january 2013

Connection EdTech January 2013

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE OF EDUCATION BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY

Didi In Nepali,

didi is a respected older sister who guides and walks beside you on your journey.

EdTech

Minority avatars

Students just keep coming

back!

7

Third textbook!

A teacher’s dream or nightmare?

Remembering Connie

Black gamers uncomfortable in White skins

4

8

It’s not just fun & games; it’s learning!

Research: Web 2.0 tools

under-used

10

3

And we’re changing, too!

When fall semester wound down just

before Christmas, the EdTech Department

had passed a milestone.

Never in the 24-year history of this pro-

gram have we served as many students in a

single semester, and enrollments for spring

2013 are shaping up to be just as big.

Enrollments shooting past 700 are only

marginally the result of our new online doc-

toral program. It’s growth .

But it is not only growth nor even the

sum of growth and new doctoral students,

but loss, that prompts us to search for three

new faculty members this spring.

In our last edition, you may remember,

we noted the resignations of Lisa Dawley to

head a new ed-tech research and develop-

ment lab and Connie Wyzard because of

illness.

Connie died a few days ago, so look at

the next page for our parting thoughts on

her contributions to the department.

I think you’ll like this edition. Let me

know.

Jerry

Cover Story

Only time and weather change as much as technology.

2 Boise State EdTech Connection

Gretel Patch teaches

technology in Nepal …

where few tech tools have gone

before. —Page 13

EdTech Connection

Published three times a year by the Department of Educational Technology

at Boise State University

Jerry Foster Editor and academic adviser

208-426-4008 [email protected]

LETTERS WELCOME

Connie Wyzard, emeritus professor in

the Department of Educational Technology,

died Dec. 7 at her home after a long illness.

She resigned from the department last sum-

mer.

“Connie was a productive

scholar and an exemplary faculty

member during her entire 19-year

career at Boise State University,”

said Diane Boothe, dean of the

College of Education.

Ross Vaughn, interim EdTech

chair and assistant dean, said, “Wyzard was

one of the original members of the EdTech

Department and contributed greatly over

the years to the success of the department

and its programs.”

A former associate chair of EdTech,

Wyzard was an early and effective advocate

for integration of technology in the nation’s

classrooms to enhance the instructional ef-

fectiveness of teachers. While this is taken

for granted today, it was far from obvious

when she began at Boise State. She designed

and managed the undergraduate classroom

technology course, which serves about 700

pre-service teachers every year. In addition

to teaching graduate courses, Wyzard until

recently managed the department’s

adjunct instructors.

Wyzard won national awards in 1996 for

service to adjudicated youth with disabilities

and for work in alternative school network-

ing. In 2005, Boise State students

recognized her for her inspira-

tional and impactful teaching.

She also was a prolific writer.

She co-wrote three textbooks,

plus five editions of an introduc-

tory technology textbook for pre-

service teachers. In addition, she

wrote several book chapters and numerous

journal articles. Wyzard was a reviewer for

an international technology journal and also

served on the editorial board for a national

college textbook publisher. She was also an

indefatigable researcher and conference pre-

senter.

Wyzard taught reading in Wyoming and

Canada before earning her doctorate at the

University of Nebraska in 1990.

She requested to be remembered

through contributions to the Boise State

University Foundation scholarship fund.

Visit https://

giving.boisestatefoundation.org and select

the drop down titled Constance Wyzard Me-

morial Gifts.

In Memorium

Dr. Connie Wyzard dies of cancer; scholarship established in her name

Boise State EdTech Connection 3

https://giving.boisestatefoundation.org

https://giving.boisestatefoundation.org

EDITOR’S NOTE: As a youngster some 50 years ago, I watched The Twilight Zone regularly, but I remember only a few episodes vividly. In one of those, a man and his wife lived in an old west cabin in the desert hills. Hmmm, this one is a western, I remember thinking, but I soon discovered that this idyllic scene was not the American west, but a small planet somewhere in space, and the man wasn’t a rancher, but a prisoner and this planet was his prison. A space craft came to evacuate him one day because the planet was on a collision course with an asteroid. The prisoner and I were stunned to learn that the vessel did not have room for the wife. He refused to leave without her.


