Instructional Technology Conference

University of Massachusetts > Instructional Technology Conference: April, 2008

The Information Technology Council's Subcommittee on Academic Technology Presents:

April 10 (Pre-Conference Workshops) and April 11 (Conference)
at the Holiday Inn, Boxborough, Massachusetts 

Thank you to Chris Dede, to all our presenters, and to all attendees. 

For post conference information (presenters' files, keynote videos, and more), visit the IT Conference wiki.

Click here for a list of 2008's award winning poster demonstrations.

Click here for opening remarks from the April 11 conference (video: 9 min.)

Click here to jump to the bottom of this page, for additional links (agenda, concurrent sessions, poster demonstrations, and more.)

Keynote Speaker: Chris Dede, Harvard University
Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies, Technology, Innovation, and Education Program, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University
Reinventing Teaching and Learning Using 21st Cenury Technologies
Advanced information and communications technologies are creating a flat world in which creative knowledge generation is the key resource, reshaping economic development strategies and educational approaches. This talk describes key 21st century skills that students must master, as well as strategies by which universities can inculcate these skills.
Click here to see the keynote address (video: 1 hour)

This year's Instructional Technology Conference, "The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Making IT Matter," adds a half-day pre-conference gathering on April 10 with concurrent workshops devoted to the scholarship of teaching and learning and curriculum development in blended learning environments.   

Pre-Conference Workshops

April 10, 1:30-4:30
Finding a Place in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (PLEASE NOTE: This workshop is full.)
Participants in this workshop, led by two pioneers in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, will explore how they can embed the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in their everyday lives as faculty members. Randy Bass of Georgetown University and Steve Ehrmann of The TLT Group (Teaching, Learning, and Technology) will illuminate both the conceptual and practical issues involved in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

April 10, 1:30-4:30
The Ins and Outs of Designing an Online or Blended Course (PLEASE NOTE: This workshop is full.)
The challenges of teaching are many and when the use of technology is added to the mix, the challenges sometimes can seem daunting. Geared toward those new or relatively new to using online learning techniques, this half-day workshop, led by Barbara Macaulay and Stefanie Henderson of UMassOnline and Jeannette Riley of UMass Dartmouth, will demystify teaching with online tools. It will give you the opportunity to work with some of these tools; however, the main premise of the workshop is to assist you in thinking through the process of designing or redesigning a course and using online strategies to achieve learning objectives.

Main Conference

April 11, 9:00-5:00 (Registration and Continental Breakfast 8:00-9:00)
In a full day of activities on April 11, current recipients of the University of Massachusetts Grants to Enhance Teaching and Learning with Technology will report on and demonstrate their work, either in poster sessions or in 50-minute concurrent sessions. Additional presenters will be UMass faculty and staff who are actively engaged in applying academic technology to the enhancement of their instruction and student learning. Sessions will relate to one (or more) of the following tracks. . .

• Using IT to assess student learning: Topics in this area might concern the use of electronic portfolios, surveys, quizzes, and tests, as well as broader concerns involving IT and the assessment of learning in online, blended, or physical classroom settings.
• Teaching and Technology:  This wide-ranging and diverse category might include designing, developing, and implementing curricula in physical, online, and blended settings: Topics may address examples of how information technology assists in the meeting of important curricular and pedagogical goals (dissemination of content, student writing, student research, collaboration) and how best to incorporate the best features of IT in course and curriculum design.
  Topics in this area also could involve demonstrations of specific hardware or software tools. In particular, you might see a focus on emerging technologies for assessment, audio/video capture and dissemination, interactivity (personal response systems, teleconferencing, wikis, virtual environments) and, mobile computing (e.g., tablet PC's, cell phones).
• Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Systematic Inquiry into Teaching, Learning, and Technology
  Topics would involve commentary on research methods, reports of studies undertaken, syntheses and literature reviews offering agendas for further inquiry, enablers and constraints to the scholarly exploration of teaching and learning

We hope you can join us.

Links:

• Conference Agenda
• Concurrent Sessions "At a Glance"
• Poster Demonstrations "At a Glance"
• Index of Presenters, Authors and Project Collaborators
• Vendors / Sponsors
• Guidelines and Documents for Presenters
• Directions to Holiday Inn, Boxborough (If you would like to reserve a room for April 10 or 11 at the special UMass group rate, click here.
  To see a map of the hotel layout, click here.)
• Click here to take a brief survey regarding your possible session preferences. (Please note that ithis will not lock you into attending any one session on April 11, but will help us in our planning efforts )

For more information, contact Mark Schlesinger, Associate VP for Academic Technology:
mschlesinger@umassp.edu
617-287-7102

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