UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 15, Page TT-4
December 14, 1995
TechTalk
Winter Session Institute

Focuses on teaching, learning and technology

Teaching, Learning and Technology Winter Institute
Jan. 8-12
Check your "About Teaching" newsletter for a complete schedule or
check out the Web site http://www.udel.edu/dcannon/Usered/faculty.html

     Earlier this year, faculty responded to a survey designed to
determine the skills they felt necessary to take full advantage of the
technology on campus. "As a result of those survey responses, we
decided to focus our summer and winter institutes this year and next
on teaching, learning, research and technology," Judy Greene, director
of the Center for Teaching Effectiveness, said.
     "That this past Summer Institute was successful is borne out by
the number of faculty now requesting support for mailing lists, Web
pages and electronic 'newsgroups' or bulletin boards," Janet de Vry,
user services, said. "There was a lot of 'word-of-mouth' advertising
about the material covered in the workshops and demonstrations." In
fact, several faculty have begun using technology in their own classes
they learned about at the Summer Institute or learned from colleagues
who attended she said.
     David Onn, physics, considered himself an Internet "neophyte" in
June. Since attending the Summer Institute, Onn said he has used e-
mail lists to manage communications with small teams of students,
created a Web area for his class and begun work on a grant application
to teach K-12 physics teachers about the "next generation" of
interactive software for teaching physics and about the Internet.
     "Have I ever come a long way since those workshops back in June!"
Onn said. The real benefit of the workshop approach, he said, is the
opportunity it affords for intensive, continuous immersion in aspects
of new technology.
     "I barely missed a session and found I was able to make
comparisons and decisions about what was worth pursuing and what
needed to go on a back burner, which affected my entire summer of work
and still influences me today." He said he believes it would have
taken years for the same learning to occur if he had tried to do it in
the spare half-hours between classes, faculty meetings and lab
research.
     Greene said the program for January's Winter Institute is an
expanded version of last summer's program. "We've kept many of the
same hands-on workshops, added others and expanded the first day's
activities by including more technology demonstrations by UD faculty
and by inviting two keynote speakers to join us."
     Delia Neuman, professor of library and information sciences, and
Edward F. Redish, professor of physics, both from the University of
Maryland, will speak on Monday, Jan. 8.
     "The sessions at the Winter Institute should excite faculty about
the possibilities of using technology to facilitate their students'
learning on our technology-rich campus," de Vry said.