Academic Program Review Report: ITC December 3, 2007
Academic Program Review Report:
Instructional Technology Center (ITC)College of Education
Center Director: Dr. Mike Metzler, Associate Dean for Academic Programs
History
The Instructional Technology Center (ITC) was established in 1997 as part of a “Three Year Plan for Technology in the College of Education.” The plan combined the resources of The Instructional Resource Center located in the Pullen Library and the College of Education computer labs located on the 1st floor of the College of Education. The goal was to consolidate the resources of the College of Education and to provide better services for faculty, students and staff. The center officially moved into its new space in the Spring of 1997. Initially, the ITC was officially designated an institutional library. It maintained a media collection and a checkout and reserve system, but low usage and diminished resources led to the decommissioning of the library function in 2006. Since that time the center has focused entirely on information communication technologies for enhancing teaching and learning.
General Information
The Center’s director, Dr. Mike Metzler, reports directly to the Dean of the College, Randy W. Kamphaus, Ph.D. The Instructional Technology Center has an advisory board consisting of: Steve Harmon, Ed.D. (ITC Director, 2000-2006) Chair of Learning Technologies - Department of Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology; Randy Jones – Director of Information Systems and Technology, College of Education; and Sue Husted – Associate Director of the ITC. The Advisory Board's main roles are to make recommendations for the support and introduction of new technologies in teaching and learning, suggest and support ongoing programming, and to provide guidance for the ITC’s future endeavors to insure that they are consistent with the College’s mission and values.
The Center is interdisciplinary, supporting all programs and academic departments within the College of Education. The ITC also makes available classroom space, technology resources and personnel support for the entire University community. The Instructional Technology Center’s mission has remained consistent throughout its 10 year history.
Mission:
· Establish a framework to engage all learners (students, faculty and staff) in continuous study for professional growth.
· Invent new ways to teach with and about technology.
· Provide an atmosphere for faculty, students, and Pre-K-12 educators that encourages and supports technological confidence and expertise in the areas of teaching, collaboration, and consultation.
· Support both software and course development which allows faculty, staff and students to work harmoniously and cooperatively at an optimum level.
Goals:
· Provide a place of activity for learning
· Provide a warm, welcoming, "user friendly" environment, which does not necessarily speak of technology
· Establish and maintain a flexible space which adapts to changes in technology platforms and teaching methods
· Support collaborative teaching and learning
· Maintain an inviting and participatory environment for research, teaching and learning
· Support experimentation and research
The ITC’s mission, goals and objectives are as timely today as they were in 1997 and align well with the University’s 2005-2010 Strategic Plan. Under “Technology” the University-wide plan states:
A goal is to continue to remain current in the application of computing and information technologies, congruent with the needs of the Net Gen students. All students should have ready access to computing resources and an opportunity to develop information management skills for lifelong learning.
The Instructional Technology Center’s facilities on the second floor of the College if Education building consist of four collaborative seminar rooms, three twenty-station instructional computer labs, and an open computer/multimedia lab that houses over 100 computers for faculty and student use. The center supports both Macintosh and PC based computing and provides software, hardware and technical support for audio and video production and editing. The center maintains a large A/V equipment and multimedia peripheral inventory for short term check-out by the university community. The addition of the wide-format poster printer in 2006 now affords faculty and students the opportunity to prepare materials to present at poster sessions for local, state and national conferences. Faculty and students have access to over 100 educational software titles, thirty-five productivity software packages and state-of-the-art multimedia production technology.
On any given day the ITC hosts over 300 students from across the university in its open computer facility on the second floor of the COE building. A recent survey of users revealed that 42% of all users in the ITC open computer laboratory are affiliated with departments and programs outside of the College of Education. During busy semesters, the ITC seminar rooms and labs can provide space for 21 scheduled classes.
