Newly-hired lecturer Craig Erpelding said that being a good educator is like creating a good film. A good film engages with audience members and makes them excited and want to pull forward.
Erpelding will teach classes in cinematography, video editing and short film and said he is excited to help supplement various aspects of filmmaking as students prepare to go into the real world.
“You want to create an environment where you can be collaborative,” Erpelding said. “We’re working together towards a goal, which is knowledge. We’re going on this journey, and I already know a lot about this stuff, but we’re going to go even further together.”
As of this fall, IU has welcomed 274 new full-time faculty members.
Lantao Liu, an assistant professor of intelligent systems engineering, said he was excited to be a part of something new.
“Here we have really, really good attractive resources,” Liu said. “It’s very rare to have that much large space for robotic research.”
Liu will teach a special-topics graduate-level course in autonomous robotics.
The new Media School is what brought assistant professor of journalism Danielle Kilgo to IU-Bloomington.
“The new school has a really innovative approach to communication as a whole,” Kilgo said. “And with the merge of the Media School, they have put many brilliant minds under one roof. It was a no-brainer that this is a place where you could come teach and be a part of a profound scholarly community and teach students that are interested in going beyond the standard communication ways.”
Kilgo came from the University of Texas at Austin to teach visual communication and graphic design at the Media School. The school was established in 2014 and moved to its new location in Franklin Hall in 2016.
“Right now, we’re using cutting-edge technology that’s available here at the Media School,” Kilgo said. “The school is really fortunate to be able to give beginner students cameras that as a professional, I didn’t even have.”
IU has continually been moving forward in innovation. Liu said he plans to give his students hands-on projects in which they will implement robotic techniques on robots.
“Students can do the work on the real robots,” Liu said. “I will also provide the flying drone. Students will be able to work on that if they like.”
Kilgo said it is important to connect with students in a way that enhances their lives.
“I hope that I can inspire my students not necessarily to be a photographer but to see images as important spaces and to analyze them critically as they go through life," Kilgo said. "We are in an increasingly visual community.”
Liu said being inspiring is very important for him as an educator.
“Life is long,” Liu said. “The time spent on this campus is short, and after graduation, students will go to their jobs and will face different, new problems. I want to train them to discover new problems and find ways to solve them.”
