Centre College is partnering with Connected Nation and 10/20 Digital to launch a partnership that will explore novel and practical ways to use technology in the liberal arts college setting.
Called the Global Center for Connected Campuses, or GC3 for short, the collaboration will foster Centre’s endeavor to become a key player on the national stage using leading practices in regard to technology assimilation for effective teaching and learning.
GC3 will begin its efforts with a unique student event happening on campuses and in classrooms across the country as part of the vice-presidential debate Oct. 11 at Centre. GC3 will demonstrate how communications technology and social media can be used to excite and engage students and to expand access to high quality educational content to people and places it may not reach otherwise.
“This partnership represents a broader initiative at Centre College to embrace technology,” said President John A. Roush. “More important, it provides the opportunity to imagine and then engage ways for technology to complement the very personal education offered at a college like Centre, where we prize the art of teaching.”
Centre is hosting its second vice-presidential debate. The smallest college or university to ever host a general election debate, Centre’s success hosting the 2000 debate between Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman was hailed “as close to flawless as humanly possible” by the Associated Press. This year’s debate will engage K-12 and post-secondary students from Kentucky and other states in technology-enabled debate focused activities, including:
- The creation of a debate-centered curriculum that can help guide classrooms in civics education lessons. These educational activities will prepare classrooms, teachers, and students to participate in live debate-day events, as well as other GC3-oriented debate opportunities, such as the GC3 debate webpage resources. These activities, along with a live debate-day event, also will assist GC3’s mission to highlight how technology can connect students, teachers, classrooms and campuses to enhance and improve learning.
- GC3 plans a student-populated round table discussion on the afternoon before the debate takes place. This event will include students drawn from high schools, colleges and universities participating live and online. “The GC3 partnership will impact the way technology is used in education across the nation, starting with these vice-presidential debate activities,” said 10/20 Digital CEO and Connected Nation founder Brian Mefford. “Centre has become known as an institution that routinely ‘punches above its weight’ and we’re confident that this partnership will follow that pattern by fostering novel and practical uses of education technology that benefit teachers and learners for years to come.” GC3 will explore innovative, technology-driven ways to enhance education for students across the nation. 10/20 Digital, an independent broadband consulting firm and affiliate of national non-profit Connected Nation, will lead the further development of GC3 by:
- Hosting the Connected Campus Summit on the Centre College campus, which will provide a forum for national educational leaders and administrators to learn and explore leading practices with regard to technology use for effective higher education.
- Establishing a technology laboratory at Centre that will become the operational home of GC3 and where the education community can explore new technologies and applications, providing ample opportunities for technology partners to participate.
