Acadia
faculty receive unprecedented grants for teaching
For Release:
January 24, 2003
(Wolfville,
NS) - Acadia University President, Dr. Kelvin Ogilvie, today formally
introduced the six Acadia faculty members who will lead projects
focused on university teaching with over $1million in financial
support. The grants are part of a program funded by the J.W. McConnell
Family Foundation of Montreal. This type of funding for university
teaching is unprecedented in Canada.
During a ceremony today, the three
successful proposals were announced and awarded $300,000 to $400,000
each over a three-year period. Faculty members from all three faculties
submitted proposals.
The "Next Innovation" phase of the
Acadia Advantage program has started with great momentum with the
announcement of the three McConnell Family Foundation Grant winners.
The fund was created to encourage strategies for the integration
of technology across entire academic programs, thus securing Acadia's
lead in technology-enhanced education. "It is a great tribute to
Acadia's faculty to see the impact of the innovation that is occurring
in teaching on our campus and the desire that exists to continually
improve our educational environment," said Dr. Kelvin Ogilvie, Acadia's
President & Vice-Chancellor.
The exciting projects are designed
to advance the pedagogical use of technology in three areas. Dr.
Heather Hemming and Dr. Greg MacKinnon
will co-direct a project involving nearly all faculty from the School
of Education that will explore avenues to educate teachers about
technology in a manner that promotes creativity / innovation, problem-solving,
critical thinking, communication, entrepreneurship and collaboration.
Dr. Richard Cunningham
from the Department of English and Dr. Robert Perrins
from the Department of History & Classics will co-manage a project
involving a number of their colleagues across several disciplines
in the Faculty of Arts that will establish a Humanities Hyper Media
Centre that will provide guidance to the multidisciplinary teaching
of Philosophy, History, Classics, English and Information Literacy.
Dr. Edith Callaghan
and Dr. Ian Hutchinson will work with their colleagues
from the Fred C. Manning School of Business to develop cross-disciplinary
thinking, leverage internal and external expertise to create a framework
for a more flexible, technology infused curriculum.
The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation
grant provides direct support for the Acadia Advantage Program and
this announcement marks a continuing relationship between Acadia
and the Montreal-based family foundation. Funding from the Foundation
in the amount of $1.4 million over the past three years has supported
the basic infrastructure of Acadia's Institute of Teaching &
Technology (AITT). The grant of $1.82 million received in 2002 was
earmarked to enhance that infrastructure over a further two to three
year period enabling Acadia to consolidate and build on the work
of the AITT, while moving it toward financial sustainability.
For more information, contact:
Sheri Woodland
Communications Manager
Public Affairs
(902) 585-1362
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