NUTELA is pleased to announce the winners of its 2015 Peer Recognition Awards.

The awards are designed to recognise University staff who go above and beyond the call of duty to help their colleagues, schools and units to adopt forms of TEL (technology-enhanced learning).

This year’s winners Gigi Herbert (Development Officer within the Curriculum Development team at the Careers Service) and Graham Patterson (Computing Technician with Sage Faculty IT) have both been integral to helping other staff to adopt innovative technologies in their teaching.

Gigi was responsible for helping Careers Service staff to adopt technologies such as Grademark and Turnitin in their year-long Career Development Modules.

She was nominated by her colleague Salome Bolton. Salome said: ‘Gigi has been fundamental in developing the team of six to help manage the complexities around student assessment and enhancing learning through the innovative use of technology.

‘[She] helped each team member work through these issues and address any problems using individual support and training.

‘[We] have received very positive feedback from students informally and via our student-staff committee about the additional benefits of being able to access their feedback online via this system.’

Graham has worked tirelessly helping staff in the School of Civil Engineering (CEG) to use mobile technologies in their teaching.

For this a tablet devices (Android based) were issued to each all incoming students in CEG from 2012.

Henny Mills (Senior Teaching Associate, CEG), who nominated Graham said: ‘Graham has been central to the introduction and management of the PEARL project and without him, the use of tablet devices within the teaching environment of CEG would not have been such a success.

‘When I was not able to deliver the tablet inductions sessions due to other teaching commitment, Graham run the sessions for up to 100 students, which is well beyond the scope of an IT Technician.

‘The use of these devices has revolutionized teaching delivery in CEG and improved student experiences. This would not have been possible without Graham’s support and enthusiasm for technology-enhanced learning.’

 

Graham added: ‘Using these mobile devices is great because it encourages interaction between lecturers and students and means that lecturers can poll immediate feedback during classes.’

NUTELA Chair, Laura Delgaty, who helped to choose the winners, said: ‘We had some great entrants this year and it was tough deciding on the winners.

‘I think everyone at Newcastle can be really proud of how staff are working together to support each other in using these innovative new methods in their teaching.

‘We are excited this year to offer these awards. The focus was on recognizing colleagues that have gone out of their way to help others at the University learn about or use technology.

‘We asked for peer nominations focusing on how these individuals contributed to the advancement of others using technology and how this related to NUs LTSE.’

Do you have an extra-special colleague who has helped you with incorporated TEL into your teaching practice? Do you want to recognise someone who has provided excellent support or advice on TEL to your school, unit or faculty? Watch out for details of next year’s competition on the NUTELA blog or email: nutelaops@newcastle.ac.uk for more information.