IT Program Steering Committee Meeting Minutes

September, 15, 2017- FAC Room 445, 12:00- 1:30pm

Present:

Patricia Galvis Assmus, Graham Gal, Tyler Vouros, Maria Toyofuku, Carol Will, Jerry Schoen, Elizabeth Henneman, Jon Olsen, Barbara J Roche, Traci Hess, W. Richards Adrion, Nikki Stoia.

* Action Pointsare dark blue, have an asterisk and underlines.

  1. Welcome and update in The IT Program- Patricia greeted everyone and thanked them for coming. She updated the committee on her meeting with the new Dean of C.I.C.S., Laura Haas, who supports the interdisciplinary goals of the IT Program. Patricia has a new contract in which she agrees to continue to develop the IT Program with a collaborative approach that integrates the best interests of CICS and The Informatics Program. She will be meeting in the future with leadership. Patricia also conveyed that Dean Haas is very supportive of The ICT Summit.Patricia informed that; enrollment is steady, the budget is on track and that a search for a new advisor has been approved and posted. Patricia thanked Graham Gal for being the interim Advisor.
  1. Computer Competency Certificate (CCC) project update- Tyler explained that it is still in the format of a learning management concept O.W.L. book with 10 Modules and 60 pages of content. The majority of the content is written and has been converted to HTML. The CCC Student workers have been great, one specifically has significantly contributed to web development and capabilities within the OWL structure including; accessibility, embedded video, and user tutorials. A discussion of possible uses included as a 1st year or honors gateway course. Tyler expressed the need for feedback on content, grammar and overall user experience from many levels of users;*Carol Will and Maria Toyofuku volunteered and Traci Hess and Graham Gal offered the possibility of enlisting their Senior TA’s.
  1. Advising Update- Graham Gal, jokingly said that it has not as bad as he expected. He would like it if ALL Freshmen (at least in ISOM, but ideally more) were told about the minor and be encouraged to enroll as soon as possible, if they are interested. He explained the difficulties of late Declarations when students have misunderstood requirements and have never checked in for guidance or advising.Graham has concerns and questions about how to apply the 2 courses within a major rule to BDIC students and may ask the committee to vote at the next meeting, which will be curriculum based.Patricia would like to reach out to Linda Roney. The need to add courses was discussed, * all steering committee members should keep an eye out for course proposal possibilities and encourage faculty to submit Course Proposal Forms via
  1. Approval of Marketing 497 as a Broadened Inquiry-A brief review of Broadened Inquiry criteria and discussion of course details took place. Barbara J Roche motioned to vote to approve Marketing 497 as satisfying a Broadened Inquiry course requirement within the IT Minor; It was approved unanimously (12) with 0 opposed and 0 abstained.
  1. ICT Summit 2018 concepts and ideas- A discussion of the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Summit began. Patricia explained the history of alternating larger and smaller summits biennially. She refers to a previous discussion of having a series of events and “moving feast” concept, possibly involving faculty speaking on research or relevant topics. She then reiterates the enthusiasm that Dean Haas showed toward a similar caliper event as last ICT Summit and asks for feedback and conceptualization. Beth points out that she believes that there were people interested in being more involved last year, but that it was a busy time of year and that the dates were not confirmed early enough for commitments. There are hopes of outreach for collaborating even more with the five college community.Jon noted that outside speakers and practitioners are more likely to draw more student attendees, as they like to know and see what the skills that they are learning now can lead to after UMass Amherst. Patricia agrees and notes how well the Alumni Career night went over with students.Patricia points out that Tyler gathered feedback on the floor with attendees. There was consensus that there was a lot of interest in tables, V.R., Drones, Eye Tracking, hands on tech displays and some felt that sound traveled throughout the room too much. Additional feedback and details were discussed including; acoustics, location, gathering feedback, layout, timing of speakers and demonstrations. Members agreed that the central location was good. Patricia asks about single or multi-day preferences. Full day/one location with possible evening alumni event the night before is preferred. Patricia noted that Jerry is not available to work on the summit planning again and thanked him for his great work last year. Patience will find out about availability of spaces for Spring Semester to help decide timing.
  1. Discussion of question- “How do we balance possible need for more technical experience with the importance of the interdisciplinary approach?” - Beth suggests targeting specific groups, grant projects, and fields for interdisciplinary collaboration; E.g. - as in her work in College of Nursing. Patricia asks to keep this question in mind and to integrate into the conceptualization of the ICT Summit.

The discussion of The ICT Summit, keeping item 6 in mind, continues with usability, design thinking, title and theme considerations for the summit. Patricia asks for general and overarching theme ideas. The theme of Human Nature and Technologyis suggested (the example given is how technology has improved quality of life for the elderly.) We briefly discuss generational relation to technology- Jon mentions studies regarding young people not making as many memories and relying ion photos to recall experience. Jon mentions that iRobot is here Massachusetts. Tyler shares a graphic found online of “Evolution” resulting in a human with a mobile device and hunched back.

Ideas from discussion / Content
Tech for All; sequel prequel / Social Change / Social Media Ethics
Social Humanistic Theme / People Content / Social/ Humanistic/ people centered
Emerging Technologies / “
Tech Trends / Tech in our lives / “
History of Tech- STEAM / History of Tech
Civic Technology
Tech and Human Nature / V.R. & Artificial Intelligence
Tech that Advances the Greater Good (E.g.- TELEHEALTH) / Impact of Tech
Tech that benefits Society / “
How Tech is built into our lives(embedded/affected)
Awareness of Technology
Reuse/ Repurpose Tech/ Applications for other users- using tech in ways and uses not originally developed for. * Target specific developers / How some tech can be used by others in unintended ways- positively or not?
Tech for All; The Walking Tech / Hidden and popular (or obvious) impacts of Tech in People’s Lives
Tech for All; How Society Connects or Disconnects / “
Tech for All; Connected yet Disconnected / Sherry Turkle- “Alone Together”
Tech: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
The Dark Side of Tech

Suggested Contacts- iRobot, Sreenath Sreenivasan, Sherry Turkle.

Each member of the * steering committee will give ICT Summit ideas, titles and contact suggestions thought and get back to the IT Program via email.

* As a follow up, no email suggestions have been received by The IT Program to date.

There was a discussion at the 5/10/17 related to a possible name change of The Information Technology Program. The hopes are that each*committee member consider it and send email suggestions and rational, as soon as possible. It was discussed that it is important that the name be representative and encompassing in nature of the interdisciplinary rational, program details and governance at inception and approval of the IT Program and the IT Minor. It was discussed and agreed by all present that the work of the program exemplifies the Chancellor’s initiatives and directives of excellence in research, collaboration and diversity.

Respectfully Submitted,

Patience A.M. Hartley

Administrative Assistant, IT Program

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