The SBE Faculty Development Committee

The SBE Faculty Development Committee Workshop held on 10/27/2009:

*Future of Teaching: How to Adapt and Thrive (or Survive)*

Technological progress and paperless society bring reading tablets, online networking (invitations to social networks), perhaps blogs and twitter into our lives. How do we react to (or adapt) these changes?

Here is a list of the topics we discussed during the workshop:

1) David Horowitz showed us how he has started to use technology to teach his marketing classes and to promote the Wine Business Study Abroad Class. David talked about the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org content management systems by comparing the site he has developed (TheGlobalWineIndustry.com) to promote the Wine Business Study Abroad Class. David uses these two content management systems in addition to WebCT to post course materials because access to these materials is not limited to students enrolled in the classes.

2) We also discussed how we should not necessarily adapt our teaching methods to new technologies that students are really keen about (such as text messaging), especially if these technologies do not reflect how companies communicate (still rely on emails) and do business.

3) To conclude our discussion, one participant noted that it is important to keep in mind that better access to knowledge, thanks to technological progress, does not necessarily guarantee that learning takes place. Our role as teachers is to make sure that these new technologies translate into better learning experience and greater knowledge for our students.