Apple Institute showcases technology

The Apple Institute, hosted at GC&SU last week, focused on enlightening and educating academic leaders about technological applications in the classroom that enhance students’ learning experiences.

Leaders from some of the nation’s prestigious academic institutions, including Stanford University, the University of Michigan and Emory University, attended the forum held Nov. 1 through 3. Topics presented included “iPods, iTunes and Podcasting in Higher Education,” “Space Design” and how GC&SU has succeeded in using iPods as a supplement to college courses. Attendees also had the opportunity to have hands-on experience with digital applications such as GarageBand and iMovie.

“The focus of the institute is not training for faculty or staff,” said Jim Wolfgang, chief information officer at GC&SU. “It’s an orientation to help campus leaders determine how you create an environment on your campus that leads to innovation and success.”

GC&SU proved to Apple executives that the university had already created this atmosphere and was selected to hold the forum.

“Nobody has done it as early as we have, to the extent we have and the level of success we have,” Wolfgang said. “When (Apple has) an institute they want to focus it around something successful. It’s been a great honor for them to look at us and say

‘You are the leader in the use of iPod in the classroom.’ It is not that we’re in this for the ego. But it’s important that people understand that we’re a premiere institution.”

Some of this recognition may have come from the expansion of iPod projects at GC&SU.

“We started using the iPods back in 2002, when the first iPods came out,” Wolfgang said. “We believed that (iPods) could be a tool to enhance learning. We went from about five projects last year to where we have 29 projects this year. Most schools have one.”

The initiative to make iPods a part of the classroom has not only caught the attention of Apple executives, but academic leaders as well.

Alan Cottier, a speaker and the director of the technology group at Emory University, said GC&SU’s work was remarkable.

“To have students as active partners in explaining curricular and co-curricular offerings; to have faculty who are willing partners in letting students show the way in areas where their expertise can enhance the academic work; to have a group of learners, faculty and students alike, learning how change can make them better teachers and learners- these are all remarkable achievements,” Cottier said. “Taken together, however, they represent an unbelievably powerful set of dynamics that are obviously transformative for Georgia College as an institution.”

The use of iPods as a course supplement for study abroad students was a “hot topic” at the forum, according to Wolfgang.

Hank Edmondson, a professor of public administration and political science at GC&SU, said putting music, art and other relevant applications on iPods for study abroad students allows them to use time more efficiently and helps develop their understanding of the foreign areas around them.

“There is a way that the iPod brings together three or four different experiences,” Edmondson said.

Wolfgang said that ten more projects using podcasting and other Apple technologies were coming in the spring. Faculty will also be developing ways to use the video iPod, but not necessarily for lecturing.

“We don’t need talking heads,” Wolfgang said. “What this needs to be is something enhanced by the video aspect. We’ll have to see where this fits into the scheme of things. We’re trying to add value to your course and do it the right way.”

When GC&SU began using iPods, the technology was used only as a solution to a problem.

“One of the things we did with our projects is that we would not support faculty using iPods until they came to us with the challenge they were trying to overcome and how the iPod or podcasting would help them achieve that,” Wolfgang said. “We focused on the problem and then the technology.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 11 2005. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry