ࡱ>    !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~Root Entry F8_aWordDocument CompObjn works from "Classic" texts. Electronic texts are searchable, editable and, because they are text rather than pictures, they are easy to read and fast to print. Having The Prince in text form allows one to find every mention of Cesar Borgia in two minutes and spend the rest of the afternoon developing an intellectual point. I do not know how much harder it would be (or if it would be legal) to scan reserve readings as text, but I think it is worth looking into.
 When problems sets are not graded, but are assigned and uncollected, posting their answers on the web site is a wonderful thing. It encourages students to check their answers immediately rather then waiting until they can see the TA, and since there is no reason to print them out, saves paper. Even if the assignment is due and graded, posting the answers after the problems are handed in allows immediate feedback, and if they stay up, they're a good review resource.
 Some professors publish class notes or class outlines, so that students can focus on listening in class. These can be quite useful, but I understand choosing not to use them.
I've never seen a class comment board or list serve work as effectively as a class discussion, perhaps because students are even more self-conscious about how they appear when they can see what they're typing then they are when they're speaking
 Archaeology does much with slides. They post photographs of important objects on the web site and students memorize what, who, when, where etc. It saves the professors from being limited by the textbook illustrations and is far better than hunching over library slides or attempting to memorize written notes. However, the web page design is not oriented towards self-quizzing, for one has to click on the name and details to bring up the picture.
 Technology can help students to communicate with a professor and be incorporated directly into in-class teaching. E-mail can be a fantastic tool, but it is also subject to abuse. I had a professor who had her students e-mail response papers to her the day before class. She was then able to read them and be prepared to address issues we were interested in during class. Multiple mass e-mails a day, failure to check e-mail regularly, ignoring e-mail when there is a paper due, and changing assignments at the last minute are all abuses that people I spoke with have mentioned. In making assignments and announcements professors seem to forget that many students don't have computers, which means that last minute information won't necessarily get to them and e-mails are either printed out or deleted, meaning that information not immediately valuable may be lost.
 Power point is also subject to abuse. Professors have a tendency to get involved in having things scrolled out and simply read what appears, destroying lecture flexibility and creating an extremely boring session of professor-reading-what-students -can-see-to-class. However, showing maps, diagrams, charts, change over time, accessing on-line information, using a spreadsheet to do calculations, or video equipment are all interesting and effective uses of classrooms with screens and computers. However, many professors have a difficult time using the projectors to play videos. Whatever sort of training is in place does not seem to be effective.
 I find that I tend to learn to use technology when I need it. Thus I did not remember my "how to use the library tour" when I needed it. The tour was part of the first week of orientation, when many other things were of far greater concern and I had no idea which of these resources I would need to use. I have learned to use the resources I do by tinkering and asking specific questions when I needed specific things. However, I tend to start research during non-traditional working hours, which means I am working with students who do not have a professional librarian's knowledge base. The times when I have asked a professional librarian for help, I have been gratified by how much they know and how easily aܥe# g`,l,l  ](T#B8]Times New Roman Symbol ArialTimes New RomanTimes New Roman Needs Analyses for the 2000 session Student Response, Bryn Mawr College

 I am working from my experience as a student, which tends to emphasize student-professor interaction and practical experience over theory. Additionally, as a student, I am not used to collaborating per se. Instead, I am usually encouraged to give feedback about what's working and what doesn't and to develop ideas about what would work better, not to participate directly in making changes. That advisory position is the way much of the following is phrased, but I am eager to make a transition to collaboration.
 I am a sophomore double major in history and economics. The vast majority of my course assignments are papers (from 15-pager research papers to single-page responses, rough outlines to re-re-revisions). To write a paper, I need a thoughtful assignment, resources to gather information and ideas, communication with the professor if I have problems and, of course, time. I am also assigned problem sets, memorization, and occasional oral presentations. I have an average of fifty pages of reading per class, a little more for history, a little less for economics, attend lectures and take tests. I think I would split my needs into four areas: basic information, help accessing and using texts, help thinking and learning, and help understanding how to use tools efficiently.
 In thinking about the above questions I have talked with about a dozen other students, focusing on sophomores interested in the social sciences. Almost every student I have spoken too has mentioned a desire to have a permanent source of basic class information. Class web pages with the syllabus, assignments, and office hours are useful. Even the most organized student can loose notes or not have them immediately available. Most classes change their plans around at least once during the semester and a dynamic syllabus is preferable to an additional piece of paper, which at least one student will never receive. Online syllabi also grant the professor a more flexible class structure. I have had several professors who dealt with their uncertainty about scheduling by outlining the syllabus without any dates, saying they would keep us updated as the semester progressed. They did not, and I was always unsure what the assigned readings for any given class were. An online syllabus, provided it is updated, solves this easily, granting the professor flexibility and the student confidence about expectations. Online assignments are a further protection against disastrous misplacements. They can be developed as they were not in class and they can encourage a professor who tends to give assignments vaguely and orally to standardize the request.
 The second area we are interested in is help manipulating texts. Bryn Mawr has been experimenting with scanning reserve readings and posting them online. I have been told that they help with copyright issues, and, taking a class at Haverford, I've been grateful that I didn't have to go there to complete my readings. They protect against loss, and, if one prints them out at the computer center, one can avoid spending twenty to thirty dollars on a bound course pack or making the copies oneself. They can be fuzzy, the scanner sometimes misidentifies words, and printing them out can take 15 minutes for 10 pages. In general, the higher quality of the images and convenience of having all the readings bound in one place with a table of contents means that a course pack is still more appealing to me than online reserve readings, but I prefer the online readings to a single edition to be read or copied in the library. I would like to see more emphasis on electronic text. I used Project Gutenberg a great deal in high school and still use it when a classnd eagerly they help me. The librarians here are great, I just need to get into the habit of asking so that I can be pointed in the direction of specialized resources like Diabola or Pools Index that I would never find on my own. The library's web page is very helpful in introducing some of the resources that are available. Its emphasis on textual instruction, so that students can teach themselves when they need it is helpful.
 Many professors use their classes to teach computer skills in passing. Learning to use a spreadsheet, for example makes sense in context when one is manipulating large sets of data. Some professors have students work with web pages: part of the assignment will be to post one's work on the web. Students I've spoken with are divided about the web pages: some like learning the skill and seeing their work "published" others would rather spend their time on the topic at hand since web design doesn't interest them and does not directly address the topic (Chinese Film, for example).
 I have concerns about the computing center. The professionals I have dealt with have been helpful and knowledgeable. The student employees know very little and seem to be in no position to learn more. Troubleshooting is an extremely valuable skill that can only be learned through experience. Through student ops, the college has an opportunity to teach that is not being taken advantage of. Although many student employees are "doing their time", most students sign up to be computer ops because they are interested in learning more about computers. Instead, computer ops spend most of their time asking to see IDs and handing out passwords. Even "specially trained" ops can only work within a small sphere and do not have the theory behind what they are doing, so they are very limited in what they can take away from the experience.

Nancy Strippel
Bryn Mawr College
nstrippe@brynmawr.edu

Faculty Response, Bryn Mawr College

1) What are pedagogical approaches you use in social science classes?

Lecture to convey the use of a tool or technique
Lecture to synthesize material
Lecture to convey material not in the reading
Team or small group problem solving
General class discussion
Student presentations
In class writing to focus thinking
Email-based discussion lists focusing on class material or current events
Short student papers applying theory to current policy problems
Faculty comments or a peer review as basis for revision of student papers
Research exercises comprising parts of a research paper under controlled conditions
Short-answer problem sets
Literature reviews or article summaries
Senior research paper (thesis)
Service learning or internship journal writing

2) Kinds of resources you encounter and need for class

Easy access to current periodicals
Statistical data in a form easily manipulated by students
Ready access to information of successful approaches used by colleagues
Tools to manipulate, display, and integrate data with text in papers, for classroom presentations, and for sharing with others in the class.
Easy access to professional journal articles and working papers
The ability to share student writing in a timely manner
Access to writing and quantitative support services for students
Access to style guides and assistance for students in citing and evaluating resources encountered in the Internet.
Ways of giving students frequent feedback on their progress that does not overwhelm the rest of my life
Help for thesis students in tracking down data

3) What roles and responsibilities do you currently assume regarding the use and instruction of technology?

Create class Web pages
Create or adapt handouts for the use of statistical software (Excel and RATS).
Create assignments for students to use statistical software.
Help students with computer related problems
Create class email lists.
Duplicate and submit material for electronic reserves.

4) What goals do you have for collaboration in this area?

Figure out the most effective way to split instruction/support for the use of software among me, library, and IT personnel
Figure out how much of the workload I now carry that I can shift to others with a comparative advantage in these things
Find easy ways for library and IT personnel to keep me apprised of new resources
Removing obstacles to getting things scanned, stored, and distributed
Find ways to encourage students to take more responsibility for their learning

5) What resources are you considering devoting to its future development?
Participating in campus debates about the allocation of resources to academic support
Tracking down Web sites of faculty teaching in areas that overlap with mine Attending (or convincing colleagues to attend) conference/workshops on pedagogy in my field.