Minority gamers don’t feel right in white skin; avatar options are woefully limited

By Robin Armstead

Over the past five years, educa-

tion has begun repurposing many

online games and virtual world envi-

ronments to actively engage students

in a new delivery method for teaching

and learning. Unequal representation

of ethnicity in avatars puts minority

players at a disadvantage in terms of

making a psychological connection with

their virtual self, thereby greatly dimin-

ishing game play.

The purpose of this research is to ex-

plore the options available to users to repre-

sent themselves in terms of skin, eye, and hair

color. The default options one chooses in an

attempt to get as close as possible to one’s

own representation will also be investigated.

If a bias does exist in gaming platforms used

by educators, then it is important that the

gaming community is made aware of the im-

pact it has on minority users and their gaming

experience, and that reasonable solu-

tions are offered.

The use of avatars in games moves

the player from spectator to partici-

pant immersed in a realistic world.

When one sees himself or herself as a

character interacting with other char-

acters and with the environment, the

experience becomes much more per-

sonal. A psychological relationship

The avatar becomes a virtual

extension of the user.

develops between user and avatar (McCreery,

Kathleen, Schrader, & Boone, 2012). The

player uses this virtual identity for months or

years and the avatar becomes a virtual exten-

sion of the user.

The foundation of this relationship begins

Here is the plot twist so typical of The Twilight Zone. The man charged with evacuating the pris-oner said, “But she’s only a robot.” The prisoner had an emotional connection with a thing, lovely though she/it was. She had become so real to him that he was willing to stay with her and die. And now, I have on my desk a short research pa-per that suggests similar human responses to avatars in digital games. Written by EdTech stu-dent Robin Armstead, the paper was the basis for her presentation at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) confer-ence in October. The following is an abridgement.

ROBIN ARMSTEAD

with choosing characteristics, such as name

and physical features, such as skin, hair, and

eye color. Options to change the mouth, nose,

and body shape may also be available. The

characteristics that one chooses becomes a

digital rendering of himself in the virtual

world (McCreery, Kathleen, Schrader, &

Boone, 2012). The visual image not only de-

fines a part of the character but also how oth-

ers view and interact with her.

Research on minority representation in

gaming is scarce. Williams, Martins, Consalvo,

and Ivory, (2009) found “a systematic over-

representation of males, whites, and

adults” (p. 815). Tanner (2009) concluded

that online games such as World of Warcraft

of self—have a psychological connection to

how players identify with themselves in the

game, the availability of an adequate selection

of skin coloration is essential to the game’s

immersive experience.

Online gaming is a valuable tool for edu-

cators and instructional designers to actively

engage students. When applied in a meaning-

ful way, it can harness the power and creativ-

ity of students’ minds, increase knowledge

transfer, and cement the learning objectives

because students live in the virtual environ-

ment where the learning experience is a lived

experience.

The social and psychological aspects of

this environment cannot be ignored by educa-

tors and game manufacturers because K-12

students go through periods of identity

searching, and sometimes even crises, which

can adversely affect learning. Without proper

minority avatar choices, the gaming commu-

nity is forced to ask itself what it is saying

about the importance of different population

groups and of minority players’ gaming/

learning experience.

The internet provides a space for Earth’s

ethnically rich and diverse users to connect

across the barriers of geography, language,

and culture to meet in online games and

classes. When asking someone to represent

him or herself in a game, it is an attempt to

make a connection with the user and create an

enhanced gaming experience. Maximizing this

connection by having authentic characters or

traits supports the goals of using avatars and

creates the best possible experience for users.

For references, see ARMSTEAD

on Page 20.


and EverQuest default to White ethnic repre-

sentation, with alternative “exotic devia-

tion” (p. 3) in skin color. In MapleStory, users

actually have to pay to change their skin color.

Studying interactive role playing in a virtual

world called Whyville, Kafai, Cook, and Fields

(2010) found a dearth of dark skin selections.

When players attempted to change their face to

a darker color, they could not find matching

body parts when changing other things about

themselves like their clothing that only came

with light skin features for the attached arms

or legs. These “two toned” players were made

fun of and some were subjected to racial jokes

and slurs. Because avatars—as representations

In MapleStory,

users actually have to pay

to change skin color.

By Sheila Bolduc-Simpson

Effective face-to-face

(F2F) classroom discussions

are those in which learners

discover and explore disso-

nance or inconsistency

among themselves, and

through the process of asking

and responding, students

test their understanding of

some new concept against

existing cognitive schema or

personal experience to nego-

tiate meaning.

