Joyce Winslow
jwins@uoregon.edu
As the late afternoon sun imparts a summer glow to his tidy office on the fourth floor of Lillis Hall, Grant Castner leans forward on his desk and warms to his subject.
He is talking about developing innovative ways of engaging students in the learning process and expanding the possibilities for communication and collaboration both inside and outside the classroom.
“We need to think of different ways of teaching,” he says. Since coming to the University of Oregon in 2002 to join the staff of the fledgling Information Systems division of Decision Sciences, Dr. Castner has been doing just that. Imagining different ways of teaching to prepare students for the business world in the new millennium has led him to employ a variety of web-based tools in his classes (Business Information Systems—part of the undergraduate core curriculum for business majors, Management Information Systems, and eBusiness*).
A basic component of these classes is the mobile laptop cart provided by UO Ed Tech funds and maintained by the Lundquist College of Business Technology Center. The cart contains 32 Dell Latitude computers and can be wheeled to various classrooms as needed. Many students now own their own laptops, but the 32 machines provided by the technology center help to bridge the gaps in classrooms that generally fill with at least 60 students.
In the undergraduate class I visited (DSC 340, Business Information Systems), Castner designed his lessons to engage students in hands-on exercises that illustrate the various concepts he is teaching. A lesson on designing databases begins with Castner leading his students in an exercise that graphically demonstrates the pitfalls of bad database design. As Castner creates a sample database on his tablet PC, it’s displayed on the big LCD multimedia projector behind him. Students work right along with him, and he can view their progress from his workstation by checking the 32 individual laptop windows displayed on his screen. If he sees confusion developing, or spots a common error worthy of discussion, he can stop the exercise to point this out to the class, a task made easier by the “snipping” tool that’s built into his operating system. This tool allows him to single out a particular area of the database exercise on his tablet screen, dynamically highlighting it on the big screen so that it can easily be seen from any corner of the room.
To expand the opportunities for communication and discussion, Castner developed his own teaching website, Oregon eBiz (www.oregonebiz.com).
The site features a blog with timely tips for his students (“Free software to create PDF files,” “Connecting to I-drive from home,” “Templates for data flow diagrams”) and a student login section for checking grades, downloading slides and readings, participating in online discussions, and uploading projects. In addition, the site lists current jobs and internships and has links to the latest IT news.
Castner further extends opportunities for communicating and learning by encouraging students to contact him via instant messaging during his online office hours, saving them a trip to campus when they have questions or problems. This enables students to get instant clarification on specific questions or assignments and continues the learning experience outside the classroom. He also recently introduced web-capable cell phones into the communications mix, making it possible for students with the latest cell phone technology to access class announcements and grades from their phones.
For an information systems instructor, being alert to technical innovations comes with the territory. Today’s business models are inextricably linked to the Internet age, and building a successful business demands a thorough knowledge of all the current tools for accurate assessment and analysis.
What’s working? What’s not working? What products are successful, and why? Who are your best customers, and how can you keep them happy? These are just a few of the questions that a well designed database can answer. As Castner points out, “Well designed information systems have potential to greatly increase competitive advantage.” Whether his students’ focus is on marketing, accounting, or the nuts and bolts of database design, Castner ensures that they will be well-prepared for the new global marketplace.
In the future, Castner envisions even more possibilities for enabling collaborative work in the classroom or computer lab. “What I would like to see is the ability for students to more easily work on the same application without having to huddle around a single computer,” he says. “For example, three students developing a presentation in PowerPoint could all work on the same presentation on three different computers rather than having to integrate changes from three separate versions, or having to try to work on one computer. Having those three computers linked to a larger monitor, visible to the entire group, would also be very valuable.”
* eBusiness is part of the new Lundquist College of Business concentration in information systems and operations management (ISOM).