Bulletin News

SUNY Cortland to Host Conference on Education and Technology

05/01/2018

Faculty and staff from SUNY campuses across the state will soon gather at SUNY Cortland for the 27th annual Conference on Instruction and Technology (CIT), SUNY’s largest and most anticipated event related to the use of instructional technology in education.

This year’s conference, “Elevate Learning: Taking Education Higher,” takes place May 22 to 25 at various locations on campus. Registration is required for attendees.

A limited number of scholarships are available for interested SUNY Cortland faculty and staff. To apply for a scholarship, please complete the CIT 2018 scholarship application, but do not register yet. Applicants will be contacted regarding scholarships once their applications are reviewed.

CIT was established in 1992 to provide a forum for faculty, instructional support professionals and policymakers to present, discuss and explore innovative avenues for integrating technology into the teaching and learning environment. Participants are encouraged to share their expertise and experience, discuss common problems, brainstorm solutions and explore innovative avenues for improving the learning environment with technology.

“It’s not only to elevate learning by technology, although technology is wrapped in many of the sessions,” said Amy Berg, associate provost for information resources. “There will be sessions on teaching techniques as well. It’s about instruction and technology, so it doesn’t have to be one or the other.”

Barbara Oakley, a New York Times bestselling author and professor of engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., will deliver a keynote address at 10:45 a.m. on Thursday, May 24, in Old Main Brown Auditorium. Oakley’s work focuses on the complex relationship between neuroscience and social behavior. She was presented with the American Society of Engineering Education’s Chester F. Carlson Award for technical innovation in engineering education. With Terrence Sejnowski, the Francis Crick professor at the Salk Institute, she co-teaches “Learning How to Learn” through Coursera, the University of California, San Diego’s massive open online course.

Oakley served as a captain in the U.S. Army and was recognized as a Distinguished Military Scholar. She has worked as a communications expert at the South Pole Station in Antarctica and as a Russian translator on trawlers in the Bering Sea.

Robin DeRosa, professor of interdisciplinary studies at Plymouth (N.H.) State University, and Patricia Thompson, assistant vice chancellor for SUNY’s Student Financial Aid Services, also will be featured speakers.

A number of SUNY Cortland faculty and staff with expertise spanning a wide variety of fields will present during the four-day conference. They include: Kathleen Burke, Christopher Cubells, Lisa Czirr, Katherine Graham, Jennifer Kronenbitter, Christopher Manaseri, Julia Morog, Janet Ochs, Joshua Peck, Jeremy Pekarek, Linda Pezzolesi, Lori Schlicht, John Scognamiglio, Lauren Stern, Mary Wilhelm-Chapin and Jeremy Zhe-Heimerman. Others will present at poster sessions on Wednesday, May 23 and Thursday, May 24.

A full schedule of events is available at cit.suny.edu.

The SUNY Center for Professional Development has announced the Sharon Gallagher Memorial Scholarship, which provides financial assistance for first-time attendees. It aims to encourage new faculty and staff involved in teaching, learning and instructional technology initiatives to pursue opportunities for professional development and networking with colleagues across the SUNY system. Information on qualifications and how to apply is available on the CIT scholarship page.

SUNY Cortland last hosted CIT in 1998. The theme then was “Building a SUNY Learning Community.” While one workshop was called “Introduction to Windows 95,” many of the topics from two decades ago still resonate today, including “Classroom Magic: Incorporating Technology into Instruction” and “Using Technology to Strengthen Traditional Courses: Instructional Goals and Practices.”

Technology has come a long way since the last CIT in Cortland. So has the SUNY Cortland campus. Being able to show off the College’s faculty and staff to the rest of the SUNY system will be just as important as displaying the improvements made to instructional technology, Berg said.

“It’s a time to highlight what we do in our facilities,” Berg said. “We’re highlighting our faculty through their presentations, but we’ve worked hard to ensure that our classrooms are modern and up-to-date.”

Contact Berg at 607-753-5942 for more information.