Patricia Ploetz


Meet Patricia Ploetz
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Instructional Technology & Multimedia Coordinator, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

This month, "Meet the Experts" features Patricia Ploetz, UW-Stevens Point's representative to the Learning Technology Development Council.

TTT: Please describe your work at UW-Stevens Point.

PP: For the past seven-going-on-eight years I have worked in Information Technology at UWSP. I began my job there as multimedia technologist and in that role worked with faculty to support their use of multimedia in instruction. I learned a lot about analog and digital audio, video, and imaging, along with a host of other technologies those first few years. In fact, those early learning experiences have proven invaluable as technology has moved into the educational arena. The past year the focus for my job and unit within Information Technology has changed from multimedia to instructional technology focusing on online instruction/distance education.

TTT: How long have you been in your current position?

PP: As I mentioned earlier I've been at UWSP since 1995; however, since January of 2003, my job responsibilities have been split between UWSP and the Academic Co-Lab in Madison. As the Project Manager for the FIPSE Grant entitled "An Investigation of the Economic and Pedagogical Effectiveness of Sharable Content Objects, Using Standards, In Online Instruction," I've been able to expand on an area of digital instruction, learning objects, that I've been interested in for several years!! A great opportunity to explore new avenues in instruction.

TTT: What do you enjoy most about your job?

PP: Every time I work with a faculty member I get a glimpse of their world--a world that I often know little or nothing about. However, by the time we're done with whatever task we've set out to do together, I've learned something new, whether it's Pointillism and Serat or a musical theorist who turns notes upside down and inside out.

TTT: What's the most memorable thing that has happened to you at this job?

PP: My most memorable happening has become a "lesson learned." I recall having a difficult time trying to explain a concept to a faculty member and was beginning to feel that I had run out of options. What I failed to realize was that the faculty member's perspective was not my own. What this professor wanted was a specific piece of knowledge. I was providing the big picture rather than a discreet piece of information. I was listening but not "hearing" the learner. Lesson learned: everyone comes from their own unique place, which is not necessarily mine.

TTT: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

PP: My time is very limited right now as I'm finishing coursework for a Ph.D., so most free time is spent studying. However, when I do have free time, it's spent with my family and a few close friends. I have a daughter who has horses, so I horseback ride with family and friends throughout the year. In the winter, you can usually find me on the ski slopes. This summer, my husband and I have added another activity to our arsenal of things to do; we are new motorcyclists. My children think I'm entering my second childhood! As I tell them, it's even better the second time around!



Thanks, Patricia!