Classroom Technology Services (CTS)

Abstract

New Media and Student Computing (NMSC) announces the creation of Classroom Technology Services (CTS) to support faculty in the use of technology in their teaching. CTS will aid faculty in this effort by providing:

• Centralized communication and information dissemination
• Centralized tools and services
• The CTS Faculty Lab

Current use of technology in teaching

The focus on infrastructure enhancements, faculty computing, and technology in the classroom over the past several years has had a significant impact on the number of faculty who incorporate technology in their curriculum. Faculty now have access to:

• 17 technology-equipped classrooms with more in development
• A computing infrastructure which provides students with over 300 public computers, Ethernet access from the dorms and approximately 200 modem lines
• The Rice Cable TV system for scheduled on-campus broadcasting of video presentations
• A RealMedia server for serving highly-compressed, on-demand video and audio
• Divisional computing consultants who provide support and basic web help

The impact these resources and the enormous growth of technology in general has had on teaching is evident from the 354 course web pages now listed in RiceInfo and the 192 course newsgroups created for Rice classes. Demand for podium-equipped classrooms is high. However, a closer look reveals that there is still plenty of room for improvement:

Over 200 faculty have been involved in these efforts, many without any help from Information Technology Services. We can aid faculty and leverage the use of existing resources by making a renewed and more focused effort to communicate the ways in which they can use technology to enhance their instruction, providing greater access to specialized equipment, software and training, and by providing centralized tools and services which will allow faculty to more effectively use the time they have to devote to these activities.

Addressing faculty needs

While Information Technology (IT) has supported a number of high-profile projects, a majority of the faculty who have developed technology resources have done so with little or no involvement from IT staff. Because these members of the Rice community are teachers and academics first and resource developers second, we can help them by providing ways for them to use the time they have to devote to these projects as effectively as possible. In many instances, faculty time is currently ill-spent:

• locating or aquiring the appropriate hardware and software for the job
• seeking out information about new technologies which may be helpful to them
• performing repetitive pre-processing tasks (scanning, converting texts, etc.)
• performing repetitive maintenance tasks (searching for broken links, etc.)
• searching or waiting for answers for both technical and pedagogical questions

New Media and Student Computing (NMSC) can leverage the existing classroom technology and aid faculty by focusing on creating and strengthening a centralized communication system for these efforts, providing centralized tools and services, and a central facility geared specifically for the development of technology-based curriculum resources by faculty.

Classroom Technology Services (CTS)

At this point, access is no longer the greatest barrier to the effective use of technology in teaching. The faculty have shown that they are interested in and committed to using these new methods of teaching. By creating Classroom Technology Services, NMSC can make a substantial contribution to improving the quality and quantity of online materials used at Rice.

CTS will be responsible for:

1. Facilitating communication:

   • Working with existing information providers to make sure that information regarding classroom technology is up-to-date and accurate
   • Creating a web presence for technology in teaching, including information about available technology and on-campus resources, tutorials, and suggestions for effective use
   • Fostering communication between content creators and NMSC by creating a mailing list and sponsoring a monthly informational session which would provide updates about new services, feedback and allow faculty to learn about and from each other's endeavors

2. Providing tools and services:

   • Provide tools that would be beneficial to all faculty creating course resources:
   • Automated tools to help in site maintenance (checking for broken links, etc.)
   • A central catalog of images available for Rice use, and software for faculty to use in creating individual catalogs
   • Other central tools which solve common problems (quizzing tools, etc.)
   • Provide services for common tasks which can be completed more effectively in bulk and by student workers:
   • Scanning images and slides and creating image catalogs for the faculty
   • Scanning and converting documents into text or basic HTML
   • Capturing audio or video for use on the web via the RealMedia server
   • Where appropriate, build modules, tools and templates that can be used by several faculty to solve common problems

3. The CTS Faculty Lab:

   The facility for faculty or their student workers to use in the development of curriculum resources will initially include:

   • Windows NT development station with appropriate software
   • Macintosh development station with appropriate software
   • Standard Owlnet UNIX machine for testing
   • Color scanner with document feeder
   • Slide scanner with bulk feeder
   • VCR for video capture
   • Digital camera
   • Color printer
   • Staffed hours for assistance in using the facility
   • Appropriate software manuals and tutorials