David R. Ross, Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Economics
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
dross@brynmawr.edu

Librarian Response, Bryn Mawr College

Questions for Librarians:
What specific resources in the social sciences do you think would best contribute to or support student learning in the classroom? For each full-text database, index or other web-based information source, explain briefly how it could help expand the students' critical information gathering skills.
 The Library Web Site, with its resources organized for specific disciplines is one of the most valuable, yet under-used resources for support of student classroom learning. It suggests databases chosen particularly for their usefulness in terms of authority, relevance, and timeliness. By avoiding generic web search engines, and massive metasites, both of which often lead to ephemeral, inaccurate, tangential search results, the Library's web pages can greatly improve research efficiency and reduce wasted time.
 By pointing them to peer-reviewed, academic articles and publications, databases provided through the Library Website helps train students to recognize high-quality writing in their research topic. PsycInfo, the primary index to articles in psychology and related subjects, can serve as an example. Highly specific indexing generated by field experts, combined with an online thesaurus, expose students to the vocabulary and organization of the literature(s) relevant to this discipline.
 What roles and responsibilities do librarians on your campus currently assume regarding the instruction in the use of electronic information sources in support of student and faculty research?
 Librarians tend to assume typical and traditional roles. They are called upon occasionally by select faculty to give brief (c. 50 minute) instruction in relevant resources. Professor/course-specific instruction sessions may occur during or outside class time; usually tied to specific assignments. Instructor may or may not be present.
 They also provide instruction as part of reference desk assistance, often needing an extensive reference interview to clarify a student's confusion or uncertainty about the assignment. Typically, a student may state she is required to "use the web" in fulfilling an assignment, but is unclear how that's supposed to happen.
 In some rarer circumstances, librarians may be involved more deeply in pedagogy. They may work with faculty behind the scenes do devise assignments or contribute to overall course design. I have on occasion discussed with instructors challenges in teaching in the new web environment, where information literacy skills are more severly tested than ever before.
 What goals do you have for collaboration with faculty, students, and information technologists in the field of electronic information?
 Better coordination, better communication, so that I can better know what is needed from me and how well my efforts are succeding.

Mark Colvson
mcolvso@brynmawr.edu
Bryn Mawr College Library
 

IT Response, Bryn Mawr College

Questions for Librarians:
What technologies could enhance student and faculty research/teaching/learning? Include a brief description of the technology and a brief explanation of its potential usefulness.
 The networked environment provides a world of opportunities for student and faculty research/teaching/learning. Local networks and the Internet allow teachers and learners to communicate with each other and with people with similar interests around the world. Course web sites, either home-grown or in a "course management system" context, provide a central focus for access to information resources, communications (threaded discussions, synchronous chat, announcements, etc.), sharing of student work, interactive exercises, grade tracking, and more.
 I'm curious about various hardware technologies, such as white boards that display the computer's projected image and also allow writing and mouse-clicking. I've just seen them demoed at conferences and wonder if they'd be useful in a small classroom setting.
 What roles and responsibilities do you currently assume regarding the use and instruction of technology?
 I work with faculty in small groups and one-on-one in training them to use scanners and create PowerPoint and web content. I also train faculty in the use of "smart classroom" presentation equipment. I visit classes and demonstrate statistical software and library resources to students. I'm available for "house calls" to faculty offices for training in regular desktop applications and basic operating system help. Whatever your technology need, I'll try to help or will find someone who can.

What goals do you have for collaboration in this area?
 We're trying to bring together teams of librarians, instructional technologists, and computing services staff to have specific liasionship roles with academic and administrative departments on campus. I hope that these collaborations will be fruitful, and that our end users will have a better sense of who has particular expertise and interest in their area.
 What resources are you considering devoting to its future development?
 This is a campus-wide initiative, and I will do whatever I can to cooperate and help.

Susan Turkel
Instructional Technology Coordinator for the Social Sciences
Bryn Mawr College

Student Response, Haverford College

Questions for Students:
 What are your learning and research needs as defined by course assignments? Map out the range and variation, including both the content and the kinds of resources you encounter and need.

Classroom:

1) Judicious use of multimedia in the classroom can be very helpful, but the emphasis is on judicious. Some professors never use any, while others lecture only from Powerpoint slides.

Assignments:

1) Providing electronic versions of photocopied texts on the Internet, such that readings can be easily accessed through computer terminals instead of having to share limited physical reserved copies with other students.
2) Recording selected lectures and having these lectures accessible through streaming media.
3) Providing class syllabi and assignments on the Internet, such that a centralized resource is available.

Research:

1) Having a simple starting research wizard in the library webpage that allows students to frame a general research area or topic, and where the wizard can suggest different databases and library areas in which to search.
2) Knowing the availability of tools to conduct surveys, studies and even experiments on the Internet. Having a workshop where students can make good use of the resources available to them so they can conduct research themselves with a large sample.

Other:

1) Having anonymous feedback message boards for each class so that opinions about the class can be voiced throughout the semester, such that professors can have a better grasp of how students are handling course material.
2) For departments to have more attractive and more frequently updated webpages.
3) For ACC to get keyed licenses to a broader range of software that students can learn to use. Including software for web development and for information managing (such as programs that allow data to be recorded in a branching tree form).

What goals do you have for collaboration in this area?

1) Actual implementation of some of the above so that faculty can see it actually happening, and more importantly working.
2) The thrust of this has to come from the students, because the technology is easier for us to grapple with than for faculty. Acquisition and workshops on various exciting software programs such as Photoshop or Flash will promote student interest. Perhaps a student club that fosters interest in web development should be started and funded through student council and the Mellon grant. Student council money alone probably won't be enough for getting this kind of thing started. But it's exactly what we need.
 

Faculty Response, Haverford College

What is the course content and what are the pedagogical approaches for which you want to draw on technological resources? Map out the range and variation, including both the content and the kinds of resources you encounter and need.
I plan to continue developing the "hypersyllabus" course resources I currently have for my Intro Psych and Methods courses. The major challenges involve (a) augmenting and maintaining hypertextual depth in my course notes and linked readings, (b) better integrating on-line course discussion through Web Forum, and (c) adding streaming audio-visual materials.

What roles and responsibilities do you currently assume regarding the use and instruction of technology?
 I serve as the faculty fourth of the "Collaborative Information Officer" and next year will be Special Assistant to the Provost for Information Technology.

What goals do you have for collaboration in this area?
I expect next year, in the role described above, to communicate with most Haverford faculty about technology integration into their teaching and research. Specifically, I want to encourage the building of individual Web resources that gradually become part of larger departmental, College, and global webs.

What resources are you considering devoting to its future development?
 I hope to guide planning for capital campaign funding to endow continued support and growth for Haverford's pedagogical and scholarly use of information technology.

Doug Davis
Department of Psychology
Haverford College
http://www.uslink.net/ddavis/d2vita.html
 

Librarian Response, Haverford College
 
What specific resources in the social sciences do you think would best contribute to or support student learning in the classroom? For each full-text database, index or other web-based information source, explain briefly how it could help expand the students' critical information gathering skills.
 Given the breadth of the disciplines encompassed by the social sciences, it is a bit difficult to name specific sources which would be useful across all of the disciplines. So, I will answer the question with a selection of the types of resources rather than specific resources:
 Given the continuing importance of journal literature, I think that it remains important for students to learn the basics of what an index is, how one is structured, how one searches, and then how to apply that basic knowledge to a discipline-specific index, e.g., PsychINFO, Sociological Abstracts, EconLIT, etc. The emphasis in teaching this should be in giving the students a knowledge of the purpose and structure of this type of source so that s/he can transfer that knowledge to new situations. In fact, given the rate of change when it comes to the specifics of electronic resources (access software, interface design, etc.), this is the emphasis which all of our instruction in this area should have.
 In economics and sociology, the use of survey datasets, statistical series data (usually in a combination of print and electronic forms) and other types of statistics is becoming increasingly necessary. At present we have only a relatively small number of senior thesis students needing this type of resource, but given the increased accessibility of such sources via the Internet and the greater computing power available to students on their desktops, I can only imagine that the need will grow both in numbers of students and in complexity. I would like to see a more integrated and proactive approach to providing support to students in this area--one in which faculty advisors, computing staff and librarians could provide advice and guidance to students during the thesis formulation so that they know not only whether relevant datasets exist but also what type of support they can expect to receive in downloading, extracting and manipulating the data in order that they can make informed decisions about whether or not to pursue thesis research which requires this type of resource.
 I do not have alot of experience with simulation/scenario building software but I think that there are probably curriculum areas in which such products would be useful tools. They may, in fact, already be in use by some of our faculty. I am thinking of products such as SimCity, Virtual U, Capitalism, which allow the user to explore the impact of various actions/policies on an imaginary city/organization/corporation. I am not sure how the library would fit into this. Perhaps there are ways to customize some scenarios by incorporating real-life background info and data. I have not given this a great deal of thought. It really just occurred to me.

What roles and responsibilities do librarians on your campus currently assume regarding the instruction in the use of electronic information sources in support of student and faculty research?
 We do the standard lecture/demo type of library instruction and, of course, one-on-one instruction at the reference desk. As both traffic at the desk and the willingness of faculty to "give up" a class period for library instruction decrease, we really need to explore other means of delivering instruction and other forms of outreach. We also take part in some ACC workshops for faculty and staff.

What goals do you have for collaboration with faculty, students and information technologists in the field of electronic information?
 I'd like to see a more integrated approach--one in which faculty and librarians and IT staff communicate with each other more often and in a more proactive way. Involvement of all parties earlier in the development process would lead to better designed projects and assignments. We, of course, know this already and have always known it. The trick is to find ways to make it happen given time and resource constraints.

Mary Lynn Morris, Acting Science Librarian
(Also Electronic Services, Government Information, and Economics)
Haverford College, 370 Lancaster Avenue, Haverford, PA 19041-1392
mmorris@haverford.edu


Information Technologist Response, Haverford College

What technologies could enhance student and faculty research/teaching/learning? Include a brief description of the technology and a brief explanation of its potential usefulness.
 In the social sciences, there are many technologies that can enhance both the student and faculty experience in research, teaching and learning. There is a need for data analysis, video editing capabilities for experiments and demonstrations, web searching and creation both for research and sharing of results, web discussion groups, and many others. There is probably no technology that would not enhance research, teaching or learning in some way. The real problem is not so much as to determine which technologies enhance curricular goals (yet to be stated) but to only use technology as a means of accomplishing those goals, and not just because it exists. There is a real danger in getting caught up in the push for new and exciting technology and it is critical that when determining which technology to use, that a real effort be made to ensure that it in fact offers a better way of accomplishing the ultimate goal: education. I see a need for basic competence at all levels (student, staff, faculty, administration) for research, writing and communicating using computers, but beyond that the field is wide open to determine where to focus resources to enhance the educational experience and not just create a technological jungle.

