Present: Eric Brewer, John Davis, Chris Gole, Nicholas Howe, Sam Intrator, Thomas Laughner, and Katwiwa Mule
Absent: Mary Ellen Birkett, Gary Lehring, Eric Loehr, and Herb Nickles
Guests: Joanne CannonCarlson, Kate Lee, and Barbara Pliska
ETS Director’s Report
1) Pod casting help page – Kate Lee
Kate Lee demonstrated the new pod casting help page that is about to go live here on the Smith College website. John Davis suggested that it would be a very good idea to make this same presentation at a faculty meeting.
2) Media upload/ distribution system – Joanne CannonCarlson
Joanne demonstrated a new media upload page that is being established by Damon Blanchette in ETS for use in uploading, managing, and distributing media. This project is in the test phase right now but ETS wanted to begin to make faculty aware of its capabilities.
3) Faculty spring workshops Joanne CannonCarlson
Joanne gave the committee a handout with a draft proposal for the upcoming faculty spring workshops. She said that ETS proposed to run this workshop along two tracks, one titled “Jazzing up your Teaching with Technology” which would be geared more toward beginner/ intermediate users and the other track titled “Exploring Virtual Worlds for Education” would expand on prior knowledge and provide an opportunity for faculty to design lesson plans in Second Life, integrating that with Moodle.
Joanne gave the committee a proposed budget for the workshop which includes stipends for faculty, reimbursements for presenters, and refreshments for participants over the 3 day workshop. John Davis agreed that the Provost’s office would once again cover the costs for faculty stipends and asked Joanne to coordinate the timing and detail of the workshop with Danielle Carr Ramdath in his office. Sam Intrator suggested that it would be nice to have two weeks in the spring dedicated to professional development.
Classroom Survey – John Davis
John told the committee that it became clear during the classroom survey that the least utilized classrooms were those without technology. The recent classroom technology upgrades have been extremely well received and those classrooms are the most in demand. He said that there is a proposal in to ACRA for additional funds to continue upgrading remaining classrooms but suggested that once again this year CET might consider using leftover funds at year-end to donate to this project. The committee voiced support of this proposal and will discuss it further at the next meeting.
Mac OS maintenance licenses – Barbara Pliska
Barbara Pliska provided the committee with a handout showing MAC allocations on Smith College campus. She told the committee that Mac use and purchases have increased steadily over the past couple years and that Apple requires that each Mac carry the upgrade maintenance license. ITS had budgeted for these 3-year maintenance licenses using numbers that were relevant at the time. Using current figures, that number has nearly doubled and ITS has a significant shortage for the upcoming license. The request to CET is to give a one-time $10,000 assistance to pay for the licenses and then ITS will work to increase their operating budget to fund these licenses in the future. The committee agreed to provide this assistance on a one-time basis.
Other business
The minutes of the December 19, 2007 meeting were approved as written. Tom Laughner said that he would be in touch with the committee by email regarding James Johnson’s grant request. The next meeting will be April 11th in Stoddard Hall G4 conference room unless otherwise specified.
Respectfully submitted,
Constance McGinn, recorder