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Institute helps faculty get ‘technocomfy’ 1:39 p.m., July 1, 2005--Dorothy Ross won’t be diagramming sentences on the blackboard much next semester. The blackboard, a revolutionary technology when it was first introduced at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1801, is being edged out of classrooms by tablet computers. Ross, an instructor in the University Writing Center, will be writing on a new Gateway tablet with software that allows her to incorporate new teaching strategies learned at UD’s Summer Faculty Institute in June. The annual institute, a week-long program sponsored by Information Technology-User Services, offers one-on-one instruction from computer professionals for any faculty member who wishes to learn how to use WebCT, MyCourses, tablet PCs, iPods, hand-held video devices and personal digital assistants. Faculty also learn about multimedia, animation, online course management and digital storytelling. The result for Ross is she’ll sit at her desk facing her class when she “writes” on an overhead screen using her tablet PC. She’ll create online assignment boards for her freshman composition students and a WebCT forum where students can post their writing and offer constructive criticism of classmates’ work. She also will post online grammar and punctuation learning games for students in her grammar course for English education majors. The 25 faculty who attended this year’s institute June 20-24 came from 14 departments in four colleges. They had been teaching for between one and 38 years. Ross coined a word for the way she felt when she walked into the institute on the first day: “technoleery.” “I really was not very comfortable with technology in the classroom, and I knew I needed to become more comfortable,’’ she said. “I was very straightforward that I needed to be taught very slowly and given a chance to practice. They gave me that. They moved slowly. They watched me do it, and then I’d get lost and then they’d help me.” Ross was so pleased that she wrote a thank-you note to Provost Dan Rich. “Thanks to the IT staff,” she wrote, “I have moved from technoleery to technocomfy. Two things stand out about the program: the kindness and patience of the staff and, most importantly, their insistence that technology should only be used to improve learning.” Article by Kathy Canavan To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here. |
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