Grass Roots Faculty Leadership for Change

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Grass Roots Faculty Leadership for Change
Virginia Montecino, Lesley M. Smith, James B.
Young

• New Century College George Mason University

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New Century CollegeA Learning Community

• A purposeful community
• Independent college within College of Arts and
  Sciences at George Mason University
• BA and BS - Integrative Studies
• Integrated , interdisciplinary curriculum,
  experiential learning
• Competency-based education

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Technology Enriched Curriculum

• Faculty created a successful, integrated first
  year program
• Web publishing/Site management
• Data manipulation and analysis
• Qualitative and Quantitative
• Information searching and evaluation
• Electronic presentations
• Graphic design and layout

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The Problem

• Students leave first year with highly flexible
  set of analytical tools using technology
• However, once past the first year there were
  intermittent opportunities to build or reinforce
  basic concepts while ensuring students meet
  campus-wide TAC goals
• Therefore, we needed to transfer the first year
  culture to the upper level courses

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Our Proposal / Our Goals

• Create a climate for faculty buy-in
• Design technology-enriched assignments suitable
  for upper-level interdisciplinary study
• Teach workshops to help faculty integrate the
  assignments into their learning communities
• Help individual faculty assess the integration
  (and value) of the assignments in their specific
  learning communities

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Building Community

• a mix of faculty experienced in teaching and
  learning with technology and experienced,
  student-focused faculty enthusiastic about, but
  not at all expert in, technology-enriched
  learning.
• a wide spectrum of disciplinary backgrounds to
  build genuinely interdisciplinary assignments
• an open application process whereby interested
  NCC faculty would apply to participate in the
  work funded by the grant

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Community of Practice
Learningas Belonging
Community
Learningas Doing
Learning
Practice
Identity
Learningas Becoming
Meaning
Learningas Analysis
Adapted from Communities of Practice Learning,
Meaning, and Identity by Etienne Wenger. 1998.
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Community of Practice

• Mutual Engagement Social practice driven by
  ongoing interaction of experts, novices, faculty
  of diverse status with common interest
• Joint Negotiated Enterprise Common mission
  driven by grant team discussions both formal and
  informal
• Shared Resources Workshops, assignments, online
  environment, feedback, etc.

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Original Mission Core Working Team
Rhetoric, Public Policy
Librarian, Doctoral Student
Computer Mediated Communication
TACGrant
Community Psychology,Women Studies
Art as Cultural Critique
New Media Studies, Composition
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Extending Innovation Knowledge Diffusion
Upper Level Students
Participating Faculty
Core Project Team
TAC Grant
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Break Out Session

• Model Community of Practice
• Experiment with process
• Tailor objectives to your community
• Create tangible take-away
• Concepts, Goals, Practices, Assignments, etc.

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Discussion One Purpose

• Step 2 How could the infusion of technology
  enrich your students learning experience?
  Brainstorm learning goals and choose one to
  develop

• Step 1 What do you know now? (brainstorm an
  inventory of current practice and expertise)
  note dont overvalue technology expertise alone

Stretch
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Discussion Two Development

• Step 2 Choose one and develop assignment
  bearing in mind that you will have to convince
  other faculty of its value and efficacy

• Step 1 Brainstorm technology enriched
  assignments (or sequences of assignments) that
  will achieve your chosen learning goal

Stretch
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Evolving Culture, Evolving Roles

• Teachers teaching Teachers
• Experts learning outside their domain of
  expertise
• Modeling teachingwith technologyclassroom
  dynamics

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Thank You!
Virginia Montecino Lesley Smith James B.
Young New Century College George Mason
University