Cole Camplese: Speaking

3/7/2008: Featured Presentation: University of South Florida

I spent the last couple of days at the University of South Florida where I had been invited to give a talk in the College of Public Health as part of their Dean's Lecture Series.  I had been invited to talk about the changing landscape of teaching and learning with technology and meeting student expectations.  I t was interesting because this was not a technology focused conference or anything, as a matter of fact the Dean told me it was the first time they invited someone from outside the Health Sciences to be a part of this lecture series.  I planned on spending time sharing some early results from our most recent technology survey from PSU, but I just wasn't able to digest the latest data and integrate it into my talk.  I did spend quite a bit of time talking about student expectations and sharing thoughts on a handful of themes that have emerged in the teaching and learning space.  

I have to say that I enjoyed this opportunity as much as any others in the recent past.  I had a great time talking to everyone I spent time with, from the Dean to the ID staff ... it was really a smart and energized group of people.  I enjoyed the time I spent after the talk in meetings with people as well -- so many challenges that we face are also high on the radar at USF.  The one thing that made me chuckle a bit were the posters they had up informing people of my talk.  First rate group all the way!  Grab the PDF of the slides ... usf_preso_final.pdf

11/1/2007: Guest Lecture: IST 110

Last week I was lucky enough to give a guest lecture in my good friend, Bart Pursel’s, IST 110 class. I used to teach IST 110 nearly every semester while I was at the College of IST. As a matter of fact, I had a big hand in the design of the course — my team built the first hybrid offering of the course that took full advantage of the web, a problem-based learning approach, and new ways of thinking about how faculty and students should interact. Let’s just say I feel very attached to the course and the kinds of students it attracts. This class was no different — 50 or so very smart students all wanting to talk, engage, and discuss nearly every point I tried to make. Bart is doing a great job with the students … introducing them to all sorts of technology — from blogs and wikis to podcasts and virtual worlds. He is taking a week by week approach to ask them to work and interact with different technologies throughout the semester. Each time I said, “do you know about X” they would all say yes. It was nice talking to students who seem to be in the know. I spent the better part of an hour discussing emerging trends related to mobility, social tools, and user generated content. We talked quite a bit about FaceBook and how the students see the environment. Lots of good questions and a great conversation.