LTC Presents Faculty Technology Workshop
- May 21st., 2007

Chad Fulton describes new TeachNet features.

The Learning Technology Center presented a technology workshop to 13 College of Education faculty on May 11, 2007. The daylong event, led by IDEA Studio Coordinator Karen French and Laptop Initiative for Future Educators (LIFE) Coordinator Chad Fulton, focused on updated features and innovative applications of software used throughout LIFE courses.

Chad Fulton described the new features of the latest version of TeachNet, the College’s mail and conferencing system. Shared Internet bookmarks, instant messaging, and file storage are just a few of the new capabilities that offer exciting possibilities for instruction and collaboration among student project teams.

Karen French and Paul Resta, standing, assist workshop participants.

Karen French demonstrated video iChat and ways to use it in teaching. The faculty were able to see and speak with middle school students in Damon, Texas, who described how they had seen iMovies about Austin made by COE teacher education students in a videoconferencing project last fall.

Other activities included a presentation on the latest features of Blackboard given by Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment (DIIA) representative Pamela Brochhausen, and content area breakout sessions, in which faculty discussed how the technologies could bring specific benefits to the teaching of their subjects. The workshop also featured presentations on three Vision Award technology integration projects. Graduate student Yangjoo Park described Paul Resta’s Online Assessment System for peer and self-assessment and Larry Abraham demonstrated Biomech, his Web-based application of video clips and tools for studying and measuring movement. Jim Hoffman presented his Longhorn Readers and Longhorn Tutorial Handbook, Web-based video cases and tutorial components for teaching reading.

The next faculty technology workshop is planned for August, shortly before the fall semester begins.

—Laurie Caldwell, LTC Communications Coordinator