 A Publication by Montgomery College Faculty
Montgomery College Center for Teaching and Learning
From the CTL Director
by Miller Newman, Ed.D., Director
Design Your Own Faculty Professional Development
There is change afoot at the CTL. This is
my third semester as the Director of The
Center for Teaching and Learning. I fol-
low in the footsteps of faculty and staff
whose names are familiar to all but the
newest of us. Colleagues like Professor
Helen Youth, the CTL’s first Director; Ron
Liss; Pattie Bartlett and Alan Vincent; and
John Coliton each in their own time and
style cultivated and nurtured the concept of faculty profes-
sional development here at Montgomery College. In the
beginning, the CTL was a couple of computers and received
its financial support from each of the Rockville Instruc-
tional Deans. Today, the CTL is a Collegewide unit that has
a presence on all three campuses, a new lineup of offerings,
a dedicated staff, and an unwavering commitment to engag-
ing faculty and students in their own teaching and learning.
Our classes are full of eager students who defy generalization
and broad group identities. Diversity is our newest mantra,
and we have every reason to believe that teaching a diverse
student population will include text messaging; Facebook;
YouTube; Second, Third, or Fourth Life; computer access
24/7 to class assignments, current grades, discussion boards,
video streaming, and pictures, pictures, and more pictures.
A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education noted
that, while many colleges and universities are shutting down
their professional development programs for faculty, just as
many are keeping them open because student learning is so
important to all of us (Glenn). Glenn makes one more point
that I think bears repeating because it addresses a direction
that I think will profit all of us in the classroom. Glenn quotes
Michael Theall, the president of the Professional and Organi-
zational Development Network and an associate professor of
teacher education at Youngstown State University, who said,
Educational technology has its own pull on the resources
of an institution. But while the machines are great, the
issue is how we can help people to use those machines to
greatest advantage. And you need two kinds of support for
that. You need the tech support, obviously. But then you
also need the instructional-design support: Here is how
to use that technology to support student learning.
The CTL instructional designers, Dr. Carol Annink, GT, and
Dr. Joseph Nwoye, R, are dyed in the wool pedagogists who
are preparing to work with faculty individually or in small
workgroups to explore how technology can support student
learning in composition, literature, math, science, engineering,
4
April 2010
political science, hospitality, or your specific course con-
tent.
The CTL instructional designers are charged with working
with all faculty to help you enhance your course content
with both pedagogical and technological tools. We want to
personalize your teaching and learning experience as you seek
to customize your professional development plan. We are
here to serve you. If you would like to talk with us to explore
what options you have to enhance your instruction by using
technology or pedagogy, we will meet with you and work
with you until you are satisfied with your learning. Please
check the Professional Development System (PDS) for our
most current offerings.
We are especially proud to announce two new offerings this
semester:
1. The Diversity Series: Education and the Implications for
Teaching and Learning
2. Planning and Executing Collaborative and Active Learn-
ing Techniques: A Three Workshop Series.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to actually experience how
well technology and pedagogy go together. Please save the
date, Saturday, May 1, 8:30-1:00. It promises to be a really
exciting event.
Glenn, David. (2009). “Wary of Budget Knife, Teaching
Centers Seek to Sharpen Their Role.” Chronicle of Higher
Education 8/18. ™
Mark Your Calendar for
Professional Development
Saturday Series (PDSS)
Saturday, May 1, 8:30-1:00 PM
This event will showcase the academic
research and experience of our faculty
and staff through workshops, round-
table discussions, and poster sessions.
CO-SPONSORED BY
THE CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
& THE OFFICE OF EQUITY AND DIVERSITY
Teaching our
“Digital Natives”
 A Publication by Montgomery College Faculty
Montgomery College Center for Teaching and Learning
Writing in the Disciplines at Montgomery
College: Past, Present, and Future
by Christina Devlin, Ph.D., English, Germantown
An Overview of Writing in the Disciplines
The Writing in the Disciplines initiative offers Montgomery
College faculty and students the opportunity to explore the
goals and purposes of both formal and informal academic
writing in specific fields of study. The Writing in the Dis-
ciplines (WID) program began with a Make It Happen In-
novation Grant proposed by Dr. Rita Kranidis of the Takoma
Park/Silver Spring English Department.
She realized many faculty outside English
wanted a forum to discuss what constitutes
good writing—especially how to assign and
evaluate college writing. As a result of her
research, a program of faculty fellowships
and campus coordinators soon followed,
and the program received the Diana Hacker
Exemplary Program for Reaching Across
Borders Award at the National Council for
Teachers of English Convention this year.
Presently, Writing in the Disciplines offers
opportunities for all faculty and students to participate in im-
proving academic writing at Montgomery College.
