Some items the College TLTR may want to address, from your e-mails..
Berta TLT activities and programs on each campus methods of making campus decisions about spending money equipment choices successful training methods group purchase plans methods to provide information to help Steve make decisions faculty web course develiery related issues campus software experiences college support for technology and teaching VCCS technology initiatives and their impact on NVCC Since most of us are quite involved in TLT I see this group functioning as a THINK TANK that both creates new ideas and also shares ideas with each other, with each campus/college and with the VCCS.
Pam 1) As far as I know there is no mechanism (forum) where we can go to find out how other campuses, faculty or staff use technology, what they are doing and where we might go to learn about a particular idea/application/teaching strategy. Perhaps someone could create an archived web page containing historical items and perhaps a listserve. New people would like to know, for example, what the Gardner Group is and other topics that are named but not explained. The www.tltgroup.org <http://www.tltgroup.org> is a good place to start, but how can these folks catch up on institutional knowledge and have a way to access new ideas. Perhaps a showcase site. 2) The professed goal of technology seems to be to improve teaching and learning, yet most references to technology seem to focus on increased enrollment and larger class sizes for teachers at a distance. Do we talk one way and act another? Cn we bring the two closer together? Should we? 3) At our campus TLTR workshop faculty voiced the concern that most people thought that TLTR would dictate policy, software applications, and teaching strategies when most people do not want things decided for them without their input. 4) Communication/language-- We are noticing a widening split between the technical people and the non-technical people when they try to communicate with each other. This is especially noticeable when a non technical person asks the help desk to solve a problem and the answer comes back a) requiring a level of prior knowledge that does not exist, or b) garbled in tech speak so that the nontechnical person is worse off than before. The suggestion has been made that technical people need to understand that they are working with human beings and not machines, and that the non technical people need to ask very specific questions and/or state their knowledge level in their messages. Can we find ways to come together and avoid the us/them lines? 5) Technical support: Might we discuss the fact that tech support cannot keep up with user demands in a timely fashion and how the TLTR could assess these needs and/or suggest solutions. This creates another problem. After the early adapters have used technology for a few years or so, to keep the momentum, an organization needs to branch out and bring into the fold many of the resistant or timid users. This was beginning to happen. People were coming to see the advantages of technology, but the constant server, software, and hardware failures and the lack of timely fixes are causing the second wave of users to give up in frustration. How can the TLTR encourage marginal users? 6) Training- Concerning PeopleSoft and web pages, faculty and staff are having to train themselves and the learning curve is steep. Many say that they need the time and energy to do their jobs, as their organizations are already understaffed. Also they do not want to create and/or maintain web sites. They suggest that templates be constructed where they can dump their info in and that maintenance instructions be simple and quick.
Gene TLTC Planning & Design Session, 11/5/99 in DC As the official contact from your institution for the TLT Group's Roundtable Network, you will have priority in registering for this event (or you can designate to us someone else from your institution to represent you). If more than one person from your institution registers AND we do not have enough space, we will ask you to help us decide who should be registered. The registration form for the November 5, 1999 "TLT Center Planning and Design Session" is now available at: http://www.tltgroup.org/calendar/tltcreg1.htm The TLTC Planning and Design Session will be in Washington DC at the Doyle Washington Hotel. At this event, academic leaders and corporate supporters of The TLT Group community are being invited to share ideas and experiences to further the common goal of designing TLTCs and describing the training services and materials needed to launch and sustain them. See below for an explanation of "TLTC" and more information about this event. This will be a WORKING meeting. Registration is $75/person. Space is limited. Priority will be given to Roundtable Network subscribers. If you believe you have one of the SMALLEST examples of a TLTC, you may be eligible for 2 free registrations and a small travel grant for this event. The winner of this "smallest" quest will also be invited to make a presentation. PLEASE COMPLETE SECTION G OF THE REGISTRATION FORM INCLUDING AN ESTIMATE OF THE SIZE OF YOUR TLTC (number of rooms, total square feet) IF YOU WANT YOUR TLTC TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS COMPETITION OR if you are willing to provide us with information about your TLTC for future reference in the work of this new TLT Group program.) Steve Gilbert ============================================= We're holding the TLT Group's first planning and design session for a new TLT Group Core Program about Teaching, Learning, and Technology Centers (TLTCs) on November 5,1999 in Washington DC at the Doyle Washington Hotel (202)483-6000 -- (pre-session on November 4). This event is co-sponsored by Georgetown University's Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship. Our goals for the first TLTC Planning and Design Session are to begin to answer the following questions: 1. What are the current options and new models for TLT Centers? Biggest? Smallest? Which institutional characteristics match which new options/models? 2. What kind of help (services, materials) do colleges and universities need to design and launch TLT Centers? 3. What kind of help (services, materials) do colleges and universities need to sustain TLT Centers? Which of those services/materials should be supplied by a national source vs. regional source vs. collaboration among a group of peer institutions? What should a (V)TLTC offer to support local TLT Centers (information services, technology help desk, pedagogy help desk, personal help desk, training for TLTC staff)? What should a (V)TLTC offer directly to faculty members at institutions that do/don't have local TLTCs? 4. What are the most important next steps for individual institutions, groups of institutions, and the TLT Group? Please let us know if you have a case study describing something like a TLTC that you would be willing to make available at (or in preparation for) this meeting. If you wish, you may use section G of the registration form to tell us about your TLTC. BACKGROUND During the past decades, hundreds of colleges and universities have developed centers to support faculty members' efforts to improve their own teaching and related scholarly pursuits. In addition, most higher education institutions also have technology support services, libraries, and other related professional support organizations (e.g., instructional design, language labs, media services, telecommunications) operating quite separately from each other. In the late 1990s some institutions extended and changed this model. They established centers located in or near the library that include staff and other resources from the faculty development, library, and technology support organizations TOGETHER. We will refer to these centers as Teaching, Learning, and Technology Centers (TLTCs), although few of them have exactly that label. Most individual TLTCs do not have the staff or other resources adequate to keep up with the rapidly growing demand for integrating information technology into teaching and learning; nor do the professional staff members on most campuses have the time and resources for keeping up with the proliferation of new combinations of pedagogy and technology. To meet these growing needs, inter- institutional collaboration in support of the work of local TLTCs appears increasingly attractive and (with the support of new communications technologies) increasingly feasible. Establishing a Virtual TLTC ((V)TLTC) for a group of institutions (consortium, state system, etc.) is the next step. We will use some of our time together to design (V)TLTCs. For those participants arriving early, The TLT Group has made arrangements for a small group to see some interesting designs for physical spaces configured to support the use of technology for communication, training, and collaboration at the offices of Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) late in the afternoon of November 4. If you are interested in learning more about GDSS, please visit them on the Web at www.gdss.com If you want to participate in the TLTC Planning and Design Session, please complete the REGISTRATION FORM http://www.tltgroup.org/calendar/tltcreg1.htm by October 26, 1999. Space is quite limited for this planning and design session, so please register early. The registration fee is $75 per person, which includes breakfast and lunch during the 9AM -4PM agenda on 11/5/99. We have arranged for a special conference rate of $125/night at the Doyle Washington (202)483-6000, located in Washington DC on Dupont Circle. Please refer to "TLT Group" when making your reservation. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Steven W. Gilbert, President THE TLT GROUP -- a Non-Profit Organization The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Affiliate of AAHE 202/463-1787 FAX: 202/467-6593 GILBERT@TLTGROUP.ORG http://www.tltgroup.org One Dupont Circle, Suite 360, Washington, DC 20036 USA =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jeff Issues above, plus College TLTR web site xx