• 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 Two: Ongoing Conversation about Learning

Cindy: I think DoIIIT's role in the ongoing conversation about learning really began with the work of creating DoIIIT in the first place, as Ann mentioned earlier.  It sounds so straightforward when we talk about it now, but the focus and design of DoIIIT really resulted from Joy Hughes' leadership and the collaborative work of many people from many parts of the University who eventually reached a consensus about how learning needed to be supported at George Mason.  Both STAR and the IRC had advisory boards of students, faculty, and support staff to help create (or recreate) their structure and purpose. 

Susan: And we have continued that kind of discussion by naming an Advisory Board for DoIIIT with representation from all the academic areas of the University and University Computing and University Libraries.  STAR also has its own advisory board.  GMU-TV is taking that idea even further by naming an advisory board that includes representatives from business and government to help us get a clearer understanding of how our instructional programming impacts the Northern Virginia community.  The advisory boards are an important way that we get to test our mission against the needs of our community and open up more dialogue about what people need to help them learn.

Ann: Another important piece of an ongoing conversation about learning is our collaborative relationship with the other information technology units, University Computing  and University Libraries. Many of the ways that we support learning here crossover these units, so we meet regularly to work out issues such as software support and staff development.  I've been working this year with an information technology training council that includes computing staff, librarians, and DoIIIT staff so that we can help make it easier for people to get access to training, develop new programs, and avoid duplication of services.  The BYTE week program we did in January was one result of the training council's efforts.  The model worked so well that we are now working with University Life to expand it during student and faculty orientation periods.

Cindy:  Some of the issues are not easy to figure out.  We wrestled for a long time, for example, with issues about supporting statistical software, trying to balance learning needs in this area against other demands on staff time and computing resources.  The solution that we eventually developed involved contributions from DoIIIT, University Computing, and University Libraries to respond to faculty and student requests for support. The point here is that we're working to establish an environment in which all the members of the university community can work as partners to address learning issues.

Anne:  Our programming also reflects an intentional effort to foster discussion about teaching and learning. The DoIIIT Dialogs provide opportunities for faculty and staff to meet with the administrators and directors of programs that support instruction.  The Teaching/Learning Conversations programs feature demonstrations of faculty work and a chance for faculty and staff to focus on the learning strategies involved in various kinds of instructional methods.  People seem to enjoy the chance to see the work of others outside their own departments. The discussion groups we sponsored on "Making a Place for the New American Scholar" drew quite an eclectic group of participants and an interesting mix of ideas.  And, of course, inventio itself is really just an extended conversation about teaching and learning issues.

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