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Learning curves and adjustments to new expectations are constant concerns of
University educators.
With each incoming class of students there's the question: How will they
adjust?
This summer, some faculty and graduate instructors are making adjustments of
their own.
This fall, the Carolina Computing Initiative (CCI) goes into full swing: every
freshman will have a laptop.
And faculty who teach courses with heavy freshman enrollments have been
attending the University/IBM Instructional Development Workshops, a series of
seven three-day workshops held throughout the summer for faculty and graduate
instructors using computer technology to teach General College courses.
The program is co-sponsored by the Faculty Information Technology Advisory
Committee (FITAC) and the vice chancellor for information technology. The
workshops are being produced by a consortium of campus support organizations
that include the Center for Instructional Technology, Center for Teaching and
Learning, College of Arts and Sciences, the University Libraries and the
Writing Center. They are paid for by grants included in the Carolina-IBM
agreement that made CCI possible
Both faculty and graduate student instructors applied for the grants to attend
these workshops -- to learn more about what computer technology can and can't
do for teaching and learning.
The workshops are designed to offer both extensive discussion of pedagogical
issues and ample opportunity for hands-on computer work. A broad array of
topics are addressed in the workshop, including selecting appropriate
technologies, managing copyright issues on the web and using the Blackboard
courseware software "CourseInfo" to develop a course site.
On the final day of the workshop, participants try to apply what they've
learned, whether by developing new teaching plans, building course web sites or
creating new online resources for their students.
The program offered two categories of grants: Instructional Development Grants
and Peer Consultant Grants. Most of the participants applied for Instructional
Development Grants. They had varying levels of experience using instructional
technology.
"I found the workshop environment to be a relatively easy way to learn about
some of the currently available software and about the resources available to
me," said Thomas Clegg, V. Lee Bounds professor of physics and astronomy.
Clegg applied to attend the workshop to find out how he could use instructional
technology to help teach introductory physics.
Clegg said he thought that computer technology would be suitable for creating
"computer generated simulations" relevant to introductory physics. He also
plans to investigate whether web-based discussion groups can help students
grasp conceptual issues.
Communications department head William Balthrop, chair of FITAC, said he hopes
that "participants emerge from the workshops with a real sense of the
possibilities and the skills to develop their teaching with technology."
Participant comments indicate that the workshops are a success.
Clegg, for example, said the workshop made him think about what technology uses
would be instructionally effective.
That was a sentiment echoed by psychology graduate instructor Lynette Cook.
Cook already had experience working with a wide variety of computer software
but thought the workshop would help her apply that experience to educational
issues.
Cook said the workshop helped her learn new software and conceptualize "how
instructional technologies will improve the learning environment for my
students."
She plans to add a discussion forum and links to psychology resources to her
class web site.
Faculty members and graduate instructors who received Peer Consultant Grants
are well-versed in using computers for teaching but remember all too well what
it was like to make their first web page.
"I liked the informal discussions sharing the woes of IT as well as the
positive aspects," said Jane Hawkins, a math professor.
The winner of a 1997 Chancellor's Instructional Technology award, Hawkins
attended the workshop as a peer consultant. Like other peer consultants, she
will check in with instructors in her peer group throughout the fall.
"What they hopefully get from me is some confidence that IT is something that
is useful to try," Hawkins said.
Like all good teachers, workshop participants are going to try out ideas and
explore the possibilities, see what works and what doesn't.
As Clegg said of his forays into instructional technology: "This is a work in
progress -- stay tuned."
Sponsored by the Technology in Context Consortium - http://www.unc.edu/faculty/tic
Writer: Kevin O'Kelly
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