Hamilton faculty members are going back to the classroom, not as teachers but as students. In a two-day workshop, faculty were introduced not only to cutting-edge technology available but also to the latest research in teaching and learning and how to incorporate oral presentations into the classroom. This overview will aid them in developing and teaching the new sophomore seminars, which will be introduced this fall.
"Appreciating and accommodating difference is the bedrock of a liberal arts education," says Susan Mason, director of the oral communication program, as she explained the emphasis on public presentation in the new sophomore seminars. "It teaches the students how to look at multiple levels of understanding and knowledge and say 'How do I accommodate that?' It's relatively easy to speak to peers but it takes practice to include an audience with multiple levels of knowledge."
Mason was a presenter at the May faculty workshop that was co-organized and partially led by members of Hamilton's HILLgroup, a collaboration among reference librarians and instructional technology support. Janet Simons, instructional technology specialist, said, "Our primary objective is to assist faculty in instructional design and course development."
Vice President for Information Technology Dave Smallen said, "The workshop was a great opportunity to bring together faculty with support professionals from the Library and ITS. The strategic partnership between these two support organizations will enhance services provided to faculty and students in the sophomore seminars."
Professor of English Patricia O'Neill said, "Our students grew up with new technology like PowerPoint and the Internet, unlike us Ph.D.'s who went through graduate school with traditional lecturers and note-taking." From examples given by faculty and students who participated in pilot classes spring 2002, O'Neill was grateful to see how oral presentations and multimedia could be effectively incorporated into the classroom. Professor of Biology Ernest Williams taught a class on the Adirondacks and was taken a bit by surprise that all of the students used PowerPoint in their final presentations. He said, "The students all seem to be born knowing how to use PowerPoint." He commented on some inappropriate uses of PowerPoint and suggested faculty contact Oral Communication and the HILLgroup for assistance in teaching students effective use of PowerPoint in their assignments.
Technology shouldn't overwhelm or replace teaching. "It will profoundly reshape the way we represent our knowledge," said Associate Professor of Art Steve Goldberg who will be teaching a course on Chinese visual culture and globalization this fall. "Technology will impact the way we teach so we need to learn how to use it effectively. Faculty already know how to lecture and engage students in an interactive classroom. The question is now, 'How do we now enhance learning using this technology?'"
O'Neill said, "We're all committed to learning new technology and including visual imagery in the classroom." She explained that even sending a student to the reference librarian to write a research paper is different. "They can still learn how to use the library and catalogues but now the reference librarians have multiple databases at their finger tips. They can show students how to download articles immediately from the source rather than waiting for a hard copy to come." She continued, "I'm grateful to ITS and the library staff catching up on what they can do for us and our students. This will help us know how sophisticated the research is that we can expect from our students."
Goldberg, who has for many years used and developed interactive software to enhance the classes he teaches, is emphatic about keeping technology in perspective, "We need to do more than simply learn new technology and techniques. We need to think through this new medium, digital and electronic, and engage students in the learning experience."
HILLgroup was formed to assist faculty in this process by collaboratively researching options as well as teaching how to integrate desired outcomes with the resources available. Overviews of the student support services on campus were presented at the workshop. Sharon Williams, director of the writing center, discussed writing center resources. Julia Schult, reference librarian, presented the many services and collections offered by the library, including a description of Hamilton's Rare Book Collection containing a large number of local historical resources. Nikki Reynolds, director of instructional technology, gave an overview of the services and latest instructional technology available on campus.
With an overview of the resources at their command the next step was to look at how to design team-taught or cluster courses that cross disciplines. "The essence of the new curriculum is focused on the integration of knowledge," said Mason. "This doesn't necessarily erode disciplinary focus because things do relate to each other. One of the ways we can approach this integration is the way we approach instruction. The instructional approaches need to build on disciplinary methodologies. This is why it is so important that each faculty member use new communication techniques as well as more traditional approaches of written and oral communication."
Goldberg calls it "the converging of disciplines on a topic." The workshop afforded faculty time to think about integration that the new curriculum calls for and to consider challenges of working with another faculty member to team-teach or explore the option of teaching part of a cluster. (Goldberg's and O'Neill's courses this fall will be part of a globalization cluster.) Mason asked her colleagues to consider, "What methods do I need to consider that will allow for integration of skill bases and lead to unity of knowledge?'"
Mason explained she and the Hillgroup asked Tamara Burke, whose expertise is in instructional and course design, to come lead this part of the workshop. Burke was at Hamilton as an Emerson Scholar when the new curriculum and sophomore seminars were in the discussion phase and she is delighted to see those plans come to fruition. Simons said, "We are asking faculty members to do something different — take their expertise in their discipline but also merge with another field — synthesize content across disciplines.
The last piece to the sophomore seminar puzzle is how to incorporate oral communication and public presentations into the courses. Hamilton has a tradition of preparing its students to write and speak well. The oral skills students will need to develop in order to be successful in the sophomore seminars will rival the rigorous speaking requirements of past Hamilton generations. Mason explained, "These courses must have oral communication built in. They require the use of quality oral discourse to enhance the quality of learning and this makes for a more active learning environment. This method ensures that students are ready to contribute in the classroom but also becomes a very critical skill in larger society. This demands that the students articulate their ideas in ways that others can hear and embrace. It takes practice to refine and put ideas in context."
Mason said, "We're experts in our disciplines, but Ph.D. programs don't normally teach about how people learn. In this workshop we examined how to design oral communication into a curriculum and course of instruction versus laying it on top. The way we discuss and discourse is integral to understanding as reading about it and we expect a certain proficiency at end of program."
Another faculty development workshop will be offered near the middle of the fall semester. If you have ideas about what you would like to see offered in the next workshop, please e-mail HILLgroup@hamilton.edu.
