University courses to receive technological redesign
James Schiermeyer
Issue date: 10/30/09 Section: News
Administrators and educators participated in a University forum focused on redesigning courses and the involvement of technology in the classroom and the future.
Mediated by Ken Wiant and supported by Tech's Technology Institute, the main goal of the forum was to look at the evidence obtained from other universities to see if any of this could make an impact at Tech.
"We have to look at what we want our students to achieve and is there another way to go about it," Wiant said. "How can these tools add new things to the classroom, maintain excellence and at the same time improve what we do and how we do it."
The forum analyzed what universities, large and small, across the country have done to meet growing classroom size concerns, to enhance the learning experience with technology and how successful those measures were. Also, feedback from student assessments and personal experiences of faculty and how they were able to use different technological tools to assist their lectures was added to the mix.
As state budget concerns and consistent increases in enrollment continue, Tech will need all the tools available to assist in instructing the next generation of leaders and innovators that walk the campus.
"We don't want to change or replace what the instructors are doing," Stacey Plant, an instructional media specialist at the technology institute said. "We merely want to assist them the same way chalk and a blackboard initially helped teachers long ago."
After a brief introduction of the redesign idea, educators and administrators were sub-divided into discipline groups for focused discussions, with a member of the technology institute acting as a moderator and answering questions.
The sub-groups were humanities, social sciences and computational science. Moderators were quick to dismiss the notion that this was simply adding technology to a classroom because Tech can.
"This is not solely aimed at online classes," said Hunter Kaller, an instructional media specialist at the technology institute said. "This is the systematic treatment of an art or craft, not just technology for technology's sake."
Mediated by Ken Wiant and supported by Tech's Technology Institute, the main goal of the forum was to look at the evidence obtained from other universities to see if any of this could make an impact at Tech.
"We have to look at what we want our students to achieve and is there another way to go about it," Wiant said. "How can these tools add new things to the classroom, maintain excellence and at the same time improve what we do and how we do it."
The forum analyzed what universities, large and small, across the country have done to meet growing classroom size concerns, to enhance the learning experience with technology and how successful those measures were. Also, feedback from student assessments and personal experiences of faculty and how they were able to use different technological tools to assist their lectures was added to the mix.
As state budget concerns and consistent increases in enrollment continue, Tech will need all the tools available to assist in instructing the next generation of leaders and innovators that walk the campus.
"We don't want to change or replace what the instructors are doing," Stacey Plant, an instructional media specialist at the technology institute said. "We merely want to assist them the same way chalk and a blackboard initially helped teachers long ago."
After a brief introduction of the redesign idea, educators and administrators were sub-divided into discipline groups for focused discussions, with a member of the technology institute acting as a moderator and answering questions.
The sub-groups were humanities, social sciences and computational science. Moderators were quick to dismiss the notion that this was simply adding technology to a classroom because Tech can.
"This is not solely aimed at online classes," said Hunter Kaller, an instructional media specialist at the technology institute said. "This is the systematic treatment of an art or craft, not just technology for technology's sake."
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