The ITC has been very successful at achieving its goals. The ITC is “A place of learning activity;” its open lab is used by faculty, students and staff from across the entire university. A 2005 remodeling project created work and other learning spaces that reflect the ITC’s goal of providing “warm, welcoming, user friendly environment.” Representatives from universities across the USA and from many other countries have visited the ITC facilities for assistance in developing their own design plans for technology-based workspace. The ITC is a “…flexible space which adapts to changes in technology platforms and teaching methods.” The ITC continuously upgrades facilities and equipment; two classrooms now house state of the art collaborative work environments, and ITC computer labs were recently re-configured to better promote teaching and learning and were made more faculty/student user-friendly with the addition of whiteboard technology, dual projection and wall mounted media controls. The ITC video-conferencing suite is used to support research, dissertation defenses and distance learning around the world. With the deactivation of the GSAMS system and the Distance Learning Group, the ITC video-conferencing suite became the only permanent general access video over IP conferencing suite in the University.
Budget
As the five-year budget history below will demonstrate, the ITC is adequately funded for its current mission and activities. To meet its goals and objectives, 100% of the center’s regular budget has been financed out of Fund Code 10 from the College of Education budget.
Year / Budget2003 / $424,815
2004 / $480,091
2005 / $499,436
2006 / $469,567
2007 / $513,749
The ITC’s budget has been regularly augmented by University Student Technology Fee grants that underwrite the Center’s continuing major equipment needs. ITC’s ability to continue to provide its current level of service will be dependent on continued success in securing significant funds through the Student Technology Fee Grant competitions in the future. With this caveat and with the exception of unforeseen budget cuts, there are no major institutional, administrative, or financial constraints that interfere with the ITC’s ability to maintain the current level of success in achieving the center's goals. Additional resources will be required to expand services beyond the current capabilities, particularly as the Center seeks to enhance its capacity to better support faculty research, keep pace with the College of Education’s adoption of online learning programs, and support best practices in the effective use of technology for teaching and learning in the STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). It is likely that the Center will need an additional staff member dedicated to these efforts as STEM initiatives expand in the future.
Service, Outreach & Research
Although a substantial portion of resources go toward supporting the overall university community, the ITC’s predominant goal is to provide service to students, faculty and staff in the College of Education. This is accomplished primarily by providing space, resources and expertise to meet the needs of these constituents as they explore and incorporate instructional technology into their teaching and learning. The ITC promotes the larger mission of the University by providing “…access to quality education for diverse groups of students, to educate leaders for the State of Georgia and the nation, and to prepare citizens for lifelong learning in a global society.” This is accomplished with an open computer facility and a regular schedule of relevant technology workshops (see attached schedule.) The ITC hosts a series of regularly scheduled workshops to the university, but also provides on-demand training to faculty, staff and students in individual sessions, small group sessions or larger classroom-based settings.
The ITC provides further service to GSU and the Atlanta K-12 community through outreach activities conducted by our Information Systems Training Specialist and our Educational Technologist. These specialists provide instructional technology outreach to practicing teachers, school groups and educational organizations. Their goal is to model the integration of technology in all curriculum areas. Programs have been conducted at various elementary, middle and high schools within the region.
The ITC has no academic faculty on staff, but does aid COE faculty with research by providing resources (technology and expertise) to ongoing projects including the Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to use Technology (PT3) grant, the Professional Development School Partnerships, Early College, and the Teacher Induction program, to name just a few. Major opportunities exist for the Center as it continues to follow a central mission of service. The ubiquity of mobile technologies (laptops, PDAs, MP3 players and Cell Phones) promises to have a profound effect on teaching and learning in years to come. mLearning, short for mobile learning, happens across locations and takes advantage of learning opportunities offered by these portable technologies. The center is uniquely positioned to help faculty and students research, explore, and deploy educational content for mLearning. However, this effort may require additional funding for production hardware and software that is unique to these mobile platforms. The Center may also need additional staff to ensure that all practitioners understand how to harness the power of these innovative technologies and to provide professional development opportunities so that faculty can develop confidence in new pedagogical approaches that use mLearning.
