• Introduction
• Some Organizational Background
• Ongoing Conversation about Learning
• Shared Learning
• New Opportunities for Learning
• A Note about the Writing
• A Non-Conclusion
• References
• Printable Text of Article

© Copyright 1998-99 by Anne Agee (aagee@gmu.edu), Susan Kehoe (skeho1@gmu.edu), Cindy Lont (clont@gmu.edu) and Ann Palkovich (apalkovi@gmu.edu).  The right to make additional exact copies, including this notice, for personal and classroom use, is hereby granted. All other forms of distribution and copying require permission of the author.

Section One:
Some Organizational Background

Ann: Part of the reason that we can even discuss these issues about the community aspects of the scholarship of teaching is because of the kind of environment that this University provides.  George Mason University has an established history of innovation. It is a place that is open to the possibilities of change and new ways of looking at learning. As a young institution, founded in the late 50's surge to improve higher education, Mason has created an open, almost restless attitude among its faculty to rethink education and learning. This openness has led to a variety of curricular experiments (PAGE, BA/SIC, Core, New Century College) as well as new programs which dovetailed with a rather traditional College. Along with these curricular innovations, a variety of centers and offices were founded which focused on aspects of teaching, reflecting the then-contemporary trends toward use of new technologies. Among these centers were the Student Video Center (founded in the 1980s by the Department of Communication to support the use of video by students in telecommunication classes), the Instructional Development office (founded in the early 1990s to support the development of high-end, technology-based instruction by faculty), and the Media Authoring Center (founded in 1995 to support the development of multimedia projects by students). During this same period, there was a shift in the use of technology throughout the University and an increasing emphasis on the use of technology in specially designed media-intensive classrooms as well as traditional classrooms. The problem was, given the varying origins and reporting lines and purposes of these support organizations, they were as likely to compete for resources as cooperate.

Susan: GMU-TV was in a similar situation.  It never really seemed to fit within the University setting.   Professors would occasionally wander down to the basement of King Hall to tape a lecture, or University Relations would host the occasional current affairs show.   Otherwise, the small staff earned their keep creating promotional videotapes for different units within George Mason.  We were definitely not realizing our potential for creating dynamic distance learning.  Collaborative efforts often evolved into turf wars.

Cindy: Although there had been attempts to bring some of these components together, at least the video components and GMU-TV, it was, as some say, like trying to corral a bunch of cats. 

Ann:  However, a new president in 1996, a new vice-president for information technology in 1997, and a mandate for change and cost-effectiveness lead to the creation of the Department of Instructional Improvement and Instructional Technologies (DoIIIT).  DoIIIT's position as a co-equal unit with University Computing and University Libraries placed instruction front and center within the University's technology mission.  It took us a year of discussion and consultation to determine the appropriate direction and mission for DoIIIT and its component units.  We actively considered the diverse ways in which students, faculty, and staff were served by and contributed to learning and instruction.    With a great deal of cooperation and planning, those instructional support offices which had been disbursed through several different academic and administrative areas were brought under the umbrella of DoIIIT.

Anne: In effect, the creation of a unit like DoIIIT is in itself an acknowledgment of the shared responsibility for learning within the University. DoIIIT's five units--Administrative Support, Classroom Technologies, GMU-TV, the Instructional Resource Center (IRC) and the Student Technology Assistance and Resource Center (STAR)--together constitute a whole spectrum of learning activities that interact with the larger Mason learning community in a number of ways.   As a participant in George Mason's community of learners, DoIIIT helps to provide a context in which this kind of paradigm shift can take place, an environment for change.   DoIIIT works with students and with faculty to help both in their roles as learners.  DoIIIT provides support for each of the aspects of a learning community: ongoing conversations about learning, shared learning, and new opportunities for learning.

Next Section: Ongoing Conversation about Learning

Previous Section: Introduction