Carol Turner


Meet Carole Turner
,
Assistant Director, Learning Technology
and Distance Education (LTDE), Division of Information Technology, UW-Madison

This month, "Meet the Experts" features Carole Turner, UW-Madison's representative to the Learning Technology Development Council.

TTT: Please describe your work at UW-Madison.
CT: Faculty and staff come to us with teaching and learning goals, and we figure out how technology can possibly support those goals. As for what I did this week: As Assistant Director, I was the one who wrote up the Learning Technology and Distance Education department's operating plan (next comes budgets). I'm involved in the behind-the-scenes planning with teams who assist faculty with our new course management system. At Madison, we choose to call this service Learn@UW, which currently includes Desire2Learn with integration of course rosters, a single logon, and collaborative file sharing.

Besides DoIT, I have worked at L&S Learning Support Services and at the International Institute. At LSS, I learned about working in teams, which has helped at my current job. I remember co-developing a faculty workshop curriculum on web development with two colleagues. It took lots of time but it was worth it. I also learned to empathize with faculty who stress out about technology. I taught a workshop called "World Wide What" which pulled in faculty who were fearful of the technology (this was the mid-nineties) and I tried to make it look like fun. (It was!) At the International Institute, I learned invaluable lessons about matching up instructional goals with appropriate technologies I coordinated video conferencing courses between University of Minnesota and Wisconsin. The interactions and shared learning that took place between graduate students and instructors at both institutions was fascinating to watch. The technology was only a barrier for the first class period, and after that, it was mostly ignored.

TTT: How long have you been in your current position?
CT: I've only worked at the Division of Information Technology for approximately one and a half years. I've been on campus longer than that -- about 12 years.

TTT: What do you enjoy most about your job?
CT: I enjoy the campus atmosphere at Madison. (I came here from the Jersey shore as an undergraduate student and never really left.) It's a place where I meet fascinating faculty! I like working with various campus groups, including the UW System Learning Technology Development Council. With instructional technology, there's always something new, so I am constantly learning and re-learning. I like that …most days. I feel fortunate to be working with such expert staff -- smart, dedicated, and very hard-working.

TTT: What's the most memorable thing that has happened to you at this job?
CT: I came here thinking it was someone else's job to do strategic planning for the e-learning environment. To my surprise, it's part of my job! I also remember coming into this big organization and thinking that I'd entered a whole new world. My other memorable moment was when I arrived here, and staff asked me at the interview: "If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?"

TTT: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
CT: I enjoy living in a small town south of Madison, and I spend most of my weekends taking walks in the woods (full of white oaks), canoeing on the Sugar River, visiting with friends and family, biking the trail, relaxing on my screen porch, and laughing at my bassett hound Leo. I also have favorite spots to visit in Green County and around, usually with my daughter or husband. For vacations spots, I like Upper Peninsula, southwestern Montana, and, when I can, France and Italy.

 


Thanks, Carole!

home