Professors re-evaluating the chalk in their hands are making their way to the Center for Enhancement of Teaching to learn how to use keyboards and computer screens as the blackboards of tomorrow.
The CET, which estimates that 1,200 members of the faculty have interacted with the center in some form since it opened in 1993, is equipping educators at SF State with the tools needed to welcome the technological evolution in education.
While a majority of professors at SF State are far from conducting classes in cyberspace, instructors are using computers to enhance the existing educational structure.
The CET has programs geared toward people at all levels of computer literacy.
"There is a continuum to look at in getting the faculty on the Internet," explained Vicki Casella, who has directed the CET since it opened. "In the beginning we help faculty understand the operational level of computers ... then we teach them how to use it to enhance their teaching."
Casella, an educator for the last 35 years, has seen the obstacles that slow the educational process said that technology can help alleviate some of these hindrances.
"We have more access to information than ever in the history of man," she said.
She added that because of multimedia there are more possibilities than ever to present this information.
The main goal of all these programs is to benefit students in class and allow professors to communicate with students through an entirely new medium, according to Casella.
Computers are helping educators improve the lines of communication in many ways. While e-mail seems to be the most popular method, there are also professors experimenting with multimedia in their lectures.
One of the hour-long seminars offered through the CET shows professors how they can use their e-mail accounts to extend their office hours and make themselves more accessible to students.
Since most students are pressed for time, instructors who make themselves available online offer a useful alternative to traditional office hours.
"Instead of going up to them after class I can just e-mail them my questions," said Dan Diodati, who was busy typing at a computer terminal. "It's a quick way of getting a hold of professors and it's more convenient a lot of times."
Technology training is not the only instruction offered through the CET -- the multimedia program has been a success since it started two years ago.
The success was measured by the number of staff members that came to the center in search of technological training.
In the first year that it was offered, the multimedia program attracted more than 250 staff members to the CET.
"A lot of the faculty are on the edge of stepping into this new technology," said Albert Tong, the administrative assistant of the CET. "Getting people excited about technology will aid the move from traditional teaching methods into the methods of the 21st century."
While Tong sees technology working to enhance teaching methods, he stressed that nothing can replace them.
A recent seminar available through the CET taught those in attendance how create a multimedia presentation.
The seminar dealt with a program called "Authorware."
Through the program professors are able to incorporate sound and visual highlights to bring lectures to life with the assistance of a computer. These interactive educational programs can be put on the Web or downloaded directly to a student's machine.
"By the year 2000 it said that most people will have no more than a sixth-grade reading level, so we need some other means of education," explained John McGee, who ran the seminar. "A lot of teachers say we're going to put them out of work."
[ Golden Gater - November 7, 1996 ]
All Rights Reserved © 1996 HTML by Steve Thoemke (sthoemke@nermal.santarosa.edu)