What roles and responsibilities do you currently assume regarding the use and instruction of technology?
 Our primary responsibility is to provide faculty and staff members with operating equipment and software supported by the college. We are responsible for helping them use the equipment and software provided in whatever way they need. This involves everything from helping them fix a jammed printer to figuring out which program will help analyze a particular data set most effectively, to helping them create a PowerPoint presentation for a class.
 In addition to maintaining the basic services on campus (such as mail, software distribution, network access and maintaining computing equipment) we try to keep in touch with the current technologies and software available so that we are in a position to implement new technologies that will assist and improve the access the campus has to resources that will improve their curricular endeavors. For many of the programs that we distribute on campus, we offer seasonal courses to introduce and assist faculty and staff in their use. We regularly offer courses in Web Page Development, using PowerPoint to create presentations, and how to create web ready graphics using a scanner and photo editing software. We have offered courses on using the web for data collection, using a spreadsheet program to analyze data, and a course in advanced uses of word processing. We have also made available to faculty/students programs that address growing needs on campus (such as discussion groups) and have taken the lead in researching, implementing and then presenting the program to the campus as a whole. We have held courses to introduce faculty to these new programs and have created documentation outlining their usefulness. We have also, on occasion, gone into the classroom to show a small group how to effectively use the program for that course, but this is not a frequent event. We generally create documentation for these programs and all participate in presenting the material in the courses.
 We also assist faculty in determining which products or software packages will best suit their needs in a particular research or teaching goal. For instance, in the use of video/audio editing equipment and software, we assist in determining which product will meet specific needs that the faculty bring to us. We will then assist the faculty in learning how to best use those products, and will continue to offer support as needed. In this regard the faculty generally take the lead and we address those questions or issues brought to our attention.
 Finally, we offer technology grants to faculty to give them an opportunity to incorporate new technologies in their research or teaching. For the faculty receiving these grants, we offer support to help the faculty implement their award, from providing assistance in web page design to researching software requirements and making software purchased under the grant available to students in the labs.

What goals do you have for collaboration in this area?
 In order to maximize the resources and support available to faculty and students, and minimize the duplication of resources and effort, my main goal is to collaborate in all areas that have a technological component, with all the departments that focus on technology, library, computing, faculty, etc. Having a program, such as the one you are designing, is a first step in creating the kind of atmosphere that will foster the communication and coordination of services necessary to accomplish this.

What resources are you considering devoting to its future development?
We have created an advisory group to address issues regarding instructional technology and the direction we need to take to solve various campus needs. There is also a higher level policy group involving computing, library, faculty and administration, that is geared toward creating an atmosphere in which collaboration is encouraged and welcomed, so that these goals can be met.

Barbara Mindell
User Support Specialist
Haverford College
bmindell@haveford.edu
 

Faculty Response, Swarthmore College

I spoke informally to other faculty in my building at Swarthmore.

Q. What is the course content and what are the pedagogical approaches for which you want to draw on technological resources?
-excepting the obvious instances where video technology was front and centre, those teaching cinema courses for historical or sociological causes (Soviet Cinema, Visual Anthropology Practicum), many leaned to:
-working through statistical programs with laptops projecting onto screens (a few do this now); to
-using video clips for classroom discussion (hard to do given the distractions, though there was much thought to fantasies of digital players which make it easier to track samplings)
as a general rule, the latter point emphasizes the question of ILLUSTRATION of already existing pedagogic platforms. This seems a natural transition zone en route to what later may likely be a very different kind of pedagogical imagination as more and more of this technology enters the classroom.

Q. Map out the range and variation, including both the content and the kinds of resources you encounter and need.
For example, Swarthmore in particular suffers from a woefully underfunded and understaffed slide library. The majority of those I talked to remarked on how energetic and innovative the director is, but how few resources we've been able to marshal given the college's reluctance to fund new technologies since they change so quickly.
To this end, perhaps the most common refrain was how much easier it would be if each classroom could somehow have its own generic, bolted-down, laptop, not one you would have to carry from pillar to post in the havoc of the teaching day, which could then be used to project illustrations for teaching anything from history to nationalism to portraits of famous social scientists... Virtually all faculty were enthusiastic about donating their time to this kind of enhancement, but most were reluctant to invest the time until there is some sense of what is worth the effort, how it works, and what will be around long enough for them to profit from instructionally.

Q. What roles and responsibilities do you currently assume regarding the use and instruction of technology?
-as above: statistical charts using an active laptop projected on to a screen; others preferred the ease and familiarity of an overhead. Most are confined only to occasionally showing video clips or films.

Q. What goals do you have for collaboration in this area?
Many of my colleagues are now looking more to the Library for direction, less so than on Media Services, who have been the main backup over the years.
 What resources are you considering devoting to its future development? Reading the emails that the College serves up!

Bruce Grant
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Swarthmore College
bgrant1@swarthmore.edu


Information Technologist Response, Swarthmore College
 
Questions for Information Technologists

What technologies could enhance student and faculty research/teaching/learning? Include a brief description of the technology and a brief explanation of its potential usefulness.
Huh, I'm a technologist, but I don't tend to think of the technology first. Of course, our institution could gain from the use of computer-delivered communications tools, such as those bundled under the heading of "Course Management System." But I think there are many untapped or undertapped areas multimedia delivery, laboratory control, collaborative/constructivist learning tools, easy WWW database creation, etc. But I refuse to be a solution in search of a problem. It all starts with making sure faculty understand that they should include me as a partner in problem solving real curricular issues.

What roles and responsibilities do you currently assume regarding the use and instruction of technology?
At the bare minimum, my team and I accept at least partial responsibility for all infrastructural and technical support for any academic computing technology in place. That is, where we aren't being relied upon as the only game in town, we contribute in whatever way is necessary to make things work. In addition, we've been involved in issues of technology-enhanced curriculum/teaching/learning issues.

What goals do you have for collaboration in this area?
Wide-scale implentation of a CMS, with on-going support from all major academic support areas of the College. More focus on sustainability, scalability, multi-use/reusable development.

What resources are you considering devoting to its future development?
Whatever it takes to make it work.

Eric Behrens
Manager of Academic Computing &
Humanities Computing Coordinator
Swarthmore College
http://www.swarthmore.edu/~behrens/
 

Student Response, Mount Holyoke College

(Note: we changed the wording of these questions to make them more meaningful to the students. The revised questions are as follows: What kinds of research assignments to you get in classes? Do you ever seek help from librarians? When and why do you seek help from librarians and how would you like them to help you?)
The most common kind of assignment I get involves conducting a literature search. I don't often ask for help. Usually, I play around with the library systems until I figure out how to make them work for the particular assignment that I'm doing.

Kyra Comroe


 
Faculty Response, Mount Holyoke College

1.The course that I will focus on is Experimental Methods in Psychology. The goals of the course are for the student to learn how research is planned, carried out, communicated and critiqued. This course focuses on developing general research skills that can be applied within any area of psychology. These skills include knowledge of experimental
design, statistics, report writing, and ethical standards of research. I use a wide variety of techniques to teach this class. They include lecture, mock experiments, and small group discussions. In addition, there is a four-hour lab component associated with the class. The main purpose of this lab time is for the students to review research articles that are related to their interests, formulate their own experiment, collect and analyze data, and to write up a research paper.

2. The kinds of resources that I do use (or would like to use in the future) include SPSS, data bases (e.g. ICPSR), web of sciences, and j-store. I would also like to modify the course web-site so that we could include on-line tutorials and perhaps quizzes. In addition, since the students work on group research projects, it would be great if we could create a sort of "chat space" for each group. The members of that group would be able to get into that chat space, ask questions of their group members, set up meetings, and post results of their study.

3. I would like to do more collaborative work with both the librarians and the information technologists.

4. The resources I am considering devoting to its future development are: time and student support.

Kathy Binder
 

Librarian Response, Mount Holyoke College

 1. Resources include, PsycInfo: This is the major database of Psychology literature. MH provides it through the Ovid interface from 1887 through the present. It includes a sophisticated indexing system based on the terminology used in the field so will help students think about appropriate vocabulary, combining of terms, refining searches.

Web of Science: This interdisciplinary database is unique among indexing services. While it does not provide the specialized indexing of other services, it allows for searching of cited references which many faculty find a very powerful tool. It allows students to see how pieces of scholarship inform and respond to one another, how scholarship develops and shifts. With access to the backfiles (sciences back to 1945, social sciences back to 1950's) it opens up a part of the literature that may have been neglected in favor of materials more readily cited electronically.

JSTOR: Provides searchable fulltext of the backfiles of over 100 key scholarly journals. Although Psychology journals are not yet included, other disciplines in the social sciences are well represented. It may be interesting to see if and how topics in Psychology have crossed into other discplines.

2. We currently offer about 75 course integrated workshops each year. Many of these are at the request of faculty, though sometimes we see a need and offer to conduct a workshop. We also offer general workshops on searching the Internet through the LITS training program. In addition, we do much instruction in one-on-one encounters at the Reference desk. The majority of our questions now require some instruction in use and choice of resource (appropriate discipline, good quality, paper vs. electronic, full-text vs. index, timeliness, etc).

3. More! We would like to offer more course integrated instruction as those seem to be the most successful in reaching students when they have a need to know. We would also like to work more closely with faculty in developing assignments that will achieve their goals for the students and will be manageable and interesting for the students. We have some success with that in the Sciences and would like to expand that success.

