James Haselton, Assistant Professor
Physiology, Pharmacology, and Therapeutics
Director, Graduate Studies
 
“My degree is in physiological psychology, a specialty within behavioral neuroscience, or biological psychology,” said Haselton. Physiological psychologists study things such as how does learning and memory take place.
 
Haselton agrees that the high tech employed by the School has an effect—especially on students.
 
“I’ve been teaching online courses for about seven years—and in the last two, UND has ramped up online education significantly as we create a new emphasis on term-based online courses,” he said. “I just took a course through the Center for Instructional Design and Technology, where we learned a lot more about new online course design and delivery. When I first started in this profession, we delivered paper handouts into the hands of students.”
 
“Now, I avoid paper altogether. We have virtual lab experiments, and students can submit answers electronically. This has been growing over the last five years, and each year we do more of it. Last year, we started recording lectures to make sure that online students are able, at will, to get as close they can to the experience that classroom students get.”
 
The technology Haselton uses to teach his students is Blackboard and Wimba, an online “meeting room” in which you can interact with the professor and fellow students by talking, listening, drawing, and writing.
 
“You can also use video,” Haselton said. And with his array of portable electronic technology, such as the graphics tablet (also known as a digitizer), which has replaced his mouse, Haselton can write notes on a virtual “blackboard,” highlight specific areas on a slide, and otherwise enhance his presentation to make a point.
 
“This technology is very handy and students love it,” he said. “In fact, you could have stayed in your office to do this interview, and I could have stayed in mine. We could have all the audiovisual aids we needed for the interview through the computer, and I could grab stuff off my desktop to show to you.”
 
“I started using a laptop 10 years ago. Today, my desktop computer is gone, and I haven’t used my printer since the printer heads failed a year ago,” Haselton said. “No more searching for that manila file that’s buried under a dozen others. Through technology, I’ve basically killed the paper habit.
 
The smart classroom he teaches in is all electronic, including a big screen TV; the lecture hall, also electronic and wireless-enabled, has two big screens.
 
“I can use each screen for a different image, putting a picture on one and text on the other,” he said. “The intent of all this technology isn’t about playing with our gizmos—we’re much more involved in intentional exchanges of information. As an educator, I’m interested in delivering good content. Now with Blackberries and other personal devices, students can access my presentations from anywhere.”
 
A key part of the high-technology environment is “the next big thing.”
 
“Sure, technologies aren’t static. We’re always looking for the next improvement. It’s an implicit part of what we’re supposed to do in teaching, which, if you’re using the technology—and if you’re teaching an online course, you have to—is to help increase the tech literacy of the students.”