So this Thursday I start teaching IST 110 in the new IST Building. I’ve taught 110 so many times it can run fairly smoothly … but for some reason I decided to turn it on its ear this semester and do all sorts of new stuff. I am finally getting to teach in a classroom of my choice — the new Apple Teaching and Learning Studio. I’ve worked a long time here at IST to make sure we have at least one classroom with Apple technology in it.

Now the hard part — making it all work with the assignments I have planned. Here’s a summary of new stuff I’m doing:

• Class Blog Space: All discussion activities happening in an overall blog space … I am hoping this works. I’ve always used message boards, but I am becoming more and more interested in blogging. I read something interesting in Educause Review that has me thinking more and more about it.
• Individual Blog Spaces: As their first individual lab assignment, all studnets have to set up a blog space of their own and publish it to their PSU Personal Web Space. I am asking that they use it to keep track of interesting things related to IST.
• Studio Labs: I have them working in teams to utilize digital media to create, for lack of a better term, stories. These stories are to paint a picture related to IST. For example, they’ll create digital videos of interviews of various faculty, produce a documentary, and some other things. Hoping it turns them on to the power of digital media as a means to communicate complex ideas.

I am excited to see how it all goes. Really looking forward to trying some new things and seeing how they all react to it. I will be posting outcomes here over the next several weeks. If you want, check out my Online IST Syllabus and my class calendar, and the 110 Class Blog.