About Academic Technologies
Academic Technologists at Carleton are known by varying names on other campuses. Some call us Instructional Technologists, Instructional Designers, and a variety of other friendly names.
For the sake of simplicity and to make faculty more comfortable about who to call, we have retained something of the divisional associations between our skill sets. Academic departments are clustered into divisions based on discipline similarities, and each division should feel free to call the Academic Technologist with the most applicable academic background and experience in teaching and research. We will be glad to help you, and reroute you to the right person if that needs to be done. And if you are unsure, let us worry about who is the right person for your questions!
Each Academic Technologist may employ excellent student assistants. As these assistants help us help you, you are likely to see them often. Please feel free to provide us with feedback on their performance so that we can be sure to help them with their educational experience.
Academic Technologists can help with the following:
- Course and Research support
- Advising and consulting for software or hardware needs for courses or research
- Teaching in class or in worskshop format about using technology for particular assignments or projects
- Helping students learn to use available resources and technology
- Creating and supporting assignments
- Training and instruction in various software programs or paradigms
- Moodle instruction and design (or choosing among options which include Moodle)
- Arranging setup of computers and software for faculty and academic staff
Instructional and Research Computing
Academic Technologies can assist you in the exploration and assessment of computer software and hardware to support specific instructional and research objectives. These tools are often discipline/discipline-family-specific. Your primary AT contact can help you find the right technology and product, and help you master it once found. Then you can work together to employ the new technology in your classes.
Faculty colleagues are also available to assist as you consider experimenting in the use of information technologies in your teaching and research. In a program unique to Carleton, four faculty members serve each year on the Technology Planning and Priorities Committee for Information Technology Services. These faculty members are advocates and counselors for other faculty wishing to make further use of information technologies in their teaching. They are not a "technology super person", but rather someone who is comfortable with technology, uses technology in the classroom, and is enthusiastic about talking with cohorts regarding the costs, benefits, and pedagogical issues of curricular computing.
If you would like to discuss or explore possible uses of computers and networks in you teaching and research, please feel free to call on your divisional representative or AT contact.
Moodle Instruction and Design
Moodle is the online Course Management System in place at Carleton, and has become fairly widely adopted since the college adopted it in 2005. For more information about Moodle and all it can do, since there is so much that it can do, we recommend you contact us so we can give you an introduction to the tool and all of its various aspects. Once you are more familiar with it, we have a large amount of instructions posted on the carlwiki Moodle 2 page to help guide you through creating or changing things in Moodle.
Training and Instruction
If you want to brush up on or expand your computing skills, and have even a small amount of time to give to the effort, just contact an Academic Technologist, or use our website's Request On Demand Instruction form. One of us will talk with you about what you want to learn, and then work with you -- utilizing one-on-one meetings, workshops, or a myriad of educational materials.
Don't be shy . . . take advantage of our availability to enhance your computer skills in the ways you desire. That's why we're here, and believe it or not, we actually enjoy it!