Kathleen Norton

IT Response, Mount Holyoke College

1. Developing course web pages for a psychology course would provide a centralized online presence for course information and would facilitate communication between the faculty member and students and amongst the students. The content of the pages could include syllabus, bibliography, required readings, discussion lists, tutorials, quizzes, and links to library sources necessary to conduct research.

Using web course development software, such as WebCT, would simplify the process of creating the web pages by the faculty member. To encourage collaboration between students in the course, the faculty member could organize teams of students and could establish web pages for each team. The teams could have their own discussion lists, publish their research projects on this web site, and review each other's work. The web site could be restricted to only those enrolled in the course.

Other technology that could be incorporated into the course includes interviewing procedures and policies. Students could use tape recorders or video cameras and transcribing equipment. They could share their interviewing experiences and questions in class or via the web pages. When appropriate, and with proper releases, they could include clips from interviews on the web pages.

2. Currently, I am the Training Coordinator for Library, Information and Technology Services. This position includes overseeing the training needs of the Mount Holyoke College Community. Working in cooperation with the technology consultants in Curriculum Support and Instructional Technology (CSIT), I serve as a liaison to the faculty interested in incorporating technology into the curriculum. This function includes evaluating the technology and training needs of the faculty, researching new technological options and connecting faculty to skilled students assistants.

This position coordinates the training workshops for faculty, staff and students. In addition to teaching some of the workshops for faculty and staff, I train and supervise a dozen student web technologists who teach the student-to-student workshops and offer consulting services to the Mount Holyoke College community in the Special Project Labs.

3. My goals for this collaborative project center around communication. This is an opportunity for faculty, technology consultants, librarians and students to communicate their needs, expectations and goals to each other. In this process, the participants can share their knowledge of the discipline of psychology, research methods, information retrieval and management, technology and educate each other to the options available for this project. All this will be focused upon the educational needs and expectations of the students.

A second goal from this three-year process is to make faculty aware of LITS' library and CSIT liaison program. The liaison program is a tool for faculty to use when crafting a course or undertaking research. In addition, the liaisons will become more familiar with the faculty and the disciplines they work with and will be able to use this knowledge in anticipating, evaluating and researching library and technology solutions.

4. Resources needed to further develop this project include staff time, hardware, software and funds for training the participants.

Susan Fliss


 
Faculty Response, Smith College
 
Q: What is the course content and what are the pedagogical approaches for which you want to draw on technological resources?
I hope to augment problem based learning scenarios that I've developed in a conventional text form by translating them into multimedia. These scenarios use a combination of text, still images, audio, graphics and full motion video. My hope is that by "translating" them into a multimedia format because it will allow me to present a richer, more deeply textured context that will allow me to more closely model the "real world" of schools and policy and thus narrow the gap between simulation and reality.
I also use and hope to learn more about effective practice with the following:
* Develop and tending electronic discussion forums
* Develop standards and conventions of quality for work done as hypermedia. For example, what would constitute the characteristics of a project/paper written in hypertext? What baselines of quality can I identify for my students so they have clear objectives to work towards in their projects?
* Develop ways to use networked technologies to enhance and deepen in-class discussions
The above characterize the teaching that I do in my issues/policy courses. I also teach a curriculum course for secondary teachers. In this course, I aspire to the following: First, I hope provide teachers with the experience of using information technologies to enhance their ability to plan curriculum and develop lessons. Second, I guide them through the experience of using technology to enhance their teaching by utilizing multiple media: art, music, graphics, video. Lastly, I work with them on designing activities that allow students to become composers of multimedia.

Q: What roles and responsibilities do you currently assume regarding the use and instruction of technology?
I teach courses and I will hopefully be working with a senior colleague in developing a Master's degree program in the area of Learning, Design and Technology.

Q: What goals do you have for collaboration in this area?
I believe that schools K-Higher Education need to embrace approaches akin to Writing Across the Disciplines or Speaking Across the Disciplines. This will require deep, inclusive collaboration amongst faculty, librarians and others involved in the educational process.
In terms of teaching, I struggle with how long it takes to compose hypermedia. It's incredibly time consuming and I'm still confused as to how to develop fruitful collaborative relationships to share the work of tending, problem-shooting, and upkeep of integrating technology into my classes.

Sam Intrator
Smith College
Morgan Hall
Northampton, MA 01063


 
Librarian Response, Smith College
 
Q. What specific resources in the social sciences do you think would best contribute to or support student learning in the classroom?
Specific resources in the social sciences are difficult to identify, due to the number of databases offered at the Smith College Libraries and the interdisciplinary nature of research undertaken by scholars and students in all disciplines. This response is focused on the present and future information resources and services provided by the Smith College Libraries, primarily Neilson Library, the humanities and social sciences library on the campus. Student learning is promoted in an instructional program with common goals and objectives across disciplines. (Instructional programs within Young , Hillyer or Josten libraries -- the sciences, fine arts and performing arts, respectively -- and in Special Collections may offer differences that may be addressed in future workshops.)
 For the past several years, the librarians at Smith College have worked to incorporate web-based instruction through the use of a gateway to the Libraries resources, subject web pages and individual class pages. The use of subject web pages is the primary vehicle the reference librarians use to guide students in accessing appropriate information resources. Each subject page, for instance, History, lists indexes and databases appropriate to the area, including scholarly indexes, indexes in related fields, interdisciplinary indexes, general periodical indexes and selected web resources.
The selection and use of specific resources in the social sciences rests on the information needs of curriculum and research at Smith College. Scholarly bibliographic databases in the social sciences -- PsycInfo, Sociological Abstracts, EconLit, etc. -- form the basis of instruction within each discipline, followed by more specialized sources as assignments dictate (i.e., statistical sources such as International Financial Statistics and World Development Indicators).
Databases such as Congressional Universe and Statistical Universe increased in value and use when electronic access became available, due to the difficulty students encountered in their print counterparts. Students now need assistance in refining their searches to gather more relevant and less overwhelming results. America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts in their electronic form opened new avenues of research in many disciplinary and interdisciplinary areas, whereas their print versions were the primarily the province of dedicated historians. It seems evident that electronic access to print resources increased interdisciplinary research, as students and scholars gained access to materials via databases and the Internet.
Full-text cross-disciplinary databases, such as Academic Universe and Expanded Academic Index, offer collections of periodical titles libraries would not necessarily purchase separately. There are drawbacks to the full-text experience: expectation and demand for full-text, inappropriate selection of research results due to preference for full text, proliferation of mainstream titles across many libraries, and the lack of distinction between popular and scholarly titles within databases.
The Internet provides a valuable and nearly irreplaceable role in the social sciences, after the sciences. The emphasis on electronic dissemination by state, national and international governments gives students unprecedented access to government information. Identifying, locating and accessing the resources of organizations, institutions, advocacy groups, library collections and catalogs gives students and faculty access no library could offer individually.
 In economics and education, for instance, a reliance on data sets and local, state and national census materials respectively require more advanced information skills on the part of student, faculty and librarian. Early collaboration with the statistical resources of the Jahnige Center has been successful; staffing irregularities, however, have lessened the librarians' knowledge and use of the Center's resources and services.
 

Information Technologist Response, Smith College
 
Q. What roles and responsibilities do you currently assume regarding the use and instruction of technology?
As a Statistical Consultant for the social sciences, education, and school of social work, I assist faculty, students, and staff with data gathering, analysis, and presentation. People come to me with a wide range of questions and concerns including where to find data on various topics, how to construct testable hypotheses, which statistical software to use and how to use it, and advice on how to present data and results. I usually work with people individually, teaching them the statistical, computer, or data finding skills they require to complete their projects. To assist my constituents, I experiment with different statistical software and teaching tools and search for new data over the Internet.

Q. What goals for Collaboration do you have?
I am interested in working with faculty and students to conduct research. I would also like to help faculty introduce new techniques and software for teaching statistics into their classes. I know that the faculty at Smith are very interested in using the Internet in their classes and have this year begun to use Blackboard to develop a web based component for their classes. Faculty and students are also very interested in using multi-media computer techniques in their research and classes.

Q. What technologies could enhance student and faculty research/teaching/learning?
A range of multi-media technologies would be very useful for student learning and faculty teaching and research. Students learn best in a variety of ways. Some students rely on visual cues while others depend on auditory skills. Other students learn best by doing. Multi-media technologies that now make it easier to bring images, video clips, music, guest lecturers and interactive experiences into the classroom will enhance knowledge by providing different learning opportunities for different kinds of learners. Faculty could also draw on these different technologies to conduct and present their ideas in the most illustrative framework.
Echoing these sentiments, a colleague of mine who runs the Center for Foreign Languages and Culture at Smith wrote to me the following, "I believe Smith needs greater access to DVD technologies, greater and more direct support of student projects and general computer literacy, a network system which truly allows any user to log on to any appropriate server from anywhere including off campus, and more cohesive support of faculty curriculum projects. Much of this can be achieved through improved communication amongst the support groups on campus."

Lois Joy
Statistical Consultant
Smith College
ljoy@sophia.smith.edu
 

Student Response, Amherst College
 
Questions for Students
What are your learning and research needs as defined by course assignments? Map out the range and variation, including both the content and the kinds of resources you encounter and need.
This past year, I wrote several larger research papers of lengths between 15 and 25 pages. In order to locate materials, I used software like Infotrac and Lexis-Nexis along with searching the Five-College library catalog and interlibrary loan. Additionally, the class for which I wrote the 25 page paper had its own website with listings/links to various topic-related and possibly helpful search engines, databases, libraries, archives, and electronic journals-- this was very good, and I know other departments have set up similar sites. While I found immense amounts of material on my own, the research librarians were particularly helpful in narrowing search subjects and informing me of other research options, two especially important things considering the number of options and possibilities available. Interlibrary loan and special collections/ archives were the most important to my work; the fact that those things had on-line listings accelerated the research process. On the other hand, I was not using internet technology to gather large samples in research or doing intense reading on-line with ASAP, Infotrac, or Lexis-Nexis articles.
My other writing assignments were papers in the range of five to ten pages, usually dealing with course reading. I prefer to have that reading on paper, and buying the course books and multiliths, though a substantial expense, is what most Amherst students do, so there is not much vying for reserve readings. While I have never been assigned reading on-line, friends of mine have, and the general opinion is that reading off a course web site sucks. My reading assignments are anywhere between 150 and 600 pages per class. The idea of doing all of that reading at a computer is not particularly alluring. Looking at paintings on the web was part of a writing assignment for a Fine Arts class I took, and that was okay, but most students agreed that due to the resolution on the web, the papers were not as good as they might have been, had we been able to look at slides (or, of course, the paintings themselves) On the other hand, being able to look at works on the web is better than not seeing them at all and easier than spending class time looking at slides when the professor would rather have the students drawing.
 In class, it can be good if a professor uses a variety of media in a presentation. I have only been in a few large lecture classes, so I don't know exactly what to say about those. Clips from videos, slides, music, and web sites are often beneficial additions to the lecture, though they don't usually outweigh the effectiveness of an engaging lecturer in making class interesting.

Meredith Weill '01


 
Faculty Response, Amherst College
 
Q. What is the course content and what are the pedagogical approaches for which you want to draw on technological resources? Map out the range and variation, including both the content and the kinds of resources you encounter and need.
The course is titled "Self and Society: An Introduction to Sociology." It is required for sociology majors, and typically, it serves as a first course for many non-majors who are interested in the sociological approach to things. Typically, course enrollment ranges from 75-110 students, half of whom are in their first semester at Amherst College.
Basically, the course introduces students to elemental constructs in sociology, and tries to do that at both a theoretical and an empirical/practical level. As it is presently organized, the course is divided into three parts, which cover, in turn, the normative dimensions of social life, social structures and cultural practices, and mass media/information technology and the formation of a social imaginary.
Pedagogically speaking, I am interested in using information technology, principally internet resources and the world wide web, to supplement the course content that is covered in assigned readings and lectures over all three parts of the course. I would like students to access a variety of data regarding topics that we cover in class, but also, the wide range of relevant information found at websites, including those of newspapers, online journals and periodicals, "think tanks," as well as numerous organizations (including academic institutions and professional associations within them) and individuals. Furthermore, I would expect that the discussions taking place on selected news/user groups and other "live" communications would be important resources as well.
I see this access to relevant information on the internet as complimenting, not replacing, the use that students routinely make of more traditional resources found in the Amherst College library. The idea here is to introduce students to the new and different sources of information and communication that are made available as a result of technology, and in doing so, to draw them into an evaluative relation with these sources, in which they are required, really, to assess the validity of the information available to them, rather than taking it at face value. Obviously, this would be strongly supported by the instructor, but a most important aspect in fostering this critical, evaluative relation to internet resources will involve a comparison and contrasting of these resources with more traditional ones.

Q. What roles and responsibilities do you currently assume regarding the use and instruction of technology? What resources are you considering devoting to its future development?
 Currently, in this particular course, my use of technology has been limited to screening films, video clips in class, and the use of audio cd's to play music as it pertains to topics covered in readings and lectures. In the future, I would like first, to develop a course home page that will enable students to access course information/documents via the campus or Five College network. This will be completed over the summer, if not before. (This past semester, I developed websites for my courses.)
I would like to use my time at Bryn Mawr to develop this course website along the lines that I suggested above. That is, for the topics covered in each part of the course, I would like to establish relevant links to internet resources so that students can gain quick and easy access to these supplementary materials as a way of enhancing their own developing understanding of, say, the ways that norms work in social life, or the persistence of social inequalities in contemporary culture, or the ways that the developments in multimedia and information technology itself are transforming self, identity, and the society in which we live.
 Additionally, I would like to use these internet resources, in conjunction with other library resources, as examples of a kind of information that students can utilize in developing their own ideas for a term paper in the course. That is, students would be encouraged to develop their ideas for a course term paper in such a way that they not only used internet sources, but more importantly, incorporated into the paper a critical assessment of the validity of these resources vis-à-vis other, more traditional scholarly sources that typically serve as the basis of their research.

Ron Lembo
Professor of Sociology
Amherst college
ralembo@amherst.edu


 
Librarian Response, Amherst College
 
Q. What specific resources in the social sciences do you think would best contribute to or support student learning in the classroom? For each full-text database, index or other web-based information ;source, explain briefly how it could help expand the students' critical information gathering skills.
This question is, at first glance, impossibly sweeping. Certainly the most interesting and challenging aspect of recent developments in the production, storage, and dissemination of information is that consumers (faculty, students, and librarians) get so many choices - choices of formats, media, sources, and points of view. In fact, preparing students to make well-informed, thoughtful choices must be the focus of the collaboration in this project. Therefore I will limit my answer to the context of Ron Lembo's Sociology 11 (Self and Society).
Redesigned to incorporate a larger technology-based component, the course will require that the students learn to distinguish between primary and secondary sources. That is, ideally they will learn to draw a distinction between the websites and databases selected by the Library and websites not pre-judged or pre-selected by librarians and/or faculty. Fulltext databases (for example, Expanded Academic ASAP and LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe) can provide primary documents which embody the issues and trends the students study as well as critical commentary on those issues. Likewise, websites created by interest groups may become primary objects of study for the students while other web-based sources may focus on critiques of the politics and agenda of those groups. The same search engines that help students reach one kind of source can help them find the other as well. The Amherst College Library's website has a table of search engines to offer students and faculty choices for their searching. The Library also offers discipline-oriented webpages of academic sites selected by librarians. Recommended metasites may often provide launching pads for web searching as well.
 This course focuses on convincing students of the value of using information in many formats and media. With a greater emphasis on technology, it will continue that approach. To find theoretical and other academic studies, students can use the local online library catalog as a key tool. To make judgments about what to use from the Library's collection, they will depend on their professor's recommendations, literature reviews such as the online Annual Reviews, scholarly encyclopedias in the Library's reference collection, etc. A wide selection of online indexes such as Sociological Abstracts and Social Science Abstracts from FirstSearch or Expanded Academic ASAP or Academic Universe will support this course.
 In cooperation with Ron Lembo and other members of the team, librarians will concentrate on instructing students in identifying and evaluating sources of information. Students should learn to discriminate among conflicting approaches and opinions at the same time they learn to chart the course of their own research.

Q. What roles and responsibilities do librarians on your campus currently assume regarding the instruction in the use of electronic information sources in support of student and faculty research?

Librarians have assumed several responsibilities:
a. At the invitation of faculty, they give presentations on research techniques to classes - often, depending on the class content, with an emphasis on electronic sources.
b. They offer individual instruction in electronic sources to students and faculty.
c. They cooperate with Amherst's IT in a Mellon-funded technology-in-teaching initiative for faculty - giving instruction about the Library's discipline oriented webpages, electronic journal collections, etc.
d. They also actively publicize the library's electronic services to the whole campus.

Q. What goals do you have for collaboration with faculty, students, and information technologists in the field of electronic information?
As more courses place on emphasis on electronic sources, especially on information on the Web, faculty, librarians, and technologists all recognize that students must hone their ability to evaluate sources and make informed judgments about their relevance to their projects. Particularly in a course like Ron Lembo's Sociology 11, those judgments must not be reduced to good/bad or academic/nonacademic or even reliable/unreliable. Instead students must look at websites, for example, and determine what group or organization supports the site and for what purpose. They must learn to "read" political points of view and social messages. Their evaluation of technology and its products must become increasingly sophisticated. Librarians can help students develop the skills needed to reach the goals of a course like Sociology 11. The goals in this case are established by the faculty member and advanced by librarians and technologists.

Margaret Adams Groesbeck
Head of Reference and Online Services
Amherst College Library
magrosbeck@amherst.edu


 
IT Response, Amherst College

Q. What technologies could enhance student and faculty research/teaching/learning? Include a brief description of the technology and a brief explanation of its potential usefulness.
For Ron's Sociology 11 (Self and Society) course, students' use of the Web, both in accessing and evaluating web-based information and in producing web sites could enhance the teaching and learning process. We may also explore use of the EndNote bibliographic tool in supporting the library research work students undertake in this and other Sociology courses.

Q.What roles and responsibilities do you currently assume regarding the use and instruction of technology?
Curricular Computing Services provides a series of seminars for faculty using technology under the Mellon Foundation Teaching and Technology Grant. The grant is entitled Pedagogical Strategies for Web-Based Learning at Amherst College. Pedagogical issues are at the center of each workshop. We have introduced a template-driven web site management tool, CourseInfo, this past year and we are very encouraged by its enthusiastic reception. Sixty course web sites have been in use this spring semester in comparison to 27 course web sites in the fall semester. We are finding that faculty are experimenting with the pedagogical implications of class discussion boards, drop boxes and online testing techniques, features previously unavailable on this campus network. It is a time of growth and experimentation with technology and pedagogy.
 In addition to an emphasis on web course sites, Curricular Computing is introducing a campus wide subscription for EndNote, the bibliographic management tool. Initial training is being in offered to faculty in May and another session is scheduled for August.

Q. What goals do you have for collaboration in this area?
Both the web emphasis and the EndNote introduction offer multiple opportunities for collaboration between IT and Library. A pilot E-reserves service is starting this fall. It is being introduced as a service for faculty already using the CourseInfo course management software. We will continue to enrich the existing strong relationships. We will continue to use every available chance to facilitate communication and collaboration between IT and the library, between IT and faculty, among faculty members using technology, and between and among students and members of all of these groups.

Q. What resources are you considering devoting to its future development?
Good will, time, energy, and grant funding for student internships to assist faculty in developing course-based applications.

Mary McMahon
Director, Curricular Computing Services
Amherst College
mgmacmahon@amherst.edu


 
Student Response, Hampshire College
 
What are your learning and research needs as defined by course assignments? Map out the range and variation, including both the content and the kinds of resources you encounter and need.
 My learning and research needs as a psychology student in the social sciences are fairly straightforward. For courses such as Social Psychology, I needed access to different studies on the topic of whatever I chose to focus on.
 Online search engines and access to the five college catalog were crucial to first finding applicable articles and then physically locating them. For my Statistics course work I needed access to data that had been collected online as well as access to computers with statistics software inside and outside of class. For Cognitive Psychology the professor set up a part of her web site for us to submit reaction papers on. We were responsible for submitting them and subsequently critiquing our classmates' papers online. We also were required to be subjects in two experiments related to our class material. Half of the experiments that were options were online and the other half were associated with the UMASS psychology department. This is about the range of variety my coursework and research has encompassed thus far.

What goals do you have for collaboration in this area?
 I would like to see more social science classrooms involve the internet as a tool for simplified communication. Submitting papers and critiquing others' papers was much easier online than if my Cognitive Psychology class as a whole had to deal with first turning papers in and then switching off twice. Using the internet as a resource expedites parts of the learning process so class time can be used for learning the material. Also, educational measures about the technology that is available to aid research are effective but perhaps not widespread enough. A fair amount of students aren't aware of ways they can access tools like the search engines from convienient places such as their rooms or the computer labs. Increased integration of technology and education about said integration seem to be worthwhile goals for this forum.

mmf98@hampshire.edu


 
Faculty Response, Hampshire College
 
Questions for Faculty:

What is the course content and what are the pedagogical approaches for which you want to draw on technological resources? Map out the range and variation, including both the content and the kinds of resources you encounter and need.
 Technological resources should be of relevance to all courses in the social sciences:
 (1) At the simplest level, new technologies can facilitate communication and save time and resources. It is, for example, more convenient and efficient to post course materials, and to have students share reading responses or essays in an electronic forum, than to produce and distribute multiple copies on paper. More important, however, "asynchronous conferencing" expands the time and transforms the emotional and intellectual climate of "class discussion."
 Once participants overcome any initial resistance to the medium, the system produces very satisfying results in the classroom and in interdisciplinary faculty seminars. Overcoming resistance is essential: Some people evince a dislike for computers out of simple ignorance and pigheadedness. Others may have more justified reasons for discomfort. In either case, we must address the complaint. See, for example, Paula Lackie, "The Paradox of Paperless Classes," Social Science Computer Review, 16 no. 2 (Summer 1998): 144-57.
 (2)More important still is student research: Our curriculum stresses individualized inquiry and a solid understanding of concepts and methodologies over mere acquisition of content. In the age of the Internet, it is all the more important that students know not only how to locate, but how to discriminate between, sources (various media and degrees of intellectual authority).
 To offer a more concrete illustration drawn from my field, history: New media and communications systems are putting unparalleled resources at the disposal of students and faculty. No longer does one have to travel to another continent or even another town to view an important document or a work of art. Students need, however, to understand the selection or filtration process: e.g., Not all sources will be converted to the new media. The absence of a source from the digital realm does not deprive it of value. The most recent source is not necessarily the best. Contrary to what some might expect, the new information environment makes librarians, like teachers-as advisers, rather than gatekeepers-more rather than less important.
 (3) The ultimate goal is to enable students and faculty to become active shapers as well as wiser users of new technologies, which can be used in the classroom and beyond. In the first phase of the introduction of a new technology, the tendency is simply to appropriate or transfer forms familiar from the old one. Ultimately and ideally, however, a technology must develop genres appropriate to the medium. Effective use here entails taking full advantage of the possibilities of hypertext by combining multilayered, textual and graphic, primary and secondary materials in a package that allows both searching and copying.

I thus work with two basic principles in mind:
 1) Students must be conversant with new information technologies if they are to live comfortably and wisely in our world.
 2)Being conversant should imply understanding as well as familiarity. This means (a) understanding the nature (functions, strengths, and weaknesses) and context of a given technology; (b) being able to historicize it. Students and faculty alike should come to see our new information age or digital revolution as a point on a continuum rather than as a sharp departure. Critical reflection on our sources and systems of information, no less than on our methodologies, should be part of every sound education.

What roles and responsibilities do you currently assume regarding the use and instruction of technology?
 As an interested amateur (but no expert), I try to keep abreast of new developments. In order to apply them judiciously in the classroom and on faculty projects, I work closely with our Internet Coordinator and Systems Manager.

What goals do you have for collaboration in this area?
 I myself collaborate fairly frequently with colleagues in other areas of the College, and from other schools in the consortium, on projects that apply new technologies (web, CD-ROM, &c.) in teaching.
 Paradoxically, perhaps, my division of the College is the one least familiar with and least interested in new technologies. The reasons are unclear, but certainly include run-of-the-mill fear, ignorance, and laziness or overextension. Arguably and more serious, however, this group also displays a certain self-satisfaction and inertia; it lacks intellectual energy and cohesiveness.
 Still, I have seen some remarkable transformations, and the reason is simple: If we can demonstrate to people that a new resource is useful, many will in fact come to use it. Not surprisingly, new faculty are generally more open to or conversant with new technology. My hope is that a core group of interested faculty, working closely with computing staff, can (a) educate the rest of our division; (b) develop a set of resources that will make the application of new technology both worthwhile and convenient.

What resources are you considering devoting to its future development?
 I hope to be able to use grant money from existing initiatives in order to encourage efforts that will bridge our miniature version of the digital divide. We should create interdisciplinary courses on media and communications. More important, perhaps, we should see to it that components dealing with these issues are incorporated into courses in other fields.

James J. Wald Hampshire College
Associate Professor of History School of Social Science
Project Director, Amherst, MA 01002-5001
Hampshire Center for the Book


 
Librarian Response, Hampshire College

1) The content of the class and the research goal of the individual student determine the way we teach the use of resources. Most assignments demonstrate how to use information to support or influence a thesis rather than just to find a citation or a particular fact. For example, a class on psychology would not simply look at PsycINFO but would want to pursue a particular idea and discover where it might lead. As a result, this approach to the gathering of critical information skills instruction is based on need and interest on the part of the student and is not an abstract library exercise.

2) Librarians are currently responsible for teaching classes in the use of electronic information as part of the first year experience. In addition, they are responsible for consultation and referral to students, staff, and faculty.

3) Librarians goals are to create a more seamless realationship between faculty, students, and information technologists in the field of electronic information. It is our hope and plan that over the next few years as electronic resources continue to proliferate, we will develop a way of working so that easy access to information will not lead to abandoning evaluation skills. For years the librarian was the portal to information; now the computer is the portal. Librarians need to find ways to help people discriminate between the sources of information and find the best ways to search. Although computers create easy access they also make evaluation more important, but more difficult.

Dan Schnurr
Social Sciences Librarian
Hampshire College


 
Information Technologist Response, Hampshire College

What technologies could enhance student and faculty research/teaching/learning?

Software evolves constantly and it is difficult to pin down specific applications but I am exploring the following technologies, each of which, I hope, will address several needs:

1. Asynchronous conferencing

Web-based discussion space that enables students and faculty to extendand initiate discussion outside of the classroom. Unlike a distributed mailing list, this technology creates a sense of place, a sort of classroom outside of the classroom, where groups can record their findings and share information, as well as participating in more involved discussions. A transcript of the learning process is created, which can be used for evaluation. Collaborations with other institutions and virtual "visits" from individual experts are enabled.

2. Integrated course websites

Using an intranet and a data-backed web server, a searchable "one-stop" system is created whereby faculty may post syllabi, contact information, and resources, as well as linking to a virtual discussion where appropriate. The data-backed interface means that knowledge of HTML (the markup language needed to create a webpage) is minimized and data is highly integrated and archived in a timely fashion. The main advantage over independently maintained websites is in information architecture and usability, increasing the ease with which students will find and use the information.

3. Standardized basic technology

This is not a technology as such but, rather, a way of presenting technology to novice users. It is an attempt to draw boundaries around commonly-used software (netscape, Eudora, etc) and to provide appropriate instruction and training that establishes a basic level of technical competency a user needs to do basic research/teaching/learning and attempts to limit how much the user needs to learn in order to be able to function in a technologically fast-paced environment.

4. Evaluation software

An intranet is used to increase the efficiency of the student evaluation process. Evaluations are transported and stored electronically, platform/format incompatibilities are eliminated, and the information is stored in a secure database that enables authenticated access by appropriate students and faculty.

What roles and responsibilities do you currently assume regarding the use and instruction of technology?
  I respond to faculty needs on a one-to-one basis, helping individual professors to develop web-based resources and interactive functions that support their teaching. I help professors to identify peers or students who can help them to increase their technological capability, through networking and small gatherings. I help novice and advanced users to explore the potential of email and web browsing technnology.
At the systemic level, I work with students and our system administrator to develop the technological infrastructure that enables or will enable the technologies I mentioned above.
 
What goals do you have for collaboration in this area? What resources are you considering devoting to its future development?
 I have developed strong relationships with individual faculty members through specific projects but I need to do more outreach in the faculty community to make sure I identify their needs and how I might best serve them. Going to school meetings, attending faculty events, introducing myself to new faculty, are all a critical part of this process. I also wish to work more closely with the administrative assistants in the School of Social Science, who are very knowledgeable about the technological challenges facing individual faculty members.
 We have a number of very talented students on campus and I am working to develop partnerships with these students to help develop key applications such as searchable course descriptions and data-backed website technology. Finally, but very importantly, I hope to collaborate with my counterparts in other institutions, who are facing the same technological challenges.
 In the interests of developing collaboration, I am structuring my own time to incorporate networking, relationship-building, and outreach. Ideally I would spend 30% of my time on these activities but this is extremely difficult in a severely understaffed department.

