Summer-Fest free technology seminars, offered June 17-21 and July 15-19, give Penn State instructors an opportunity to focus on their own learning.
Summer-Fest, sponsored by Information Technology Services, is open to all Penn State employees, but places special emphasis on the technology needs of faculty and teaching assistants.
This year it offers its largest ever selection of technology in the classroom seminars. The seminars in this series cover specific software designed to enhance teaching and learning, as well as general strategies for using technology effectively with students. Featured in the series is Penn State's Course Management System, A New Global Environment for Learning (ANGEL).
ANGEL is Web-based software available free to all Penn State faculty and teaching assistants. It enables instructors to easily place syllabi, quizzes, and other course materials on the Web, to communicate with students online, and to streamline many time-consuming administrative tasks. Two new ANGEL seminars, "Advanced Topics in ANGEL," and "Transferring CourseWeb Content to ANGEL," have been added to help instructors to take advantage of the full range of ANGEL features and to transfer existing materials from CourseWeb to this new, more powerful tool that will eventually replace it.
Other seminars in the technology in the classroom series cover such software as EndNote, to manage and format bibliographies; Assessment Survey Kit (ASK), to survey students online; and Microsoft Excel, to track grades electronically. Discussion-style seminars in the series explore copyright issues, cyber-plagiarism, creating accessible Web sites, building online communities, student privacy, and integrating technology into course activities.
For a complete list of seminars, descriptions, dates, and prerequisites, please see the Free Computer and Technology Seminars booklet mailed to all faculty, staff, and teaching assistants. Seminar information and registration is available online at the ITS Training Services home page, http://cac.psu.edu/training. Classes fill quickly, so be sure to register early.