From the fast-paced

spontaneity of F2F discus-

sions, how can instructors

successfully shift to text-

based, asynchronous online

discussion? Where is the

noise, the laughter, and so-

cializing in an online forum?

Online forum posts in

[Sheila’s] ENC 3250 Profes-

sional Writing course tend to

be lean and focused on the

topic-of-the-week, so she

created a socializing forum

called Anything Else Café

and required participation .

Data collection included:

Studying activity trends,

total post activity, etc.,

Examining the content of

posts, and

A survey of student ob-

servations and opinions.

Just over 88 percent of

students said it was impor-

tant or somewhat important

to have a social community

for online learners.

Most students (61.8%)

participated because they

had to, but 32.4 percent in-

tentionally used the Café to

socialize and answer other

students’ questions.

Strategies

Students must know that

effective online courses

are both collaborative and

social experiences.

Separate content forums

from the social forum.

Make socializing manda-

tory.

Allow students to answer

other students’ questions.

It’s part of learning.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Even by EdTech’s educationally non-conformist norms, Sheila Bolduc-Simpson is a non-traditional student. The woman is, after all, working on her fourth master’s degree. I met her at the 2010 ISTE conference. I don’t know what I said, but somehow I inspired this full-time Florida Gulf Coast University in-structor to earn yet another master’s degree. She wrote a paper in EDTECH 504, Foundations of Educational Technology, that she thought had some promise—and so did the editor of Distance Learning, who published Sheila’s action research paper written originally as a class assignment.

Sheila’s husband, Mark, an associate professor in the FGCU Col-lege of Education, assisted in the design and implementation of the research project that Sheila informally summarizes here.

SHEILA BOLDUC-SIMPSON

Social places in virtual spaces

Testing a social learning community in an online course


Not your typical college class and not your

typical college textbook. But Dr. Chris Haskell is

not your typical college professor.

The EdTech grad (M.E.T. and Ed.D.) loves

digital games. He even has a garage full of play-

able amusement park castoffs, so it isn’t any sur-

prise that he has made the department’s only un-

dergraduate course an exercise in quest-based

learning.

Haskell doesn’t use games in class; the class is

a game, a series of quests for points, badges, and

rank for achievement. Haskell calls it “a provoca-

tive tool for instructional delivery,” a greenhouse

of sorts for competitive spirits. And nurturing

spirits, it seems, because when students have

won the game by satisfactorily achieving all of

the course’s learning objectives, they are done.

But they don’t go. They keep coming back to

help their classmates.

So it is in this spirit of fun that Haskell has

written a new supplementary text for pre-service

teachers, a surprisingly serious discussion—

couched in playful language, of course—on sur-

viving the first year of teaching.

( Squeaky door and heavy organ intro )

Students keep coming back to class . . . as if controlled by a mysterious unseen power

A new textbook written by M.E.T. and Ed.D. grad Chris Haskell mentors Boise State pre-service teachers in EDTECH 202—Teaching and Learn-ing in a Digital Age—through the challenges of their first year of teaching.

Dream or nightmare?


EdTech’s Young Baek and British colleague Nicola Whitton will

publish a new textbook on educational games this month.

Cases on Digital Game-Based Learning: Methods, Models, and

Strategies is a meta-resource in which 26 case studies analyze from

varied perspectives the implementation of digital game applications for

learning, including potential challenges and pitfalls. Providing strate-

gies, advice, and examples on utilizing games for teaching, this collec-

tion of case studies is essential for teachers and instructors at various

school levels.

Sections, each including several chapters, cover topics such as:

Teaching with commercial games,

Teaching with educational games,

Designing games for learning,

Learning through game design,

Games for teacher education,

Game-based learning in practice, and

Researching games and learning.

Digital games can help teach a wide variety of curriculum-specific

content in academic disciplines, and also transferrable skills such as

problem-solving, critical thinking, or teamwork. Games can also be

used to teach physical skills, cognitive strategies, and to change behav-

iors or attitudes. The value of game-based learning does not stop sim-

ply with their use as vehicles for delivering learning, but they can also

be used as triggers for discussion or as a design activity where learning

takes place through the design process. Game-based learning is not

just about teaching with games, but also about learning from games

and applying gaming principles to teaching, and understanding the in-

cidental learning that takes place while game play goes on, for exam-

ple, the collaboration and mentoring that takes place in Massively Mul-

tiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). The case studies in

this book explore game-based learning from a variety of perspectives,

showing a range of different ways in which it can be applied to differ-

ent teaching and learning contexts.

