Registration is open for the Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology, an inaugural event that will showcase how technology can enhance teaching, learning and research.

The symposium, sponsored by the Center for Faculty Development (CFD), the Faculty Senate Instructional Resources Committee and the Educational Technology Center, will be on Oct. 26 in the North Classroom building from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sign-in begins at 8 a.m. To register, click here; to learn about the presentations, click here. (Place your mouse over the presentation title to see the presenters and read the abstract).

The program is aimed at faculty members at all levels of comfort with using technology in their teaching. It will also be of interest to teachers who may want to redesign their courses and employ tools such as wikis, clickers, iPads, computer games, websites and more to enhance student learning.

Presenters are drawn from MSU Denver as well the eLearning Consortium of Colorado, a coalition of educators from all levels and representatives of business and public television who are dedicated to the enhancement of distance learning.

“What we’re presenting aren’t super high-tech tools, but tools that faculty have found help the classroom experience either from the teaching, learning, or research perspective,” says Lisa Ortiz, associate professor of journalism and technical communication.

CFD Director Mark Potter believes that in the next 5 to 10 years technology will usher in a “completely changed learning environment” from the traditional model of professors lecturing to students seated in a classroom.

Faculty, he says, will have to “dramatically rethink what else we can offer to students…That means faculty will need to become proficient in designing enhanced learning environments” that integrate technology and content. Ortiz says it’s critical for teachers to become tech-savvy.

“The world is using these kinds of communication tools, so if a professor needs to reach their students they need to be able to speak the same language, and right now the language is technology,” she says. “Technology for technology’s sake doesn’t work. But matching the correct technology with the correct student learning outcomes, that’s where the magic is."