SBC, TAG Forum June 6 at IUPUI

By Christine Fitzpatrick

Faculty recipients of SBC (formerly Ameritech) Fellow and Technology Assessment Grant (TAG) awards will demonstrate their funded projects and discuss their work with colleagues. The featured presenter, Glenn Gass of the IUB School of Music, will discuss his project, “Creation of a Multimedia Beatles Companion.”

Projects represent a variety of disciplines and topics, including: Using the Internet for Chinese language learning, a CD-ROM to help pre-service teachers learn how to teach students who display disruptive classroom behavior, Web-based resources for the study of human intelligence, teaching a class in more than one country, assessing the impact of technology on student learning, tracking nursing students’ clinical experiences, individualized instruction in English pronunciation for foreign students, using simulations to teach pharmacology and online quizzing to help students come to class better prepared.

IU established the Ameritech Fellows Program in the fall of 1999, with a gift of $1 million from SBC (formerly Ameritech) to support a five-year program of innovation in teaching and learning with technology. Since 1999, four rounds of funding and awards averaging $15,000 have made possible 42 innovative projects that span the IU campuses and represent diverse areas of teaching. The fifth request for proposals was issued in May, 2003.

The TAG program was established by the IU Office of the Vice President for Information Technology to encourage faculty to study the impact of educational technology on their practices and on student, course, or program outcomes. Funded proposals answer questions about the use of instructional technology and discover how pedagogy influences the use of technology.

“The role of faculty innovators as mentors is essential,” said Brad Wheeler, associate dean for teaching and learning information technologies. “SBC Fellows and TAG recipients partner with the campus teaching and learning centers in advising other faculty about incorporating technology into teaching and learning. They also contribute to an online repository of good practices, which faculty across the university can use as a resource for their own work.”