Faculty
development is one of the key components
of the NCWC’s Title III grant. Each year, a selected group of faculty work on
redesigning their curricula by infusing technology or different pedagogy into
their instruction. In 2002, six Wesleyan faculty members were chosen to
participate in three workshops in June that will help inform their curricular
changes.
As part of their training, the faculty—Nancy Floyd, Business Division; Steve Ferebee, Humanities Division; Rodney Austin and Erica Kosal, Math/Science Division; and Mark Stevens and Kim Martin, Social Sciences/Education Division—attended a three-day workshop conducted by NCWC’s Instructional Technologist Weimin Wang on the use of CampusCruiser, the College’s new Internet portal; Microsoft FrontPage; Adobe Photoshop; and Microsoft PowerPoint.
The
group then attended the 2002 East Carolina University Catalyst Institute
workshop, titled “Strategies for Teaching in a Digital Age II,” which
introduced WebQuest, an inquiry-oriented
activity in which students transform information drawn from the Web into a
meaningful understanding
of the issues, comparisons, hypotheses, problems and solutions that lay behind
that information. In addition, the group received further web design training.
The faculty concluded training by attending “Multicultural Course Design and Teaching Workshop: Rethinking Course Content, Perspective, and Pedagogy,” a workshop designed to support faculty in developing and teaching courses that include multicultural, gender, and global perspectives as well as “inclusifying” course content and activities.
In August, the six members of the 2002 Title III Faculty Development Program will present their curricular changes to the rest of the faculty during Wesleyan’s Faculty Orientation.