Peter Schilling, PhD
Current Role
Peter Schilling is the Executive Director of Innovation in Teaching and Learning at the University as well as a Graduate Faculty in Instructional Technology in the University of Maine’s College of Education and Human Development.
Education
Ph.D. English Literature, Columbia University
B.A. English, Georgetown University
Background and Interests
In his academic and administrative work he considers the ways in which new technologies, the availability of new data sets, and collaboration tools change education, educational institution as well as the perception of mastery in a field of study. He focuses on the practical application of instructional theory in colleges and universities.
Prior to coming to UMaine in 2015, Peter was the Associate Vice President for Academic Innovation at New York University. In this role he helped NYU open new universities in China and Abu Dhabi as well as develop curricula and instructional resources to facilitate global and local curricula between these universities and NYU campuses in New York, London, Florence, and Buenos Aires, among others. He taught as an adjunct faculty member in NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development.
Peter led the Information Technology Departments at Amherst College and Wagner College. He was the founding director of Bowdoin College’s Educational Technology Center and the first publisher of the College Board Online.
In 2022 Peter joined the Board of Trustees of the Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, an affiliate of UMaine.
Courses Taught
Since academic year 2016-2017, Peter has taught the following graduate courses in UMaine’s Instructional Technology program:
- Advanced Instructional Design
- Practicum in Instructional Design
Grants and Gifts
Peter has received grants and gifts as either the principal investigator or co-principal investigator from
- US Department of Education (developing adaptive biology curriculum),
- National Science Foundation (integrating community and undergraduate instruction in teaching hydrology),
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (teaching game theory),
- Henry Luce Foundation (ecological research),
- Alden Trust (technology-enhanced classrooms for science education), and
- Google (teaching with geospatial tools in global classrooms).
Selected Publications and Conference Presentations
“Carving a Role for Academic Innovation,” EDUCAUSE Review, May 2015.
“Academic Innovation,” University of Maine at Augusta 2014 Convocation.
“Video and the 21st Century Culture of Learning,” 2013 Kaltura Connect (New York).
“Exposing ED—When We Follow Data Rather than Tradition,” 2013 Chinese-American Networking Symposium (Hongzhou, China).
“Mobile and GIS Technologies for Instruction and Research,” 2012 Technology in Higher Education (Doha, Qatar).
“Technology as Epistemology,” Academic Commons, December 2005.
“Bring in the Geeks.” EDUCAUSE Quarterly. Volume 26 Number 3, July-September 2003.
“Teaching, Technology, and Effective Practices in Liberal Arts Education,” 2003 Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, Wabash College (Crawfordsville, IN).
“Changing the Box from the Inside,” 2002 FIPSE Project Directors’ Meeting (Washington, DC).
“A System Impenetrable to New Ideas? The Culture of Education and the Future of Information,” 2002 Wesleyan University, Academic Technology Roundtable (Middletown, CT).
“Adapting to Learning: Pedagogy and IT,” 2001 NERCOMP (Worcester, MA).
“The Politics of Totality in Magic Realism” (with Bruno Bosteels and Loris Mirella). Territorial Identities and Global Flows, Shapiro, Michael and Hayward Alker, Jr. eds.; University of Minnesota Press, 1996.
Contributor: Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History. Salzman, Jack and Cornel West, eds. Macmillan Publishing Co., first edition 1996 and second edition, 2006.
“`Endeavouring to grasp its entelechy’: T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets and Soren Kierkegaard.” ArachnÈ. 1995.
“Gender and Context: Magical Realism and Minorities in the First World,” 1993 International Studies Association Convention (Acapulco).
“Culture of Paradox: T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets and Soren Kierkegaard,” 1993 MLA Convention (Toronto).
