Each month a faculty member, nominated by their dean, is recognized for their efforts to integrate innovative technology into their classroom. August’s digital faculty member of the month is Sandy Henry, professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Read an interview with Sandy below:

What course do you use this technology in? All of them! But mostly in copywriting and content design, strategic message design and advertising campaign strategies

What type of technology (hardware/software) do you use?  How do I pick just one? I never met a piece of technology I didn’t like. All of my classes are hands-on, active courses where the students learn by doing, so tech is integrated throughout. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of in-class collaboration via cloud documents/applications.

In what context do you use this technology (assessment/lecture/group work/etc.)? I’ll put the students into groups, ask them to create a cloud files for all group member and myself. They can accumulate and curate source content, they can write and edit, they can design…the possibilities are endless, and I see what they are doing in real time (plus, the history feature of cloud documents, especially Google, is great for assessment after the fact because it records every action taken in a document, as well as the person who takes it). It’s also easy to add and remove members, so groups can be changed during the process.

How does this type of technology align with your teaching pedagogy? Because my classes are active, hands-on skills classes, this is a natural fit.

Where did you get the inspiration to make a change (colleague/seminar/administration/etc.)? I was inspired to start doing this in the classroom because I was asking students to do it outside of class on group projects and it was working well – it’s natural to them!

How long did it take for you to implement this technology? About five minutes, we all knew how to use it, it was just a matter of explaining the process for the in-class exercise.

Did Drake ITS assist you in implementing this technology? If so, how? No

Are you interested in trying out new technology in your classroom? Want help from ITS? Schedule a technology adoption consultation.

–Jon Hurdelbrink, CPHS; Carla Herling, ITS