Learning Spaces and Shared Decision Making
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Learning Spaces and Shared Decision Making

Submitted By: pope
Co-Presenter: Bart Thurber (thurber@sandiego.edu)
Scheduled For: Tuesday @ 1:00 PM in Water Oaks II
Session Type: Session - Presentation (includes keynote & business mtg)
Target Audience: faculty in various disciplines, especially mathematics or humanities; classroom designers and IT support for same

Abstract:

The authors describe very different ways of using digital technologies in college classrooms -- each based on common concerns of a certain group of disciplines, mathematics in the first instance and English and the humanities in the second.

Pope uses Blackboard CE6 in College Algebra integrated with flash demonstrations as well as an interactive online homework and testing system. Students receive immediate feedback on assigned problem sets and the instructor can be flexible in addressing topics identified as particularly vexing.

Thurber, on the other hand, argues that currently available technology is not particularly useful for teaching in the humanities, though some ancillary uses are convenient; the sole exception may be digital immersive cultural environments such as that developed at the Institute for Creative Technologies. He argues further that typical decision-making processes within IT departments mitigate against the creative use of digital technologies for the humanities, resulting in an unintended but de facto institutional bias.

Jack Pope received his doctorate from the University of North Carolina, is Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of San Diego and, for 25 years, served as Director of Academic Computing Services at the University. Bart Thurber received his doctorate from Harvard and is Professor of English Literature at the University of San Diego. Both authors have co-authored many papers on interactive technologies, including such topics as the appropriate use(s) of computers in the curriculum, the cultural effects of computer use, learning space design in higher education, and how best to match the concerns of specific disciplines to available technologies.