EDUCATIONAL TECHONOLOGY COMMITTEE MINUTES March 6, PM - 1:30 PM

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1 EDUCATIONAL TECHONOLOGY COMMITTEE MINUTES March 6, PM - 1:30 PM Present: Voting members: Jaclyn Conelius, Erica Hartwell, Silvia Marsans-Sakly, Amalia Rusu (Chair), Ron Salafia, Vishnu Vinekar, Tommy Xie Ex Officio members: Paige Francis, Christine Siegel Regrets: Joan Overfield, Casey Timmeny, Jay Rozgonyi The meeting was called to order at 12:03 PM 1. Approval of minutes from February 3, 2014 Amalia asked if there were any changes or additions to the minutes. Hearing none, Erica moved to approve, seconded by Ron and accepted unanimously. Amalia suggested that the agenda be adjusted, moving new business early and adding an item based on Ron s request. 2. New business 2.1 Faculty ipad wireless printing Tommy Xie reported a request from Prof. Betsy Bowen of English regarding printing documents wirelessly from ipad to campus printers (see Appendix). Bowen, like many other faculty members, used ipad extensively for both teaching and research. She found it inconvenient that campus printers cannot print documents from ipad, while students can already print wirelessly on those printers. She wondered if the ITS could add such wireless printing functionality for faculty. Paige Francis spoke on the issue but added that Jay Rozgonyi would probably provide more technical detail. Moving forward, this is absolutely something that we are planning to do, Paige said. The Canon printers on campus come with a host of functions that have yet been fully used. Students are now able to send print jobs to the printer and pick them at the printing station using their IDs. Interestingly, about 75% of printing jobs are not picked up. Paige said that she had already contacted the technical team to see if the printers are capable of doing wireless printing from smart devices, though additional software/hardware modules from Canon may be required. Of course, the cost of acquiring the modules would be the next issue. Amalia added that the technical aspect should not be a major issue because now many printers either come with wireless print or may be upgraded to wireless printers. The 1

2 bigger issue is how to move this forward. Paige responded that the ETC should be outspoken on this issue and make the demand heard by the administration. Amalia also said that the demand is probably there because faculty are increasingly use ipads for classroom and research. FDEC, for example, have groups that explore ipad s potentials in the classroom and will be holding technology workshops in May. Vishnu reported that there didn t seem to be much demand on wireless printing for DSB faculty as the school was encouraging less use of paper. Erica pointed out faculty in other schools/colleges may have different needs for printing. While Amalia asked for a follow-up on the issue. Paige said that Jay just ed her back saying that a special board will need to be installed on the printers and he was looking into the cost. Paige said that she would give an update on the topic. 2.2 Substitute for Ron Salafia at the March BOT meeting Ron said that as the liaison of the ETC, he was planning to go to the BOT meeting on March 26 in New York City, which will happens on his teaching day. However, because of the large number of snow days earlier in the semester, he found it hard to forgo even more classes. He wondered if anyone would want to replace him and represent the ETC at the board meeting. Others either expressed the similar concerns with their classes or excused themselves with prior arrangements. No substitute was found. Amalia said that if anyone becomes available, he/she may contact Paige for the trip. Ron apologized for the lateness of the change of plan. 3. Old business Christine Siegel joined the meeting at 12:35 PM. 3.1 Classrooms issues (assignment, access, content, wireless connectivity, etc.) Amalia mentioned that FDEC raised the question of why Fairfield does not require students to own a laptop, given that now computers and Internet are so heavily involved in pedagogy and that IDEA evaluation is now exclusively online. Paige said the latest figure is that 99.3% of students have their own computer. Vishnu said that lack of the policy is probably because we want to attract low-income students. Amalia then asked if so, why don t we have a formalized computer assistance program. Ron speculated that perhaps such a program would discourage students from acquiring 2

3 their own laptops but instead rely heavily on the university. Giving computers to the 1% of students should not be an issue. Jaclyn asked if Fairfield has any relationship with computer vendors, such as Apple, who give discounts to students. Paige responded positively, saying that Apple does give a decent discount to students. And because of that, students often come with computer models more advanced than our lab computers, which discourages the ITS from investing in lab computers. Vishnu said that even with their own computers, students often encounter technical problems. Therefore it is important to have a backup system, such as laptops that can be checked out when needed. Ron agreed and described how the older laptops in Susan Rakowitz s class worked just fine as backup. Paige said that the library and possible the media center offer laptops to check out. But she said she would give an update on the availability of laptops for check-out. Christine Siegel and Paige Francis report on classroom assignment issue based on conversations with registrar and the classroom committee Paige said the inquiry centered on three questions: (1) Why were there so many classroom change? (2) What could we do to make the process easier in the future? (3) How can we contact those affected by the changes in more timely fashion? Christine said that with 1349 sections this semester, we ended up having only 10 classroom changes. The 10 classroom changes were made in the add/drop period because some classes got bigger and had to be moved to a bigger room. Another complication is that because the add/drop period was extended in the spring, thanks to the snow days, some of those room changes seemed especially late. Before the semester starts, 57 rooms were change. Overall, of the 1340 sections, 96% of them didn t have their room changed. After faculty put in the attributes of their rooms in the new EMS system, the first draft was sent to the Dean s offices, who were supposed to check with department chairs on the room assignments. For various reasons, 57 changes were made at that time. The final draft of the room assignment was in Banner in late December. It is possible that people didn t check the final version and thought they would still be in the room assigned earlier. In terms of communication, the Associate Deans should check with chairs carefully. Some Associate Deans did a better job than others. But the VPA s office is open to suggestion to make the communication better. 3

