Residence Programs around the country are often finding ways to use technology to create efficient administrative processes and to increase conveniences for students who live within the residence halls. This type of use limits the impact technology can have on the student experience and merely utilizes it to supplement manual processes. While not traditionally academic, many of the experiences created by Residence Life and Housing at the University of Delaware provides students the opportunity to engage in educational experiences including: active reflection, collaboration, project management, and experiential learning. This is complemented by a constructivist approach to helping students build networks within residence halls, explore leadership, and develop non-cognitive skills associated with community living. This project will help new professionals explore how to utilize technology to orchestrate more educationally complex and pedagogically sound activities and initiatives with students (Tarantino, McDonough, & Hua, 2013).
Within Residence Life and Housing, technology has rarely been used to create educationally rich experiences. Those with the knowledge of how to utilize technology typically don’t have the ability to pair it sound pedagogy within the residential education framework. When technology (social media, Web 2.0 tools) has been used, it does not typically accelerate or transform the educational experience. Too often, sound technology usage has been linked to the “tech guru” of the department, which has lead to poor systematic and lack of sustained integration of technology in our educational efforts. Typical educational technology uses for my department include: utilizing videos for training, using Facebook groups for community experiences, to gather assessment data on programmatic efforts. This sporadic, costly, and person-dependent use of technology has sent mixed messages to the leadership with in our department.
Within Residence Life and Housing, technology has rarely been used to create educationally rich experiences. Those with the knowledge of how to utilize technology typically don’t have the ability to pair it sound pedagogy within the residential education framework. When technology (social media, Web 2.0 tools) has been used, it does not typically accelerate or transform the educational experience. Too often, sound technology usage has been linked to the “tech guru” of the department, which has lead to poor systematic and lack of sustained integration of technology in our educational efforts. Typical educational technology uses for my department include: utilizing videos for training, using Facebook groups for community experiences, to gather assessment data on programmatic efforts. This sporadic, costly, and person-dependent use of technology has sent mixed messages to the leadership with in our department.
