Academic Information Associate
Languages and Fine Arts
Macalester College

I currently work at Macalester College as the Academic Information Associate (AIA) for Languages and Fine Arts. An "Academic Information Associate" is a type of academic technologist, I am part of Information Technology Services, and I work with faculty and staff to help courses at Macalester to be taught better through the utilization of technological resources. The most fun part of my job is brainstorming new ways to use technology in the classroom to enhance teaching. When doing this it is really important to come up with ways to use the technology that have a sound pedagogical base, so that the technology aids the learning process in the best way possible. As part of my job I also support some of the more basic technological needs of the faculty, such as providing training and support for Moodle, Macalester's Learning Management Software (LMS). Moodle is a fascinating tool that I love to work with.

My "specialty" as an AIA is in the areas of languages and fine art, by this I mean modern foreign languages, music, theater, dance, and art. I also support the department of "Humanities and Media Cultural Studies". When I started down this career path my main interest was in foreign languages and second language acquisition. I studied German, Chinese, and Japanese in high school and college, and was involved in ESL education courses and tutoring as well. I also have experience teaching Chinese, first at Concordia Language Villages' Sen Lin Hu, then at Gustavus Adolphus College, and most recently as a part of St. Peter Community Education. I find the process of teaching and learning new languages fascinating and have enjoyed pairing my love for languages with my technical skills. Now my responsibilities and interests are expanding to encompass the fine arts and media studies. These are areas in which I have dabbled in the past, and I now have the wonderful opportunity of exploring in greater depth.

In addition to being an AIA, I am also the director of the Humanities Resource Center. Located on the first floor of the Humanities building, the HRC is the computer lab and multi-media center that supports the languages and fine arts at Macalester. The center has a computer lab space with Mac computers that have specialty software installed for language education, 2 scanning stations with the Adobe Editing Suite, 5 media editing stations, 4 midi keyboard stations, and 2 film viewing rooms. The center is also host to the Japanese language tutors. The HRC has a student helpdesk, which I supervise. My student employees are trained to help users with the equipment and programs in the HRC itself, as well as the classrooms in the Humanities building.

If you have any questions about my job at Macalester, please feel free to contact me.

 

 

Relevant links:

Macalester College Homepage
The Humanities Resource Center
Macalester College ITS