In 2006 and 2007, Writing in the Disciplines sponsored
several Faculty Fellowship seminars with more than twenty
participants from about sixteen disciplines. Sociology Pro-
fessor Benedict Ngala notes about the faculty fellowships
that, “Through the WID, I have learned that writing is not
just about term papers, but also includes informal writing,
peer evaluation, and non-graded writing. These assignments
provide students with the opportunity to develop a socio-
logical imagination.” Each participant in the Writing in the
Disciplines Faculty Fellowship prepared a portfolio of ideas
and assignments for his or her discipline, which can be found
at http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/WID/
The_WID_Faculty_Fellowship.htm.
Professional Development for Writing in the Disciplines
The Writing in the Disciplines initiative offers a number of
workshops each semester. In the fall of 2009, popular semi-
nars such as “Managing the Paperload” and “Writing Beyond
Borders” (about non-native English writers) were offered.
“Since I started taking part in WID professional development
activities,” says Professor Jennifer Haydel, of political science,
“I have developed more innovative and diverse ways of incor-
porating writing in my courses. I have also developed a better
understanding of how writing expectations translate across
disciplines because of WID’s multidisciplinary approach.”
5
April 2010
Seminars for the spring include Academic Honesty and Pla-
giarism—a critical topic for all students and disciplines—and
a new workshop on the role of writing in promoting psycho-
logical wellbeing. In addition, Writing in the Disciplines is
developing a collection of materials for each campus library,
encompassing both general academic writing resources and
discipline-specific works, and an academic writing research
guide for students.
Opportunities for Students
Writing in the Disciplines expanded last year, when, as a result
of the excellent writing assignments posed by Montgomery
College faculty, the program launched a
contest for exemplary student writing.
Students submitted both formal essays and
informal class writing, and pieces were
selected representing disciplines from
art to biology to sociology (see them at
http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/De-
partments/WID/student_writings/index.
html). This year’s contest will open before
the end of fall semester, and the 2009-10
exemplary student writings will be pub-
lished in May 2010.
The Future of Writing in the Disciplines
The future of the Writing in the Disciplines program depends
on you and your students! Faculty and students are encouraged
to suggest ways that Writing in the Disciplines can improve
student writing in all disciplines. WID coordinators can work
individually or with small or large groups to help incorporate
writing effectively into courses. Please feel free to contact the
college coordinator, Dr. Christina Devlin (christina.devlin@
montgomerycollege.edu, or 240-567-6925); or one of your
campus coordinators:
• Benedict Ngala, Sociology, Germantown
• Deborah Stearns, Psychology, Rockville
• James Smith, Biology, Takoma Park/Silver Spring
You can also visit the Writing in the Disciplines website at
http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/WID/ for
more resources. ™
Quote of the month...
“We will learn no matter what! Learning is as natural as rest or
play. With or without books, inspiring trainers or classrooms
we will manage to learn. Educators can, however, make a
difference in what people learn and how well they learn it”
Malcolm Knowles, Educator
 A Publication by Montgomery College Faculty
Montgomery College Center for Teaching and Learning
Engagement: How Can I Get My Students
Involved in Meaningful Learning?
by Joseph Nwoye, Ph.D.
Instructional Designer, Center for Teaching and
Learning
Fink (1993) asserts that, “learning
is not an automatic consequence of
pouring information into a student’s
head.” He reminds us that “it re-
quires the learner’s own mental in-
volvement and doing.” He further
reminds us that “only learning that
is active will lead to real, lasting and meaningful learning.”
Clearly, Fink follows present and past educators who advo-
cated or are still advocating active involvement of learners
in studying, solving real world problems, and applying and
transferring what they know to solve new or complex problems.
Some of the notables that advocate active learning, which is
a derivative of the cognitive theory of teaching and learning
are Piaget, Montessori, Vygotsky, Bruno, Nwoye, Gardner,
Rensick, Agubel, Dewey, and Crowin, just to mention a few.
In light of Fink’s and other cognitive educators’ call for
meaningful and active involvement of students in learn-
ing processes, I will attempt to answer the question, “How
can I get my students involved in meaningful learning?”
For anyone to do justice to the question, the individual
must accept Fink’s assertion that “learning is not an auto-
matic consequence of pouring information into a student’s
head.” Therefore, for meaningful learning to occur, an in-
structor must invite the learner to participate in the active
construction, discovery, and transformation of knowledge.
For an individual to learn meaningfully, the instructor
must guide the learner through the following two steps:
1. Teaching basic or fundamental knowledge —the instructor
teaches definitions that may be subject/content specific.
