Methodist University
Title III Times
From the Director
Colleagues,
As you know, Methodist University received funding for a Title III grant last October. Title III funds are to
be used to upgrade our technology, both in terms of installing a campus-wide integrated database and installing instructional technology in our academic facilities. Since that time, much has been happening. Here is a
review of activities thus far:
Volume 1, Issue 1
April 13, 2011
First, what has been happening regarding the integrated database:
•
We contracted with Jenzabar, out of Boston, MA, to be our student information system (an integrated database covering most MU offices) vendor. The product we purchased is Jenzabar EX,
version 3.8. We also purchased Jenzabar JICS, which is software that provides controlled web
portal access to the Jenzabar EX system.
•
We purchased and installed hardware (servers, etc.) to house the Jenzabar software.
•
The EX software consists of several “modules,” and MU “module managers” have been appointed
to receive module manager training.
•
Mary Hupp (who is the Database Administrator for this effort) and I went to Jenzabar “University”
to learn about the EX system; Mary has also been trained on the technical aspects of EX data management.
•
Module managers have undergone one round of training (Training Trip I) from Jenzabar trainers
who have visited campus.
•
Several more rounds of training from visiting Jenzabar trainers are scheduled well into 2012. The
second round of such visits (Training Trip II) begins April 26-29. Other Training Trip II visits
occur throughout May. Please see the Calendar in this issue.
•
All remaining on-campus training will take place in our new training center which has been installed on the first floor of the Mallet-Rogers House.
•
Mary has completed the first major “data transfer” of MU data to Jenzabar for data configuration
and mapping. This data will be used in future training sessions as we learn how to use the EX
system.
•
We expect to “Go Live” with the Jenzabar EX system in July, 2012. Go Live for the JICS web
portals will be sometime in October, 2012.
The following has been happening regarding instructional technology.
•
We hired Dr. Bruce Morgan to serve as the Title III instructional technologist. His title is Director
of Instructional Technology, his office is in the North Administration Building, and his phone extension is x7465.
•
Dr. Morgan has visited every classroom and lab on campus to ascertain what instructional technology is currently in use.
•
Dr. Morgan has visited many faculty members to listen to their technology needs, with the goal of
helping them develop a technology integration plan for their courses. (continued on page 2)
Inside this issue:
From the Director
1
Calendar
2
Morgan’s Minutes
3
FAQs
3
Teaching Tips
4
Visual Resources
4
Page 2
Title III Times
(continued from page 1)
•
Dr. Morgan has also distributed an online faculty survey regarding instructional technology.
Inside this issue:
•
Dr. Morgan is communicating with vendors getting quotes on various instructional technology equipment.
From the Director
1
•
Dr. Morgan has also provided faculty members with information and links to instructional technology resources. Please see under “FAQ” and “Visual Resources” in this issue for more such links.
Calendar
2
Morgan’s Minutes
3
FAQs
3
Other activities:
•
We have met with Bryan Pack, MU’s new Webmaster, to create a Title III web site that will serve as a technology resource for the MU community, as well as an archive for Title III newsletters. The web site should
Teaching Tips
be up and running early this summer.
•
I am attending the Title III Director’s conference in Washington, DC, April 19-21 for workshops on Title
III project administration.
•
Mary Hupp and Jasmin Brown (the MU Registrar) are attending the Jenzabar annual conference June 1-4 to
attend workshops and network with personnel from other EX customer institutions.
Visual Resources
4
4
We are very excited about the direction our Title III project is going to take our institution. All members of the MU
community, particularly students, will benefit from this major transition. I will keep you posted on developments.
Best regards,
Don Lassiter
Title III Director
Calendar of Events
April 2011
May 2011
Sun Mo Tue We Th Fri Sat
Sun Mo Tue We Thu Fri Sat
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31
April 26th-29th—Training Trip II for Registration, Advising and Student Affairs
May 3rd—May 5th—Training Trip II for Business Affairs
May 10th—May 11th—Training Trip II for Admissions
May 23rd—Training Trip II for PowerFaids/Financial Aid
May 23rd—May 24th—Mapping Consulting
Page 3
Title III Times
Morgan’s Minutes
Instructional Technology is a powerful tool that engages students in learning and active participation in Inside this issue:
the classroom.
“Instructional Technology is the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning. ... The
words Instructional Technology in the definition mean a discipline devoted to techniques or ways to make learning more efficient based on theory but theory in its
broadest sense, not just scientific theory. ... Theory consists of concepts, constructs,
principles, and propositions that serve as the body of knowledge. Practice is the application of that knowledge to solve problems. Practice can also contribute to the knowledge base through information gained from experience. ... Of design, development,
utilization, management, and evaluation ... refer to both areas of the knowledge base
and to functions performed by professionals in the field. ... Processes are a series of
operations or activities directed towards a particular result. ... Resources are sources
of support for learning, including support systems and instructional materials and
environments. ... The purpose of instructional technology is to affect and effect learning (Seels, B. B. & Richey, R. C. (1994). Instructional technology: The definition and
domains of the field. Bloomington, IN: Association for Educational Communications
and Technology. pp. 1-9).”