While the ITC has been successful in serving those faculty and students who wish to incorporate technology into teaching and learning, challenges to that level of service continue to arise as some faculty resist or are hesitant to use of technology in the classroom. Some administrators and faculty members perceive that the ultimate aim of instructional technology is to reduce or even remove the human element of instruction. The Instructional Technology Center staff must explore ways to convince faculty that education will always require human intervention from instructors or facilitators. Just as importantly, we realize that traditional modes of teaching and learning that ignore technology will seem increasingly irrelevant to today’s “digital natives” as they begin entering the higher educational system.
The ITC staff has worked hard to develop training aimed at helping faculty incorporate instructional technology into teaching. However we have learned that the traditional workshop model of one-time offerings is less successful than it was in the past; faculty attendance is typically low despite efforts to diversify offerings and the times that workshops are offered. Follow-up investigation reveals that faculty need release time to synthesize, practice and employ the skills learned. This lack of extended time is the primary reason offered by faculty for low attendance at workshops. To better serve the faculty, the Center’s staff must further explore faculty beliefs toward instructional technology and use those findings to make strategic decisions in the ITC. This may be achieved by introducing more professional development opportunities that focus on pedagogy aided by technology instead of conducting workshops that discuss technology topics.
Page 15Academic Program Review Report: ITC December 3, 2007
Workshops & Conference Presentations by ITC Personnel
Conference Presentations
Davis, A. (2007). Learn to Blog: Blog to Learn. A workshop presented at GaETC (Georgia Educational Technology Conference). Atlanta, GA.
Davis, A. (2007). Learn to Blog: Blog to Learn. An online presentation for the 2007 K12 Online Conference.
Davis, A. (2007). Lessons Learned from Blogging with Elementary and University Students. A workshop presented at the NECC (National Education Computing Conference). Atlanta, GA.
Davis, A. (2007). Putting the Pedagogy into the Tools. An online presentation for the 2007 K12 Online Conference.
Davis, A. (2006). Improving Instruction Through the Use of Weblogs. A workshop presented at GaETC (Georgia Educational Technology Conference) Atlanta, GA.
Davis, A. (2006). Unleash the Potential: Remix Obstacles into Opportunities. Keynote address presented online for the 2006 K12 Online Conference.
Davis, A. (2005). Effective Weblogs in Education: How to Create, Manage, & Communicate. A workshop presented at the NECC (National Education Computing Conference), Philadelphia, PA.
Davis, A. (2005). Lessons Learned: A Panel Discussion about Creating Educational Communities Online. A panel discussion presented at the NECC (National Education Computing Conference), Philadelphia.
Jones, M.G. & Harmon, S.W. Intentional Instructional Strategies for Mobile Learning Environments. A paper presented at the 2006 IADIS Mobile Learning Conference, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Harmon, S. W. (2006). The Crossroads: Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology at the Intersection of Content and Pedagogy. A paper presented at the 2006 international meeting of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education. Orlando, FL.
Harmon, S. W., Jones M. G. (2006). Have a BLAST: Blog Learning Achievement Support Teams. A paper presented at the 2006 international meeting of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education. Orlando, FL.
Jones M. G., Harmon, S. W. (2006). Participatory Active Learning Strategies (PALS) for New and Emerging Technologies: Definitions and Examples. A paper presented at the 2006 international meeting of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education. Orlando, FL.
Jones M. G., Harmon, S. W. (2005). Intentional Instructional Strategies in Web-based Learning: Ancillary Communication as an Emerging Model. A paper presented at the 2005 international meeting of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education. Phoenix, AZ.
Harmon, S. W., Jones M. G. (2005). Mobile Ubiquitous Computing in Teaching and Learning: A Review of the Literature. A paper presented at the 2005 international meeting of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education. Phoenix, AZ. Conference.
Jones M. G., Harmon, S. W. (2005). An Emerging Model for Ancillary Communication as an Intentional Instructional Strategy in Online Learning Environments. A paper presentation at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Montreal, Canada.