Quotes from Technology Learning Assistants and Faculty Partners

From Faculty

"Enormously helpful. Invaluable...I needed and received lots of
patient attention and explanation of details that were probably self-evident
to her but were revelations to me."

"I'm going to move from the Flintstones to the Jetsons!"

"<Name> is fantastic. She is dealing with a slow learner
so she has her work cut out for her, but I am very excited about what we
are accomplishing and think it will improve my course tremendously."

"<Name> has been extremely helpful with the project. She
continually reassesses the situation and makes changes in our action plan
based upon new contigencies and information. She is not afraid to be directive
in the process and to take an active/expert role in the planning process.
I've really appreciated having her as a consultant. She sets realistic
and obtainable goals and is very results-oriented."

"<Name> is very easy to work with and always comes prepared
to accomplish the goals we have set. He is patient and clear and flexible
in how to do different things, depending on what suits my needs best."

"She has been flexible in her work schedule and initiated additional
suggestions outside our meetings via email. Her instruction is clear and
encouraging. I would recommend technology assistance to other faculty who
inquire about it!"

"He has been patient and careful in explaning both the terms of
the computer, and the ways to produce what it is I want to produce. His
feedback to me is always encouraging. I really appreciate being able to
learn how to manage more of the technical world, and I appreciate the fact
that someone like <name> is helping me."

"His knowledge of the PSU systems is invaluable to me."

"She brought useful material and explained it well, making suggestions
and making sure I understood."

"I very rarely give a perfect evaluation, but <name> really
deserves it. She has managed to be extremely organized, competent, personable,
and generous with her time, all at once. I feel lucky to have had this sort
of mentor to initiate me into some of the new technologies I'm learning.
I could not have asked for a more helpful learning assistant."

From Technology Learning Assistants

On life skills

"I listed this learning assistantship experience on my resume and
I was frequently asked about the specifics. I think employers value this
kind of experience that shows leadership, teamwork, and interpersonal skills."

"If I knew then what I know now, I would have done the Technology
Learning Assistant Program earlier in my Penn State career. It was a great
experience for me and I learned just as much as I hope I taught. It helped
me to reinforce the knowledge that I already possessed through the explanation
and execution with another. It was a great exercise in what can and should
be done in mentoring."

"If I knew then what I know now, I would have done this program
much earlier because I'd love to do it again. Being a teaching assistant
was a wonderful experience and one I would definitely repeat if I weren't
graduating. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who's interested in
learning and teaching about technology. It was a wonderful experience, very
helpful and informative, and lots of fun."

"I feel that participating in this program refined my leadership
skills, including those of organization, communication, and delegation.skills
in great demand in today's workplace."

"I know how to plan an agenda for a meeting, and keep track of key
dates in a project. The faculty members are professionals, and I had to
act professional in my relationship to them."

"First of all, it really forced me to hone my web design skills,
which will prove useful in future jobs. Also, it taught me how to communicate
and cooperate with someone in a position of power who has less technical
knowledge than I do. That's sometimes difficult, but now I know I can do
it effectively.... I am also more familiar with web design in general. I
studied many course webs in order to be an idea of what <name's> web
page should look like. In doing so, I increased my awareness of good web
design. Additionally, I picked up a bit more HTML here and there as I designed
the page. That will definitely be useful in the future as I work on other
web pages."

On future profession

"Coming into this program, I was at a critical point in my education.
I had just decided not to become a certified elementary education teacher.
I knew that I liked teaching, but I also knew that I did not like working
with children, especially those who did not want to learn. I thought that
this experience might clear up some of my feelings on teaching. I was right!
... I loved working with computers, and other technologies. And I thought
that this might help to see what I wanted to do with my career, since I
no longer wanted to teach. I now know that one day, not quite yet, but
eventually, I would like to do some sort of training at the corporate level,
working with adult learners. I would hope that this future career would
somehow involve technology. I thought that I would learn a bit about teaching
with adult learners. I am absolutely positive that I love teaching. It
has just taking me awhile to find the right audience."

