Yesterday I spent time at the Mont Alto campus of Penn State working with faculty to help share the story of teaching and learning with technology. I was strangely intimidated as I sat in the back of the room waiting for my turn to talk. I’m not sure why, given the fact that talking in front of people is typically not something I get uptight about. As I reflect on it now I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I realized just how close I was to our primary audience. The room was filled with faculty who value teaching at such a high level and are repeatedly put into situations that make them question change … these are the people who want so badly to be innovative but sometimes walk without the support structures they need to take advantage of our opportunities.
When I was at IST, one of the goals of the Solutions Institute was to create a set of online course materials that could be used by resident faculty all across the Commonwealth. The materials needed to be designed so they could be easily pulled into a resident section and serve as the basis for each of the core undergraduate IST courses. One of the things I had to do each semester was stand up in front of the statewide faculty and share what was new, what we were thinking about, and talk about how to take advantage of Online IST. It scared the hell out of me each and every time I did it.
But you know what? Each and every time it turned out to be a great experience. Faculty telling stories about how using Online IST allowed them manage four or five sections of courses, how they would never have been able to integrate technology without it, or other inspiring stories related to teaching. Yesterday turned out to be the same way — a packed room of motivated and interested faculty all looking to enhance the story of their classrooms. Sure there were skeptics who pushed back on me when I talked about how critical portfolios are to the reflection process, there were people that rolled their eyes as I shared ideas about using youtube to engage students, and so on. But, without a doubt, it was an engaged and very interested group.
Penn State Mont Alto
The thing it reminded me is that when we build new opportunities for our University, we are building them for all of our faculty — at all locations. Just because we don’t see them on a regular basis doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Traveling to Mont Alto and being nervous reminded me that our community stretches well beyond College Ave. and it is our responsibility to include everyone in the mix. You should have seen the response when I offered to come back with more ETS staff to dig deeper into these new opportunities … overwhelmingly, faculty wanted to learn how to integrate new opportunities into their classrooms. I am now more than ever committed to expanding Digital Commons and using it as a vehicle to move more efforts into faculty development across all of our campuses so all of our faculty and students get what they deserve. It was a good trip that will be the first of many I suspect.
That’s fantastic news. It’s such a challenge to stay in touch and engaged with so many campuses across the state, but it’s also one of the things that makes us unique. I think more and more that it’s all about one person at a time, one campus at a time. Sometimes it feels like it takes forever that way, but if we’re trying to get people to understand that it’s all about engagement, then we have to practice what we preach. Even if that means one person at a time.
It is great that ETS is conscious of how technology choices impact the branch campuses. How can we (as Instructional Designers or Technologist) work with entities at UP, such as Digital Commons, to facilitate integration of resources with our local faculty?
Your presentation on our campus was beyond a doubt THE best presentation using Keynote I have seen (and that comes from a CAS faculty member who can’t stand Powerpoint presentations). You connected very well with our faculty, a point your blog post echoes all too well. I think I speak for all of our faculty when I write that you are welcome back any time!
Al, thank you for the kind words! It was a great experience for me on a bunch of levels. What I really enjoyed was getting to spend the morning with the faulty as you discussed challenges during Bob’s talk. It gave me a much better understanding of your issues. While they are different than at UP, they are so very similar. I will be back … I had a great time interacting with all of you.
Cole,
I,too want to echo Al’s sentiments. You gave me about a hundred things to look into! Your presentation was informative and entertaining.
I would really like it if you were able to come back sometime. We have a lot to learn!(And a lot of questions to ask, too.)
I had a question. I too was at your thought-provoking presentation at the Mont Alto Campus in August. You mentioned the use of blogs for portfolios and I teach CI 295 in which I have students create e-portfolios. I looked at some of the PSU stuff on blogs as e-portfolios, but they are hard to see, given that they are screen captures of blogs, not the blogs themselves. Do you have any good samples or know someone else I could contact about this?
Robin, you can send an email to blogs at psu dot edu and members of the team will get back to you. If you don’t hear anything I will have some people contact you.