The games doctor publishes

a new textbook this month

Dr. YOUNG BAEK

Digital games

can help teach

curriculum-specific

content or transferrable

skills, such as:

problem-solving,

critical thinking,

teamwork, or

behavior modifica-

tion.


Haskell writes about quest-based learning in Baek’s newest book

Chris Haskell has collaborated with his colleague-down-the-hall by

writing a chapter for Young Baek’s book, Cases on Digital Game-Based

Learning. Haskell developed quest-based learning several years ago

and has been teaching with it—to rave reviews—in his sophomore tech-

nology class for pre-service teachers.

Quest-based learning, particularly when tied to the 3-D Game Lab

(game engine) that he co-developed with former EdTech colleague Lisa

Dawley, has proven to be a tantalizing and often provocative tool for

instructional delivery.

Haskell’s quest-based approach applies a gaming construct over an

entire class rather than using individual off-the-shelf games to fulfill

specific learning objectives. Simply, students score experience points,

gain rank, complete quests and missions, get badges and achieve-

ments, for learning and doing. When students conquer all of the course

objectives, they’re done. Strange as it may seem, they don’t want to

quit. They keep coming to class to help others.

Dr. CHRIS HASKELL

Problem-solving is a key goal of many types of games, be it strate-

gic planning, lateral thinking, or how to work as a team to defeat a

powerful enemy – which provides motivation and stimulus for learn-

ing.

Digital games are playing an increasing vital role in teaching and

learning at all levels of education.

Dr. Baek directs the Game Studio, a research and development cen-

ter in the Department of Educational Technology. He teaches Intro-

duction to Edutainment and Integrating Digital Games in the K-12

Classroom. Edutainment focuses on analyzing various kinds of enter-

tainment to discover the qualities that make them fun. Then students

attempt to insert those characteristics into instruction. Integrating

Digital Games is an introductory course in game design.

Baek’s co-editor, Nicola Whitton, is a research fellow at Manchester

Metropolitan University in the UK.

This volume is Baek’s third textbook. It is priced at $165 from the

publisher, IGI Global.

Problem-solving

is a key goal of

many types of

games . . . .


Hsu found that Web 2.0 assignments typically

focus on individual written work rather than

on interactivity or social interac-

tion enabled by communication

collaboration features of Web 2.0

tools.

Ching and Hsu suggest that

teachers use small group strate-

gies to promote peer interaction

and collaboration with Web 2.0

technologies. Assessments drive

student learning, so Web 2.0 ac-

tivities need to ensure that both

the individual learning and

shared goals are as-

sessed. Shared goals are the

tasks and objectives each student

or group has in common and

should be assessed to make sure

students interact and collaborate

to achieve a group outcome.

Individual learning should

also be reinforced by holding

each individual learner account-

able for Web 2.0 practices.

Shared goals Ching and Hsu

suggest formative and summa-

tive assessments for cognitive

learning and collaboration in

small groups, and individual as-

sessments on communication.

The formative stage is a time

for feedback, not grades, on im-

proving group efforts on shared goals. Web

2.0 technologies that record revision history


Research shows: Most teachers don’t use Web 2.0 tools to best advantage

EdTech professors Yu-Hui Ching and Yu-

Chang Hsu won third place this past fall in a

competition sponsored by Infor-

mation Age and the distance

learning division of AECT, the As-

sociation for Educational Commu-

nications and Technology.

The article detailing their re-

search was published previously

in the Australasian Journal of

Educational Technology.

Assessing Learning with

Web 2.0 Technologies

Ching and Hsu have found

that Web 2.0 applications have

not been used to their full poten-

tial to promote peer interaction

and collaborative learning. Par-

ticipatory, interactive, collabora-

tive, and social aspects are often

missing from the learning and as-

sessment activities. Most blog-

ging activities, for example, facili-

tate individual reflective thinking,

but interaction with peers

through the commenting feature

does not actually happen, even

though it is encouraged or even

required.

