Who we are
The Learning Technology Center (LTC) at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee has adopted a campus wide approach to the support of learning technologies quite different from analogous organizations at other universities.
On many if not most American campuses, the learning technology support unit is staffed by experts in instructional design. By contrast, the majority of our staff are themselves faculty who hold terminal degrees in their respective disciplines, and are teachers of many years’ experience, including both online and blended modes of instruction.
Because of our extensive experience of best instructional practices, we focus on pedagogy rather than upon technology per se. More to the point, we emphasize learning technologies which foster active learning and the building of a peer learning community both in the classroom and online.
Moreover, because our staff are not primarily technologically oriented, we are not a production unit. Instead, we teach instructors to become independent users of their own learning technologies. This in its turn bears strongly upon our choice of supported technologies: although we constantly experiment with emerging technologies, we are not proponents of the latest and greatest. We support basic technologies of proven pedagogical value for mainstream faculty users.
From a broader perspective, on many other campuses, a support unit like ours is embedded in the IT organization for that campus. Because of our emphasis on pedagogy, however, we report instead to our Center for Instructional and Pedagogical Development (CIPD), and in its turn, to Academic Affairs.
Finally, the location of the LTC on the UWM campus is both symbolic and practical. Our position in the Golda Meir Library expresses our fundamental commitment to the heart of the academy. Our location near the campus center makes it convenient for faculty to drop in for consultations and workshops.
And it works! Our surveys show that the LTC has interacted with 80% of the more than 1500 faculty, teaching academic staff, and teaching assistants on the UWM campus. The most favorable instructor impressions of the LTC? That we are teachers who understand the classroom, and that our turnaround time for requests is outstanding.