FITSI 2006: Faculty Summer Instructional Institute

by Laurie Trufant

The laptops are ordered; the rooms are reserved; the speakers are committed; the program is set. As planning moves forward for the 5th annual Faculty Instructional Technology Summer Institute, you can feel the excitement building in CIS Academic Technology about this year’s event, which will be held June 12th through June 16th in Holloway Commons on the UNH Durham campus.

Since 2002, when the first FITSI welcomed 18 faculty, the annual event has become a significant opportunity for faculty development at UNH. Over the past five years, 247 faculty have applied to the Institute; 100 faculty from 40 departments in all schools and colleges have been chosen to participate. FITSI has brought 18 top-notch guest speakers to campus, and presented a total of 77 different sessions on a variety of technology integration topics. This year, 25 FITSI alums will join CIS Academic Technology professionals in presenting a challenging and entertaining program to 31 carefully chosen faculty.

This year’s Institute is built around the theme Today’s Students, Tomorrow’s Professor. It features a mix of guest speakers, hands-on activities, and general and concurrent sessions. Keynote Don Knezek, an internationally recognized leader in collaboration, planning, and standards development in technology integration, will join FITSI via videoconference from Austin, Texas. Knezek is currently CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and Co-Chair of the Educational Technology Advisory Committee to the Texas State Board of Education. He will explore the changing learning styles of students entering UNH. The Institute will close with a presentation by Richard Reis, Executive Director of the Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing and consulting professor and lecturer in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at Stanford. Dr. Reis is founder and editor of the Tomorrow’s Professor electronic list, a bi-weekly e-publication with over 25,000 subscribers in more than 100 countries, and author of Tomorrow’s Professor: Preparing for Academic Careers in Science and Engineering (IEEE Press, 1997). He will discuss how the changing student profile described by Knezek is impacting the way faculty will teach in the future. Mid-week, Sabine Levet, Senior Lecturer in French at Brandeis University, will present a session on the Cultura Project, a Web-based methodology that helps foreign language students build an understanding of foreign culture.

The FITSI general sessions are structured to give participants a broad perspective on new technologies and the impact they are having on teaching and learning at UNH; the concurrent sessions will cover topics targeted by the FITSI participants themselves.

A new feature of this year’s Institute is the inclusion of hands-on workshops where faculty can work on their own course content. At these sessions, faculty will have an opportunity to follow up on the tools and techniques presented during the week, and to work with expert staff from CIS Academic Technology to address specific instructional challenges. These sessions will be interspersed with a series of faculty panels and other opportunities for Institute participants and alums to share their insights and experiences.

To learn more about FITSI, point your browser to http://at.unh.edu/fitsi. If you have questions about FITSI or would like information on how to apply for future Institutes, contact Laurie Trufant at 862-4394, or by e-mail at L.Trufant@unh.edu.

-Published in June 2006