The Center For Innovative Teaching and Learning began as the Multimedia Center in McConnell Library in spring 1999. The first facility of its kind on campus, it was staffed with experts in art, design, education, video, photography, audio and web and animation, and featured an open teaching lab containing stations for working in the various application areas in both consultation and workshop settings. The Multimedia Center became a sort of campus community hub for creative education work with students regularly filling the lab to work on both class and personal projects, and faculty took advantage of the staff's expertise to deliver workshop instruction relevant to a given field of study. Within a few years of opening, work study positions were added to the staff roster. Highlights of these early years include the founding of the Multimedia Festival (later becoming the Highlander Film Festival, then the Spring Film Challenge); The Aspire Lecture Series; interactive media projects with numerous faculty (including Dr. Parvinder Sethi of Geology and Dr. Bruce Mahin of Music); the Prison Paradise documentary filmed on location in Venezuela (with Drs. Joe Flickinger and Michael Jackson of Communications); and, countless consultations and workshops delivered to bring the power of new media development to programs across campus. For the first time, the ability to create custom audio, video. web sites, animated content and graphic media became a reality for faculty, staff and students.
Relationships continued to be built with faculty, staff, students and departments across campus, and in 2004 the Multimedia Center was re-named the Technology In Learning Center and moved into the College of Information, Science and Technology. While the overall mission remained the same, the TLC's activities evolved during this time into a more faculty-based mission, along with a more education-centric staff expertise. During this time, the department also added undergraduate and graduate internships. Highlights from this period include the TLC's acceptance in the New Media Consortium; the TLC Educational Technology Podcast; Web Of Mind Experiential Wiki For the Rediscovery of Lost Texts; Highlander Film Festival; numerous conference presentations around the country given by TLC faculty; Opus X Digital Music Library collaboration Dr. David Zuschin and the Department of Music; ITEC 100 online; iPod Quiz Apps; and, the DNCE 111 Appreciation Online collaboration with Professor Danah Bella.
In 2009, the TLC was renamed Center For Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL), and became an independent Academic Affairs department. In addition to the original mission, one of the biggest changes during this shift was the addition of the Office of Faculty Development to the CITL family. In the time since, our mission has continued to evolve, as has our activities and relationships across campus and in the community at large. Peruse the menu to the left to learn about our staff, training series, inititatives, annual events and other activities.