Fall 2019 EdTech Showcase

IT Services’ Educational Technology Services (ETS) collaborates with The Teaching + Learning Commons (T+LC) on to host sold-out Fall 2019 EdTech Showcase.

We always need the right tool for the job, but sometimes we don’t always know what that tool is. Thankfully, IT Services’ Educational Technology Services (ETS) recently collaborated with The Teaching + Learning Commons (T+LC) on September 20 to host the sold-out Fall 2019 EdTech Showcase. With over 70 UC San Diego faculty, TAs and department coordinators in attendance, the Showcase highlighted the numerous ETS instructional tools available to faculty at the start of the academic year. This is the first year that the Showcase was co-sponsored by ETS and T+LC. 

Katherine Collins, ETS EdTech Support Manager, explains, “While ETS supports instruction through the technical support of these tools, the Teaching + Learning Commons role is to support the pedagogical and course design needs of instructors. Given the additional expertise and support with planning the event, we decided to broaden the scale of offerings by adding a dual track style event and a faculty panel.”

The Showcase event kicked off with an engaging faculty panel discussing the use of classroom technology on campus.  

Next, staff from the T+LC and ETS gave several presentations highlighting technology tools and services at UC San Diego. The T+LC presented talks on using educational technology to support course design, addressing accessibility issues and funding opportunities for online/hybrid course development. ETS presentations included the Canvas Learning Management System, third party instructional applications, classroom technology strategies, and the Data Science and Machine Learning Platform.  A Canvas course specifically designed for the showcase with links to presentation PowerPoints and videos is available (Single Sign-On required).

The afternoon featured interactive demos and tours of key support facilities. These included an active learning classroom demonstration and visits to ETS’ Media Teaching Lab and StudioU.  The Canvas LMS breakout session was especially helpful to get instructors up and running for the fall quarter.  

The success of this event was important to ETS because it demonstrates the passion and dedication of IT Services staff to provide valuable instructional services to students and faculty in support of UC San Diego’s educational mission. To that end, the showcase was well received, and as one professor remarked, "the spirit and content of this event gets an A."

Stay tuned for next year’s EdTech Showcase!