Keeping up with rapidly changing technology can be taxing, but faculty in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences has found a way to try to help people master that formidable task.

Karla Embleton, director of Educational Technology for the college, is the creator of a program called “Educational Technology Brown Bag Lunches.” The program was designed to help educators stay on top of what is cutting-edge in the world of technology.

Each lunch covers a topic related to the use of technology in education and how it can be used in the classroom. “It’s what people want to hear about,” Embleton said.

Embleton teaches about half of the meetings while the rest have guest speakers. She said while the turnouts have been relatively small — about 10 people per session — it has been fairly diverse. The meetings attract old and new faculty as well as some graduate students, she said.

“We usually have about one person from each of the [FCS] departments come,” Embleton said.

Brett Horton, assistant professor in hotel, restaurant and institution management, has been to four or five of the meetings.

“The topics are new, and they’re relevant.” he said. “They’re topics that I felt were beneficial to me and could be integrated into my classes.”

Horton said the meetings are informal, and that made him feel comfortable asking questions about topics he didn’t grasp. He said he also enjoys the interaction with the other faculty.

Shirley Bauge, departmental secretary in textiles and clothing, has attended many lunches. She first went because the topic was a program used to put classes on the Web.

“I’ve picked something up from all of them,” she said.

Some future topics include two sessions that will be on Web page development and how professors can put their assignments and handouts on the Web.

For this semester, only six meetings have been scheduled. Unlike last semester when it was more of a discussion-type atmosphere, the format of the meetings will be like an informal seminar.

The next meeting is Friday from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. in Room 213 of MacKay Hall. The topic will be textbook-publishing companies online. It is not necessary to sign up in advance.

A schedule of the meetings and topics that will be covered can be found on the Family and Consumer Science’s home page, www.fcs.iastate.edu.