The whirlwind begins to subside

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Aug 272011
 

The first week of classes is over. Whew! There is a lot of excitement in Information Services.

We’ve hired a talented group of student workers who show a lot of promise, several of whom are freshmen or sophomores we hope to retain for a few years. Of course, this means I have to switch into management mode after doing everything myself through the summer. This then leads to me having more time to work with faculty, and assistance in large projects, such as managing the classroom equipment inventory.

We are currently testing a WordPress server and plan to have it ready for production next week. There are plans to use this for communication/collaboration within the Course Connections and to market the new curricular initiatives. Certainly WordPress will find other uses in classes and on campus.

Thanks to a significant bequest to the Economics Department, several of the classrooms in the Corns Building are getting upgraded audio-visual equipment, including flat panel LED screens in two of the seminar rooms. The large multipurpose room will be getting an additional projector facing the east wall, and the computer lab will finally be getting a ceiling-mounted projector. The installation work begins Monday.

Besides the usual technical training workshops for faculty and staff, there will be several Blackboard workshops offered, some informal lunch & learn conversations, and I will be available to observe teachers in their classes to make suggestions and recommendations for their using technology more effectively and/or efficiently.

Along with all that there is the usual excitement of the start of a new academic year, the expectations and interests of a new incoming class, and the hopes and interests of the new faculty. And on that note, let me share this year’s Beloit Mindset List that describes the worldview of the incoming class: http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2015/

Cheers!

Summer swiftly coming to a close

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Aug 042011
 

It was just the other day a colleague asked me, “Can you believe it’s August already?” Classes start in less than three weeks, athletes start showing up on campus next week, and everything ramps up quickly. The fine person who has been helping on our help desk at this busy time of year is back in the chair, freeing me up to do more Instructional Technology (such as write a blog post.)

Over the summer I’ve read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, the selected reading for OWU’s first year seminar. My, that was a good choice! Appropriately named by more than 60 critics as one of the best books of 2010, it chronicles the story of this journalist striving to uncover the history of the famous HeLa cells, and document the story of the woman they came from and her family. I had never heard of HeLa cells before, but the story pulled me right in and held my attention. It will provide ample food for thought and fodder for discussion on a range of topics, including medical ethics, racism, economic justice, and journalism. I look forward to joining a section of UC 160 and discussing this book as a launchpad into a broader discussion of college life and expectations.

(Image of stained HeLa cells courtesy GE Healthcare (by way of Henrietta Lacks) via CC)
Colored HeLa cells 

Since finishing The Immortal Life, I’ve started reading Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not a Gadget, and gotten through the first couple chapters. This one is different than Skloot’s in that it’s a manifesto rather than a narrative, it’s more technical and philosophical. It’s also hitting very close to home because, like Lanier, I am also a technologist. I am familiar with his terms and his topics, and am increasingly appreciating what he’s trying to do: promote more human-centered, or humanistic, technology. It’s interesting to hear criticism that the Web 2.0 is dehumanizing from someone within the IT field. I look forward to reading the rest of what he has to say, and applying some of his suggestions in my own work as an Educational Technologist. (Education comes first, so technology serves the people doing the teaching & learning…)

In other news, OWU Blackboard installation will be upgraded to SP6 before classes start, I will be making appointment slots available where faculty can sign up for consultations online, and I will be offering more informal lunch & learn conversations this fall. There are more initiatives in the works that will be announced later.