CIT program pairs students with faculty to enhance courses with technology

By Beth Goelzer Lyons

Twenty-four undergraduates are about to help change the teaching environment at Cornell. They're from Mexico, Poland, Puerto Rico, Canada and the United States. They play water polo, football, soccer and ultimate Frisbee. They're gymnasts, emergency medical technicians, fencers, gourmet cooks, step dancers and knitters.

And now they're pros in instructional technologies, ranging from PowerPoint presentations and basic web sites to computer animation and digital movies.

At the Student Technology Assistant Program recognition and reception event Nov. 12 in the A.D. White House, Polley McClure, left, vice president for information technologies, congratulates program participant Matthew Herndon '04, while Marco Recuay '03, who also was honored, looks on. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

Come January 2002, these students, as part of Cornell's fledging Student Technology Assistant Program, will be helping faculty use instructional technologies in their courses. They will work right in faculty offices or at new multimedia centers donated to each college by Apple Computer Inc.

Part of Cornell's larger Distributed Learning Initiative, this program is intended to help faculty with small-scale, simple projects. Funded by the Office of the Provost, it was drafted by Polley McClure, vice president for information technologies, and Glenn Altschuler, dean of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions, and implemented under the direction of Joan Falkenberg Getman at Cornell Information Technologies' Academic Technology Center.

"Each of you can help faculty do the serious work of inventing new pedagogy," said McClure at a Nov. 12 reception honoring the students. "As you go through the year ahead, we need you not only to help faculty but also to try to understand whether these efforts are making learning better for students. Our hope is that the results of your work will go well beyond the Ithaca campus as we share what we've learned with other campuses."

"The program provides a unique opportunity for students to get involved with professors and technology and to improve our own learning experiences and those of our classmates," said Daniel Zarzar '04, student coordinator and engineering major.

Throughout the fall semester, the students have been working eight hours a week at the Academic Technology Center, mastering instructional technologies, honing their consulting and teaching skills and doing fieldwork.

"The most challenging aspect has been leaving the center," said Anthony Garcia '04, an applied economics major. "I learn so much that time flies by fast, and I really would rather stay and delve deeper."

The training curriculum was developed by the center's Clare van den Blink. Two aspects set it apart from similar efforts -- a two-part rigorous evaluation after each unit and both simulated and actual fieldwork. Students must demonstrate not only their proficiency with a technology but also their skill in teaching it to others. As a capstone, students work on short projects, first with the center's student staff acting as faculty members and then with faculty volunteers.

"Having students assist the faculty serves many purposes," said McClure. "As students and as people who have grown up with these technologies, they can help assess whether a certain approach would facilitate learning and how well other students would receive it. In turn, they're gaining insight into educational principles that could help them in their studies, as well as invaluable professional experience that will serve them well after Cornell."

In selecting students for the Student Technology Assistant positions, program coordinator Marge Wolff ranked emotional intelligence above technical skill and sought to represent a wide cross-section of the university.

"Technical skills can be taught," explained Wolff. "It's much harder to teach someone, for example, the self-confidence you need to work with someone in a position of authority, or the patience and listening skills that a good consultant needs."

Faculty members who want to work with student assistants can contact Wolff at 254-3544 or mal6@cornell.edu. Students interested in the program should also contact Wolff.