Overview
Through its signature Digital Fluency Project, Penn State Greater Allegheny is changing the way our students, faculty and staff advance teaching, learning and service on our campus.
The initiative is supported through generous support from friends of the campus, including Jim and Megan Minarik. The Minariks have established a Digital Fluency Challenge Grant, donating $50,000 to the project. When matched by generous gifts from alumni, donors, corporations and foundations, the $100,000 will help students develop vital digital skills that will help them thrive in the workforce. To contribute to the Challenge Grant visit raise.psu.edu/gadigitalfluency.
Tools for Success
In support of the project, all faculty, staff and students receive an iPad® and a Logitech Crayon, giving every member of our campus community access to a vast suite of digital tools which can be used to code, collaborate, solve problems, and communicate in creative ways.
We leverage our common tools to reduce out of pocket expenses for our students. As an Adobe Creative Campus, we provide free access to the full suite of Adobe products, and through PSU Web Labs, our students have remote, anytime, anywhere access to software available in our computer labs. One of the world's best university libraries is hand held, giving students access to books and journals for academic work, or DVDs for relaxation.
Faculty are committed to reducing out of pocket expenses for students. They select open resource materials without a cost, or create their own course materials and share them through the iPad. These actions reduce text book costs for our students.
My students no longer need to buy any textbook. The digital fluency project motivated me to write my own interactive textbook with embedded videos and quizzes that I share to the iPad along with lecture notes and videos. Before, it cost $150 to $200 per course. Now, they don’t pay anything because of the iPad. In the classroom, it is all interactive and focused on student trying and understanding. I am also able to implement augmented reality so students can see the image using their iPad. We weren’t able to do that with paper and pencil.
Greater Collaborations
Our common tool provides a connection to the people and resources that contribute to student success. Our staff leverage digital tools to reach and engage with students in meaningful ways.
Whether it's the campus registrar who helps with graduation, an academic adviser who helps with course planning, or the student aid coordinator who helps to identify scholarship opportunities, students can easily work with these and other offices, ensuring they have the support and information they need to reach their goals.
The iPad has increased collaboration and opportunities for a campus like ours. Within our career services office, our students are now able to participate in a myriad of employment presentations, job fairs, and employer meetings in ways they were never previously able to participate. They are learning how to use technology and how to talk about their work with digital fluency in their interviews for internships and jobs. I think not only as a collaborative tool inside of our campus, but outside of campus as well, the iPad is effective.
Greater Innovation
The Digital Fluency Project is integrated into our campus culture making innovation a normal occurrence. It is happening among our faculty who introduce engaging and innovative pedagogy into the classroom. It is happening among our students who feel confident in identifying the digital tools that they need to use at any given time. It is happening as we transform physical spaces such as classrooms, traditional computer labs, game rooms, and student lounges into collaborative spaces no longer bound by stationary furniture, and equipment. Innovation is a way of life.
One of the key ideas related to Digital Fluency is that you're always experimenting. It’s not about mastering particular software or knowing exactly how to do everything. It’s about finding ways to do what you want with different kinds of technologies.
If you are a student coming to Greater Allegheny, you are guaranteed a device that other people have experience using and are also there to help you. You are in a community of people who are working with similar devices. Everyone having the same device really sets you up for success with experimenting.