This gives the student a foundational understanding that
will help the student learn more. Meanwhile, the instructor
continues to guide the learner by introducing new concepts.
2. Teaching how to connect concepts in a complex
schema—the educator helps the students learn by em-
ploying instructional mapping. In instructional map-
ping, the relationships among concepts are represented
visually. The aim is to help the student relate different
concepts in a complex schema (Gowin & Novak, 1994).
At this point of the learning process, the instructor guides the
learner to understand how to use the knowledge in multiple ways,
6
April 2010
thus providing different meanings. As a result, the students
improve their ability to engage in all kinds of thinking
that often leads to meaningful and purposeful learning.
A purposeful invitation to meaningful learning requires an
instructor to understand how meaningful learning occurs.
Meaningful learning is grounded in the belief that learning
occurs in stages as indicated above. It starts with basic knowl-
edge, which could be in the form of a definition, label, list, or
name, in which the learner gains a basic understanding. This
understanding allows the learner to order, recognize, relate,
recall, repeat, and reproduce the information that has been
taught (Bloom). Then, the learner must apply such knowledge
in ways that authenticate what was learned. In turn, the learner
uses conceptual knowledge stemming from complex schema
and applies the knowledge to manipulate related concepts in
dealing with new, abstract situations.
Clearly, instructors who are concerned about the quality of
learning, such as the one that posed the question, can, in fact
facilitate meaningful learning in the classroom simply by fol-
lowing the above steps regardless of the subject matter. The
instructor must embrace a curriculum design approach that
factors Fink’s and Bloom’s view of knowledge construction
with a commitment to implement the same. My advice is for
instructors to heed to Fink’s assertion and then follow the
steps laid out above in the context of the subject matter while
ensuring that the learning process goes recursively instead
of linearly. Instructors who buy into the idea of learning as
building from basic knowledge in a recursive, conceptual, and
relations manner would dramatically appreciate how learning
these intergrated concepts help apply such knowledge.
In a nutshell, for the question of “how can I get my students
involved in meaningful learning?” an instructor who wants to
ensure meaningful learning has to first ensure that learners are
exposed to basic or foundational knowledge. For anyone to
learn about any topic, activity, or subject, the individual must
learn to acquire, concepts, and perspectives. The individual
must retrieve or recall this basic knowledge to deal with re-
lated knowledge. Jerome Bruner reminds us that all subjects
have a certain logic or conceptual structure associated with
the field. Based on this idea, instructors must teach factual
knowledge connected to a particular subject while they help
learners gain a better understanding of the subject’s conceptual
structure. The students can then use their knowledge to learn
something worthwhile.
Speaking of learning something worthwhile, almost all in-
structors want their students to learn something worthwhile.
Instructors want students to transfer what they learned to
deal with new problems, which is expected either in their
field or in a general sense when dealing with daily events.
(See How Can I Get My Students Involved, continued on page 6)
 A Publication by Montgomery College Faculty

Montgomery College Center for Teaching and Learning April 2010

(How Can I Get My Students Involved, continued from page 5)
Application is the essence of learning. Clearly this is what ev-
ery instructor desires for his or her students. In fact, instructors
often discuss that what they want most for their students is for
them to develop to a level where they can use the knowledge
they gained to solve new, real world problems.
In summary, building from basic knowledge, learning con-
cepts, and linking and intergrating concepts in the form of
integrated concepts powers the learner’s ability to understand
how concepts are related and integrated in meaningful ways.
Students need to see how concepts are related to each other
in recursive ways to ensure meaningful learning. Instructors
are therefore encouraged to act appropriately. ™
CTL Workshops
Spring 2010 - April through May
Bringing Web 2.0 Ideology to the
Classroom
by Dru Ryan, CTL Coordinator
In last December’s issue, Campus Technol-
ogy magazine cited Facebook as the number
one site for college students, with MySpace
being pushed to #6. Other sites in the top ten
are Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, LiveJournal,
YouTube, Amazon, and CNN.com. While the
Internet has always been a lure for students
with laptops, social networking sites provide
greater interactivity and, with it, long periods of distraction.
