Committee on
Education Technology
Minutes
September 20, 1999
Present: Jane Atkinson (guest),
Harry Schleef, Gernot Blume, Jens Mache, Bret Ingerman,
Kelly Wainwright.
Absent: Glendi Gaddis, Aaron Green
Recorder: Linda Noble
- Election of Committee
Chair:
Harry Schleef was elected chair of the committee for this
year.
- Report/Discussion of
Information Retrieval-Jane Atkinson:
College of Arts and Science will form two task forces.
One will examine writing and speaking, and the other will
examine information retrieval. The college would like to
see all students have certain proficiencies in these
areas at completion of college. Jane thought the
Education Technology Committee should have representation
on the information retrieval task force. She said she
would like to get some thoughts from members on the Ed
Tech about this. Harry thought it would be a good idea to
have representation rather than devote the topic to our
focus this year as a committee. Jane said there is a
faculty development component. Faculty have to be up to
speed. Departments need to think about what are the goals
for their majors. How do they teach writing and speaking?
The task force may want to meet with department chairs to
find out what courses require which skills. IT classes
are just the mechanics. Bret said that Inventing America
often has a yearly assignment with basic skills that a
great majority of freshmen have already mastered. Maybe
they need to move on to more advanced assignments. Harry
expressed concern that there is a danger in imposing this
into existing courses without making instructors feel
really stretched. Maybe this could be incorporated into
the honors thesis. Jane said she would like to know from
the faculty what they hope their students will accomplish
by senior year. Harry said maybe the task force should
work backwards from that point. It was decided we need a
delegate from our committee who can report back to our
meetings. Jane said the task force would have a deadline
to issue a report. Gernot will be on the information
retrieval task force.
- IT Report:
A) Instructional Media Services Director Position:
Bret reported the media services director position is
open again. Ads have gone out in The Oregonian and The
Chronicle of Higher Education. The position will remain
open until filled. Bret would like to set interviews
before Thanksgiving, if possible. There is a person who
knew Don was leaving and approached Bret about the
position. Bret is looking in to the possibility of hiring
this person as an interim manager until a director is
hired. He stressed that hiring this person as an interim
manager would give the person no advantage in the search
for a director. It would be helpful for media services to
have someone to share in the workload. Gernot agreed that
it would help since we will have no one hired for this
semester. Harry added that we want to avoid a diminished
level of service. The search committee will be set up
similar to last year. Ed Tech will make a recommendation.
Though IT is a common service to the college, Media
Services is under CAS for business purposes. Many bigger
evening events need a high level of service and need to
be contracted out. Media Services can spend more time
with instructional support of a classroom nature. There
is no full time night help, so only simple things such as
microphones and speakers are available. Besides the
director there are three full time employees and students
totaling 2 full time employees.
B) Information Technology Advisory Council:
Bret wants to form a council to determine what IT does
and offers. This group would discuss the broader
perspective in technology. Ed Tech should have a
representative on this committee. Others on the council
would represent the faculty divisions, students and
common services. They would provide Bret with information
on what they would like to see. It was decided that Jens
will sit on the IT advisory council.
C) Instructional Software Fund:
Kelly reminded us that last year we had two proposal
cycles. One was in October and the other was at the
beginning of spring term. We had discussion last year
about doing the cycle towards the end of the year so
faculty would receive their software over the summer.
Unfortunately this didn't happen this year. Each year we
have about $5000 for software requests. We have not asked
for feedback from recipients but they were asked to
participate in the faculty showcase last spring. On
software that requires annual licensing the department
must pay the costs. Harry recommended we solicit this
fall. Gernot thought the process worked well last year.
If there are leftover funds we will offer it again in the
spring. An October 15 deadline was set. Kelly said she
would send an email to faculty.
D) Statistical Software Discussion Group:
As far as a discussion group on statistical software
Kelly wondered what type of role Ed Tech wanted to play
and if anyone knew of any faculty that would be
interested in this discussion. Harry said that he didn't
think this was an issue for the Ed Tech committee. Gernot
was in agreement. Kelly asked the committee to ask
colleagues who would be interested in this area so a
final decision can be made.
- Agenda Items for
1999-2000:
A) State of Technology at LC:
We will discuss this topic next time.
B) Technology goals for CAS:
We will see where we are at with our technology
goals.
C) Technology Strategy
By the end of the academic year Harry said he would like
to see an ongoing strategy for technology. Bret said IT
doesn't have a strategic plan because he doesn't believe
they work. Technology is changing so rapidly that it is
impossible to try and figure out where we need to be in
five years. There are lots of changes ahead and we need
to target them. Gernot said it is good to have plans, but
we need to be flexible. Harry said the main focus of this
committee is the academic aspect.
We will meet next time on October 4 at 3:30 and try to
conclude the meeting at 4:30.
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