Focus on Teaching and Learning
Faculty Governance Agenda for Teaching and Learning at ESF:
Anything New for the New Millennium?
Scott Shannon, Executive Chair of the Faculty
Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture
E-mail
Chuck Spuches has graciously asked for a few thoughts as I begin my term as ESF Faculty Governance Executive Chair. As a past chair of the Committee on Instruction, I think I'm fairly familiar with the major issues facing ESF with regard to teaching and learning, and how we can provide the best possible setting to facilitate them. Still, there are obvious areas which should be considered with lesser or greater priority, so I'll try to focus on where we might place our greatest energy.
My first impression at this point, from the perspective of faculty governance, or otherwise, is that our highest priority should be to continue to experiment with technology as a tool at ESF, and be as adaptable as possible to today's rapidly evolving higher education environment. I think this past year's Symposium on Teaching, Learning, and Technology (Harnessing the World Wide Web to Enhance Teaching and Learning) did an excellent job of bringing many of these issues into view, and will continue to provide a vehicle for exploring how and where technology can be best applied here at ESF. I personally, don't know where we are ultimately headed in terms of Web-based learning, distance learning, and so on, but we need to continue to consider how these forms of "content delivery" might improve, enhance, augment, or occasionally, replace existing methods.
Even in this volatile educational environment, I don't foresee many radical changes in the way we deliver our programs or fulfill the mission of the College. In an environment like ESF's, so much of what really makes us unique and offers genuine real added value to our programs, is the "experiential" quality of learning here. Unlike many "traditional" colleges and universities where there is an undeniable (and quite justifiable) fear of becoming obsolete as an educational setting, I don't believe ESF's specialized experiential programs are seriously threatened. I suspect that for us, technology will not so much replace how we ultimately convey skills and knowledge to our students, but instead expand the array of tools and techniques currently available to us.
There are and will be tremendous opportunities to enhance the educational experience in the classroom, the lab, the studio, and the field. As an example, we're currently seeing a sea change in the way we will teach landscape architecture, as the design studios are currently being rehabilitated to provide computer access at each student's workstation. However, this is an incorportation of a new and powerful tool, not a change in educational philosophy: an enhancement to learning, enabled by technology, not a replacement of our fundamental approach to "studio-based design education." If anything, we foresee this change as a vehicle to provide a significant reinforcement to the "studio culture" among our students for the first time in 20 or more years. I'm sure there are similar changes underway, or opportunities emerging, in other curricula around campus.
The question at this point becomes, how can Faculty Governance help facilitate the development and use of new technologies and tools in ESF's programs? Certainly programs like the annual Symposium are one vehicle, and I hope we can continue to work through the Committee on Instruction and with IDEaS to find other means.
If you have any suggestions or ideas you feel Faculty Governance should pursue with regard to technology, or other factors affecting the quality of ESF's educational environment, please feel free to pass them on. Better yet, get involved - speak with your program chair about Faculty Governance appointments for the coming year!