It is through the social inter-

actions—discussion, presentation,

defense of a project (responding

to questions) and teaching/

tutoring (explaining a concept or process to

others)—is how students learn. But, Ching and

Dr. YU-HUI CHING

Dr. YU-CHANG HSU

EdTech students should should review

their course schedules in light of scheduling

changes involving several courses.

EDTECH 552—Introduction to Network

Administration—is moving to spring semes-

ter. It will be offered in back-to-back (Spring

and Fall) in 2013 to provide extra opportuni-

ties for students impacted by this change.

EDTECH 561 and 562 are switching se-

mesters. Research (561) is now a spring

course and 562 (Statistics) is moving to fall.

EDTECH 543—Social Network Learning—

will be offered in the summer 2013. It is usu-

ally offered only in the fall; no decision yet on

whether it will be offered summer and fall in-

definitely.

The entire course list is available at http://

edtech.boisestate.edu/course-schedule-2/ >.

Course scheduling changes

noted; starting immediately


of student work could help reveal the group

process and individual contributions, and

thus, help teachers assess student collabora-

tion. Web 2.0 technologies that provide chat

logs or commenting features also help capture

students’ interactions and idea development.

These features are helpful for formative as-

sessment.

Then in the summative stage, after pro-

jects have been revised, students evaluate

themselves and other members of their group.

Peer assessment could be used to understand

peer interaction during the small group proc-

ess.

Peer assessment should be brief, with a

short-but-informative rubric and a Likert

scale covering both the cognitive and collabo-

rative learning topics, such as:

1) The quality of their contributions to the

group;

2) A fair share of contribution to the group

work;

3) Cooperation and communication with other

group members; and

4) Cognitive contributions on helping the

group accomplish its goals.

To read the entire article, go to http://

www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet27/ching.html.

The EdTech De-

partment will begin

incorporating a uni-

versity logo in com-

ing months.

Boise State unveils new logo

Shoreline Community College in

western Washington is creating a pool of

online adjunct instructors.

To learn more more about this opportu-

nity, go to http://chronicle.com/

jobs/0000761322-01/ >.

Halfway across the country in Memphis,

Ark., Mid-South Community College is

Online teachers needed in many disciplines looking for a distance learning director. Learn

more at http://www.higheredjobs.com/

community/details.cfm?

JobCode=175691309&Title=Distance%

20Learning%20Director >.

For more opportunities,

see Jobs on Page 20.

http://chronicle.com/jobs/0000761322-01/

http://chronicle.com/jobs/0000761322-01/

In a recent interview with the venerable Howard Rheingold, the

inventor of the term virtual community, EdTech’s Jackie Gerstein

(EDTECH 541 & 543) said educators need to give students tools to

connect with information sources and learn naturally.

And then teachers need to get out of the way. “I’m a tour guide of

learning possibilities, and then I need to get out of the way. A lot of

times, educators stay in the way and it turns students off. They literally

go, ‘Whatever.’”

DR. JACKIE GERSTEIN

We already have the tools; the method to

make them work is social network learning.

When you whittle past the hyperbole, social

network learning reveals itself as a personal

professional development network for teach-

ers. The SNL course at Boise State EdTech,

therefore, is not an exploration of teaching

methods, but of learning methods for practic-

ing educators and their students.

In her SNL course, EDTECH 543, pro-

gressive teachers explore the concept of par-

ticipatory culture by immersing themselves

in collaborative media and the requisite will-

ingness to share what they know.

They develop personal learning net-

works, which are a support nexus of trusted

colleagues and experts with whom educators

can share ideas, ask questions, and improve

their own service to students. It’s a whole

new paradigm. Instead of waiting for instruc-

tional support from the school or district of-

fice, today’s progressive educators leverage

support from experts worldwide. These ex-

perts range from other teachers who’ve been

Catch the interview: http://vimeo.com/50760460 More on Howard Rheingold: wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Rheingold


EdTech’s Jackie Gerstein: A tour guide of learning possibilities

there, done that, to recognized authorities.

This concept is beyond theoretical con-

nectivism. Social Network Learning is

the practice of it, the pulsing of knowledge

from one member in the network to an-

other until all are current with best prac-

tices and strategies. This amplification of

learning is how Boise State EdTech stu-

dents become human hubs in the nation’s

educational network, not just another

nameless node.

