Committee on Educational Technology
10:30-12:00 noon, Thursday, April 1, 2010
Present: Jamie Hubbard, Eric Loehr, Thomas Laughner, Fernando Armstrong-Fumero, John Davis, Jefferson Hunter, Gary Felder, Herb Nickles, Roisin O’Sullivan, and Melissa Choyce
Absent: Sara Pruss
Approval of January 28, 2010 Minutes
The minutes of the January 28, 2010 were approved as submitted.
Nomination of faculty to fill vacancies and 1-year replacement for CET
The committee considered the faculty from all three divisions who expressed and interest in running for the vacancies on CET and came up with the following rankings for who they would nominate:
Division I (3-year term)
Division II (3-year term)
Division III (1-year replacement)
Jamie will initially contact the top two for each division and work his way down the lists until we have two acceptances of nominations for each division.
Faculty Training Plan - Tom Laughner
Tom provided the committee with a synopsis of the new proposed training model for faculty and solicited feedback. (Details are provided in an ETS document entitled “Plan for Faculty Training and Awareness”.) The committee’s response to the proposed model was very favorable. Tom informed the group that he had an email ready to send to faculty and a web page prepared. Some discussion of faculty learning communities (flc) ensued. Gary suggested tying the ETS learning groups to the Sherrerd center while Jamie asked for clarification on the difference between an flc and a user group. Tom explained that an flc would be focused on a specific topic, have a defined time horizon and would produce some form of output. Jefferson asked if faculty blogs had been the subject of a Tech Know talk or a seminar in the past. Tom replied that blogs had been discussed in a May workshop. Jefferson mentioned that Michael Thurston was maintaining a blog as part of his scholarly activities and Melissa informed the group that students had kept blogs in a Japanese class she took. Tom will contact Michael Thurston about his blog.
Computers in Seminar Rooms- Tom Laughner
Tom proposed using blue-tooth keyboards in some seminar rooms on a trial basis. Having a wireless keyboard would allow the faculty member or a student to control the screen from any seat in the room without creating a physical obstacle. The use of a blue-tooth keyboard would avoid keyboards in one classroom interfering with computers in other classrooms. The committee discussed concerns about the keyboards been stolen but the solutions to locking them up were prohibitively expensive – especially given the low ticket price on the keyboards. The committee agreed that the best course of action would be to try 3 or 4 keyboards in seminar rooms in the fall semester and see how things work out. ETS will check the equipment each day and replace the rechargeable batteries. John asked that if the committee knew of faculty teaching seminars in the fall that would be good candidates to use the keyboards to direct them to request the trial seminar rooms. \
Jamie initiated a discussion of the role and responsibilities of CET. Given that funding proposals are now being considered online rather than in meetings, it was suggested that the committee might meet less frequently. Some discussion took place about the roles of CET and CFCD in allocating funds. John mentioned that he hoped to allow for up to $500 of CFCD funds for faculty to purchase hardware and software. There appeared to be a consensus among the committee members that information on CET grants should be included in the money book. An examination of the criteria for CET funds was proposed. In an effort to bring new initiatives and the policy discussions of the committee to a wider audience, there was a suggestion that the chair give a short presentation at a faculty meeting. The discussion will continue at our next meeting.
The next meeting will be May 6th in Seelye B4
Respectfully submitted,
Roisin O’Sullivan, recorder