4 Silvia said that she was surprised, thinking that probably most of the changes happened in CNS. Her class was changed three times, the last time happing in the third week of spring. Ron reported he checked his assigned room about 2-3 weeks before class started, and it turned out to be the initial assignment. However, when he checked again a few days before class, the room had been change. He wondered if there would be any deadline after which assignments wouldn t be change unless there s an emergency, or if there would any notification system that informs faculty and students. Christine said that a notification system should be implemented in the future. Silva said that she was assigned to a tiered room while she was planning to do a lot of group work. Christine said that the attributes system needed improvement. For example, there is no rank order for preferred options. Another issue, Christine said, is saving preferences. Preferences will be saved from fall to fall, and from spring to spring. Faculty may need to manually change saved preferences should their need change. Check fewer options is actually better since the system can t maximize faculty s needs when too many options are chosen. Erica asked if the system would be used for summer courses. Christine said she would check. Silva asked if seminar rooms would be an attribute in the system. Christine said it would be an option. Amalia asked how seminar rooms are defined. Christine said she would try to find out. Silva stressed that she would need report back to the history department as well as modern language regarding the cause of the issue, accountability, etc. Christine encourages the committee to bring Associate Dean Aaron Perkus to clarify the communication process. Amalia and Christine reminded the committee that anyone encountering room change problem could Michael directly. Christine went on to explain why David Frassinelli was not at the ETC meeting. He operates at a higher level, such as planning new buildings and infrastructure. Therefore, he might not the ideal person to answer questions about classroom assignment. The conversation then moved to classroom access, which David and the Classroom Committee are in charge of. Though the swipe card system is costly, the university has been working toward that direction, according to Christine. But 4

5 before it is implemented, several alternative means must be in place, such as the pin lock, or simply ask a staff member to unlock a classroom for an 8AM class. Vishnu said that he hasn t heard of any problem with keys in DSB. In fact, some DSB faculty preferred the key system. Ron said that the key, as an old technology, is often inconvenient, and if too many keys are made, management would become a problem. The committee went on to discuss wireless connection in classroom and its potential impact on IDEA evaluation. Paige said that the wireless system is undergoing a major upgrade and encouraged faculty to report problematic spot. She also reported that in the end of March, student network s bandwidth would be doubled. With heavy streaming evening into night, the ITS has been considering outsourcing residential hall traffic, which would presumably alleviate much pressure on the campus network. Paige said that she submitted the capital estimate for IT, of which the top five objectives were academically related: (1) infrastructure overhaul, (2) comprehensive wireless upgrade, (3) video streaming upgrade, (4) classroom technology upgrades, (5) classroom computers upgrades. Ron was under the impression that the BOT also felt the need to upgrade technologies on campus. Paige underscored that the Fairfield 20/20 plan heavily relies on technologies. 3.2 Update on smart/collaborative classroom in Bannow 124 Christine said the demo of the classroom was a success. Erica reported that her students love the classroom using many of the new technologies. The only complaint was the high temperature. Because of the overwhelmingly positive feedback from faculty and students, a grant proposal to renovate CNS 9 in a similar fashion was submitted on February 27, Christine said. The decision would be announced on March 15. The bigger plan to bring this kind of cutting-edge renovation to more classrooms on campus. Feedback data have been systematically collection for strategic planning. Amalia ask if there was any plan to use Bannow 124 next semester. Christine said that there was no specific plan yet, but through carefully coordination with the faculty, the room would be used to its maximum benefits. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 1:31 PM. Respectfully submitted by Tommy Xie 5

6 Appendix Wireless printing request from Prof. Betsy Bowen From: Bowen, Betsy Sent: Sunday, February 15, :26 PM To: Simon, James Cc: Rozgonyi, Jay Subject: Faculty ipad project: update & request Jim, I ve been part of the Faculty ipad project, working with Jay Rozgonyi and others to see how faculty might integrate ipads into their teaching. It s a good experience, pushing me to try new things. (My favorite so far using Bb Grader to leave voice comments on students papers.) There s one thing that would help faculty go further with ipads that is, if we could print wirelessly from the ipad. According to Jay, the problem isn t technology, since all of our students can print wirelessly from devices. It would be a big incentive to using the ipads, if we could print documents directly from the ipad to our departmental computers. Presumably the copies could be charged on our regular individual copy codes, just as they are when we print from laptops. I don t know if this is something you could look into for the College, or if it s something that would have to be adopted across schools. But I think it would speed up faculty adoption of the new technology. Thanks for considering the idea. 6