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Nick Backscheider, Associate Executive
Director of the Office of Information Technology at Auburn, a
TLT Group Network
member, writes about a
recent two-day visit by Steve Gilbert and Steve Ehrmann (TLT
Group):
"Auburn University invited the TLT Group to
assist in reviewing the possibilities for educational technology
direction and support at Auburn University. We hoped that Steve
Gilbert and Steve Ehrmann would listen with assumptions
different from ours, and would ask questions at times and in
ways that would not have occurred to us. We wanted to gain an
external perspective on how faculty were and might be using
technology in their teaching and how the rest of us might be
involved. No one was sure what would happen, but our intention
was to learn about ourselves.
"That’s what happened, of course. We learned
some ways in which we were doing better that we thought,
discovered some problem area that we had previously not seen,
although they had been there right in front of us, and made
found some directions to go that we just had not thought of. We
also think that we found some things we might benefit from
ceasing to do or from doing differently.
"One of the advantages of these sessions was that
we involved between fifty and sixty persons in the discussions
drawn from a wide variety of roles and backgrounds. We also
assigned the participants randomly to the hour and a half
discussion groups with Steve and Steve. That way not only the
consultants, but many of us had to listen carefully to the
conversations because our own languages and presuppositions
differed, a fact which the TLT Group pointed out—gently and
tactfully— several times.
"We’re a university so we move slowly, but as a
result of these sessions the Provost has asked for a proposal to
increase the effectiveness of faculty support from several areas
that have run pretty much solo. In addition, the Educational
Technology Advisory Council, a group of faculty members
appointed by the Provost to examine and recommend Auburn’s uses
of instructional technology, is now eager to seek and implement
new directions. It was worth the effort involved."
Go to
TLT
Group Resource Page on Faculty/Course Development and Support |
