Integrating Interactive Technology to Promote Learner Autonomy: Challenges and Rewards

In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, students and faculty must understand and harness the power of technology to synthesize, analyze, and communicate ideas and information. A multi-modal, multidisciplinary approach of teaching and learning is critical. This presentation will examine how to best leverage the technological strengths of 21st century learners in an interdisciplinary networked community, utilizing on-line tools such as Twitter and e-portfolios. This will be anchored within a context of a larger discussion of current education theories, including cognitive, social constructivism, and connectivism. Four presenters will address recent research on the impact of technology tools on teaching and learning . Section one will describe the dynamic process in which pedagogy, content, and technologies influence each other when designing online experiences. Section two we will discuss the pedagogical benefits of the University\u27s new on-line, interdisciplinary networked community of learners, the Virtual Public Square project. Section three will show how Twitter has been used in a foreign language course to promote learner autonomy. The final section will discuss the high-impact practice of utilizing e-portfolios for both faculty and student assessment in a freshman course. Each of the four sections will address the wide range of student responses in terms of habits of mind and the gap between faculty and student perceptions in defining the characteristics of 21st century digital illiteracies