MEETING MINUTES

Present: Eric Loehr, Thomas Laughner, Marnie Anderson, Joe O’Rourke, Susannah Howe, Deborah Haas-Wilson, Tony Caldanaro, and Fraser Stables

Absent: David Gregory and Sara Pruss

Minutes from February 25, 2013

The minutes of the February 25, 2013 meeting were approved as submitted.

ETS and Research – Tom Laughner

Tom provided the committee members with a paragraph taken from the IT Strategic Plan concerning “effective use of technology to improve learning and research” and progress made to date on these goals by ITS/ETS. Deborah Keisch Polin has been working with Smith faculty on their research protocols as it relates to teaching and learning with technology. Tony Caldanaro said that the Science Center does provide high capacity storage, they are looking at cloud-based solutions, and they are talking with Eric Brewer about high capacity storage and ways that their two areas can collaborate.

There was a brief discussion about the confusion about the different storage options being made available on campus and the need for more information on which option is the best choice for a particular use: Google Drive, Box, Drop Box, or the H drive.

Fraser said that he does not feel that research and the arts are properly supported at Smith. Joe said that going forward ITS, ETS, and CATS were going to collaborate on virtual infrastructure. The committee felt that research and teaching/learning should be more closely tied and that perhaps CET’s charge should be changed to include research requests.

Deborah said for econometrics and Stata there is no real support on campus for high level needs and master’s thesis work. Joe agreed that this is a real problem on campus.

Tony asked if CET might fund 3-day workshops with professionals in their areas. The committee supported the idea of using CET funding for research. Joe said that CFCD has generous funding for research but has a $500 ceiling on the purchase of equipment needed for research.

Horizon Report – Tom Laughner

Tom presented slides of the Horizon Report which addressed the current trends and challenges facing colleges today. The trend is toward openness, a MOOC environment (massively open online courses). The question is “How do MOOC get used in the current teaching environment?” Joe said that it is very difficult to know what to do about this other than to educate ourselves to the emerging possibilities. State schools are beginning to accept credits for online courses, Amherst and Wellesley are looking at the EDX infrastructure model and Wellesley is planning to design four courses by the fall of 2013. Joe said that he has written a proposal to explore giving credit for online courses.

Challenges noted in the report were infrastructure, human resources, and faculty training. Tom noted that our new Instructional Technologist will be a great resource for meeting these challenges. Another challenge will be understanding new scholarly forms of authoring. Tom said that 90% of the Smith community is using Moodle.

Emerging Techologies:

1 year or less: MOOC’s and tablet computing

2-3 years: Games & gamification, learning analytics

4-5 years: 3D printing (Makerbot) and wearable technology (Google glasses)

Tom asked the committee about giving thought to the faculty membership on CET for next year. Marnie’s term is up as is Fraser’s but he is willing to continue on if asked.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 AM; the next meeting is April 29th at 9:00 AM in Seelye B4.

Respectfully submitted,

Constance McGinn, recorder