Donna Reiss
<tcreisd@vblrc2.tc.cc.va.us>
Tidewater Community College, Virginia Beach, Virginia
A discussion of ways we can extend the Epiphany
Institute model by addressing the questions:
- How can we share our experiences with colleagues
in a wide range of disciplines?
- How can we initiate as well as support curricular
changes that use computer-supported instruction
effectively?
The seven of us--librarians, teachers, and an
educational consultant--who participated in this session
began by identifying our concerns at our own institutions
and reporting on them. We then noted some patterns among
our various schools and situations and brainstormed about
ways to address these concerns.
Individual Concerns:
- (1) We have several campus-based
committees (& a TLTR!) That don't seem
connect with teaching faculty.
- But our new Center fr Teaching and Learning
brings together technology people and librarians
to asit faculty into developing
technologies--everything from email to complex
multimedia. It's a wonderful resource for people
who know about it--I'm wondering how to get our
associate (part-time) faculty involved...time and
$ constraints seem an insoluble problem
sometimes. But our new center at least provides a
center for discussion of teaching first, rather
than technology first.
-
- (2) 2 year old TLTR which is primarily
composed of faculty, deans, and computer folks.
We meet monthly, and over the 3 academic years,
have created several subgroups.
- These subgroups have included topics such as:
distance education, changing the culture, etc.
The faculty membership spans all schools and
colleges and all 3 major Temple campuses. This
year the Academic Policies Subcommittee is
working with each school and college technology
committee in writing, revising, evaluating
cross-campus, cross-university threads in/for
information/educational technology planning. The
outcome of these planning efforts will be used by
the Provost and VP for Acad. Computing to guide
overall planning. For me, this means peer to peer
planning, ground-up and top down collaboration.
-
- (3) Information Technology Committee
- -computer services director
-librarian
-instructional media center director
-media and marketing director
-2 teaching faculty -psychology -information
systems
-associate dean
- strategic planning for campus for technology
-
- (4) Committees
- -strategic planning with faculty from CIS,
business, library
-administration: admissions, adult degree,
business office
-staff: network mgr., systems, student life
-Academic technology: faculty members only incl
cis, bus, phil, hist, science, social science
-Power uses group: staff from all areas;
technological expertise There is some overlap on
all committees. There are gaps!
-
- (5) We have a newly formed TLTR and are
exploring ways to bring faculty together to
witness, an/or develop technology in action ...
- -Discipline discussions
- -formal demos
- -campus discussions
- -developing a sense of awareness of campus
direction with technology
- -using library research to reach out to
disciplines
-
- (6) Suggested Resources:
- National Educational Laboratories <www.nwrel.org>:
- connect with the lab in your region and see what
is happening
- Regional Educational Technology Consortiums
<www.netc.org>:
- integrating technology into teacher education
- Technology Literacy Challenge Fund <www.ed.gov>:
- U.S. Dept. Of Ed. Partner with k-12
Common Concerns:
How do we ...
- Involve more faculty?
- Involve a wider range of disciplines?
- Get faculty together--interdepartmentally?
Departmentally? Technology as draw? the Teaching
effectiveness as the draw?
- (Re)activate WAC and extend Epiphany through a
writing program?
Suggested Actions:
- Hold Informal Gatherings ...
- in a computer facility to introduce teachers to
the technology in a nonthreatening way (bring
cookies)
-
- Personally Invite Individual Resistant
Faculty ...
- to collaborate on projects that will benefit from
their areas of expertise
-
- Send Personal Invitations ...
- to faculty who might be interested but not
necessarily willing or able to initiate a first
step.
-
- Develop a Core of Faculty & Librarians
...
- willing to offer informal presentations and
workshops on topics likely to be of interest, for
example, new research resources through the
Internet (general and discipline-specific).
-
- Send Resource Materials to Colleagues
...
- including printed copies of e-mail or listserv
postings that might appeal to their professional
or personal interests -Invite administrators to a
class to observe or participate.
-
- Form Community Partnerships ...
- for example, k-12 schools; other colleges and
universities; businesses that use technology and
expect our graduates to be knowledgeable as a
result of their use of technology in their
classes.
-
- Emphasize Instruction ...
- by hosting or organizing brown-bag lunches,
afternoon coffees, and more formal presentations
on tips for energizing instruction, including use
of computer-supported writing and research among
the other tips.
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