A new paradigm, dubbed Web 2.0, is beginning to change the
way the web works. Web 2.0 tools and services move beyond
the “one-way” Internet of the late 1990s and early 2000s and
allow users to participate. Wikipedia.com (an example of web
2.0 technology) provides this description:

• Creating Effective Research Assign- Web 2.0 is commonly associated with web applications
ments that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoper-
• Creating User Generated Content ability, user-centered design,[1] and collaboration on the
with Flip Cams World Wide Web. Examples of Web 2.0 include web-based
communities, hosted services, web applications, social-net-
• Creating Your Personal Technology
Toolkit working sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups,
and folksonomies. A Web 2.0 site allows its users to interact
• Diversity Series Part 2: Education with other users or to change website content, in contrast
and the Implications for Teaching to non-interactive websites where users are limited to the
and Learning in our Global Com-
passive viewing of information that is provided to them.
munity
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0]
• Introduction to Service-Learning:
Best Practices and College Resourc- Until Web 2.0, technology had always been an end product. You
es created a spreadsheet, or webpage, or PowerPoint presentation
• Outcomes Assessment Basics and then shared it with others. Now, technology allows for
• Preparing Dynamic Lectures: Use a cooperative
of PowerPoint Sound, Transition, and continu-
Graphics and Illustrations ous endeavor.
You may start
• Root Beer Roundtables: Pedagogy
Discussion Series a Facebook or
Twitter page
• Top Ten Mac Applications for the and then invite
Classroom others to join.
• Understanding Formulas in Excel Or you may
for Gradesheets create a You-
• Visual Communication: Concept Tube page or
Maps, Timelines and Screencasts a wiki or blog,
but, without
• Writing in the Disciplines: Avoiding
Plagiarism and Encouraging Aca- interaction
demic Integrity in College Research from other
users, you are
the proverbial tree falling in the woods (with no one around
To learn more and to register, go to
http://pds.montgomerycollege.edu to hear it).

(See Bringing 2.0 Ideology to the Classroom, continued on page 8)

7
 A Publication by Montgomery College Faculty
Montgomery College Center for Teaching and Learning
(Bringing Web 2.0 Ideology to the Classroom, continued from page 8)
Bringing that ideology to the classroom can be difficult.
Primarily due to ALL THE OTHER distractions the Internet
provides. Yes, we have all walked by a classroom and seen the
student in the corner surfing the Internet with no regard for the
subject matter being taught. We have seen the mobile phones
under the desks as students try to text without the teacher
knowing. But can there be a positive side to this?
At a recent faculty training session, the topic of using social
networking sites came up in class, and each faculty member
had their own anecdotes and strategies. One approach was not
to police the students, claiming Montgomery College is not
“13th grade.” Another, faculty member (an admitted Facebook
devotee) said she encourages it and actually sees some positive
classroom tie-ins. The majority in the room had a noticeable
disdain for Facebook, Twitter, the Internet, and mobile phones
stating they take students away from the learning process.
The conversation made me want to look around and see what
others are doing in this
area. Immersive learning,
social learning, and col-
laborative learning are all
trending topics on Google.
Progressive institutions are
utilizing these technologies
to further engage students. I
found quite a few examples
(see two below),
e.Republic’s Center for Digital Education and Converge
magazine’s 5th Annual Digital Community Colleges Survey
ranks our neighbor, Howard Community College, number 5.
Howard Community College recently launched a social
learning initiative. The college’s goal is to reach 21st century
learners using technology they are familiar with. Debra Green,
director of academic support services, remarked:
As a community college, we are up against a serious
digital divide where not every student has regular ac-
cess to a computer, so providing the option to use any
phone, not just the smart ones, as a learning device is a
real game changer.
In another example, Purdue University is using Facebook and
Twitter for participation. So far, 73% of the 600 students in the
two courses are using a Facebook application called HotSeat
to participate in class discussion via Twitter and Facebook.
8
April 2010
At least one study reports 91% of college students use Face-
book, and the ever-increasing number of games and other
applications continues to draw in
new users. It is incumbent on educa-
tors to take advantage of this new
learning space. In a recent post on
his excellent blog Synthesizingedu-
catiion.com, Aaron Eyler asks, “Are
You Hindering The Development
of Digital Natives?” [http://ow.ly/
17UZE]. He purports the reason students are not more efficient
users of Web 2.0 tools is because their teachers are holding
them back, preventing them from learning how to effectively
use these new tools in an academic setting. So what do you
think about Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom? Visit the
CTL website and take our poll.
http://mcctl.blogspot.com/™
Guidelines for Contributions to
Focus on Faculty
The CTL invites articles about teaching and learning.
The deadline for submitting articles for the next issue
is August 30, 2010. Articles should be no more than
800 words and saved as Microsoft Word documents.
The information in articles can be supported by your
own experience or by your reading and research. If
outside sources are included, use the MLA format to cite
sources in the article and in the list of references at the
end. Please send articles to
Gloria Barron, gloria.barron@montgomerycollege.edu
or Bryant Davis, bryant.davis@montgomerycollege.edu
This publication was produced by Gloria Barron and
Bryant Davis for the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Visit the CTL on the Web at
http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/ctl/
 A Publication by Montgomery College Faculty

Montgomery College Center for Teaching and Learning April 2010