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Past course lectures are reborn as vibrant PowerPoint presentations; a faculty member teaches his students in Cambridge while he himself is standing in Hong Kong; international experts located in Copenhagen and London interact with a class seated inside a "wired" Harvard classroom—these are just a few examples of technology in action today at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE).
Such scenes are transforming traditional teaching at the School as they open classrooms to new places, people, and ideas, through the unprecedented use of web-based and interactive media. These transformations themselves are made possible by HGSE's Learning Technologies Center, which regularly employs innovative technologies like the iCommons Course Web Site Toolkit. As John Hahnfeld, HGSE's Director of Information Services, explains, "iCommons is a platform for the integration of web-based tools into Harvard University course instruction developed by IT staff working out of the Office of the Provost." Because Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Business School, School of Design, Divinity School, and School of Public Health are also using this new tool, Hahnfeld says, "the iCommons project provides a model in which different schools at the University can contribute software tools each has developed locally, which can then be utilized by faculty and students across the University." Diverse and Impressive Results
Providing such an effective solution to an unforeseen situation is just one of the contexts in which cutting-edge technology is being implemented at the School. Meanwhile, faculty members are increasingly relying on audio- and video-conferencing to bring together students with far-flung experts in related fields. For example, at the beginning of April, David Langlois, the LTC Distance Learning/Instructional Media Support Specialist, assisted Gil Noam, Associate Professor of Education in Human Development and Psychology, in linking up international experts from Denmark and the UK with students in Noam's course, H-263, Resilience, Development, and Community in School and Afterschool. During this class, simultaneous web, audio-, and video-conferencing enabled Noam, the presenters, and the students to engage in a dynamic discussion comparing international models of learning in afterschool settings. A week later, Noam's same HGSE students had an opportunity to video-conference with Robert Stonehill, Director of State and Local Services at the U.S. Department of Education, in order to explore issues surrounding the federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Centers program. The Challenges of Keeping Current Keeping all faculty and teaching staff current with the range of teaching options offered by the new technologies is a challenge, one to which Hahnfeld and his team are responding. Faculty conversations, focused on ways to integrate the latest technologies in instruction, are ongoing, with support from HGSE's Technology Action Task Force. These forums are geared toward facilitating dialogue between faculty who are curious about the new technologies and those who are already using them in a variety of forms and ways at the School of Education. "Increasing support for the integration of technology in teaching via the School's state-of-the-art Learning Technologies Center and the continued collaboration with the iCommons initiative in the Provost's Office is a strategic IT priority at HGSE," Hahnfeld emphasizes. Thanks to this commitment, HGSE students, faculty, and staff alike are reaping the benefits. For More Information
HGSE News, Harvard Graduate School of Education
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