The UC Davis Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology (SITT) provides an opportunity each summer for campus faculty, lecturers and graduate students to explore new approaches to great teaching. This year, over 100 SITT participants came together during the last week in July (24-28) for demonstrations, presentations, panel discussions, and workshops focusing on new tools and teaching approaches and computer-rich classrooms.

If you missed this year's SITT and are interested in these topics, you can get a "virtual tour" by visiting the SITT archive of presentation materials and audio recordings. To browse the full SITT '06 program and related resource links start with the SITT 06 Calendar.  Or explore SITT thematically by selecting one or more of the topics listed below.

In response to the enthusiasm and suggestions of this year's SITT participants, the Teaching Resources Center will be offering several SITT follow-up workshops throughout the year. The first "mini-SITT" will be held on Thursday, November 9, from 12-3 pm, in the University Club. Registration and more details for the event are coming soon. Check the TRC Calendar for updates.

SITT 2006 Topics and Themes

Faculty Resources for Teaching, Learning and Technology at UC Davis: Mediaworks Director Liz Gibson introduced a new web portal for faculty technology and teaching support. Professor Emeritus Dick Walters presented his research and recommended resources on cognitive learning theory, project based learning, and technology applications in the university classroom. In another popular session, Jan Carmikle Dwyer, UC Davis Copyright Officer, discussed university copyright law as it pertained to using images and web resources in teaching and course readers.

Learning SmartSite: UC Davis has adopted “SmartSite” as a new open-source course management system that promises to be simpler and more powerful than My UCDavis. SmartSite is now being pilot-tested by a group of UCD faculty members, several of whom presented their work at SITT. SmartSite includes an improved chat room and syllabus tools, and also supports new approaches to collaborative teaching and learning through features such as a class wiki, individual drop-off and pickup boxes, and a profile tool that lets users easily post pictures and other information. SmartSite will become available to all campus faculty in 2007, but you can get a head start by taking a SmartSite workshop this year and joining a pilot user group.

Media-Rich Teaching and Learning: Many of us have used PowerPoint to present lectures, outlines and lessons in an ordered and linear format. At SITT we stepped beyond PowerPoint to explore the power of Almagest software to gather, organize, and present visual images; the potential of Podcasting to broadcast lectures and class discussions to students’ iPods and computers, and the use of Audience Response Systems ("clickers") which allow faculty to poll students in real-time and project summary results for the class. Susan Keen (Biology) and D. Kern Holoman (Music), led a particularly interesting discussion on their use of technology in large lecture classes, Bio 1B and Music 10.

Group Work in the Classroom: Have you ever wondered how class "wikis" can help students to create and publish content in collaboration with their peers and their professors? What about asking students to work together in presenting knowledge through a poster session, website, or "learning map"? Discussions led by Jay Mechling, Jon Wagner, and Michael Giardina demonstrated how group work could be used in innovative ways to engage students and assess learning.

Teaching and Writing: The University Writing Program (UWP) has long offered workshops for faculty on journaling, designing engaging and plagiarism-proof writing assignments, using impromptu writing exercises to spark class discussion, and writing collaboratively. UWP experts John Stenzel, Pam Demory, Wrye Sententia, and Andy Jones worked with SITT participants to explore these and other strategies for using writing to encourage student thinking that is deep, critical, and creative.

For more information about SITT 2006, or if you have ideas for sessions and themes for SITT 2007, Contact the Teaching Resources Center: trc@ucdavis.edu. You can also browse the entire SITT '06 agenda by day and time.