The FTI Planning Committee is developing three additional workshops that
will follow the successful Summer 2003 inaugural function.  Consistent with
the practice at the first workshop, participants will be provided with the
hardware and software necessary for the institute curriculum, and, as
additional incentive, will be allowed to retain their equipment for
subsequent use in their classrooms.  Representatives from the committee met with the FTI Steering Committee to discuss the first one of these, a
mini-institute for Deans and a limited number of Department Chairs.
Scheduled for December 15-17, four half-day sessions will introduce the
participants to some of the technology applications that were featured in
the two-week workshop for faculty this past June.  These Deans and Chairs
will not only gain some additional proficiency with technological tools but
also will develop a better picture of how our resources can improve our
pedagogy and increase the learning of our students.

A second small-scale workshop is envisioned for the spring.  This FTI
function may target our adjunct faculty, as the classes taught by this group
include a significant fraction of C of C students.  Increasing the skill and
resources of our adjuncts has the potential for considerable overall benefit
to our educational program.

Finally, this presently funded stage of the Faculty Technology Institute
will culminate in another full-length summer workshop for our faculty.
Preliminary plans are to focus technological resources on the
general-education sector of our undergraduate curriculum.  Enrichment of
general education across the College represents perhaps the best single
investment of the resources of the Faculty Technology Center.

By Gordon Jones, Director of the Faculty Technology Institute

The summer Faculty Technology Institute held from July 8 - 18 was a great success. Participants overwhelmingly characterized the program as highly productive and provided many new avenues to enhance teaching methods with new technology.   The sixteen faculty members who attended the institute were immersed for two weeks into an intensive  technology workout which covered knowledge building, skills acquisition, development, and implementation.  Some participants described the institute as an educational technology "bootcamp."

At the beginning of the nine all day sessions participants learned about the theoretical framework of technology including such such topics as “the impact of technology on learning,” "pedagogical issues in technology," "visual elements of design teaching and learning," and "overcoming the road blocks of using technology".  Later sessions in skills acquisition immersed the participants into software applications such as WebCT, PowerPoint XP, Dreamweaver, and PhotoShop as well as practical use of wireless networks and smart classrooms.

Academic Computing Liaisons taught sessions and offered one on one, group training and technical support.  College faculty, who are specialists in the theoritical or practical application of technology or specific applications, taught a number of the sessions.. 

The faculty who participated are now implementing the knowledge learned in the summer FTI and integrating the technology into their fall and spring courses.  They will share the results with peers at the next faculty technology institute and/or during a technology symposium next year.

Participant Comments from the Faculty Technology Institute:

"I feel that the FTI was the most interesting, useful, and enjoyable activity I have been involved with at the CofC.  It was what I needed to make me venture out further in using technology for teaching.”

“The Institute was extremely well organized.  The liaisons were all great, helpful, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic.  I was DRAINED at the end of every day, but felt like I learned an awful lot.”

“The FTI was a great experience.  I just wanted to know more and have time to apply it more during the sessions.”

For more in depth information of this summers Faculty Technology Institute please link to http://www.cofc.edu/~liaisons/fti/.

By J. Seay, R.S.S. Library