Professional Development with and for Technology: An Interview with Wendy Grojean

This interview continues a series initiated by members of the Bulletins Editorial Board. The goal of the series is to feature interviews conducted with Delta Kappa Gamma members or other educational leaders on a topic related to the theme of the issue. Here, Wendy Grojean, coordinator of a state-of-the-art learning center at the newly-renovated Roskens College of Education at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, explains how she delivers professional development with and for technology in this unique space. Students, faculty, and staff of the College of Education at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) began the 2011 fall term in a newly renovated, high-tech building that offers a variety of collaborative 21st-century technology workspaces. They were excited to see the new Roskens Hall and overjoyed to experience the new educational resource room that is now called the Innovation, Design, Experiences, Activities, and Synergy (IDEAS) room. The IDEAS Room offers four unique collaborative spaces for students and faculty to work together: * LVS Rooms: The IDEAS Room has two LVS (Learn-View-Study) rooms available for students and faculty to utilize for collaboration purposes. These technology-supported rooms, complete with an LCD screen and multiple plugins, can be reserved in advance for meetings or can be used by students and faculty at the site on a drop-in basis. * LCD Collaboration Centers: The LCD Centers offer comfortable seating for small-group work. The LCDs in the room allow group members to project their computer screens for the whole group to see. * media:scape (http://www.ideo.com/work/mediascape): This 21st-century collaborative tool allows eight participants to collaborate, with two LCD screens visible at one time. The media:scape is a great way to collaborate and has plenty of workspace. It is also an effective tool for small-group instruction. * Large-Group Presentation Space: This space has six tables that can easily be moved for group work or independent study, as well as a projector and a screen for presentations. Interviewee Wendy Grojean currently serves the students, faculty, and staff as the IDEAS Room Coordinator. Wendy serves many roles in the IDEAS Room. She coordinates the calendar and events in the room, maintains a collection of educational resource materials, manages a staff of three student workers and four graduate assistants, provides Blackboard support to faculty, teaches courses for the Library Science Department, as well as offers various technology-focused professional development opportunities. Outline your current role and position relative to professional development in the IDEAS Room. Innovation. Design. Experiences. Activities. Synergy. This is what the IDEAS Room is meant to provide for the students and faculty of the College of Education and the Omaha community as well. The IDEAS Room is a high-technology resource room that was developed by the College of Educations dean and faculty when they were planning the new building. I was hired as the coordinator to organize and facilitate the activities for this space. Describe the IDEAS Room When you enter the IDEAS Room, you will quickly notice that collaboration is its theme. There are various spaces for College of Education candidates to gather and work together. For example, there are comfortable chairs that are arranged in a circle with ample outlets for laptop plug-ins on the floor. There are collaboration spaces with LCD screens for candidates to plug in their devices and work together on a project. The LVS rooms (Learn, View, Study) are spaces where candidates can roll up their sleeves and work. One of the LVS rooms has an LCD screen and the other has a SMART board for students to create, practice, and demonstrate their SMART board lessons. The most popular space in the IDEAS Room is around the media:scape table. This high-tech table is where most prefer to work.