Library Briefings

Teaching, Learning and Technology

A week-long faculty workshop provides intensive tech training

The Searle Center for Teaching Excellence and 2East partners Academic Technologies and the University Library conducted a weeklong development workshop for faculty August 28 through September 1. The Teaching, Learning and Technology, or TLT workshop, now in its fifth year, combines presentations and discussions on learning and teaching practices with intensive hands-on technology instruction. Each of the 12 faculty participants worked throughout the week on a module for an upcoming course and presented their progress to their peers on the last day.

Balance between pedagogy and technology is key to the success of the TLT program. Searle Center staff Greg Light, Miriam Diamond and Susie Calkins conducted sessions on deep versus surface learning, designing curricula to align with learning outcomes, developing meaningful assessments, and selecting appropriate technologies to facilitate deep learning. 2East staff Brian Nielsen, Mary Schuller, James Altman, Dan Zellner and Claire Stewart provided instruction in the Blackboard course management system, Powerpoint, Adobe Acrobat, digital imaging, web publishing with Dreamweaver, and working with digital audio and video. Additional short sessions called “I Didn’t Know You Could Do That!” briefly introduced Microsoft Word’s track changes feature, the Safe Assignment plagiarism tool, Pachyderm Flash object creation software, the library’s Einstein federated search tool, and Endnote bibliographic management software. Featured faculty, many of whom were TLT alum, gave presentations each morning to show how they had applied technology to achieve specific learning objectives.

Faculty participants were nominated by a dean or department chair. Years of teaching experience and levels of familiarity with technology also varied widely among the participants. This year, attendees represented nine different departments from the Medill School of Journalism, the Feinberg School of Medicine, the McCormick School of Engineering, and the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

Claire Stewart
Acting head, Marjorie I Mitchell Multimedia Center and Coordinator of Digitization Projects