Not surprising, the social networking

tools that enable teachers to improve their

practice are also potent tools for high

school students because today’s digi-

centric students value information discov-

ery in dynamic rather than static re-

sources. And they thrive on multiple forms

of communication tools previously used

for entertainment to access information,

synthesize it, and present it to others.

Traditionally a fall-only course, 543

will also be available this summer term.

http://vimeo.com/50760460

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Rheingold

“Namaste everyone. Greetings from Kathmandu,

Nepal. It is a lovely night here in the valley of the

Himalayas.”

That’s EdTech student Gretel Patch, introducing herself in a vir-

tual presentation last November to the Global Education Conference,

attended by educators in 130 countries.

After she and her husband Chris graduated

with bachelor’s degrees, he got a job as a con-

sular officer with the U.S. State Department.

Since then, their lives have hop-scotched from

one exotic address to the next.

Presently, Gretel is the technology integra-

tion coordinator at Lincoln School, a PK-12

international school in Kathmandu. The

school’s 300 students, including her own, hail

from 59 nations and territories.

So, let’s talk for a minute about the Access

program, which is central to the work I’ve

been able to do in Nepal. Perhaps you know similar students in areas

that you live in.

In addition to working on an intensive load of online graduate

course work from Boise State, Patch volunteered to help in the Eng-

lish Access Microscholarship Program, sponsored by the U.S. State

Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Access of-

fers after-school English language instruction and practice to talented

14-to-16 year-olds from economically disadvantaged sectors in 85

countries.

When she met her after-school Access students in Kathmandu for

the first time, the classroom didn’t have the equipment she needed, so

she loaded her family iMac into the car and carried it upstairs to the

classroom.

Gretel Patch teaches technology where few tech tools have gone before

Student profile

Hindu shrines decorate Kathmandu, almost as prodigiously as pigeons.

By Jerry Foster


Kids cluster around an iPad, part of Gretel Patch’s bag of tech tools—many of which Nepali children are seeing and exploring for the first time.

For them, the internet provides knowledge about the world. It’s about opportunity, providing them with skills that will open doors and change lives.

The students—these are teenagers, remember—greeted her

warmly and sang enthusiastic renditions of Oh, Susanna! and

I’ll be Working on the Railroad. Then she showed an Animoto

slide show of her family and an iMovie production of their re-

cent Teej festival, which she would later show in remote

mountain towns.

Oooohs and Ahhhhs

“They loved it. They ooohed and ahhhed over the screen as

they watched themselves sing and dance and recite poetry. I

wanted them to see,

hear, and feel tech-

nology—that it is

fun, powerful, en-

gaging, and useful.

“I came away

with high hopes and

goals for them.

Teaching someone

about how to access

available tools is

empowering. For

them, the internet

provides knowledge

about the world. It

levels the playing

field a little, giving

someone in Nepal

access to the same

information that anyone else in the world has. It’s about op-

portunity, providing them with skills that will open doors

and change lives. It’s also about confidence, as their skills and

knowledge increase, they become more confident in their

ability to help others.

“This is big stuff.”

Later, she received a small grant from the embassy’s Re-

gional English Language Office to take her technology demon-

strations to a couple of outlying towns.


Of course, in Nepal, outlying does not mean a suburb. It

means a six-hour drive—and an unforgettable drive, as it turns

out.

The road to Gorkha, for example, is a “steep and windy,

bumpy, dusty, narrow, cliff-hugging ordeal—beautiful (until

you climb into the clouds), but really not very pleasant by any

stretch of the imagination. If you don’t have a belief in the

power of prayer before that trip, you certainly will afterward.”

She told conference attendees that teen-age students in

Nepal have few foundational skills in technology.

“I had before me empty slates–willing students–who were

eager to learn.

Many of them

had never sat

down at a com-

puter, checked

their email,

taken their

own photos

with a digital

camera, filmed

their own vid-

eos with a

video camera,

or swiped on

an iPad.

“Never.

“None of

them have a

computer at

home. Those

who use a computer at their local ‘cyber’ check Facebook and

watch YouTube. They don’t think of the Internet as a power-

ful learning tool.

“Where would I even begin?”

Gorkha’s teachers are amazing, dedicated people who give

their all to their students, but most are short on tech skills. So,

she met with them in a small internet café called a cyber and—


Many of them had never sat down at a computer … .

