Meeting Notes

Bob Henshaw
Vicki Kowlowitz
Wallace McClendon
Jim Noblitt (Chair)
Iola Peed-Neal
Jocelyn Neal

Call to Order
Welcome and Introductions
Announcements

New FITAC Members

Several new members are turning out to have conflict schedules. May need to reconsider an alternative schedule.

Show and Tell (Jocelyn Neal)

Goals:

• A shared resource of digitized sound files that more than one course or faculty member could use
• A secure and legal way of providing recordings to our students for both in-class lecture and homework assignments
• A way to combine images, text, and sound in a single presentation
• Flexible design so that faculty are free to create different user interfaces and end products
• Able to be implemented and maintained with no money and no staff
• Able to be implemented almost immediately (this is year #5 of actual use)

Project:

• Collection of MP3s, catalogued and stored in AFS space
• Course websites with links to the files (encoded and delivered through a streaming server)

Features and New Directions:

• Integration with other resources (Blackboard in particular)
• Freedom in the classroom (a rarity with large classes)
• 4700 files, all undergraduate survey and non-major classes in the music department (and several performance instructors) use the system
• Graduate students are using the project to gain IT experience

Challenges:

• Sharing outside the confines of the project
• Integrity of the catalog
• Storage space, file security, training students, training faculty, hardware to digitize LPs
• Students want even more features and flexibility

Other issues

• Would like to see faculty being a stronger voice on protecting fair use.
• What is the role of Instant Messenging and other emerging technologies at the University?
• Faculty need to know about new technologies, their promise and limitations, and how they can be used effectively.

Faculty Council Update (Judith Wegner)

• Doesn't see a near future for additional funds for innovation, but would like to consider other options.
• Would like to see more self-guided online advising options. For example, can students find out more about courses before they register for them?
• Faculty retention is an ongoing challenge. Showcasing innovations in the area of technology. Perhaps some hands-on experience, targeting new/tenured instructors.
• What are the issues/challenges that impact technology adoption among our faculty? With new curriculum coming into play, it may be a good time to consider new approaches. A more sophisticated diagnostic as to the issues that must be addressed to move things forward.
• As an instructor in property law, she's very interested in making sure faculty have all the information they need to make good decisions about fair use and other copyright considerations.

Comments for Judith

• Biggest incentive for faculty adoption may be time savings.
• Can the institution afford to support the increased use of technology?
• Is IT adoption happening at the rate/degree to address the needs of the institution?

Wegner:

• Per funding, FITAC should be ready to make case to new CIO.
• Should also meet with Proposal Development Initiative about external funding opportunities.CCI Student Study results may serve as a springboard for external funding opportunities.
• Would like to have FITAC engage Faculty Council more in-depth on some issues.
• Having a Teaching Lab building may capture the imagination of some funding sources? Creating productive spaces may be a way to get more faculty involved.
• Points of intervention for faculty are as grad students and as new faculty members. Otherwise, tenure-track junior faculty need to protect their time.

____________

Agenda: TBA