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ETC helps faculty navigate the IT landscape
By DONNA BUDNIEWSKI
Reporter Assistant Editor
With the wide variety of IT services available to faculty, staff and students at UB, navigating the technology landscape at the university can be daunting at times. Leveraging and consolidating that technology for curricular enhancement and research activities is a major goal of the Educational Technology Center (ETC).
FABIAN
As a gateway to information technology, the ETC provides university-wide access to the latest equipment, software and instructional support to help faculty develop IT strategies that enhance their teaching and research activities, says Carole Ann Fabian, the center's director since July 2003.
"We are active partners with other IT units on campus—for example, ITS, DEVO and iMedia—to collaboratively deliver the best technology support to faculty," says Fabian.
The ETC administratively joined the University Libraries last fall with the mission of assisting UB faculty, instructors and staff in creative and effective applications of technologies for teaching, learning and creative scholarship, says Fabian.
"Library leadership in the ETC is quite timely. As faculty and staff develop more diverse learning objects, digital publications and digital collections, it is important to simultaneously develop robust access mechanisms and long-term strategies for digital preservation," she explains.
"The challenges of persistent access and interoperable systems are critical to the sustained growth of educational technology projects. The development of DIGIT, a digital asset-management infrastructure for UB digital collections, is one example of ETC-supported collaborative efforts to offer campus-wide solutions to digital information dissemination and preservation.
"The center is dedicated to helping faculty decide what technology would actually be the best vehicle for their content and teach them how to integrate software tools and multimedia elements that meet their instructional goals," she says, adding that ETC staff is skilled in instructional design and regularly partners with faculty members to develop unique solutions to teaching with technology.
Recent examples of faculty collaborations with the center include the development of ePortfolio, a prototype, Web-based student portfolio system that allows students to document their learning experiences at UB in a digital format, and XinMedia, an interactive media aid to improve student foreign-language learning.
The center's facilities include an educational-technology classroom, a multi-task conference room and informal meeting spaces designed to support a broad range of activities targeted toward individual or small group instruction. The center supports Linux, Windows and Macintosh workstations and maintains current licenses for a wide array of graphics, Web and multimedia authoring tools, in addition to campus-wide licensed software.
Workstations at the center have specialized, open-source tools; audio and video digitization, and multi-format scanning and printing peripherals. Clients create digital projects using the latest media creation and editing hardware and software; output media includes CD, DVD and Web-based products. Individualized assistance with other productivity technology tools, such as PDF and PowerPoint, is available, as well as customized group instruction. Workshops also are offered throughout the year on both campus-wide technology systems and specialized media and digital authoring tools.
A new satellite office will open on the South Campus this spring in the Health Sciences Library's Digital Media Resources Center in Abbott Hall, and the center's North Campus location in 212 Capen Hall recently was renovated. The ETC classroom can be reserved for workshops, presentations and instruction in various IT applications.
"We also administer UB's educational-technology grant program and consult with faculty on the development of external grant opportunities that emphasize technology-enriched components," Fabian says. "We want to be advocates for the most forward-looking technologies and increase faculty awareness of evolving instructional technologies and existing campus resources."
To that end, the ETC will host the Ed Tech Grant Showcase 2004 from 3-6 p.m. on Wednesday. The event consists of e-poster sessions, presentations by Round 5 educational-technology grant award recipients and a reception.
"It will be an opportunity for our community to visit the 'new' ETC, view collegial projects and see really exciting implementations of technologies leveraged for enhanced teaching and learning," says Fabian. Faculty presenters and ETC staff will be on hand to answer questions and discuss new projects.
"This event is one way faculty can be exposed to other options for technology-enhanced instruction. The IT community at UB is very gifted, but there isn't necessarily one tool, one size, to fit all. Academics are about unique solutions," she points out.
"The ETC wants to facilitate the use of emerging instructional technologies and encourage cross-disciplinary collaborations. From our perspective, we notice intersects in faculty interests and instructional goals across disparate disciplines. By bringing together faculty from multiple disciplines to address common instructional goals, we can increase the potential for growing shared tools," she says.
"I'm a firm believer in building bridges, not silos. For example, we formed the Digital Instructional Video Applications Committee to explore the use of digital video as a student-learning and assessment tool in professional practice disciplines," she explains.
The center maintains an extensive library of books, videos and CD-ROMS related to technology, teaching and learning, and is willing to loan such equipment as digital still cameras, digital video cameras, LCD projectors and laptop computers to support faculty and staff educational-technology project development.
ETC work areas are available for faculty and staff use during regular business hours, but those wishing to reserve specialized task stations are advised to call 645-7700 or e-mail etc@buffalo.edu.