Teaching with Technology
Front panel
Teaching with Technology
web.mit.edu/teachtech
A Guide For Faculty
First Inside Panel
Help, Support, and Training
There are many options for help and support for faculty, students, and others engaged in teaching and learning activities at MIT. From personalized consulting services to help faculty integrate technology into the curriculum (Educational Technology Consultants), to Library subject matter experts, to a broad spectrum of general technology help via MIT's Computing Help Desk.
- Educational Technology Consultants
If you don't know where to start, EdTech consultants can guide you step by step
Phone: 617-253-0115, Email: et-consult@mit.edu - Libraries' Subject Experts
Subject-matter reference experts on every conceivable subject
Web request: libraries.mit.edu/ask-us/experts.html - Computing Help Desk
Expert computing and technology help for the entire MIT community
Phone: 617-253-1101, Email: computing-help@mit.edu, web.mit.edu/helpdesk/ - MIT Audio Visual Services
Service for classroom presentation and display equipment, installed or on-demand
Phone: 617-253-2808, Web: mit.edu/avorders - Academic Media Production Services
Video capture, production, streaming, webcasting, video conferencing
Phone: 617-253-7603, Email: amps-info
Second Inside Panel
Class Management Tools
Communicating and collaborating with students; Putting your course on the web
Students and faculty today have a rich set of choices for communicating with each other. From tried and true class email lists to personal blogs, web-based course discussion boards, or a class wiki.
- Course email lists
Athena mailing lists can be populated with official Registrar's student lists to support class communications. - Instant Messaging
MIT has its own instant messaging services that provide an alternative to traditional email. - Stellar discussion boards
MIT's course management system (see below), Stellar provides discussion boards as one of its many features. - Blogs
A weblog (blog) is a web page that is updated on a regular basis. It resembles an online diary or a journal. You can request a blog to support your class. - Wikis
Wikis have come to be standard workplace and educational tools. MIT offers a wiki space to groups via a centrally-managed wiki application.
Many MIT courses have web presences in the form of managed class spaces in MIT's Stellar course management system, free-form course web sites served through Athena course web lockers, all the way to publishing an MIT course to the outside world via MIT's OpenCourseWare initiative.
- Stellar
MIT's course management system that provides a secure framework to support teaching and learning. Features include ready-to-use website, class materials management, homework management, easy communication with students, section setup and management, and access control. - Athena Course Lockers
Course lockers are Athena shared directories that can be used to store class materials, datasets, or specialized applications which can then be accessed or run from Athena workstations. Course lockers can also be used to serve web pages under web.mit.edu.
- OpenCourseware (OCW)
OCW makes the educational materials used in the teaching of virtually all of MIT subjects available on the Web, free of charge, to any user, anywhere in the world. Courses are published after the semester they are taught.
Third Inside Panel
Multimedia, Software, and Digital Documents
Creating Teaching Materials
With a wide range of services supporting the creation and conversion of course materials into digital content for web use, putting instructional materials on the web keeps getting easier.
- Using licensed software
Commercial, free/Open Source and some locally developed software applications are licensed, installed, and available to support course work. - Making custom software
Project consulting, development, coordination, deployment, and interpretation of global e-learning specifications and standards are available. - Video capture and production
Lecture capture and advanced digital editing services are available at competitive prices. - Copyright advice
Copyright guidelines for putting course materials up on the web. - E-reserves
Support for providing electronic course readings for Stellar class web sites.
Learning Spaces
Technology-enabled places to teach and learn
At MIT you can find a variety of technology spaces specifically designed for various kinds of learning activities, from classroom-style computer labs (electronic classrooms) to the New Media Center for DIY multimedia production, several technology-enabled group collaboration spaces, to traditional computer clusters or labs allowing students access to a broad spectrum of academic software.
- Electronic Classrooms
Classrooms with individual workstations for each student plus an instructor's workstation which can be projected to the class can be scheduled. - New Media Center
26-139, provides the MIT community the tools necessary to produce multimedia projects, such as digital video, photo scanning and manipulation, and web authoring in a "do-it-yourself" cluster of macintosh computers. - Collaboration spaces
Several student computing clusters provide access to features such as wireless access, large wall-mounted LCD displays, white boards/projection systems with digital capture and modular soft furniture. - Clusters
Athena, Windows, and Mac computing labs are available across the campus.
Inside Back Panel
ACCORD
Teaching with Technology is a collaborative effort led by ACCORD, the Academic Computing Coordination Group. Sponsored by the Dean for Undergraduate Education's Office of Education Innovation and Technology (OEIT), Information Services and Technology (IS&T), and the Libraries, it brings together the many educational technology service providers from these group and other Departments, Centers, and Labs on a regular basis to share information and collaborate on projects and services that support teaching and learning at MIT. To find out more about ACCORD, see https://web.mit.edu/accord/ or email accord@mit.edu.