Learning and Teaching Center

As a part of our cooperation grant with Saint Olaf, staff in the library and IT have undertaken to run informational sessions they call learning communities. These have run throughout this academic year. So far, they have been running independently at each school, but the expectation is that this will be a place for greater collaboration between the two schools. I have attended a number of the sessions this year, and I found them to be helpful and informative.

As LTC Director I have been attending the meetings of the Future Learning Technologies Group, and I will also attend the consortium meeting with our peer schools that are considering how new technological approaches can enhance our teaching. I thought that I would use this forum to offer some reactions to how I think this process is going. Just as I was accepting the position of directing the LTC, it became clear that considering technology was going to be a prominent agenda item for us in the coming years. I was curious as to how much technology was going to be a part of LTC programming during my time as Director.

This is the end of my first year as LTC Director. Next year I will be away for winter term teaching my off campus program, but I will serve as the Director for fall and spring. I have always had a great deal of appreciation for the LTC, but this has increased with my inside view. I have been especially impressed by the things that are in place to help new faculty members. None of this existed when I started at Carleton.