Don’t park too close to the curb. Heavy rains in the mountain town of Gorkha require a massive run-off system.


when the sputtering internet actually ran—introduced them to

web 2.0 tools, such as Wikispaces, Google Docs, and Weebly.

She found the students’ English more limited than she an-

ticipated, so she talked briefly about netiquette and how the

internet works, and then the magic began.

She showed them an Animoto slide show of her family.

And then a movie-trailer-like video of their Kathmandu

counterparts, dancing in the recent Teej festival.

Then she brought out every device that she could find, di-

viding the devices into groups of students,

and they loved it and caught on immediately

to whatever was placed in their hands.

“I left this experience greatly enriched but

a bit troubled.

“Here are such great students—eager,

willing, and polite—yet life’s experiences for

them are hard and they have such limited

opportunities for growth and education. I

truly believe in using technology and its

power to enhance and further educational

experiences, but for these students, it just

seems so unattainable, so unreachable, so

far away.

“I have to ask myself if it will even help

them. Do they really need all of the fancy

tools and applications that most of us rely

on? I’m torn, knowing that the answer is

both a resounding YES and a cautionary no.

I’m content knowing that they are learning

English, receiving an education, and are em-

powering themselves to really make a difference in their lives.

In the end, that’s what really matters. The rest will come, in its

own time.

Later, she flew to the small town of Bhairahawa near the In-

dian border. With a Santa-like bag of goodies, she rode a rick-

shaw from the airport to the school, where she explained the

internet by stringing yarn all over the classroom. She knew by

now that most students just wanted to experiment with tech-

nology tools and to imagine the possibilities.

Notice the number of transportation options in Bhairahawa—rickshaw, motorcycle, bicycle, oxen, and walking.

Each student greeted me personally by bringing me a small bouquet of wild flowers. These are such great kids. If your teenagers need a lesson in respect, send them over.


Farming the foothills of the Himalayas near Gorkha is still a hand-and-tool endeavor, as it has always been. This picture was taken from the school.

As Patch removed tool after tool from her bag, the teacher said,

“You’ve got the whole world in that bag.”

And there were a lot of possibilities in that bag, includ-

ing an iPad, laptop, iPhone, speakers, portable battery-

operated color printer, HD projector the size of an iPhone,

camera, Flip HD video camera, and the cords, memory

cards, batteries, and cables to make magic happen.

Maybe, she muses, this strat-

egy would not have worked for

students who have it all, but many

of these students had never held

these devices before.

What did I really want them

to take away from our time to-

gether, when all is said and done?

My goals this time were sim-

ple: 1) I wanted to introduce them

to an American (through a multi-

media slideshow about me, and

my son’s trailer about a recent

trip to India); and 2) I wanted to

show them how in just a few min-

utes technology could help them

learn about something they other-

wise knew little to nothing about.

Patch graduates in May, just a

couple of months before her hus-

band’s expected transfer to Iraq.

Her time in Boise State’s online

EdTech program has given her the

skills to make a difference in the lives and hopes of Nepal-

ese students. She and the land and people have created a

surreal experience, expressed metaphorically by a teacher

in Gorkha. As Patch removed tool after tool from her bag,

the teacher said, “You’ve got the whole world in that bag.”

Yes, she does.

NOTE: For her service to the Access program, Gretel Patch was nomi-nated for the U.S. Secretary of State Award for Outstanding Volunteer-ism Abroad.

View her learning log at http://gretelpatch.wordpress.com/tag/

access/ >.

http://gretelpatch.wordpress.com/tag/access/

http://gretelpatch.wordpress.com/tag/access/

Q&A Share your personal backstory.

I met my husband-extraordinaire Christo-

pher in our seventh grade Utah history class in St.

George, Utah, and we’ve been best friends ever

since.

I graduated from Brigham Young University

and Chris from the University of Utah. We both

served LDS Church

missions, and after

Chris joined the State

Department as a foreign

service officer, we have

lived in Djibouti, on the

Horn of Africa; Sydney,

Australia; and now in

Nepal, where Chris is

deputy consular chief at

the embassy in Kath-

mandu.

What’s next?

