October 2012 Archives

The Faculty Center's Talking About Teaching group got off to a great start this semester! This is an interdisciplinary group of faculty that meets once a month in the Fall and Spring to share successes and concerns that arise during the practice of classroom teaching. This year we are trying something new and shifting the focus towards creating a "story lab" space where we will produce online faculty case studies.  Building off of our regular practice of sharing best teaching stories, we are now creating a process (thanks in part to our new Multi-Media Specialist who has joined our staff, Pete Warren) to document these successes for an online resource. At our first meeting last month, we showed a few examples of how other universities have been documenting faculty case studies in this online module form that can both highlight excellent teaching as well as serve as a resource for newer faculty. These online case studies will be comprised of some combination of recorded interviews, classroom footage, text providing context about the pedagogical technique or philosophy, and relevant instructional materials.

 We have found that focusing our attention on the innovation and expertise of our faculty can improve morale and facilitate learning opportunities across the disciplines. We believe this to be an excellent opportunity to highlight the exceptional work happening on this campus. At our next meeting on Friday, October 19 from 3:00-4:00 pm (W205), we are aiming to show a template for Penn State Harrisburg's faculty case studies, using footage we have recorded with Dr. Oranee Tawatnuntachai. We will also have some fun 'workshopping' the interview process so faculty can better understand how we are creating the online case studies and think through what they want to share. Consider which teaching and learning strategy you would want to share and join us!