MEETING MINUTES

 

Present: Fernando Armstrong-Fumero, Mary Ellen Birkett, John Brady, Eric Brewer, John Davis, Gary Felder, Jamie Hubbard, Thomas Laughner, Eric Loehr, Herb Nickles, and Roisin O’Sullivan

 

Absent:  Tarja DeSoysa

 

 

Introductions and Welcome – Herb Nickles

 

Herb welcomed the committee members back for a new year and everyone introduced themselves.  New to the committee this year are Fernando Armstrong-Fumero, John Brady, Gary Felder, Jamie Hubbard, and Roisin O’Sullivan.

 

History of CET and review of the CET charge – Herb Nickles

 

The committee was given copies of the CET charge which can also be found at https://www.smith.edu/deanoffaculty/code/code32.html and Herb gave a brief history of the committee’s formation, its duties, and explained the budget.   He noted that the chair of CET also sits on the ITCC meetings and reports to/from CET to the ITCC.

 

Election of CET Chair

 

Mary Ellen Birkett nominated Jamie Hubbard to chair the CET; he accepted the nomination and with no other members being nominated the committee voted unanimously to elect Jamie as this year’s chair.

 

Review of guidelines for CET technology grants – Tom Laughner

 

Tom Laughner reviewed the grant initiative process and guidelines with the committee; the committee still feels that the section which discusses software upgrades needs further consideration.  He explained that John Davis can provide information regarding departmental equipment budgets and also can provide insight into other available funding sources.

 

Grant initiative requests

 

1)              Laura Katz: Laura has requested funding for 2 Macs and 1 wireless hub for an informal learning space in Clark Science Center.  The request was approved for $3286.00.

2)             Michael Barresi: Michael has requested funding for recording equipment and software licensing for the ECHO 360 which will make it possible to record voice and on-screen computer drawings for student review outside of the classroom.  Tom said that students can access these files via Moodle, iTunes, iPod.  The committee felt that this was a very interesting initiative and approved funding $5,790.00 for the hardware and $4,995.00 for the software.  The software costs would be paid on a one-time only basis; any renewals will have to be funded by the department.

3)             James Drisko: James has requested funding to upgrade his Dell monitor to a 16 x 9 format widescreen LCD.  John Davis said that this does not meet the criteria for a CET initiative request and the committee agreed.  The request was denied.

4)             Randy Frost: Randy has requested funding for AMOS software to do structural equation modeling in his Psychology classes.  The cost for 7 licenses and maintenance contracts is $5,096.00.  The committee asked Tom Laughner to research the possibility and costs of a site license and report back to them prior to a decision being made on this request.  Request placed on hold.

5)             Giovanna Bellesia:  Giovanna has requested funding to purchase 1 copy each of Inspiration and Dragon software to be used in class preparation and teaching of 7 sections of elementary and intermediate Italian.  The cost of the software is $195.00 and the committee approved this request.

6)             Chris Gole:  Chris has requested funding to purchase 3 Parallel computing add-ons to our existing Mathematica site license.  The committee agreed that this should be a departmental expense and denied the request.

 

 

 

Demonstration of SnapStream – Tom Laughner

 

Tom began a demonstration of SnapStream, an appliance that turns your PC into and DVR allowing you to capture programming from cable TV stations and download the recordings onto a PC.  Because it was 4:30 PM the demonstration had to be cut short and the committee was encouraged to get in touch with Jeff Heath at the Center for Media Production if they wanted to set up an account and begin using SnapStream.

 

The next meeting will be October 21st in Stoddard Hall G4 conference room.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Constance McGinn, recorder