Readers Respond: Role of Central IT Organization in Supporting Use of IT for Teaching and Learning, and What Your Organization Is Do ing Toward That End Readers Respond Question: What do you think is the role of a central IT organization in supporting the use of information technology for teaching and learning, and what is your organization doing toward that end? Our only central IT organization is administrative computing. We work with our voice communications area to provide a campus network and connections to the outside world. To this end we have built a fiber- optic-based infrastructure, adhere to specific wiring standards, provide intelligent hubs for networks within buildings, and provide a communications hub consisting of routers, various gateways, and an e- mail distribution center. We work with the libraries to support multimedia activities with connections to networked computing labs, and general connections for the rest of the campus via the campus network. Most of our instructional and research support is as a resource to assist in departmental computing as it relates to the campus network and Internet usage, to consult in the development of LANs as needed, to assist in problem determination, and to monitor the campus network and keep it available. Jeanne Alexander Director, Administrative Computing Services University of Alabama, Birmingham ists074@uabdpo.bitnet Gonzaga University's Computing & Information Services (CIS) department actively promotes and supports the use of information technology for teaching and learning. Many of our faculty are using technology in the classroom and for class preparation. Many use e-mail to communicate with their students, while others actively use the Internet and other technologies for class communications and research projects. A variety of training programs are offered through CIS to faculty members wanting to take advantage of the available technology. The use of multimedia is also growing, and with our campus-wide fiber-optic-based network, access is not necessarily an obstacle. Gonzaga University is also actively pursuing the use of desktop video conferencing to bring instruction to remote sites. Experimentation with this technology is likely to begin this spring. John Bujosa Director, Computing & Information Services Gonzaga University (Washington) bujosa@gu.gonzaga.edu Having been in an organization which for 20+ years has provided central support for IT use in teaching and learning, the question caused some reflection on our role and the benefits provided to our customers. The primary role, I believe, is to relieve the academic departments of the technical chores of IT operation and administration, whether that is a lab LAN or central host equipment. The faculty can then concentrate on their discipline and not be diverted by the technology. Imagine if a team of hockey players also had to look after their equipment and the rink! Our organization is administratively centralized, but physically distributed. Many staff are located in academic departments, and directly receive and respond to client requests. Thus, they are more familiar with applications and how they are used, and are able to offer a timely response. The transfer of IT expertise across departments is also expedited, as most of these staff support more than one academic area. The IT staff members also benefit from regular communication with their IT department cohorts through meetings, e- mail, training sessions, etc. Career path development is assisted by belonging to an institution-wide structure rather than being isolated as one or two persons belonging to a single academic department, a benefit both to the individual and to the institution, as staff retention is probably improved. Recently we have started to explore our role with our libraries. They have an obvious role in using the technology to access information worldwide for their patrons. We can assist both parties to use Internet tools and resources, and to install and operate library resources on campus which are increasingly IT-based. Randy Barkhouse Director, Academic Computing Services Dalhousie University (Canada) barkhous@ac.dal.ca The future role of central IT offices on campus should be considered most like that of other campus utilities--telephone office, mail room, and perhaps many parts of the library: to do its job unobtrusively, and mostly stay out of the way of faculty and students. The mission should be defined largely in terms of planning and maintaining the campus electronic infrastructure. Most attempts by IT types to involve themselves in the main business of education have been unsuccessful, while unobtrusive infrastructure work like BITNET and the range of Internet resources have stimulated faculty and student creativity from here to Katmandu (literally). Roger A. Lohmann Professor, School of Social Work West Virginia University rlohman@wvnvm.bitnet In an organization such as The California State University, for reasons of size, cost, and complexity, there are several roles that a central office actualizes. The first and foremost is that of a chief negotiator on behalf of the entire organization, empowered through the consultative process to speak on behalf of several multi-campus subgroups. This provides The CSU with a powerful negotiating assertiveness for obtaining specialized services and products as well as special prices. The central organization can and does throw the entire organization at a problem or issue. Instead of looking at an issue from a single point, such as from the university library, it can look at it from several additional perspectives: a wider range of student and faculty needs, curriculum development, distance learning, training, developing infrastructure and networking, or even from its future capital outlay program. A large organization like The CSU will also look at such things as training and instruction from the systemwide perspective where the need and task take on larger, more significant proportions from both the client's and the vendor's viewpoint. In the case of one major vendor (encouraged by the central office) the entire CSU student body of over 275,000 students was seen as future clients, thus prompting the development of a "feeder project" wherein both The CSU and the vendor gained and costs were dramatically reduced. Policy also takes on a different character when it is managed from the central office on a systemwide basis. Training and instruction across the system must be more evenhanded and more in compliance with Trustee goals and in meeting systemwide strategic objectives. Thomas C. Harris, Director Library & Academic Information Services The California State University tom_harris@qmbridge.calstate.edu At the University of New Hampshire we believe the most important role of a central IT organization in supporting the use of instructional technology is to coordinate the services of consulting, training, networking, audio/visual equipment, videography, and photography. IT organizations often claim to help faculty help themselves. The ideal is that faculty develop a level of technical proficiency that allows them to be self-sufficient. In practice, however, it is not realistic to expect that many faculty will develop the skill set necessary to incorporate the complex areas that contribute to designing and creating