Joyce Sibbett
PhD., University of Utah
Areas of Specialization: diversity, foundations of education, action research
Joyce's undergraduate diversity class videoconferenced with students at Texas A & M University. As initiator and leader of the project, there were several steps she had to go through to set up the videoconference. Despite all the hours of preliminary work and the technical difficulties, Joyce says she will do it again. "It was eye-opening in terms of the students' metacognition which is what I wanted to have happen."
- Technology like WebCT really fits Joyce's teaching style. "I do what comes most naturally to me, facilitating discussions. I'm not a visual person. Notice the kind of technology I'm using. It's not PowerPoint. I use WebCT in my undergraduate classes for threaded discussions. The richness of those discussions is wonderful."
"My student teachers for the first time are posting their case studies there. I'm not asking them to do any threaded discussions, just to post them so they can read the case studies of the other students about what they're doing, just share. That's my first attempt at it and I may decide after this process that I want the students to respond. I'm not commenting on it. They just show their work and I like that."
- Joyce knows that her students have gained much from the use of technology. "It's another dimension of dialogue and a greater awareness."
- The PT3 Grant gives Joyce ideas for further research. "I've got my own kind of hypotheses, my own informal theories about why some people are better at adapting to technology and why others resist it. It's almost like you've got to analyze how people use it and what they are motivated toward. What are the factors behind resistance?"
- There have been positive experiences for Joyce with the PT3 Grant. "The opportunity to attend conferences has been the most personally meaningful. You can go to the conferences, get a sense of what's out there."
"The accessibility of support people has been wonderful. It's been a huge thing. Without the grant, it would have come along eventually. But these are the things that have made life really nice."
