Paths to Our Mission: Path Three
Posted on May 11, 2009
Filed Under ETS Mission
Please take a little time to help us think critically about our organization and cite examples of where we are doing well and areas where improvement is needed. Please leave thoughts in the comment section below. I thank you in advance!
Participating in research opportunities to better educate faculty, staff, and students in the use of emerging technologies as they relate to teaching and learning.
Related Resources
- Jun 18 2009: Paths to our Mission: Path Six (3)
- Jun 01 2009: Paths to our Mission: Path Five (1)
- May 18 2009: Paths to our Mission: Path Four (3)
- May 07 2009: Paths to Our Mission: Path Two (5)
- Apr 27 2009: Paths to Our Mission: Path One (16)
- Apr 23 2009: New Form of Organizational Reflection (0)
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5 Responses to “Paths to Our Mission: Path Three”
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We work with faculty on a lot of pilot programs. These programs provide faculty with a chance to explore the pedagogical affordances of new tools while having the support of instructional designers and technologists. In turn faculty provide feedback as to what needs to be done to improve the tool. Together we co-create the tool that is released across the university.
Through the Faculty Fellows program, ETS has been working with faculty to explore issues related to the intersection of technology, education, and scholarship in a specific academic discipline. For example, Carla Zembal-Saul spent last summer with us to explore blogs as portfolio. This turned into a deep exploration of the blogging platform and lead to additional projects such as the Schreyer Honors College blogging project and the Composition Program redesign.
The exploration of accessibility issues is one path to exploring the capabilities of new tools in depth and recommending best practices effective for all audiences. A MathML tutorial (http://www.personal.psu.edu/ejp10/blogs/tlt/tutorials/mathml.html) was the outcome of one such project. Other best practices are listed at http://webstandards.psu.edu/accessibility/tech
Investigating, testing, learning, and evaluating all features of the course management system (for at least a short while longer, that will still be ANGEL) each year in advance of new releases. This involves reporting bugs, requesting enhancements, gauging accessibility, and discussing pedagogical implications. This is accomplished with the help of faculty and staff volunteers outside ITS as well as our own staff.
The the EGC, part of our mission is to promote and participate in research opportunities with faculty. To date, we’ve working with faculty n Astronomy, Architectural Engineering, Music, and Foreign Language to assist in a variety of research, from the standard control-experimental groups to action research.
Now we’re looking at ways to bring students into this arena, starting with a student intern from IST who will help us shape out involvement of the students at PSU with educational gaming and virtual worlds.