Academic year: 2015-2016
Shifting Winds
Initially, we recruited students to become mentors for School of Education faculty in the use of relevant digital tools for teaching and learning. We identified students, who were highly recommended by their undergraduate technology instructor as possible technology mentors, serving as as Digital Ambassador Jrs. However, it proved too challenging to match students with faculty due to time conflicts in scheduling on both faculty and student time. We also confronted financial aid issues for students as even minimal monetary payment to them to act as tech mentors affected their financial aid offers. We may explore course credit or community service credit in the future.
Alternatively, we then created a faculty network for those interested in participating in our Blended and Online Learning Modules aligned with the CI campus Technology & Learning division to provide a more sustainable and seamless professional development training unit. These modules, offered asynchronously and/or face-to-face, provided a more convenient time frame (summer, early fall and winter break), for participating faculty. We also connected with multi-disciplinary faculty outside the School of Education but who have strong interests and academic backgrounds (Science, Math, English, and History-Social Science) aligning with teacher preparation and its credential faculty. This allowed us to explore its potential to enhance teaching and learning among School of Education faculty, particularly those who teach academic methods courses in the areas of reading language arts, math, and history-social science. To date, within our small program, nine faculty members in the above areas and in Early Childhood and Special Education have been trained in either online and/or blended teaching environments using appropriate digital tools to integrate new technologies into credential courses in order to enhance the learning experience of our teacher candidates and model effective pedagogical strategies.
Initially, we recruited students to become mentors for School of Education faculty in the use of relevant digital tools for teaching and learning. We identified students, who were highly recommended by their undergraduate technology instructor as possible technology mentors, serving as as Digital Ambassador Jrs. However, it proved too challenging to match students with faculty due to time conflicts in scheduling on both faculty and student time. We also confronted financial aid issues for students as even minimal monetary payment to them to act as tech mentors affected their financial aid offers. We may explore course credit or community service credit in the future.
Alternatively, we then created a faculty network for those interested in participating in our Blended and Online Learning Modules aligned with the CI campus Technology & Learning division to provide a more sustainable and seamless professional development training unit. These modules, offered asynchronously and/or face-to-face, provided a more convenient time frame (summer, early fall and winter break), for participating faculty. We also connected with multi-disciplinary faculty outside the School of Education but who have strong interests and academic backgrounds (Science, Math, English, and History-Social Science) aligning with teacher preparation and its credential faculty. This allowed us to explore its potential to enhance teaching and learning among School of Education faculty, particularly those who teach academic methods courses in the areas of reading language arts, math, and history-social science. To date, within our small program, nine faculty members in the above areas and in Early Childhood and Special Education have been trained in either online and/or blended teaching environments using appropriate digital tools to integrate new technologies into credential courses in order to enhance the learning experience of our teacher candidates and model effective pedagogical strategies.