Promoting Department-Wide Planning for Integrating Technology into the Curriculum
	AAHE Faculty Roles and Rewards Conference Disney's Coronado Springs Resort Thursday, January 29th, 1998 9:00 AM - Noon
Tom Creed		Susan Kahn

This session will address a topic that has received little notice in the literature--departmental planning for integrating information technology into the curriculum, and the chair's role in that planning. Academic departments have a major influence on faculty priorities and rewards, share a relatively common set of goals, and are small enough to function as workable bodies; as such, they are the units on campus that have the best potential for sustained examination of many of the critical issues in higher education--a coherent, integrated curriculum, enhanced student learning, promoting collaboration among faculty, and discussion of faculty roles and rewards. Yet finding a forum in which department members can come together to create something that transcends their own individual agendas can be difficult. A department-wide initiative to effectively incorporate technology into the curriculum can provide that forum. Department-wide planning and discussion of pedagogically effective uses of technology naturally raises issues that can be difficult to address more directly. For example, discussion of technologies most likely to enhance student learning encourages individuals to examine their own teaching practices, and, with effective leadership from the chair, is an excellent means of promoting department-wide examination of broader curricular priorities and the reward structure.

The workshop will focus on strategies for the design and implementation of a departmental technology initiative, on technologies most likely to promote collaboration among department members and enhance student learning, and on how faculty roles and rewards may be affected by such an examination. The chair's role in such an initiative will be a particular focus. Development of a departmental website that presents the collective identity of the department and integrates the work of individual department faculty members (e.g., course and research-related sites) and students will be highlighted as an especially effective strategy. The workshop will be conducted as a combination of presentation, small group work, and discussion of specific departmental models and of issues raised by workshop participants.

Presenters: Tom Creed is Professor of Psychology at St. John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota. Tom is the former chair of the Psychology Department at the College of Saint Benedict/St. John's University and founding director of the colleges' Learning Enhancement Service. He has led workshops on teaching and technology at colleges and universities nation-wide, and has written and published extensively on effective pedagogy and technology.

Susan Kahn is Senior Academic Planner and Director of the Undergraduate Teaching Improvement Council for the University of Wisconsin System. Susan has led a state-wide Faculty Roles and Rewards initiative in Wisconsin over the past four years, and oversees a UW System-wide development program for department chairs. She developed one of the nation's first department-level teaching awards, and is a frequent writer and presenter on issues related to faculty development and faculty roles and rewards. Susan can be reached at (skahn@ccmail.uwsa.edu).

Sponsored by the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD).

Last modified on November 15, 1997