My position as Director for Instructional Technology is to work ‘hand in hand’ with the educators here at
Methodist University to evaluate and create an effective system of Instructional Technologies to reshape
teaching and learning on campus. My goal is to evaluate the tools we have, use a systematic approach to
design and create a group of tools that can be recourses to those who find value in teaching technologies.
The first tool that is being introduced at this time is the Classroom Response System (CRS) also known
as Student Response Systems, or Audience Response Systems and more commonly known as ‘clickers’.
FAQ
What are clickers?
Below is an excellent link that describes the CRS and their uses.
http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/teaching-guides/technology/clickers/
From the Director
1
Calendar
2
Morgan’s Minutes
3
FAQs
3
Teaching Tips
4
Visual Resources
4
Volume 1, Issue 1
Page 4
Teaching Tips
Active and Cooperative Learning
http://www.calstatela.edu/dept/chem/chem2/Active/index.htm
The past decade has seen an explosion of interest among college faculty in the teaching methods variously grouped under the terms 'active learning' and 'cooperative learning'. However, even with this interest, there remains much misunderstanding of and mistrust of the pedagogical "movement" behind the
words. The majority of all college faculty still teach their classes in the traditional lecture mode. Some of
the criticism and hesitation seems to originate in the idea that techniques of active and cooperative learning are genuine alternatives to, rather than enhancements of, professors' lectures. We provide below a
survey of a wide variety of active learning techniques which can be used to supplement rather than replace lectures. We are not advocating complete abandonment of lecturing, as both of us still lecture
about half of the class period. The lecture is a very efficient way to present information but use of the
lecture as the only mode of instruction presents problems for both the instructor and the students. There
is a large amount of research attesting to the benefits of active learning.
Inside this issue:
From the Director
1
Calendar
2
Morgan’s Minutes
3
FAQs
3
Teaching Tips
4
Visual Resources
4
"Active Learning" is, in short, anything that students do in a classroom other than merely passively listening to an instructor's lecture. This includes everything from listening practices which help the students
to absorb what they hear, to short writing exercises in which students react to lecture material, to complex group exercises in which students apply course material to "real life" situations and/or to new problems. The term "cooperative learning" covers the subset of active learning activities which students do as
groups of three or more, rather than alone or in pairs; generally, cooperative learning techniques employ
more formally structured groups of students assigned complex tasks, such as multiple-step exercises,
research projects, or presentations. Cooperative learning is to be distinguished from another now welldefined term of art, "collaborative learning", which refers to those classroom strategies which have the
instructor and the students placed on an equal footing working together in, for example, designing assignments, choosing texts, and presenting material to the class. Clearly, collaborative learning is a more
radical departure from tradition than merely utilizing techniques aimed at enhancing student retention of
material presented by the instructor; we will limit our examples to the "less radical" active and cooperative learning techniques. "Techniques of active learning", then, are those activities which an instructor
incorporates into the classroom to foster active learning.
Visual resources
Virtual European Museums
http://www.europeanvirtualmuseum.it/virtuale.htm
http://www.europeanvirtualmuseum.it/mission.htm
Smithsonian Collections
http://www.si.edu/Collections
137 million artifacts, works of art and specimens in the Smithsonian's collections
126 million of these specimens and artifacts are held by the National Museum of Natural History
6.4 million digital records available online through the Collections Search Center
1.8 million library volumes held by Smithsonian Institution Libraries
over 100,000 cubic feet of archival material held by Archives across the Smithsonian (continued on page 5)
Methodist University
5400 Ramsey St.
Fayetteville, NC 28311
(910) 630-7081
Visual Resources
continued
The URLs below lead to sites where you can find images that are either in the public domain or that have
been shared by their creators via Creative Commons licenses.
wikiPODia
https://sites.google.com/site/podnetwork/image-archives-with-few-copyright-restrictions
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/index.htm
Free clipart for students & teachers!
60,000 pieces of free clipart and growing every week.
Welcome to quality educational clipart. Every item comes with a choice of image size and format as well as
complete source information for proper citations in school projects. No advertisement-filled pages with popup windows or inappropriate links here. A friendly license allows teachers and students to use up to 50 educational clipart items in a single, non-commercial project without further permission.
The Commons on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/commons/
“The key goals of The Commons on Flickr are to firstly show you hidden treasures in the world's public
photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections
even richer. ... Under The Commons,cultural institutions that have reasonably concluded that a photograph
is free of copyright restrictions are invited to share such photograph under their new usage guideline called
no known copyright restrictions. If you go to http://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/ and scroll down, you
will see a very impressive list of participating institutions.
NYPL Digital Gallery
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm
“NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open access to over 700,000 images digitized from the The New
York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters,
rare prints, photographs and more.”
USA.gov
http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml – a treasure trove of images in different areas.
“Some of these photos and images are available for use in the public domain, and they may be used and
reproduced without permission or fee. However some photos and images may be protected by license. We
strongly recommend you thoroughly read the disclaimers on each site before use.”
http://www.morguefile.com/
“Public image archive for creatives by creatives. ... Free images for your inspiration, reference and use in
your creative work, be it commercial or not!” See http://www.morguefile.com/license/morguefile/ for a
summary of their usage policy.
Inside this issue:
From the Director
1
Calendar
2
Morgan’s Minutes
3
FAQs
3
Teaching Tips
4
Visual Resources
4