Collaborating with Technology

Invited Presenters

Best Practice Presentations

Vicki Martinez, Modern Languages, Union College (Moderator)

Ron Bucinell, Mechanical Engineering, Union College

The engineering profession has become a global enterprise. Design teams span the boundaries of companies and the borders of countries. Engineers have to deal with budgets, schedules, collaborators half way around the world, and collaborators with unique perspectives on a problem that result from their cultural and national origin. The International Virtual Design Studio (IVDS) project was started seven years ago to sensitize engineering students to this new world of engineering that is a direct result of the proliferation of the internet. Union College’s program with the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey teams American engineering students with Turkish engineering students to design, build, and compete in a mechatronic competition.

Jamie Carroll, Center for Educational Technology, Middlebury College

Geographic information systems (GIS) technology are used for many purposes including scientific investigations, resource management, and development planning. In the curriculum, GIS is being used in many areas ranging from work in the natural sciences to economics to engineering to history. This presentation will explore exciting uses of GIS including work with a local 5th grade class and experience from conducting a 2 week faculty training workshop.

Margaret Hunt, History and Women's and Gender Studies, Amherst College

Women's and Gender Studies are interrelated to many disciplines. Well-designed, comprehensive web-sites are very useful in doing global outreach in gender studies. The "Curricular Crossings" web-site is a fine example of a web-based anthology about teaching that contributes to the effort to make women's studies teaching more open to other areas of study such as Latin American, Middle Eastern, South Asian and African area studies.

Dana Leibsohn, Art, Smith College

Vistas is an interactive CD/DVD and website that offers a critical selection of primary sources, high-resolution color images, and interpretive essays of these documents and pictures. In essence, it brings the best of the archive, the museum, and the lecture hall into the hands and onto the screens of researchers, college teachers and students. Professor Leibsohn will talk about the Vistas project as well as her experiences using digital media from the early 1990s doing content development for art laser disks through recent experimentation with digital technology in the classroom. She now teaches exclusively with digital imagery.

Panel Discussion - "Interdiciplinary Courses"

Zoe Oxley, Political Science, Union College (Moderator)

Michael Arnush, Classics, Skidmore College

Michael Arnush has shared lectures and discussions with a colleague at Hamilton via videoconferencing for an ancient Greek literature class on Homer, and a Skidmore on-campus collaboration of faculty delivering an introductory course on Greek and Roman civilization.

John O'Neill, English, Hamilton College

John O'Neill has collaborated with the library, Instructional Technology Services and a student to develop the seminar entitled "Jane Austen: Text and Film."

Steve Sargent, History, Union College

Steve Sargent has taught an interdisciplinary introduction to the technology of construction and the social uses of building by humans.

Mark Walker, History, Union College

Mark Walker has taught four interdisciplinary courses with a biologist, a physicist, an engineer, and a german literature specialist.

Panel Discussion - "Collaborating Around Campus or Around the World"

Ted Gilman, Political Science, Union College (Moderator)

Jack Dash Harris, Sociology, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Jack Dash Harris will discuss "Sociology of Vietnam" he taught to students at the Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Union College using video conferencing.

Dierk Hoffman, German, Colgate

Dierk Hoffman will describe successful cross-cultural learning projects and explain the rationale for these experiments.

Steve Leavitt, Anthropology, Union College

Steve Leavitt will discuss the Fiji Interactive Web Site from the Fiji term abroad.

Damon, Rarick Languages, University of Rhode Island

Damon Rarick will give a brief introduction into how the International Engineering Program uses technology to support, teach, and prepare engineering students for the global workplace.

5-Minute Spotlights

Robert Baker, Union College
Phylise Banner, University Without Walls, Skidmore College
Aime DeGrenier, Mount Holyoke College
Bill Fairchild, Union College
Leslie Johnson, Hudson Valley Community College
Reinhard Mayer, Skidmore College
Steven Rice, Union College
Chuck Rothman, Siena College
Shirley Smith, Skidmore College

Sponsored by Union College with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation