Technology@Wooster

Faculty are invited to an open house on Monday, September 3. The event will get underway at 4:00 and will take place in Taylor 205. The open house will allow faculty to meet the Instructional Technology staff, explore available equipment and services, learn about changes and developments that took place over the summer, and discuss potential projects. Refreshments will be served. We look forward to seeing you there!

The Department of Instructional Technology will conduct the following training sessions for faculty members. No registration is required. Attendees should meet the facilitator in Taylor 205 at the indicated date and time. Faculty members will shortly receive via campus mail a document containing a description of each offering. Questions should be directed to Jon Breitenbucher via email at jbreitenbuch@wooster.edu or via phone at x2207.

• Moodle (course management system)
  August 15, 11:00 a.m.
  August 16, 1:00 p.m.
  August 21, 11:00 a.m.
  August 22, 1:00 p.m.
  August 23, 1:00 p.m.
  August 28, 4:00 p.m.
  September 5, 4:00 p.m.
   
• Intro to Classroom Technology Demo Room
  August 29, 4:00 p.m.
  September 4, 4:00 p.m.
   
• Web Tools
  August 30, 4:00 p.m.
  September 19, 4:00 p.m.
   
• Working with Digital Images
  September 6, 4:00 p.m.
  September 12, 4:00 p.m.
   
• Working with Digital Audio
  September 11, 4:00 p.m.
  September 20, 4:00 p.m.
   
• Working with Digital Video
  September 13, 4:00 p.m.
  September 18, 4:00 p.m.
   

Moodle, our course management system, was recently upgraded to version 1.7. The upgrade makes a number of new features available. Chief among them is the creation of a new Teaching Assistant (TA) role. Individuals assigned this role for a given course are permitted to add assignments, start forums and post handouts to the course, but are unable to enter or view grades. In addition to the upgrade, a number of new software plug-ins have been added. These plug-ins allow the inclusion of YouTube and Google video, allow for podcast assignments, and make it possible to add graded activities to the gradebook without creating course assignments. The upgrade and the installation of the new plug-ins are responses to faculty requests for additional functionality.

The initial load of Fall semester courses and enrollments was recently completed. The courses and course enrollments in Moodle are now being updated on a nightly basis to reflect the official information stored in Colleague. Faculty should now be able to access their courses in Moodle.

Faculty who anticipate using Moodle for the first time during the upcoming semester, as well as those who would like a refresher, will be able to attend training sessions conducted by the Department of Instructional Technology. These sessions are tentatively slated for August 15, 16, 21, 22 and 23. Official dates and times will be distributed shortly.

Questions related to Moodle should be addressed to Jon Breitenbucher via email at jbreitenbuch@wooster.edu or via phone at x2207.

Back in March, IT announced that the DVD/VCR combo units in all Kauke classrooms would be replaced. Ten units were replaced during spring break. (Those in rooms 141, 142, 143, 236, 237, 238, 242, 243, 244 and 305.) The remaining units have now been replaced. The new units are capable of playing DVD regions one through six, and video cassettes in PAL, NTSC and SECAM formats. The original units supported a much more limited range of regions and formats. This replacement does not impact the way in which users interact with or control the devices.

Should you encounter a problem with any of these devices or with any technological equipment in any classroom please contact the help desk. The number is posted in each classroom. If the help desk worker is unable to resolve the problem over the phone, he or she will dispatch an appropriate technician.

This summer, a number of important responsibilities shifted from Instructional Technology to Networks, Telecommunications and Systems (NTS). These responsibilities include the installation and maintenance of projectors, smartboards, projection screens, speakers, DVD players and similar devices in classrooms and presentation spaces. They also include providing media support for College events. To facilitate these changes, Media Technology Manager Anthony Liccardi has joined NTS and now reports to NTS Director Vince Di Scipio.

These changes will allow us to leverage the NTS group’s considerable experience in equipment installation and support. This will be particularly useful as IT looks to pay increased attention to campus classrooms, meeting rooms and presentation spaces. These changes are also intended to free Instructional Technology of these responsibilities, so that that department can focus more attention on learning space design, the evaluation of new technologies and their pedagogical implications, the provision of new services to faculty and to students, and the provision of more direct support for faculty in the effective use of technology in teaching and learning.

The Office of Information Technology is grateful to Vince and to Anthony for their roles in this transition and is confident that these changes will ultimately enhance the quality of IT services.

When the 07-08 academic year gets underway, a new pool of equipment will be available for student check out. The pool will include:

• 6 digital video cameras
• 6 tripods
• 4 digital still cameras
• 3 digital audio recorders
• 2 lapel microphones
• 2 shotgun microphones

This new equipment is made possible by a successful Hewlett-Mellon grant authored by Janet Russell, Megan Werely, Anthony Liccardi and Jon Breitenbucher. The grant proposal noted that academic departments are “beginning to expand the definition of ‘text’ as they require students to produce films, blogs, web sites, and podcasts in order to demonstrate their learning.” This equipment is intended to facilitate the completion of these assignments, and to afford students greater opportunity to explore new digital media.

