Teaching Center in new library
Technology a priority for Center for Teaching Excellence
By Leanne McCollough
lem001@marietta.edu
Recently The Marcolian sat down with Dr. Little to inquire into a very important part of our new library, The Center for Teaching Excellence. This section of the new library will enhance technology in the classrooms, provide support for professors, and educate the students on the latest and greatest ways to learn.

Dr. Little said The Center for Teaching Excellence will hopefully get people “talking about teaching”. Here, faculty will have “more exposure to a variety of teaching styles.” In the Center, there will be individual workstations filled with specialized software where professors can become educated about the newest techniques. There will be an “Expert in Residence” where faculty who have experience with a certain technique will be on hand for a few hours a week to answer questions and provide support for those learning about it. A project room, which can double as a conference room, will also be located in the Center. An experimental classroom with tables, movable furniture, and the newest technologies will be where professors will test their new techniques.

A goal of the Center for Teaching Excellence is to increase student engagement within the classroom; the instructor and students will form a “team” where both will become move involved in the learning process. All kinds of possibilities exist to accomplish this. Smart Boards, Turning Point Clickers, cell phones, tablet PC’s, and POD casting are just a few of the technologies out there to increase the student experience in the classroom. Technology is a changing field, and Dr. Little emphasized one of the main goals is to “grab the best technology that helps the students learn the best” and roll it out to the campus.

Marietta College has already been experimenting with some of this new technology. Turning Point Clickers have already been introduced into many of the science, communication, psychology, and economic classes. Where the clickers have been in use, it has been observed that student anxiety when it comes to speaking and participating in class has been reduced. To try out team teaching, FYSE and Communication classes have been tied together. Team teaching is where students will get two different perspectives because the two professors will meet to discuss and divide content area up to create overlap between the classes. Also, the same students are in both classes in order to create a sense of community.

Dr. Little thinks Marietta already has the best teachers and the best students, so when that is combined with the best training and support with The Center for Teaching Excellence, “it will be incredible.”