Latest "Bold Aspirations" summit focuses on improving technology

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Faculty and students met last Friday to discuss improving technology use in University classrooms. The meeting, called “Harnessing Information and Multiplying Knowledge,” was the fourth summit in the “Bold Aspirations” program.

The “Bold Aspirations” program focuses on improving four themes at the University: transportation and energy, information technology, health and well-being, and building and sustaining communities. It plans to use the ideas from summit meetings to create a strategic plan for each.

Summit attendees specifically proposed using technology to make the classroom learning environment more hands-on with critical thinking.

“I think most students are hungry for an interactive analysis of information, not just regurgitating the information,” Leonard “Kris” Krishtalka, co-chair of the summit planning committee said. “We want classes to discuss why a subject matters, or how to think about it, instead of just delivering straight information.”

Students already use Blackboard as a classroom tool, but summit attendees encouraged further technological expansion. The program strives to find ways to use technology already at students’ fingertips to change the traditional classroom format.

The summit also suggested setting up a high-performance computing facility for University researchers, increasing bandwidth and incorporating more social media strategies to enhance classroom experience.

“I feel like technology is being woven into everything,” Anrenee Reasor, a freshman from Thayer, Kan., said. “My econ teacher uses a Twitter hashtag to answer questions outside of class.”

Besides participating in summits, “Bold Aspirations” has conducted research to improve ideas to better the University’s technology use. The program has created outlines for collaborations between different departments and hiring additional faculty that can carry out the program’s missions.

“The plan over the next few years is for KU to hire 62 new faculty concentrating on the ideas in these four summits,” Krishtalka said.

— Edited by Christine Curtin

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