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Position opening Instructional Technology
Posted:
Jul 16, 1997 6:03 PM
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Dear Sally,
We have a full time position opening for a faculty member to lead a Masters
Program in Instructional Technology at National University in San Diego,
CA. Is there a listserv or some way that the position can be advertised to
participants at the NECC Conference? Thanks! Fran Rosamond
t 12:21 PM 7/15/97 -0500, Sally Sloan wrote:
>Ah you hit a hot button! Sorry to be late but just returned form the big
>NECC in Seattle (Nat'l Educ Computer COnf)
>
>Configuration! I spent 12 professional life years as the computer
>coordinator for Mpls Public schools. Diligently did my job of following all
>research as well as testing in the schools. I had a $.5 million/yr budget
>so could really try things out.
>
>Research AND personal experience (we did 6 workshops a week for years for
>teachers and Admin and students in my own lab) definitely established that
>the old classroom arrangement is NOT the best. Peripheral arrangements for
>computers are best whether in your classroom or in a lab. You do not need
>or want to see shinig faces, you need to see screens! If someone is having
>difficulty you can spot it quickly and intervene if necessary or just
>monitor. Yes I know about master computers at a teacher desk that can peek
>at everyone - NOT as efficient! good for a few things but not daily
>everything. The desks need to be big enough to accommodate more than one
>person to allow for coop efforts. In the main training lab we finally
>established we bought large unpainted desks and placed them in a peripheral
>design. Since they were real desks and not computer tables they had drawers
>for storing the many many things you always want - even locked drawers for
>original disks and manuals. 2-3 even 4 people could gather around one unit
>easily - the pop out writing boards proved handy as well - students could
>have a place to put ref books or notebooks or whatever. It was just plain
>comfortable. Even the appearance proved to be an asset - less "school" and
>more homelike!
>NOW - the BIG advantage came by getting good swivel office chairs on
>castors. If I needed to lecture or demo something I just asked all to turn
>around and face me. This puts screens behind people and not distracting
>them. Because we had large classes we also had a U of units in the center
>of the room so it was like concentric circles with me at the center or one
>side center. I kept openings in the center arrangement so I could "cut
>across" quickly to help anyone - we checked, 3 seconds to anywhere in the
>room, max. But ALWAYS SO I COULD SEE ALL SCREENS NOT FACES!
>
>GROUP work was done at someone's station. Chairs moved easily. It was a
>great laba dn I really miss it!
>In my high school classroom, more tradiitional and I had little control
>over it - I was able to acquire tables instead of desks (make friends with
>the janitors and scrounge!) I put the 5 computers I had at the back of the
>room spaced out so they came around the corners a bit. We redesigned the
>room arrangements to suit whatever what going on at any given time.
>Sometimes groups would develop near a computer, other times in teh center.
>The maxim was flexibility.
>
>Have fun setting up.
>
>Sally A. Sloan, Ph.D.
>Dept. Mathematics/Statistics
>Winona State University
>Winona, MN 55987
>Phone: 507-457-4877
>FAX: 507-457-5376
>
>
>
>
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