This equipment will be available for check out between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday at the new IT student help desk in Andrews Library. (Located just behind the circulation desk.) Use of this equipment is limited to academic assignments and projects. Requests for student use must come from the student’s instructor or I.S. advisor and should be made via email to IT_Loaner_Equipment@wooster.edu. Further information will be available in the Computing Resources section of the IT web site.

Congratulations and thanks to the grant authors!

In an effort to improve visibility and provide efficient and helpful service, IT has moved the student help desk from Taylor 205 to Andrews Library. It is now located just behind the circulation desk. Our student consultants are trained to solve a variety of problems involving the hardware and software that we support. In addition to telephone support, these students are available in Andrews Library to provide walk-in assistance for virus, spyware, email, wireless, and printing issues. If the student consultants are unable to solve the problem, it is immediately escalated to the appropriate IT department. Network issues are submitted as work orders to the Department of Networks, Telecommunications, and Systems. Other issues will be addressed with the appropriate staff and the user will be contacted with a solution.

Over time, we expect to expand the number of services offered by the student help desk. The loaner laptops and projectors available to faculty and staff will now be circulated from the student help desk. (Visit the Computing Resources area of the IT website for further details.) Shortly, the help desk will begin circulating still cameras, video cameras, tripods, digital recorders and microphones for student academic use. Further announcements will be made here on the blog.

Student technicians will continue to be available in Taylor 205, to provide support for the Windows and Macintosh computers and the scanners located in this lab. These student technicians also support the poster printer and provide assistance with the multimedia services provided by the Instructional Technology Department.

Back in April of this year, IT announced the designation of Taylor 210 as a classroom technology demo room. The demo room is intended to provide faculty members and instructional technologists with opportunities to experiment with and to evaluate classroom technologies in a classroom setting. The technologies installed in the demo room will change on a regular basis. The experimentation and evaluation that is conducted here will help the College to determine which technologies are effective in our learning environments, and consequently, which should be deployed in our classrooms.

IT recently installed a model 600i SMARTboard in the demo room. The SMARTboard joins the sympodium already located there. Plans call for the future installation of a ceiling mounted document camera and an audio capture system.

Further information on the demo classroom will be available at the beginning of the new academic year.

Instructional Technology Intern Joe Benfield demonstrates the new SMARTboard.

The Department of Instructional Technology has adopted a proactive classroom maintenance program. Technology-enhanced classrooms are now visited on a weekly basis. During these visits, our technician ensures that the screen and data projector are operating correctly, verifies that the projector is properly focused, checks the quality of sound being produced by the equipment, and cleans the computer and audio/video units. The technician also cleans any overhead projectors that are present and verifies their operation. After visiting all the classrooms in a particular building, the technician emails that building’s administrative coordinators to report on the status of the classroom technology and any repairs or corrections that were undertaken. This initiative complements a similar program for the computer labs. We hope that these efforts will uncover problems before they impact learning activities in campus classrooms.

To report a problem with classroom technology please call x2204. If the problem is an emergency, please call Anthony Liccardi, Media Technology Manager, at 330 201-6165.

The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE) and Project Kaleidoscope recently conducted a workshop on Learning Spaces & Technology on the campus of the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. Iain Crawford (VPAA), Simon Gray (Associate Professor of Computer Science), Damon Hickey (Director of the Libraries), Janet Russell (Director of Instructional Technology) and David Waldron (CITO) comprised the Wooster team attending the event. The workshop was designed to help colleges and universities plan effective technology-enhanced learning spaces. These spaces include libraries, classrooms, and computing or multi-media labs.

The Wooster participants discussed how students might best be prepared for life, work, citizenship and leadership in our digital age and the knowledge democracy that is emerging, and how the College libraries, learning support services and the learning spaces across campus might be reimagined to enhance student outcomes. All the Wooster attendees are members of the Wooster’s taskforce on the future of the libraries. The group took advantage of the workshop to further the ongoing converstation about the development of a knowledge commons within Andrews Library. Janet Russell and David Waldron also updated the group on the creation of the instructional technology demo classroom in Taylor Hall and the renovation of Wishart 102 as a prototype technology-enhanced classroom. The group discussed the importance of collaboration and coordination between Information Technology, Instructional Technology and academic offices to ensure that technological operations, facilities and initiatives are aligned with learning goals and outcomes. The workshop attendees have scheduled a follow-up meeting to review the workshop and plan future activities.

David Waldron, Simon Gray, Iain Crawford, Janet Russell and Damon Hickey
during a break at the Learning Spaces workshop.