Supporting Staff Engagement with Technology: from challenges to change

Laura Widger, Waterford Institute of Technology
Wednesday, March 09, 2011 from 1:10 PM - 2:00 PM (GMT)

Reaching a point where academic staff are effortlessly engaging with technology as part of their everyday teaching is a huge challenge for educational organizations. Some might argue as that we shouldn't be aiming for this goal, voicing concerns that the technology and substantial benefits for students are not yet available. However, most organizations are committed to this journey with a view to improving the learning process and the associated teaching environment.

Supporting this staff engagement is a significant challenge for the departments and their personnel tasked with providing the appropriate tools, technologies, training and support. This presentation shares the experiences of the Waterford Institute of Technology's eLearning Support Unit in endeavoring to support staff in their engagement with technology reflecting on some of the challenges that they faced and how the solutions presented, lead to change.

However, this is a constantly evolving ecosystem that now faces new challenges (economic, pedagogical and social, etc ) that will influence staff engagement with technology. What changes will these bring?

Laura Widger, Waterford Institute of Technology

Laura Widger holds the position of Manger of the eLearning Support Unit and is responsible for coordinating all the eLearning related systems and activities within WIT. Laura has extensive experience within the area of eLearning and and is actively involved in a number of funded eLearning related research projects in WIT. She has led the integration of the VLE into core information systems within WIT and the successful migration of the Virtual Learning Environment from a proprietary to an open source solution. Laura is a graduate of WIT holding a Bachelor of Science in Commercial Software Development and a Masters in Science. Her MSc focused on creating creating reusable computer based assessments and she has published in the area of eLearning. Laura worked as an assistant lecturer in the Department of Computing, Maths & Physics before moving into the role of eLearning Manager.

Recording available here.

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