As a teacher educator and educational psychologist I am broadly interested in how technology changes and elevates learning.
Questions:
*How do we create a culture at a small liberal arts college that both embraces traditional pedagogy/ways of knowing and new technologies that expand the arena for learning?
*As faculty, how do we decide when a particular technology will elevate learning? How do we understand the “value-added” by the incorporation of a technology and how do we document this impact on student learning outcomes?
I’m interested in this issue from a number of angles but especially in regard to a couple of Teagle Foundation projects in which I’m involved. I just finished facilitating a workshop at Luther College in which 15 faculty members are investigating how “high-impact” practices (service-learning, student research, global education, learning communities, etc.) can improve student learning–and what current structures for faculty work do to help or hinder that kind of learning. Although the project doesn’t explicitly involve new technologies, it highlights that question of how innovative and high-impact pedagogies challenge our current ideas about faculty work. The consortium for which I work (the Associated College of the Midwest: Beloit, Carleton, Coe, Colorado, Cornell, Grinnell, Knox, Lake Forest, Lawrence, Luther, Macalester, Monmouth, Ripon, St. Olaf) also has a Teagle planning grant to look at how new technologies, new insights into how students learn, and new financial constraints change the nature of faculty work. Not sure where that project is going, but your insights would be most helpful.
This is very helpful John. Ryan and I are on a task force which is supposed to help frame the way forward at SNC with regard to the integration of technology. One of the things we have been asked to do is to discern what our peer and asperant institutions are doing in this area. I would like to talk some more about this topic.
I appreciate this dialog. I am very interested in helping students access both online and traditional (e.g. library) resources when preparing research projects. All too often students will not pursue any further research if 1) they cannot find a relevant website or bibliographic reference online or 2) they find a useful reference by cannot access the book or article online and do not look into any other means of obtaining that material. Even if I try to give the students enough lead time to access what they need, they do not take advantage of the opportunities.
Pingback: Effectiveness of teaching and learning in DH | THATCamp Liberal Arts Colleges 2011