Today's fast-changing, technology-based environment is being clearly addressed in "Learning, Teaching & Technology Conference: Embrace the New Language of Learning," Friday and Saturday, Nov. 2 and 3, at the Lancaster Campus of HACC, Central Pennsylvania's Community College. Area college and high school educators will have the opportunity to blend today's technology, pedagogy and learning in the hands-on two-day conference designed to help maximize the impact on students through improved teaching methods and communications. The sessions are eligible for Act 48 credit.
This event, the fifth hosted and coordinated by the Lancaster Campus faculty, "is a small conference focused, ultimately, on the improvement of teaching and learning," said Pamela Watkins, associate professor of mathematics and event coordinator.
"In recent years, the delivery of course content has been radically impacted by the explosion of instructional technologies and new content delivery systems," Watkins said.
"However, new technology is not a guarantee that teaching and/or learning will be improved. For example, many of us have encountered people who can 'do' Microsoft PowerPoint (but) have no idea how to 'use' it to communicate effectively."
HACC faculty and staff are leaders in the revolution of technology and how to apply it to today's teaching facilities, Watkins added. For example, the community college's iTuneU site allows students to download recorded classes. Shortly, a video component will be added as well.
About the conference
"Learning, Teaching and Technology" sessions will run from 2-6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2, and 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, in the East Building of the Lancaster Campus, 1641 Old Philadelphia Pike.
Registration will be held in East 203. A registration fee of $120 per person includes breakfast and lunch on Saturday. The fee is $500 for a total of six registrants from the same educational facility.
All registration forms should be mailed to: Student Accounts, LTTC, HACC, Lancaster Campus, 1641 Old Philadelphia Pike, Lancaster, PA 17602-2690. A registration form is available on HACC's Website. To register, click on the Website link below. For more information, call Pam Watkins at 358-2270 or via e-mail using the contact email address below.
About the sessions
On Friday, seminar topics at 3 p.m. include "Using Apple iTunes for Fun and Learning" by Carl Petersheim; "Using PowerPoint to Make a Point" by Lyra Neville, or social networking by Jennifer Sarabrook.
At 4 p.m. Friday, topics include students and academic discourse communities by Bonnie Duncan, or "The Perceptron Delusion" by George Szcyrback and William Archibald.
Attendees are on their own for dinner.
Saturday's session begins with a continental breakfast and registration from 8-8:30 a.m.
At 9 a.m., keynote speaker Fran Vernaza will talk about "A Funny Thing Happened on My Way to Technology."
Seminars at 10 a.m. include "Using Humor as an Effective Tool to Promote Learning" by Vernaza; "Designing Instructional Content for the Web" by Juliette Winterer; "Editing Audio for Podcasting" by Petersheim, or media animation by Tom Schrand.
At 11 a.m., seminars include "Effective Technology Integration" by Linda Macaulay or "Search Box" by Mari Flynn.
Lunch is from noon-1:15 p.m., then afternoon sessions begin.
At 1:30 p.m., sessions include adding audio to an online course by Ginny Palmer; "Negotiating the Space" by Stacey Irwin, "Teaching Writing Without Paper" by Heather Urbanski, or "Editing Video for Podcasting" by Petersheim.
At 2:30 p.m., sessions include reading and writing websites by Brennan Thomas or computer animation in biology by Robert Swatski.