Learning Technologists and Campus Conversations
By Joshua Kim June 6, 2010 8:52 pm
'"The idea of a "senior learning technologist" telling faculty that their syllabi should be made freely available is laughable."
On this point, DrRingDing and I are in full agreement. Nobody should "tell" faculty how to do anything. The vast majority of the faculty that I work with are incredibly dedicated and passionate about teaching and their discipline. One of the positives of the long academic apprenticeship is that most of the faculty colleagues that I work with have extraordinary teaching experience - they have their 10,000 hours. I always learn more from my faculty colleagues than I could possibly offer them about teaching.
The idea that learning technologists "tell" faculty members anything completely mischaracterizes our relationship. Our goal is to find opportunities to have conversations with faculty to understand how we can work with them to solve their teaching needs. It is often the case that a specific methodology or technology can relieve a teaching pain point, allowing the faculty member more time and resources for their course design and teaching efforts.
