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Educational Monograph
Text Box: Fall, 2007 Volume 1, Number 1 Using Technology to Teach Technology Rozaliya Volynskiy and Lev Volynskiy Background. With the advent of a changing digital world, an innovative Technology Assessment Program (TAP) at Howard Community College (HCC) presents the opportunity to take courses in which the subject matter changes daily and there is a collaborative process among faculty, mentors, inventors and students. HCC, funded by a National Science Foundation grant, has developed exciting courses to teach budding entrepreneurs the process of development and delivery of inventions from the research lab to end users in the marketplace (www.inventiontobusiness.com). Partnering with Howard County’s Economic Development Center and County School Systems, and participating research labs, such as John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center and United States Department of Agriculture, the course “Technology Transfer: From Invention to Marketplace” (ENTR 215) is strengthens teamwork, critical thinking and decision-making skills. Teams of high school, community college and continuing education students evaluate actual technology, perform market research, and analyze the potential for commercialization. At the course conclusion, students present their findings and recommendations to business owners, entrepreneurs, researchers, technology transfer experts and venture capitalists. Delivery Methods. The experiential learning makes an impact on the students as they learn a wide range of skills covering diverse subject matter. Not only is the setting of the course unique - students working with inventors and mentors - but the delivery of the instructional materials and assessment of the students’ work are also unique. To improve student learning, a variety of techniques is used, among them podcasting to supplement materials in the course and OptionPower to add the power of polling to Power Point presentations. Podcasting has become the latest hyped Internet technology and has been used by the Technology Assessment Program (TAP) at HCC for day-to-day discussions, mini-lectures, and review of articles and/or books, as well as for students’ interactions with each other. Students are able to visit the TAP website, which is open 24/7 and is accessible around the world. With digital delivery, there is no single copy that can only be accessed by one individual at a time; everyone makes his or her own instant copy of the original when they download it and could play it as many times as needed. Students are able to fit listening to the podcasts into their own schedule and activities. Our podcasts are audio files in MP3 format. The content of the audio file, its length, its quality (technical and editorial) and its size are all determined by the instructor. The file is itemized and uploaded to supplemental sites on the WebCT server. Students can download a file to an iPod or other portable music player; however, a computer with speakers and an Internet connection is all the hardware and services a listener needs.