Coordinator's Corner: Reflections on Coordinating PWR Tech for Teaching
In this Coordinator’s Corner, Jenne Stonaker describes all the ways she has helped to support PWR pedagogy in her past three years as our tech coordinator.
When ATS (Academic Technology Specialist) Jenae Cohn left PWR in the fall of 2020, PWR found itself faced with a crisis in supporting our program's tech needs at a time when tech itself was on everyone's mind: COVID was changing the educational landscape and, for that year at least, Zoom and Canvas had become the new universal classroom spaces for our PWR courses. I had already been helping out with tech support for the Notation students, and I was asked if I’d like to step in for Jenae and take on some additional work supporting the pedagogical tech needs for PWR as a whole.
And what does that work entail? It falls into four main categories: Notation support, equipment, instructor support, and websites.
My favorite part of being PWR's Coordinator for Pedagogical Technology is working with the Notation students. I introduce them to the platform that we use to build their ePortfolios, Digication, and offer ongoing training and support. Sometimes this support is practical (how to do something, or connecting them to Digication support if I don’t have an answer), but sometimes it is more creative (thinking through the best way to present information, given the affordances and limitations of the platform). I feel fortunate to be able to work with students across multiple years and to see how their ePortfolios grow and change over time.
However, the part of my job that is probably the most visible is maintaining our equipment loan pool. This pool includes equipment you might be familiar with: cameras and tripods for recording PWR2 presentations, extra clickers, and adapters. But it also includes some things you may not be as familiar with, such as voice recorders and phone chargers. I also have a small budget, shared with Stanford Introductory Studies, for new equipment. Do let me know if you have any requests for equipment that would support our teaching work!
Supporting instructors is one of the most variable parts of my job, as the needs are often determined by external factors. For the majority of my time as coordinator, I’ve been focused on classroom technology. In the summer of 2022, Learning Technology & Spaces (LTS) installed new camera, microphone, and speaker systems into the Wallenberg classrooms, along with a new interface for engaging with the room technology. Over the past two years, I’ve developed written and video guides to support instructors as they learn how to use the new classroom tech interface and camera systems, and I learned that I enjoy making these types of guides and documentation. It’s an interesting challenge to think about how to best present information for different types of users and use cases.
The last element of the tech coordinator position that I want to touch on is work on the PWR websites. Christine and I worked through a massive project over the past few years to migrate the existing PWR websites to a new platform. Now that the migration work is complete, our ongoing work includes keeping the sites updated and editing the sites so that information is easier to find. We’re also hoping to update some of the older photographs. Thanks to the lecturers in the fall who let us photograph their classes; you should be seeing some of those pictures up on the websites in the coming weeks.
I’ve now spent almost three years as the tech coordinator, and I’ve appreciated the challenges that have come from learning about new systems (classrooms, websites) and how best to support instructors and students around tech concerns. Overall, I’ve found that I don’t need to have an exhaustive knowledge of technical systems, but rather the ability to search for information and present it in a clear way. However, tech is always changing: upcoming challenges will undoubtedly center on generative AI, building on conversations we've already been having as a program. As we move forward, I'm also hoping we can continue our recent discussions around learning differences, supporting instructors as we design our Canvas websites and other course materials to be more accessible.
