Melora Sundt
Associate Dean
Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
Melora Sundt oversees several of USC's graduate education degree programs. Between trips to Hawaii she's enjoying adapting today's technology to quality online and blended learning.
What is USC doing on the ground in Hawaii?
Our three-year EdD. program has been on Oahu for 35 years. We fly Los Angeles faculty, including myself, there every other weekend. They are presently serving a cohort of 24 doctoral candidates. It grew out of a Defense Department program from the early 60s in which USC was a major player at Hickham Air Force Base. Among our alums are Frances Wilson, president of the National Defense University, and as a four-star general, she's the highest ranking female Marine.
What real estate do you use for those activities?
We moved from Hickham AFB in 2003. We're now at Japan-America Institute of Management Science (JAIMS), which is also on Oahu, near Hawaii Kai. The building and its six acre campus were built by Fujitsu in 1972 for the purpose of learning, and we are one of its higher education tenants. JAIMS is as nice or nicer than our Los Angeles and Orange County facilities. I have no difficulty finding faculty willing to do the commute.
What might be the future prospects of that program?
We are looking at the possibility of making it a blended program, on-line and classroom. We're having really good online experience with our online Masters of Arts in Teaching offering, which has been piloted and launches this month. We never participated in the early-stage model of online learning—the canned lecture replayed as a web video. We're fortunate to be able to launch with Web 2.0 tools and techniques.
Describe what those first 120 Master's degree students will experience.
Each student begins his or her first semester with a compatability test of his/her computer equipment with our learning platform. During orientation they learn our site, meet and greet their colleagues, and begin to build their neighborhood. Orientation videos, exercises and assignments are involved. Students become familiar with Adobe Connect as we check their audio and video quality. The student can use a Windows or Mac computer, but the overall look-and-feel is Mac-like. The platform is a production of 2tor.com, and the environment is much like Facebook.
Who are attracted to the Masters in teaching program?
A wide range of mostly adults, including many career changers. About ten percent of our first enrollments are former Wall-Streeters and financial industry managers who want to do work they consider to have greater meaning. About 60 percent are female, which is true of the field of education in general. A number of them have indicated they consider teaching to be a noble occupation, and they decided to change careers after having a child. The variety among our applicants is remarkable. It's common that when I read an application, I want to meet the person.
What are the competencies you want your students in that program to master?
They must arrive with a mastery of their subject matter. We teach them how learning is facilitated, which involves localization and contextualization. They have to know who their students are. They become familiar with four or five families of learning theory. All too often schoolteachers know just one theory—and as 'one-trick ponies' they are limited, often stymied. They must have assessment abilities, which they learn begins with their own and then embraces the students'abilities.
What supplements the keyboard and screen to achieve those objectives?
Within two weeks, each student is visiting a school, observing and interviewing. Next they work with groups of students, and eventually an entire class. 2tor.com facilitates the cooperation of schools throughout the United States. 2tor.com also has developed expertise regarding the state teacher licensing requirements.
Is there a killer app in use now?
2tor.com is a collection of killer apps. Moodle, Adobe and Kaltura are all working together. I haven't yet found a thing I can do in a classroom that I can't do online. And we're already achieving economies of scale.
Do you see a killer app on the horizon?
We're ready to employ gaming, simulation and avatars.