successful instructional technology. At UNH, we are pursuing the more accessible goal of establishing and maintaining a collaborative relationship with faculty. This collaboration has two sides: faculty contribute substantive expertise and pedagogical direction to instructional technology projects, while the IT organization coordinates the people and services and lobbies for resources required to assist faculty. The merger of Media Services, Telecommunications, and University Computing was the first step in positioning our organization to meet the growing needs of faculty and others on our campus. What was gained by this merger is a complete skill set--from artistic to technical expertise--all housed in one department, Computing and Information Services. Since the merger, we have assisted faculty in designing and creating computer-generated 35mm slides, color prints, videotapes, interactive programs, and multimedia presentations. By coordinating the services in one department, we find that faculty are committing to do the work involved in developing and using information technology in their teaching. The number of projects in development is steadily growing and so far, with growing student help, our organization has been able to keep pace with the demand for our services. Terri Winters Computing and Information Services University of New Hampshire t_winters@unhh.unh.edu In the University and Community College System of Nevada, Computing Services (the centralized IT organization) has Academic Services departments located in Reno and Las Vegas. AS provides telephone and walk-in consultation for the instructional and research community (faculty, students, and staff). We also provide general-purpose UNIX platforms for communications and academic applications; teach seminars in PC, Mac, UNIX, and networking topics; maintain site licenses for desktop software (statistics, communication, and virus protection); manage a number of campus PC and Mac labs; manage an IBM AS/400 for instruction; provide equipment and expertise for the support of scientific visualization and multimedia projects; support veronica (developed here), Gopher, and other access tools for local and remote information; and publish a large variety of documentation including a guide to academic computing resources found in various departments as well as in the central organization. We strive to integrate our services and resources well with those provided by individual campus organizations. Our help desk sometimes functions as the first point of contact for assistance which is available outside of our organization. Flexibility is necessary both to keep up with the rapidly changing palette of academic computing tools and to apply our resources where they are most needed and not duplicate local support. Becky Seibert Assistant Director, Academic Services University and Community College System of Nevada seibert@nevada.edu Virginia Tech began an Instructional Development Initiative with three faculty workshops in May and June 1993. These pilot workshops were part of an overall strategy to provide faculty the opportunity to rethink their teaching and explore the potential of technology for improving the effectiveness of the teaching/learning process. During these week-long pilot workshops, time was devoted equally to curriculum development and computer software training. Software designed to support specific subject areas (e.g., Mathematica) was explored in structured exercises. In addition to discussions on curricular issues, the faculty received hands-on training in software designed to improve productivity (e.g., Clarisworks) and enhance their ability to use network resources (e.g., Gopher). As faculty learn how to leverage the use of technology in instruction, they will be supported by instructional designers, programmers, artists, and video specialists in the redesign of courses to provide new options for students. In addition to the workshops, the Instructional Development Initiative includes provisions to (1) provide participants who complete the program with state-of-the-art instructional technology (e.g., Macintosh 650) and an Ethernet connection, (2) provide improved classroom and presentation facilities to support faculty efforts in introducing new technologies into core curriculum courses, and (3) provide better student access to multimedia computers and to specialized software that is unique to disciplinary areas. Plans are under way to offer the workshops to all 1,500 faculty over a four-year cycle; to continue upgrading faculty, classroom, and lab instructional computing facilities; and to support long-range development of curriculum courses designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the teaching and learning process. Tom Head Director of Media Services, Information Systems Virginia Tech tom.head@vt.edu Gettysburg College believes the major goal of its IT organization is to support information technology in teaching and learning. The role we play is to provide the resources necessary to accomplish that goal. The IT organization has built the infrastructure which allows computing to transcend the temporal and spatial constraints of the past. We are a residential college so the need to reach off-campus or non-traditional students is of no concern. We do want the computer to be the communications tool of choice, anytime, anyplace. We have established a Center for Technology in Learning in which six faculty members participate yearly to explore the use of technology in the classroom. The results of their tenure in the Center are disseminated to the campus and in most cases we expect the projects to be used in the curriculum. Dennis R. Aebersold Associate Provost for Computing Gettysburg College aebersol@admin.gettysburg.edu At UC Berkeley the Instructional Technology Program fosters partnerships between technology experts, pedagogy experts, and discipline specialists to take advantage of new technologies. The problem is that students do not learn what they are told but instead "make sense" of new material, weighing it against past experience. Furthermore, technology often changes the nature of instruction. Integrating Computer Assisted Design into the course in graphical communication, for example, made some assignments from the original course much easier and others much more difficult. The current version of this course bears little resemblance to the course taught with drafting tables. We support partnerships with training in specialized software development environments such as Interactive Physics, Daedelus, or HyperCard with QuickTime. We help instructors from every imaginable discipline including English, foreign languages, philosophy, sociology, mathematics, engineering, and physics to take advantage of scheduled computer laboratories. Instructors supervise students while they engage in collaborative work, solve problems using visualization tools, or build a simulation for a complex phenomena. In addition, we work with consortia of departments to plan effective, coordinated use of innovative technologies throughout the curriculum. Software that students master in their first courses is reused and elaborated in subsequent courses. Marcia C. Linn Director, Instructional Technology Program Professor, School of Education University of California, Berkeley mclinn@violet.berkeley.edu