Developing an Ed Tech Curriculum for PhDs
Submission Type
20-minute Presentation
Abstract
What are the essential ed tech tools and methods that new college instructors want and need to know? This project presents an experimental, works-in-progress ed tech curriculum which I'm currently developing for the post-doctoral teaching fellows in Stanford's Introductory Studies program. I share some sample models and workshop materials, note the challenges of providing training to instructors with varying degrees of skill levels and diverse disciplinary needs, and discuss different ways to make this type of training more meaningful and useful to new college instructors.
Start Date
5-22-2019 3:00 PM
End Date
5-22-2019 4:15 PM
Description
This project presents a developing ed tech curriculum for Stanford's Thinking Matters Tech Coordinators. The Tech Coordinators are part of a cohort of post-doctoral teaching fellows. They are assigned to a lecture course roughly aligned with their academic discipline; depending on the course, their technical duties range from helping their faculty member project from their computer all the way to supporting live online coding in lectures.
I was tasked with making their positions more meaningful and infusing more professional development into their positions. This is a challenge for several reasons--their skill levels are diverse, they teach in all disciplines, the technical needs of their courses vary widely, and as post-docs, they have many demands on their time and attention. Moreover, they rotate each semester, leading to an additional challenge--how can tech workshops be shaped meaningfully each semester, without too much overlap for repeat coordinators?
In this lightning talk, I present several activities and models-in-progress, and solicit audience input into the possibilities of this developing program. I demonstrate ways I've adapted workshops on standard ed tech tools (online polling, the campus LMS) to their specific needs and questions, and speculate on how to make the bridge between the quick, hands-on training needed for their jobs with the broader mission of helping them develop their own pedagogical practices.
Developing an Ed Tech Curriculum for PhDs
What are the essential ed tech tools and methods that new college instructors want and need to know? This project presents an experimental, works-in-progress ed tech curriculum which I'm currently developing for the post-doctoral teaching fellows in Stanford's Introductory Studies program. I share some sample models and workshop materials, note the challenges of providing training to instructors with varying degrees of skill levels and diverse disciplinary needs, and discuss different ways to make this type of training more meaningful and useful to new college instructors.
Comments
I can also offer this as a 20-minute presentation if that would make it easier for scheduling. Thanks!