How do you propose to use online technologies in ways that are consistent with CSU missions? Based on what you've learned so far in the T3 Institute, the T3 Development Team challenges you to formulate some preliminary ideas for the next year or two.

We wouldn't dream of asking for a commitment at this point--that will probably require a lot more thought and an investigation of possibilities. Yet, as Gunnar Myrdal once noted, "It's better to paint a canvas with a broad brush than to leave it blank." In any case, it will be up to you and your colleagues decide what you want to accomplish.

So take some time to reflect on what you've learned so far about about online learning and what you know about...

• your courses,
• your students,
• your discipline, and
• the mission of your academic unit.

We'll publish your vision on the T3 Institute Website under the general heading "Possible Futures." You'll be able to revise your tentative vision statement at any time.

Basic Elements of your Vision Statement

Scenario: What kind of strategies and tactics would you use to add value to your courses? We'd like you to exemplify these strategies in the form of a concrete scenario that illustrates your thinking about how to:

1. integrate technology with teaching and learning;
   
   
2. use the technology to implement your teaching strategies and tactics;
   
   
3. work around typical implementation obstacles.

Representative Learning Goals: These statements should reflect the intentions that underlie the teaching/strategies represented in your scenario.

Resource Priorities: This form asks you to rank-order your priorities for any resources required to realize your scenario and goals. What would it take for you and your colleagues to work toward the possible future you describe?

Example of the Type of Scenario
You Should Contribute

Student Photo Essays on Magical Realism CSU students in Spanish 4XX, Post-Modern Literatures and Cultures of Latin America, have been reading Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. Because of the length and complexity of this novel, the students are reading an English translation.   Since One Hundred Years uses vivid, concrete language, the instructor also expects them to read, in Spanish, selected passages where Marquez employs a literary technique called magical realism. Several weeks ago, the students participated in an (asynchronous) online forum with graduate students in English at the University of Quito in Ecuador. The forum was listserv-based, since internet connections at Quito end are still very limited and don't provide adequate support for web-based forums. To guide the listserv discourse, the instructor posted issues related to the use of magical realism and asked students to post passages from the Spanish translation of One Hundred Years that exemplify these issues. The course assignment schedule called for students to review electronic transcripts of the CSU-Quito listserv discussions and to select seven examples of magical realism related to a common theme or topic of their choosing. The assignment schedule instructed each student to select, edit, and re-post her/his list of examples to a forum on the Spanish 4XX course website and to identify underlying trends or themes in this list. Now the students are combing Latin American websites for images that epitomize the use of magical realism in popular media venues such as advertising sites. The students will post these images on the CSU Spanish Department's website where they will become part of an image library, evolved over several semester's as a resource for all students to use in writing photo essays. The photo-essay assignment in Spanish 4XX requires students to use text passages and photo images to compare literary and commercial use of magical realism. The students will work in pairs as peer editors, exchanging electronic drafts of their essays and using Microsoft Word's annotation and document comparison features to make editorial suggestions. Students will also have the option of submitting their drafts as plain-text (ASCII) email to "pen pals" at the University of Quito for additional suggestions. The instructor has asked that each student submit as e-mail attachments a preliminary draft of their essay as well as a final draft. She will use Word's "document comparison" functions to automatically highlight differences between the two drafts and will base grades for the essay partly on improvements in written Spanish. Since the essays must be written in Spanish, most students have decided to buy an electronic dictionary/spell-checker for Word at the modest price of $19.95.

Examples of the Type of Educational Goals
You Should Contribute with Your Scenario

The sample scenario for Spanish 4XX clearly implies that the offering institution or instructor have certain instructional intentions. The strategies and tactics described in the scenario appear to have an educational purpose...to be aimed at desired educational goals.

Here are two examples of possible educational goals related to the scenario.

Student in Spanish 4XX will be able to...

1. identify similarities between post-modern literary techniques such, as magical realism, and corresponding techniques that are employed by advertisers to promote interest in commercial products or services.
   
   
2. use a standard word processor to compose and edit a written essay in Spanish which compares a post-modern literary technique with commercial adaptations of the technique and which includes specific examples of the techniques from original works in Spanish.

This scenario also suggests a "meta-goal" that transcends the Department of Spanish:

Students will be able to use the internet to work collaboratively with people in other cultures.

Goals related to your scenario might read quite differently. For example:

• Use online search skills to identify primary sources, such as reports and advocacy documents, that will provide a solid foundation for analysis of constituency demands relating to a current political issue.
  
  
• Employ basic methods of thermodynamic analysis to estimate energy requirements for a small building.
  
  
• Use a typical one-act play with accompanying director's notes to construct a lighting plan and a list of lighting cues.
  
  
• List and describe the parameters that govern enzyme reactions in the Krebs cycle.

I'm ready to start working on my vision statement. To update your vision statement, simply return to this link.