For over a year, Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT), a unit of Information Technology Services, has been gradually transforming its Web presence based on a new model and a new philosophy: community.
TLT's mission is to investigate and support faculty, student, and staff use of technologies to enhance teaching and learning. Using the traditional Web model, TLT staff would post information, resources, and best practices regarding its projects on static Web pages; the model of "experts" passing knowledge on to "non-experts." However, this approach overlooked the vast collective knowledge and experience the Penn State community possesses in its own right-the insights of those people actually within the learning environment, on the "front lines."
Making use of blogs, digital media, and RSS feeds, Jeff Swain, innovation consultant within TLT, created the ANGEL Community Hub Web site at http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/angel/ in summer 2006. The site's purpose was to open up dialogue, collaboration, and sharing of information about the ANGEL course management system among faculty, students, and staff. Swain said, "We needed a way to develop a communal understanding of complex aspects of ANGEL such as the gradebook. We wanted something fluid where multiple people could post their thoughts. The feedback was very positive. People using the hub appreciated this open style of communication."
During the subsequent semester, TLT staff created community hub sites for the Podcasts at Penn State pilot project and for the Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology.
As of fall 2007, the series of community hub sites, each focusing on a particular initiative, has grown to include communities for Adobe Connect desktop videoconferencing, the Blogs at Penn State pilot, the Digital Commons at Penn State, the Educational Gaming Commons, iPhone exploration for use in education, Learning Design, and SCOLA: Television from around the World. The site of Education Technology Services (http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/), a division of TLT, follows a similar format.
All the communities can be easily accessed from the TLT Community Hubs site at http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/communities/, which draws in a feed of blog posts from all the hubs.
Anyone can view pages on the community hub sites. To add new posts or comments, visitors must log in with their Penn State Access Account or Friends of Penn State account user ID and password.
In addition to blogs, the community hub sites offer "getting started" information, discussion forums, FAQs, tutorials, podcasts, news, and a calendar of events, depending on the focus of each site.
The hubs benefit the Penn State community in several ways, according to Allan Gyorke, education technology manager in TLT. He said, "They are a great way of getting information about our initiatives out to the community. They are also a way to let the community talk back to us and share what they have learned for the benefit of others. Since this information is open to the world, we have had people from other universities learn from what we are posting-and that benefits the reputation of Penn State."
All faculty, students, and staff are encouraged to join in these communities, ask questions, and share their ideas. We look forward to hearing from you!