Abby Schoneboom
Internet Communications Coordinator
Hampshire College
aschoneboom@hampshire.edu


 
Faculty Response, Vassar College
 
Q. What is the course content and what are the pedagogical approaches for which you want to draw on technological resources? Map out the range and variation, including both the content and the kinds of resources you encounter and need.
Vassar social science faculty use information technology in two ways: (1) for teaching and assignments, and (2) to teach on information technology as a subject of empirical inquiry. These entail two different sets of needs.
 For (1), which is widespread among the social sciences, faculty access the Internet for databases, existing research, and search engines to supplement their lectures and discussions. Increasingly faculty require students to use these on-line resources for their own assignments, which often entails pointing them to (and therefore knowing beforehand about) the URLs where they can find data. (For example, in my Urban Theory course, I might have them analyze the class bias of Jane Jacobs' planning perspective in _The Death and Life of Great American Cities_ by having them retrieve demographic data about her 1960 Greenwich Village research site from the US Census or, more likely, another researcher's website.) Along these lines, faculty needs are generally content-based: a conveniently centralized portal for databases and instruction on how  to use on-line research resources.
 Several IT technologies are also useful in teaching social science methods beyond the usual statistical packages that are standard in economics and political science departments. For example, scanners and optical character recognition (OCR) software that can transform text and images into electronic characters are valuable for electronic archiving and analytical manipulation (e.g., the sociological method of content analysis, which is currently taught in Vassar's sociology methods course). Also, digital cameras can be very useful in teaching visual anthropology and sociology. Along these lines, faculty needs are first infrastructural in nature, entailing department or college access to scanners, digital cameras, and computers with OCR and graphics software installed (my sense is that college-wide access to this equipment is not sufficient when a whole classroom of students has been assigned to use these technologies). Faculty could also benefit from staff or others who could instruct students about how to use these technologies.
 For (2), which is a much more limited phenomena, faculty teach the social organization and consequences of the Internet and other information technologies. For example, in my "High-Technology and Society" course, I access the Internet for websites by IT firms, research consortia, government, public-private partnerships, and other entities engaged in the production of information technology and the economic development of companies/regions. An anthropologist is teaching a course on "Technology and the Music Industry" and has obtained a technology grant to set up a sound recording lab that students will use for their own projects.
 Since these entail teaching students a technology "literacy" informed by faculty's individual research and methods, faculty's needs along these lines are idiosyncratic and mostly infrastructural. Most generally, this means having access to classrooms with laptop projectors. Faculty with more specialized technological needs (e.g., in the "Technology and the Music Industry") generally apply for individual teaching or equipment grants, either through Vassar's Computer Information Services or academic foundations like the Mellon Fund.

Q. What roles and responsibilities do you currently assume regarding the use and instruction of technology?
 As stated above, faculty with specialized technological needs (e.g., in the "Technology and the Music Industry") generally apply for individual teaching grants for the purchase of these technologies. Several faculty also turn to the Vassar library, Instructional Media Services, and Computing Information Services for workshops on how to learn about and subsequently teach this IT literacy, although it is uncertain how this training filters down to other faculty and subsequently department's curricula.
 
Q. What goals do you have for collaboration in this area?
 Several Vassar faculty are currently launching a Media Studies Development Project (MSDP) to investigate the development of an interdisciplinary Media Studies program by 2001-2002. For the next year, the MSDP's plans are to convene a faculty seminar, with regular guest lecturers and periodical workshops on course development. Currently, the MSDP's agenda appears to be shaped largely by (1) Computer Science faculty whose pedagogical interests are largely straightforward and (2) humanities faculty who are increasingly interested in teaching "cyber-literacies" quite literally. By contrast, guidance by social science faculty in this Media Literacy Development Project has, to my knowledge, been minimal so far. There seems to be no consensus or common directions on how social science faculty can use information technology to qualitatively transform their teaching beyond classroom exercises and teaching.

 Q. What resources are you considering devoting to its future development?

See above for Vassar's pending Media Studies Development Project, probably the most important effort along these lines. While faculty with specialized technological needs generally apply for individual grants to purchase technologies, department-wide technology initiatives appear to be less common. As many faculty still use antiquated versions of Macintosh computers, there is much anticipation for Computing Information Services' new "cycle year" initiative, whereby computer upgrading will be consistent within departments. The new Computing Information Services initiative has also sparked some interest in other department-wide technology procurements. For example, I recently submitted grant proposals (as of yet unanswered) on behalf of the sociology department to purchase a scanner, digital camera, and OCR software for the pedagogical purposes described above.

Leonard Nevarez
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Vassar College
lenevarez@vassar.edu


 
Faculty Response, University of Massachusetts
 
Q. What is the course content and what are the pedagogical approaches for which you want to draw on technological resources?
 I believe that all pre-service and in-service teacher educators should be taught by instructors who make good pedagogical use of appropriate technology in their own classrooms, including the creation, acquisition and exchange of information.
 I also believe that all pre-service and in-service teacher educators should be exposed to courses or workshops that provide the opportunity to acquire the necessary skills to use technology and related software and/or materials in pedagogically appropriate ways.
 Thus, college and university instructors should be exposed to courses or workshops that provide them the opportunity to acquire the technical and pedagogical skills necessary to use technology and related software and/or materials in pedagogically appropriate ways.
 The campus Office of Information Technology faculty and staff, University library faculty and staff, and college/school/department administration, faculty and staff, need to work together to achieve these goals.

Q. Map out the range and variation, including both the content and the kinds of resources you encounter and need.
 Teachers at all levels need facility with the standard software applications for word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentation tools, and WWW navigation that helps them mine and put to good use the vast resources of libraries and other resources. They also need to be made aware of, and develop skill with, the use of appropriate software applications that enhance the learning and teaching of specific course content.

Q. What roles and responsibilities do you currently assume regarding the use and instruction of technology?
 I teach introductory courses in all of the above. I am involved in the development of a Master's level program in educational technology that is just getting under way.

Q. What goals do you have for collaboration in this area?
 At present our school has no requirements for course work that provides students the opportunity to acquire the technical and pedagogical skills necessary to use technology and related software and/or materials in pedagogically appropriate ways. I am looking forward to a healthy discussion and exchange of ideas for getting greater numbers of faculty and students on board the 21st Century Technology Express!

Q. What resources are you considering devoting to its future development?
 Whatever the limits of my time and energy permit and the administration are willing to commit.

Bill Masalski
Professor of Mathematics Education and Educational Technology
University of Massachusetts
william.masalski@educ.umass.edu

Librarian Response, University of Massachusetts
 
Q. What specific resources in the social sciences do you think would best contribute to or support student learning in the classroom? For each full-text database, index or other web-based information source, explain briefly how it could help expand the students' critical information gathering skills.
 We recognize that students are demanding more online resources that are full text. They want to be able to access the information on their computer in the comfort of their dorm room or apartment. It has become one of our goals to develop ways to not only provide that type of access, but also to set up some way to instruct students to go to the library web page first and to other internet sources as supplementary material. Statistics at the reference desk have been declining dramatically over the years, so we are developing initiatives that will take reference and instruction services to the students and the classrooms.
 To answer the first question I will list some of the resources we subscribe to in the social sciences that we feel support student learning and then I'll discuss what initiatives we are undertaking to expand students' critical information gathering skills.
 Although we still subscribe to the print indexes and abstracting services for the social sciences, we are slowly dropping those to purchase online databases. I will not list the print resources, but only the social science electronic resources (fewer than what we have in print). Unless specified, they are citation and abstracting databases.
1. America History and Life: North American history, 1964-
2. Boston Globe: Comprehensive full text coverage of Massachusetts business and economy, 1980-.
3. CAB Abstracts: land use, agriculture, rural sociology, tourism, etc. 1993-
4. Center for Research Libraries: collections include more than five million volumes of research materials rarely held in North American libraries.
5. ComAbstracts, communications, 1980-
6. Contemporary Women's Issues (full text)
7. Dun and Bradstreet Million Dollar Database: Covers 1,260,000 U.S. leading public and private businesses.
8. EconLit (economics worldwide, 1969-)
9. Electric Library: (full text) over 6 million 100% full-text documents from six different media sources updated daily
10. ERIC (education, 1966-): We will be subscribing to the full text documents component of the database (currently on microfiche).
11. Ethnic NewsWatch, the U.S. ethnic presses, 1993-
12. Expanded Academic ASAP: scholarly and general periodicals, some full text, 1980-
13. General BusinessFile ASAP: business periodicals, some full text, 1980-
14. HAPI: Hispanic American Periodicals Index , 1970-
15. Historical Abstracts: history, non-U.S. and Canada, 1969-
16. IDEAL: 250+ full text journals, 1996-
17. JSTOR: full text backfiles of 100+ scholarly journals
18. Latin American Database: news and educational service on Latin America
19. LegalTrac: law journal article citations, 1980-
20. LEXIS/NEXIS Academic Universe: thousands of full text titles in law, news, business, and reference, 1980-
21. PAIS International: international public policy, 1972-
22. Project Muse: Johns Hopkins UP full text journals-recent.
23. PsycINFO: psychology, 1887-
24. SocioFile (Sociology and related fields from 1974 on-)
25. Sport Discus: sports science, physical fitness, 1975-
26. Sports Business Research Network (full text sporting goods equipment market reports, trade magazines, newsletters, consumer market statistics)
27. Standard and Poors Net Advantage: financial information
28. Statistical Universe (indexes 5,000 federal statistical publications, 1000 state and nonprofit publications, 2000 international publications. Links to full-text in public domain.
29. Stat USA (full text of business, trade, and economic documents from 15 U.S. government agencies. Includes government periodicals, books, import/export statistics, and market reports.
 We will continue to add more databases and full text resources. Providing access to library resources, however, is not, in itself, sufficient. In addition, we are committed to developing web pages for each subject area that can be used to support the curriculum for that discipline. We have begun designing pages that include the course assignments and the library and Internet sources that should be the first point of reference for that particular assignment. These web pages are products of direct and ongoing communication and class visits with faculty in the discipline and are tailored for each course. Librarians attempt to insert critical thinking and evaluative aspects with the resources and during their presentations to the classes. A main objective for our library is to publicize our services and be so connected with the departments that students will always go to "their" subject web page first.
 Other initiatives we are undertaking are developing web modules for information literacy. One is a series of modules geared for the freshman and sophomore that could be used individually to teach about the world of information, books, journals and evaluating resources. The other is a web course to be offered for credit geared towards juniors that teaches more of the sources and functions of information in society.

