Summer Faculty Institute Report
Everyone who attended the Institute from Northeastern
felt that it was extremely useful and interesting. Attending the conference
certainly caused all of us to evaluate the potential of incorporating technology
into our courses and departments. Everyone felt all the morning sessions
were informative and useful. Several of our faculty found the afternoon
sessions less than satisfactory regarding materials covered and focus.
Overall, everyone walked away with a positive outlook and enthusiastic
about the future.
A concern heavily emphasized throughout the conference
was access and communication. Our group attending the institute will stay
together and attempt to assist the university in the development and implementation
of these technologies at NEIU. In an attempt to build a university wide
support group, other interested faculty will be solicited to participate.
Included at the end are comments generated by the
group. The following are collective comments responding to nine questions
posed from the institute.
These are specific to NEIU:
Infrastructure and Support
What discussions can be initiated to ensure that
the campus network is adequate?
What is needed in technical support at the campus
level?
What is needed in hardware at the campus level? Department
level?
- technical support needs to have higher visibility
and accessibility
- need to better communicate with each other (faculty)
what is available for us to use, what common problems are we encountering
- need to create/maintain Web page, newsgroup, faq
and discussion list (on going web conference) as source of information
for faculty/students
- Dir. of Univ. computing needs to involve faculty
in development and planning to better facilitate educational uses of technology
and campus network
- 24 hour access for students to allow increased access
to alleviate problems
- institutional support (from administration) is needed
and necessary for these technologies to reach their potential
- very few faculty have expertise needed for doing
a good job in creating course materials and need assistance not training
- restrictions are too rigid on purchases of software
and hardware, support doesnāt exist. Software and hardware restrictions
by Univ. computing limit choices faculty have in development of materials
- needs to be a vehicle for departments without an
equipment line to acquire appropriate funds
Incentives and Rewards
How can the use of technology in teaching be integrated
in the promotion?
What new or expanded measures of faculty workload
are needed?
What kind of instructional support teams are needed
to make networked courses effective?
- clear that giving faculty 3 CUās to develop materials
is not the answer and results in resentment, faculty end up doing more
work for less, in the long run no one benefits
- felt that the administration needs to provide more
support in terms of
- equipment for development
- release from teaching (60%)
- need to fit development of instructional materials
and courses as part of retention and tenure, to date many departments do
not recognize this type of activity, this needs to come from administration
- develop Web pages, faqs and a wider range of sources
available for faculty
Training and Development
What is needed in terms of training for faculty?
What is needed in terms of training for students?
What is needed in terms of training for teaching
assistants?
- need training/assistance in using other than "sanctioned
software"
- need to look at an institution wide, standardized
computer literacy course/requirement for students during their first semester
- better understanding of what computer literacy requirements
are now, who is responsible for what component
- very few faculty have expertise needed for doing
a good job in creating course materials
- may need more assistance in the development and integration
and not necessarily training, faculty will learn as process proceeds
- we need to rethink and evaluate how we now train
faculty and students
- are we preparing ourselves for students entering
university who will be better versed and more knowledgeable in technology
than faculty, students in high school are already using PowerPoint in presentation
- not clear that there is evidence of a commitment
by univdrsity in providing hardware, software, training for faculty/students
and support, support in this dcase means someone to call for answers to
questions, provide technical assistance, etc.