Seminar: "New Bottles, New Wine?"
Mark Schlesinger
Associate Vice President for Academic Technology,
University of Massachusetts
The University of Massachusetts has introduced electronic technology into all sectors of its operations, including teaching and learning. The adoption of electronic technology has affected us in ways we can grasp only if we step back and examine how the institutional life has changed. Some would dispute whether that life has changed for the better, but none would dispute that the academic enterprise is vastly different. Less clear is the manner in which electronic technology provides not merely a new conduit for old messages and methodologies, but transforms those messages and methodologies, and fundamentally changes our understanding of teaching and learning. Recent developments in hardware and software, by their very adoption, harbor such a change in perspective.
This session will briefly explore those developments (including online classes, blended learning, web enhanced learning, inking technology, and electronic portfolios) and their implications, and will update participants on how faculty across the UMass System are using the new technologies. The presenter will ask participants to discuss implications for the K-12 STEM pipeline and teacher training.