Winter 2001
Volume 3, Number 2
  


Educators attend
first IST Faculty Academy in Information Technology

By Charles C. DuBois


Two hundred educators from more than 50 colleges and universities around Pennsylvania gathered at the University Park campus for the first IST Faculty Academy in Information Technology.

Sponsored by the School of Information Sciences and Technology, the two-day conference on the theme “Roadmap for Success in the 21st Century Classroom” provided faculty members and administrators with the tools and knowledge they need to effectively use cutting-edge learning technologies. The program was held in The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel.

“Professors and college leaders everywhere are wrestling with the complex issues surrounding information technology and its use in teaching — it is a major issue for higher education today,” Dr. Frederick D. Loomis, director of the IST Solutions Institute and coordinator of the faculty academy, said. “Our goal is to help provide the thinking and informational resources necessary to enable participants to surmount the obstacles facing them and take education at their schools to a new level.

“The ultimate beneficiaries will be the students attending the Commonwealth’s colleges and universities,” he said. “We plan to make the faculty academy an annual event and create an ongoing community of practice.”

Participants examined the new learning opportunities presented by emerging technologies; discussed various technology strategies, infrastructure and support systems; explored implementation issues raised by institutional culture and policies; and gained new skills and understanding, informational resources and a support network.

Keynote speaker for the first IST Faculty Academy was Dr. William H. Graves, founder and chairman of eduprise.com and a member of the mathematics faculty at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. He is a widely recognized authority in teaching innovations.

Facilitators and panelists came from Carnegie Technology Education, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Robert Morris College, Juniata College, Bucknell University, Bloomsburg University, East Stroudsburg State University, Lock Haven University, Penn State’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, the Pennsylvania Department of Education and SMGNet, as well as from Penn State.

Participants also had opportunities to discuss educational hardware and software solutions with representatives from Apple, Blackboard, Campus Pipeline, Cisco, eduprise, eSocrates, IBM, Microsoft, NetG, SCT, SMGNet and WebCT.


Dr. William H. Graves, founder and chairman of eduprise.com and a member of the mathematics faculty at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, presents the keynote address for the first IST Faculty Academy in Information Technology, sponsored by Penn State’s School of Information Sciences and Technology.

Two hundred educators from more than 50 colleges and universities around Pennsylvania attend the IST Faculty Academy in Information Technology, held at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel.




  

U.Ed.OCE 01-8002/mkm/GSM