William
P. Schweitzer of Chemistry
Columbia
University
turro@chem.columbia.edu |
A brief review of the history of the development
of information technologies for use in chemical and science
education at Columbia University will be presented. The case
study may be useful as a model for many campuses irrespective
of the specific resources available at any particular institution
because the development was initiated, implemented and sustained
through the efforts of faculty and students. The essential
components of the success of the program are believed to be
its overriding commitment to three pillars of teaching and
learning: content, context and cognition. The IT tools are
seen as one method, and an effective one, of producing good
learning and enhancing teaching through the use of information
available from research on how students learn and create their
own knowledge.
Some examples of the creation of interactive IT tools developed
by students (IR Tutor) will be shown and discussed within
the framework of the three pillars or teaching and learning.
PDF
of Professor Turro's workshop presentation |
My
Vitae
Nicholas J. Turro is the William P. Schweitzer Professor of
Chemistry at Columbia University where he has been since 1964.
He was born in Middletown, CT, where he graduated from Wesleyan
University in 1960 before going to Caltech for his PhD awarded
in 1963. He is the author of "Modern Molecular Photochemistry",
the standard text in the field and has published over 700
research papers in established scientific journals. He is
a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences. 60 students have obtained the
PhD degree and 160 postdocs have been trained under his supervision.
His research interests involve the use of photochemistry and
spectroscopy to elucidate the structure and dynamics of supramolecular
systems. He has been involved in the development of information
technologies for the teaching of science since the early 1990’s.
At Columbia University he organized a "Faculty-Student
Information Technology Cluster" which provided resources
for faculty in the sciences to develop IT tools for use in
their courses. After a three year period the activities of
the "Cluster" were taken over by the University
through the establishment of a Center for New Media for Teaching
and Learning.
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