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Lafayette students are collaborating with alumni professionals to find innovative ways of using technology more efficiently in community organizations.
In the Values and Science/Technology (VAST) course The Promise and Peril of Educational Technology, students are studying how technology is used in various educational settings and developing exciting ways to adapt it for specific needs. Gary Miller, visiting part-time instructor and former Lafayette chaplain, is leading the course.
Students not only explore issues in class but also enjoy the opportunity to further their studies through service learning by applying their knowledge for practical purposes in the community.
“I thought this would be a good way of linking the students with the community to get some practical experience and also to look at the way education is being transformed by new technologies,” says Miller.
As the idea for the course took shape, Miller decided to involve alumni who work in educational fields impacted by technology. Through the Alumni Affairs Office, he sent hundreds of emails to Lafayette graduates in hopes of finding a few who might be interested in lending a hand. He expected about a dozen responses, but was overwhelmed by the positive response when 45 alumni agreed to help out.
Participating alumni include Cristen Place Charnley ’02, a geometry teacher at Easton Area High School, and Martin Glassman ’79, head of instructional technology at New York Medical College. Students also are observing operations and finding concrete ways to put their ideas to work at the Easton Area School District’s March Elementary School and ProJeCt of Easton, an organization that offers language and literacy programs, emergency assistance, and children’s programs.
Both students and alumni find the experience rewarding.
Glassman held a videoconference with the class in April and explained how technology makes operations more efficient at his college. He uses videoconferences to conduct meetings and hold distance-learning classes, where students at the college’s two graduate schools attend classes via simulcast. This technology also allows New York Medical College to share resources with Tufts University in Massachusetts.
Glassman enjoys interacting with Lafayette students.
“Professor Miller had a great idea with this,” he says. “The alumni are a tremendous resource to the college in many ways. There’s so much experience and so many of us willing to help out. Hopefully he’ll do this course again; I’d love to be involved.”
Glassman’s reaction is exactly what Miller was hoping for.
“It’s a neat way of using the expertise of our alumni and letting students have a chance to see what people out in the field are doing,” he says.
Divided into five teams, the 19 students in the class fanned out into the community. They write about their experiences in class and contribute to an online blog. They seek out learning resources not only locally but also internationally.
“Students are doing a variety of projects,” Miller says. “Every class, [students from] one of the teams reports on what they’re seeing in their site. They’re encountering some exciting possibilities about using technology, but they’re also encountering some very real obstacles.”
That’s been true in Charnley’s high school geometry classes. Lafayette students attend her classes regularly to observe and find ways to incorporate technology into the teacher’s lesson plans. According to Charnley, the experience has been mutually beneficial. She believes the end result will help her be a better teacher.
“As a fairly recent graduate and someone who stayed in the area, I really enjoyed [my] entire Lafayette experience,” she says. “To help the experience of some of the current undergraduates, I was thrilled to be involved – just to help out in any way I could.”
The team’s goal is to develop an Internet-based scavenger hunt in which students will find information online to help their understanding of geometric principles.
“I’m hoping to learn something from the Lafayette students,” Charnley says. “They may be able to bring something to my class at the end of this that I can use as an activity for years to come.”
The students certainly have learned their share. Trustee Scholar and economics and business major Michael Zboray ’08 (Montvale, N.J.) worked with Charnley and found the experience rewarding on various levels.
“Overall I think the course has been pretty good. All the groups are definitely doing their best to help their respective community partners,” he says. “I think most people have benefited from it. The community service aspect worked out well.”
Marquis Scholar Kari Andersen ’08 (Patchogue, N.Y.) is part of the group working with ProJeCt of Easton. The students are developing ways to use technology in adult English learning classes. They discovered limited financial resources were an obstacle at the nonprofit organization.
“We came to a conclusion that technology could be useful,” says Andersen. “But due to their financial constraints and also because the teaching they have there is already very effective, technology doesn’t exactly have a huge place in that setting, though it could be supplemental.”
Instead of recommending a costly technological upgrade that ProJeCt cannot afford, the team came up with a virtually cost-free alternative in which it corresponds via email with ProJeCt students as a way to improve their English skills. Lafayette students pose a challenge in conversational English to their ProJeCt counterparts, who must use their new language skills to respond.
“It’s been useful,” Andersen says of her VAST experience. “It was more interesting and intriguing to go out and creatively devise something that could help them, instead of reading about these things in a magazine or book.”
With strong programs in engineering, natural and social sciences, and humanities, Lafayette offers a diverse environment for interdisciplinary study. The VAST Program is part of The Common Course of Study and is taken in the sophomore year. Every VAST course is writing-intensive and emphasizes critical thinking and student-centered learning.