First Tabor faculty projects announced for Harms Scholarship funding

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN
Five Tabor College professors will each receive a Global Learning Grant made possible by the recent endowment for faculty development established by Wilmer and Esther Harms, North Newton.

Richard Kyle, professor of history and religious studies and a visiting Fulbright Scholar to Belarus during the spring 2006 semester, and Lisa Dodson, Tabor College-Wichita business administration program director, will receive a grant to fund “The Global Environment: Differences in Business and Government Practices in Belarus and the United States.”

They propose a project using Internet technologies to team TCW students enrolled in organizations and management with Kyle’s students in Belarus.

Activities may include student dialogues posted on Blackboard, a class phone conference and a virtual team projects between groups of students.

The purpose of the project is to provide experiential learning opportunities for students, which will lead to enhanced critical thinking, development of multiple perspectives, improved cross-cultural communication skills and development of global virtual team skills.

Linda Cantwell, assistant professor of communication, will connect “real world” professionals with students in their chosen fields of study in a project titled “Networking with the Know-It-Alls.”

The interaction will allow students to receive live, interactive feedback on their written press releases from newspaper editors, to receive feedback on their resume portfolios from hiring officers, and to simulate the “real world” by allowing students to compete for possible internships by an off-site interview.

The project also would allow students to incorporate projects for employers and allow supervision through technology with the possibility of the best team or individual not only winning the project contest but perhaps being offered a position upon graduation.

Lynn Jost, professor of biblical and religious studies, proposes a project exploring the technical and human resources in Shamshabad, India, for connecting MB Centenary Bible College and Tabor College.

The project, titled “India Tech,” will also explore the possibility of providing support using electronic methods if a small group of Tabor College students were sent to Shamshabad for a semester instead of only interterm.

While in India this coming January, Jost will explore the possibilities of student-to-student exchanges and faculty instruction.

Jesse Schumacher, instructor of business administration, will give faculty the opportunity to manage multimedia more effectively in order to both reach a broader audience and provide current students additional out-of-classroom, multimedia opportunities.

His project, titled “Gandalf,” will try to use captured video and audio more effectively, while using existing structures such as Blackboard, the internal network and the Internet; use live video streaming with students at the Tabor-Hillsboro campus, as well as interacting with them on their computers; and expand live video outside the local Tabor-Hillsboro network into other areas including, but not limited to, the Tabor-Wichita campus.

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