Purpose
The Embedded Technologists at Miami Dade College, North Campus, work closely with faculty and students to offer a more direct assistance with academic software, presentation tools, visuals, e-portfolios, or anything related to educational technology. This initiative began as a collaboration between faculty from the English & Communications department and Learning Resources at the North Campus during the fall term in 2021. This new model of support was implemented with the purpose of helping students navigate and understand academic technology that may be utilized in current and future courses. Currently our Instructional Assistants provide technology support to students inside and outside the classrooms with any software utilized to develop projects in their courses.
We designed an innovative model for embedding technologists in a first year, fully online synchronous English composition course. Technologists from Miami Dade College’s Learning Resources department provided hands-on technical support throughout the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 semesters to teach students digital annotations with Adobe Acrobat Reader and Civic Action e-portfolio design using two technology tools: Adobe Express and Google Sites. Students received technology instruction and support during & outside class time. The workshops showcased student work and survey results to illustrate the effectiveness of our strategy to support student digital literacy skills. Students received technology instruction and support during class time. This practice also gave an opportunity for the Instructional Assistants to engage with the students in the classrooms and provided them with professional growth in their instructional role.
Exemplary Criteria
We currently have two embedded technologists in the department. This pilot began during the Fall semester of 2021. They conducted two sessions for six (6) English Composition classes during the semester. The first workshop demonstrated the tools available to students to utilize for their Civic Action Portfolios, which were Google Sites and Adobe Express. The second session consisted of a hands-on assistance session where the Embedded Technologists worked with the students in a one to one capacity.
This program is adaptable, its pilot was a success, and since its conception other faculty from the English & Communications department has requested the assistance of an embedded technologist in their classrooms to support students with improving their digital skills.
To date the Embedded Technologist service has done the following:
• Delivered more than 30 sessions between the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 semesters.
• Created a Civic Action Portfolio LibGuide to provide the tools for students and showcase the student’s exemplary work where they can reference back to.
• Presented in the Learning Resources Tutoring Symposium 2020 the “Off with Their Heads!”– A Tale of Collaboration to Help Students Create Spectacular E-portfolios Without Going Down the Rabbit Hole session where we:
o Described how an ENC 1101 class assignment integrated the iCED Civic Action Scorecard
o Showcased electronic civic action portfolios
o Explained the role of embedded technologists in the project
o Shared survey results to illustrate the value of the collaboration
o Provided best practices for faculty who wish to incorporate similar assignments and for tutors and technologists who are supporting similar projects.
Assessment of Practice
• We conducted a survey in all 6 sessions of the Fall 2021 session to see what the students liked or disliked about having an embedded technologist available. We received 74 responses, and the majority was all good feedback.