"Through working as a Learning Assistant for a second semester,
I have learned even more about consulting and the way it differs from person
to person.... The ability to consult different people in different ways--to
adapt my interaction with people--is the most valuable lesson I can use
in my own academic and future career. Someday, I hope to be a professor,
which will require interacting with many different people, including other
professors, staff, and students. Particularly with students, each will
have his own needs in class and his own way of learning. In class, it will
be impossible to teach for all of these needs. Yet on an individual level
during office hours, it will be very important to work with each student
as best suits that student in the same way I had to consult (with faculty)
in the way that best suited each of them."

On planning a project

"It was very gratifying to see that the goals of our project were
met and that I provided a beneficial service to not only to the faculty
but her students as well."

"I have always known that time management is an important skill
to have, but breaking a long-term project down into multiple smaller parts
makes finishing each part that much easier."

"We used the first 5-10 minutes reviewing where we are were on our
task list and made any necessary revisions. I would recommend using the
last 5 minutes to plan for the next session. It is less fearful to break
down tasks into smaller parts. It does not seem so overwhelming to the learner."

"Aside from the work agreement and the adjusted timelines I kept
a meeting calendar that recorded our progress and slightly adjusted our
schedule and plan according to the progress that we were making."

"Once I had identified the skills he would need, I should have set
specific times to teach them, following a structured procedure that included
some exercises that he had to complete on his own. This last was particularly
absent because I had not wanted to invade his personal time and I also did
not want him to feel that he was getting "homework". However,
the problem with learning to publish on the Web is that success is highly
linked with practice and so <name> needs to have as much practice
as possible to improve the facility with which he uses web resources."

On soft side of consulting

"One of the most important skills I learned was patience. It took
patience to not grab the mouse ... and patience to explain every step of
a process, often times more than once."

"The most important aspect that I took from this relationship was
the importance of the interaction between us and the necessity to at all
times keep an open mind for ideas and suggestions."

"On "homework", it may be difficult to give your faculty
mentor assignments, but that is what we must do. We just have to find a
different way to approach it. For anyone who is proficient on the computer,
one knows it takes practice, especially while it is fresh in one's mind."

"At the start of the course, I realized how much I was going to
have to adapt to another person. I had to learn to slow the progression
of the thoughts in my head to pace with the actual physical progress we
were making on the computer, as well as his understanding of the material
we were being covered. We set aside a specific period of time every week
to work on the project and I kept pace with him and led him through every
process. We set a goal for each meeting, updated it weekly and really worked
hard in that time that we dedicated to the project every week. And we had
a good time in each of our meetings; personally we got along really well
and he respected my opinions and I respected his. We never encountered
any sort of disagreement that obstructed our progress; everything really
just went as smoothly as possible. And what was really exciting to me was
that by the middle to end of our meetings I noticed progress in the way
he was handling the computer and the ease with which he was moving through
the procedures, and it was so satisfying to me."

On communication

"I felt the most important communcation barrier that was transversed
was one between professor and student.... ... showed me what was missing
in my other classes--personal interaction with the professors."

"... I really think the experience helped me to develop and practice
my communication and leadership skills as well as patience. Because we
have different skills, more effort has to be put into communication."

"The mentorship taught me many things about working with other people.
The most important of these skills is listening. It is a skill to really
listen to everything someone tells you before you start working on your
response or solution. I learned that every detail of the problem and comment
is important, and sometimes the crux of the issue doesn,t appear until the
end of a comment. Another teamwork skill is patience. It,s worth the waiting
to make sure everyone is "on board and working at the needed level."

"What pleased me most was when your mentor "got it."
You could tell the exact second that they just understood every word that
you said and they were then able to complete the task on their own."

"... I also realized that my faculty mentor and I needed to strike
a balance between too much talking or too much listening on both of our
parts. The art of reaching a balance can be tricky. I also needed to find
ways to transition to tasks we needed to accomplish so we did not end up
spending too much time in discussion without some concrete outcome of our
deliberations. This lesson will serve me well in other academic endeavors
because I realize that I have a tendency to want to control a discussion
a bit too much and need to give others an opportunity to contribute. I
also need to know when to culminate a session and move on with action items
either resolved or tabled. This skill will serve me well in real-work job
settings when I must conduct meetings efficiently and effectively being
respectful of individuals' time constraints."