The committee met this Monday to discuss where we stand in our data gathering and where the committee should put its focus after this initial round of goals has been met.  John Jaffe has compiled a complete list of the hardware and media equipment for the entire college and posted it to our working site.   He has also broken that information down by classroom so instructors can see precisely what equipment is in each room.

The Instructional Technology Committee recently conducted a survey of the faculty to determine what the faculty would like to see if classrooms.  Tom Marcais compiled this information and sent it around to the committee and gave a report on the trends at the meeting.  This information will be used to help formulate our recommendations for how to achieve digital literacy.

Goal five of our current list was reworded to the following:  5.  To determine technological competencies faculty expect students to have in each disciplinary area and whether instructional/classroom time is used to develop/remediate these competencies; to define the technological outcomes students should achieve in each curricular area.  This change was passed unanimously.

The survey of the local high school students conducted by the Competitive Advantage group had some questions embedded in it from Digital Sophistication.  The results were not particularly revealing:  the students daily use their cell phones, email accounts, and social networking tools.  They expect fast high-speed wireless everywhere on a college campus.  We will get more information about students’ expectations for technology on a college campus in the fall when we poll the incoming students.

Lastly, we discussed the possibility of a pilot course in technological literacy to be taught by Tom Marcais this fall.  Tom has circulated a course proposal and discussed the potential structure of the class as five participants from the students, faculty, and staff each.  The committee will read this proposal for the next meeting and determine whether a pilot this coming semester is feasible.

At the next meeting we will receive a report on the best practices in technology from other colleges, discuss the pilot proposal, and set long-term goals for the committee.   The committee always welcomes your comments and suggestions and solicits your input on whether training in technology should be voluntary or required for students and whether giving academic credit for it or working on a certificate model would be preferable.

Respectfully submitted,

Cathy Gutierrez

Categories: Guarantee Digital Sophistication