Tech navigation with Crystal Bundrage

New technology can be a fickle genie. If it’s under your command, it can make your life easier. If it’s not, it can make you crazy. That is, unless you have a colleague who can tell you the magic words. A colleague like Crystal Bundrage.

Bundrage recently stepped in as New College’s director of Educational Technology Services (ETS)—a unit within the Jane Bancroft Cook Library that works collaboratively with faculty, other campus units and the Office of Information Technology. ETS plays a leading role in working with faculty and students on identifying, evaluating, selecting and implementing learning technologies.

Helping New College faculty and students master the power of technology comes naturally to Brundage. But it wasn’t her first career choice.

From 2008 to 2013, Bundrage was a sixth-grade math teacher in Bradenton. She loved teaching the secrets of math to kids. In the process, she found herself teaching the secrets of the digital era to her peers.

She quickly became a “Human Google” to her fellow teachers and their stream of questions. How did you build that website? How’d you share that video? What’s the deal with PowerPoint? Can you show me? Some tech-savvy teachers might have been irritated by these free tutorials. Bundrage wasn’t. She didn’t see them as constant interruptions. Far from it.

“I loved helping my colleagues,” Bundrage said. “I was also surprised to discover I could do this for a living. That led me back into higher education.”

So she earned a graduate degree in Instructional Design and Technology at Georgia State University (GSU). Soon after, Bundrage accepted the position of instructional technologist at Shorter University in Georgia, where she helped faculty implement new technologies to increase student engagement. After that, she worked at the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Online Education at GSU. As a learning system administrator, she researched, implemented and evaluated learning technologies. And she collaborated with faculty to increase interest and involvement in technology-enhanced teaching and learning practices.

That meant more than mastering software and devices. New technology always creates new methodology, and the web had empowered a range of “remote learning” models. These included the “Flip-Class” paradigm and blended synchronous learning, which is Bundrage’s concentration of study these days as a Ph.D. student in the Instructional Technology program at GSU. Thanks to these models, revolutionary change was on the horizon.

Have you ever turned your personal computer into a portable classroom? Enjoyed the freedom to teach or learn anywhere at any time? You will. Futurists have been making this prophecy since Steve Jobs put on his first turtleneck. The revolution stayed on the horizon. Remote learning was an option, nothing more.

And then came the pandemic. By necessity, it brought remote learning off the horizon and into the forefront, turning the initial model from a utopian vision to a practical adaptation. COVID-19 had exiled education from the classroom; remote learning could keep it going in exile.

Bundrage is uniquely qualified to teach the technology that makes remote learning possible. And New College gives her powerful tools. The technological armory includes Kaltura, a collaborative video platform, and the Canvas learning management system. In her new position, Bundrage helps faculty and students master these and other technologies—from creating videos of lectures to managing digital portfolios.

“I’m here to serve as a resource for all questions and needs about the digital world and how to implement technology,” she said.

While Bundrage is eager for the pandemic to subside, she doesn’t think remote learning and other innovations will go with it.

“I don’t think these adaptations will go away completely,” she said. “We’re still figuring out which model, or combination of models, works best. Blended synchronous learning is definitely the new standard right now. Remote learning frees up time in the classroom for other activities. That’s great. Can a student’s remote experience be just as engaging as a classroom experience? That’s still up for debate—and it’s one thing I want to investigate. This is a very exciting time.”

For more information on ETS, visit ncf.edu/academics/academic-support-services/academic-resource-center/educational-technology-services.

Su Byron is the communications specialist for the New College Foundation.