Q. What roles and responsibilities do librarians on your campus currently assume regarding the instruction in the use of electronic information sources in support of student and faculty research?
 Currently all subject specialists assume responsibility for teaching information sessions when requested by someone from their constituency. We tailor classes to the needs of each group and consistently spend the bulk of our session on electronic resources (how to effectively search), as well as selected web sites of importance for that subject area. English 112 classes are coordinated by our Library Instruction Coordinator. We also set up independent research consultations and workshops for database and Internet searching.

Q. What goals do you have for collaboration with faculty, students and information technologists in the field of electronic information?
 We would like to expand upon our ability to be a "team" with the others and be proactive, rather than reactive, in our desire to bring the information to the students and faculty, regardless of their location. To do so will require much more contact with these individuals prior to the semester, in order to develop appropriate web pages that will support the curriculum for each faculty member.
 Another dilemma is that many of our students do not have OIT accounts and are not able to access our library databases if they are not in the library, even though they are students here. Easier access for students out of the area also needs to occur. Librarians have not interacted much with staff from OIT. Currently, the librarians have been learning web applications by themselves without much support. It would be a real asset to have a stronger connection with OIT for support, rather than looking elsewhere, as we now do.

Lori Mestre
Education Reference Librarian, Interim Co-Head of Reference
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
lori.mestre@library.umass.edu
 

IT Response, University of Massachusetts
 
Q: What technologies could enhance student and faculty research/teaching/learning?
 Network delivery of materials opens up opportunities for students
 The Web (and other TCP/IP-based network services) are making it much easier to get materials into the hands of students when and where they are most receptive to learning. This not only makes possible "distance learning" opportunities for non-traditional students with special geographic and scheduling limitations, but also enhances the learning of the resident student who may have a learning style that works best outside the traditional limitations of building hours, classroom schedules, and daylight.
 Network-based communication tools can move interactions beyond the classroom
 The variety of ways people can exchange text-based messages over networks is transforming the way students and faculty communicate. Email, bulletin-boards, chat rooms, and instant messages all create opportunities for group collaboration, critical thinking exercises, and discussions outside the context of a classroom. At our office we work a great deal with email distribution lists and course-management tools such as WebCT.
 Interconnected Internet-based resources provide simpler access to related materials
 The nature of the Web now makes it possible to interconnect content and resources instantly. This makes it possible to create a context or viewpoint for related materials and provide the students a framework on which to hang their understanding. Students can even add to these collections of materials. The challenge is educating the students (and faculty) to question and review the credibility of online information sources.
 Software and hardware is making it easier to create increasingly complex teaching materials
 The variety of creative desktop software and hardware available these days allows anyone with a minimum of technical training to create teaching materials that were once too expensive to produce. Color images, graphic diagrams, audio, video and even interactive computer programs can be produced and distributed to students relatively easily.
 One challenge of this is training the producers of these materials how to make them effective and high-quality enough to be credible to today's media-savvy students. The other challenge is making the creation process accessible enough and convenient enough that faculty will feel comfortable (even enthusiastic) about adding this to their long list of teaching tasks.
 At our office we are currently focusing on the creation of Web pages using WYSIWYG-ish Web creation software. We also provide support in the use of Photoshop, Illustrator, Powerpoint and similar software. In the near future we will begin offering faculty support in the creation, editing and distribution of digital video on the Web. The data analysis group in Academic Computing provides services related to using computers in statistical data analysis. We offer consulting on all aspects of statistical data analysis including the preparation of data, choosing an appropriate analytical technique, choosing and using statistical software, and interpreting results.
 On-the-fly assessment tools can provide feedback on instructional goals to students and faculty
 Online quizzes, self-tests, and other tracking mechanisms give important information to faculty and students on which messages are getting through and which pedagogical goals are being met. This allows faculty to make adjustments in class if key concepts are not being grasped by the students. This also gives students feedback if they personally need to make adjustments in their studies. We use WebCT to provide these tools to our client faculty. Other areas on campus are using homegrown solutions such as OWL or DUCK.

Q: What roles and responsibilities do you currently assume regarding the use and instruction of technology?
 As an evangelist, I prepare materials and presentations that encourage faculty to begin to use technology in the classroom, or consider new applications.
As a planner and navigational designer, I consult with faculty about their specific topic and help them discover the best ways to structure the content and which technological tools would be most appropriate for their audience and their pedagogical goals.
As a graphic designer, I help faculty (who do not have the skills or time) create visual designs that are appropriate to their topic and that can capture the attention of their (media-savvy) student or peer audiences.
 As a project coordinator, I help faculty find the resources that they need to complete projects: technical training, access to equipment, students who can help with production work, and people with special skills who can help make their wild ideas into concrete learning tools.
As a trainer, I help give faculty the skills they themselves need to use the specific technologies and produce materials. My key goal in this role is to give them the confidence to be self-sufficient and excited about using the tools. I also train the students of faculty who want them to have a certain level of proficiency with a tool being used in the class.
 The Academic Computing unit within OIT at UMass takes the role of supporting faculty as they incorporate technology into their teaching. We provice one-on-one consultation, workshops, project support, student training, and research into new technologies and their pedagogical implications.
 The Office of Information Technologies (OIT) at UMass, in addition to services provided through its Academic Computing unit, supports and maintains a good deal of the technological infrastructure at the University of Massachusetts. This includes: internet connectivity, local networks, web servers, email servers, specialized servers, help desk support, computer labs, software support, hardware support, special projects, administrative databases, and the entire phone system for the university.

Q: What goals do you have for collaboration in this area?
 The best service I can give to the faculty I work with is to know what is available and what is possible. Connecting with people in related areas at UMass, the Five Colleges and other institutions helps me give my clients a more complete view of what is possible and who is available to help.
 Our office tends to work with newcomers to technology. I am looking for ways to connect with the faculty who are more experienced with using technology. Creating partnerships with experienced faculty will provide greater challenges to our office and improve our service to the newcomers. We have begun to set up forums in which the experienced faculty present their work to curious colleagues.
 Our office is having the common problem of hiring qualified full-time technical staff. We rely a great deal on students for our technical and production work. Sharing ideas about attracting and developing relationships with the best students (and finding and hiring good technical staff) is of great interest.
 In order to remain up-to-date and excited about this topic, I look for opportunities to exchange ideas (and war stories) with others who do the same job. Talking about common challenges and new ideas with colleagues is the best way to stay involved.
 Our office is taking part in an UMass-wide Instructional Technology Council that is coordinating the many areas on campus that provide similar and complementary services.

Q: What resources are you considering devoting to its future development?
We currently spend approximately three-fourths of our time supporting use of current technologies and one-fourth looking at upcoming technologies and new applications. We would like to increase the amount of time we spend looking to the future and find ways to make our support processes more efficient.
 We will be soliciting proposals from faculty and their departments to provide them with direct assistance with forward-thinking projects and prototypes. Assistance will range from help planning projects to giving direct assistance in the design and production of teaching materials.
 We will be developing our capabilities to deliver digital video over the Web. We are currently ordering the necessary equipment and committing time for staff training and experimentation. Our area will collaborate with the other video-oriented services on campus to provide faculty with the training and assistance they need to edit and produce their own digital videos.
 We will be evaluating and promoting software that makes it easy for faculty to produce and post materials on the Web. These range from simple form-based tools that create simple Web pages to course management tools such as WebCT that make it easy for faculty to add bulletin boards, quizzes, and other special learning tools to their course Web sites.
 We will be developing ways to make intensive development tools such as WebCT easier and more convenient to use. We have been working with the software company and faculty who currently use the software to find ways to clarify and streamline the processes.
 We will be continuing to evaluate software and train faculty in its use. These programs are in constant flux as new tools are developed. We recently began replacing Claris Home Page web development workshops with Macromedia Dreamweaver workshops. We will also be introducing workshops that emphasize specific uses of specialized software: e.g. Macromedia Flash for animation and Adobe Illustrator for information graphics and diagrams.
 We will continue to research the pedagogical aspects of these technologies. We have already collected quite a bit about copyright, effective online communications, and the best use of online quizzes. Future topics include visual information design, writing for the Web, understanding interactivity, and appealing to different learning styles. We present the results of this research through our workshops, special presentations and a series of online tutorials.
 We will continue to develop our data analysis group. In addition to staying current with the frequent updates to the most popular software that we support (SAS, SPSS, Minitab, SYSTAT, and JMP), the most exciting developments are focused on integrating statistical software and Web technology to create dynamic, Web-based databases. We are also concentrating on improving the visualization of data through collaboration between the data analysis and the graphic design specialists on staff.

Fred Zinn
Multimedia Applications Designer
University of Massachusetts
zinn@oit.umass.edu.edu
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