We’ll leave Nepal

this summer and will be

posted in Washington,

D.C., for a year while

Chris learns Kurdish for

his next assignment in Erbil, Iraq. Because of ten-

sions in the region, the children and I will not be

able to accompany him, so we’ll likely spend time

near grandparents in Utah and Arizona.

Tell me about the kids.

All have geographically-inspired names: Ravi,

10; Bronte, 8; Yared, 6, who was adopted from

Ethiopia when we were stationed at nearby Dji-

bouti; and Adelaide, 3. The kids attend the inter-

national school where I work. While it is not un-

der-privileged, it is certainly diverse. It is a won-

derful, nurturing, accepting environment, and –

as is usually the case in small overseas communi-

ties – the school family is our family.

What’s it like to live a nomadic life?

Moving every few years is certainly an in-

teresting dynamic. Without a doubt it brings

us closer as a family. We are a tight group. The

kids would rather play with each other than

with friends any day. What I love most about

them is that they feel at home wherever they

are. Part of that is due to Chris's and my effort

to make our home a

solid foundation for

them, a safe and

constant place, even

in a world of change

and chaos.

But part of that is

that they develop

confidence and

know that they

made friends be-

fore, they loved be-

fore, they will make

new friends again,

and they will love

again.

It's not without

its challenges, but

when I stop to glance through their passports

or look at our 66,000+ photos taken in recent

years, I know it's all worth it. They know the

world is bigger than them. They have seen

poverty and experienced the joy that comes

from helping someone in real need. They have

friends all over the world, from every faith,

from many backgrounds. Watching the Olym-

pic opening ceremonies was like watching a

parade of friends. I love that.

Whatever they choose to make of it all in

their future lives, it will have an impact in

some way on them and I hope in some small

way they will want to give back.



TOP LEFT—Gretel and friends in Bhairahawa.

TOP RIGHT—Gretel in a reading activity at a Kath-mandu public school on International Literacy Day.

ABOVE—Girls filming a class project on the outside stairwell of the school in Gorkha.

INSET—Nepali students dress their best for school.

ABOVE RIGHT—In an art-adorned classroom, Gorkha boys look to international magazines for inspiration.

RIGHT—After-school Access students in Bhairahawa. Nepali students attend school six days a week.

Morton re-elected

to TCEA board


Dr. Cathy Morton, an EdTech adjunct faculty

member, has been re-elected to her fourth two-

year term on the board

of directors of the Texas

Computer Education As-

sociation (TCEA). Mor-

ton represents teachers

in 50 school districts

covering more than

20,000 square miles in

west Texas. At Boise

State, she teaches ED-

TECH 551—Grant Writ-

ing—every fall and

spring semester.

References

Higgin, T. (2009). Blackless fantasy.

Games and Culture, 4(1), 3-26.

McCreery, M. P., Kathleen, K. S.,

Schrader, P. G., & Boone, R.

(2012). Defining the virtual self:

Personality, behavior, and the

psychology of embodiment. Com-

puters in Human Behavior, 28(3),

976-983.

Williams, D., Martins, N., Consalvo,

M., & Ivory, J. (2009). The virtual

census: Representations of gen-

der, race and age in video games.

New Media & Society, 11(5), 815-

834.

Armstead— From Page 4

Dr. CATHY MORTON

The EdTech Department

will exhibit at a couple of

spring education conferences,

and recruiter/adviser Jerry

Foster always welcomes stu-

dents to drop in.

He will exhibit at NCCE

Join us at three regional conferences —the Northwest Council

for Computer Education—

in Portland Feb. 26 through

March 1.

He and Dixie Conner will

exhibit at the California

Charter Schools Associa-

tion Conference in San

Diego, March 11-14.

On June 18-20, Jerry will

exhibit at the Technology in

Education Conference (TIE)

at Copper Mountain, Colo.,

June 18-20.

Two more jobs have come to our attention.

The first is a trainer (Job #9343) in the

Project GREAT program in the Lone Star Col-

lege System in Houston, Texas.

The job pays between $37,266 and $41,923.

Find complete details at http://

Jobs www.lonestar.edu/employment.htm.

The second opportunity is for an instruc-

tional coordinator at Davidson County Commu-

nity College in Thomasville, N.C.

The job pays $33,270 to $43,251, and re-

quires teaching and tech integration experience.

Learn more at http://www.davidsonccc.edu/

employment.htm. See more on Page 11.

january 2013

Documents