Partnering with Instructional Technology – Why? How? When?

Why?

Don’t go it alone!  At WPI, your Instructional Technology resource is the Technology for Teaching and Learning Group in the ATC.  We have a variety of tools and a wealth of experience, and are here to support faculty and students. 

How?

Partnering can be as involved as you would like it to be – a quick email exchange perhaps?  Or maybe you are interested in some 1-1 training on how to implement a particular idea in your class (online learning, multimedia work)?  We’re also always happy to assist in the classroom or work directly with your students outside of class.  You can always reach the team by emailing atc-ttc@wpi.edu or by stopping in the office in Gordon Library.  Take a right when you enter and you will see us in the front corner.

When?

Don’t wait!  The sooner we know about your needs, the more helpful we can be.  Students, ready to produce your video now even though it’s not due until the end of D-term?  Please come by!  Faculty, planning next fall’s courses and ready to get some basics in place over the summer?  Give us a call!  Specifically, you may want to get in touch if you are thinking of any of the following:

Presentations.  You’ve got a huge research project to present at the end of term.  Would you like some input on your poster design?  Perhaps you’ll be supplementing your presentation with some video footage and would like assistance filming, editing or producing your work?  Interested in learning about presentation tools in addition to PowerPoint?  Hoping to use the pen on the screen in the classroom (aka the Sympodium)? 

Redesigning your teaching methods.  Are you looking for more classroom interaction with students, even in a large lecture?  Have you thought of perhaps delivering some of your content online to free up class time for more coaching sessions?  Would you like to better utilize Blackboard to facilitate discussion between your students out of class?    

Working with student teams.  It takes a village to raise a project team!  We can work with your students on survey development and deployment, organization and communication.  We provide SharePoint sites for all student groups and are also happy to assist with the exploration of other tools.

Multimedia work.  Archiving images or video?  Hoping to record some microlectures?  Assigning film creation projects for an upcoming class?  The best time to contact the TTL group on this one is NOW.  We can assist with training, equipment reservation and other recommendations that will help make your production flawless!

And much more.  Please feel free to learn more on the ATC’s site for faculty:  http://www.wpi.edu/+Collaboratory/ and/or our site for students:  http://www.wpi.edu/academics/ATC/Collaboratory/Learning/.  We look forward to hearing from you!