Learning to the HILT

This article is from Harvard Magazine

THE HARVARD INITIATIVE ON LEARNING AND TEACHING (HILT), unveiled in October, was inaugurated on Friday, February 3, with an all-day, invitation-only symposium principally featuring, and aimed at, faculty members, at the Northwest Building on Oxford Street. Ordinarily one hears “teaching and learning,” but this initiative deliberately inverted the order of the key words to stress the primacy of learning. HILT is the fruit of a $40 million gift from Gustave M. Hauser, J.D. ’53, and his wife Rita E. Hauser, L. ’58, who both attended the symposium and participated actively during the question periods.

It was, by Harvard’s standards, a star-studded gathering. More than 300 participants convened from all Harvard’s faculties; they were, for the most part, senior professors and deans—plus invited panelists with special expertise in the field. The day’s panels consistently operated at a high intellectual level, with audience participants asking questions that indicated long involvement with the issues under review. There were also distant participants who took part in the symposia via live streaming. Throughout the day, an array of about two dozen displays highlighted options available at museums, libraries, and teaching and learning centers in different part of the University. The registration packet even had some digital swag: a USB flash drive preloaded with a variety of teaching and learning resources at Harvard.