TLAC meeting 10/29/10
Minutes
Attending: Dave Bonsall, Joan Cowell, Lisa Flood, Tom Gillespie, Leslie Cory, James Phegan, Cale
Polkinghorne, Douglas Black (secretary), Gary Stark (chair)
Gary convened the meeting at 2:05 pm.
The 9/24/ meeting minutes were reviewed and approved.
The TLAC mission was reviewed and discussed to ground the context of TLAC’s activities; a mild
repeat of the 9/24 exercise and discussion took place, with Gary discussing the new-faculty
orientation handout. The emphasis was on things TLAC was doing well, things we could stop doing,
and things we could do better.
Magna video questions: Do we have feeling for or records of use on Magna videos? Gary noted that
we were collecting them into one place so we could keep track of them. Can faculty find out what’s
available? Gary also has those records and was working on pulling them together. We have a good
collection now, built over the past few years; it’s not so easy to bring them all into one place, but
we’re getting there. We need a procedure for checkout and might work with the library to develop
that. Could we convert for streaming, limiting to one user at a time? Tom responded that the podcast
server was password-protected and would work technically if media format was compatible and
copyright permission available. Gary was to work with Tom on communicating with Magna.
Drawing interest in TLAC programs: Several years ago, when active learning was first being talked
about, one presenter drew 30 people for two-day sessions; might we find someone who’s a name to
create more of a draw for programs? Attendance had been discussed in our 9/24 meeting; there are
big people in service learning and other areas as well, which might help create some enthusiasm.
Gary was working hard on assessment, especially with the College of Business as they’re up for
reaccreditation. Are other departments working with assessment? The School of Technology &
Applied Sciences had just turned its in the week before the meeting; it was no more of a big deal than
it has been in the past, but it is pressure every year. We might find a way to ask faculty broadly
about hot topics they’d like us to address.
Web applications: Tom noted the rapid increase in apps, which might be a topic. The move to
EduCat this year has consumed a lot of time, and he’s already starting to see more and more mobile
applications and smartphones. He doesn’t know whether there’s talk about using them in the
classroom, for polling, feedback, etc. There are online versions for use with laptops or
smartphones—any kind of phone, and all have clicker apps. Nursing and Chemistry have purchased
some clickers, and they’re pretty hotly used. Tom could look into purchasing a set for checkout, but
to track student data and performance, the same student has to have the same clicker consistently.
For simple classroom use, they could be reassigned or handed out at the time of the activity. One
possible drawback is that some faculty discourage or don’t allow laptops in classroom.
Smartphones: in Cale’s area (Engineering Technology), there’s a lot of repetitive material to go over,
which takes valuable time especially in labs; he would like to make how-to videos for podcast
download, consisting mainly of software tutorials. Tom responded that we can do that now,
embedding video or audio files in EduCat as either segments or whole files. Teachers can learn
about those capabilities via sessions on podcasting; there were several last semester and a couple
more coming up this academic year. Summer sessions have had groups of faculty in intensive
workshops on technology in education, including podcasting.
Some textbook companies are moving in the same direction, supporting podcast development. There
are many different apps for iPod Touch or iPhone, which are useful for bedside point-of-care work;
for example, some permit cross-referencing among reference resources. There was a pilot grant last
year on iPhones for research data. Gary noted that the topic seems to ride the line between TLAC’s
mission and CITE’s mission. The challenge is that on a laptop campus, there’s no standing platform,
and four major software providers now for smartphones.
Dave suggested that we might bring someone in for an overview on using new technology in
teaching, and let the details arise later. We could show an overall model and build enthusiasm first;
then come in with local experts and services to help in detail. The frequent confusion on campus is
that we tend to see technology as an end rather than as a means to an end, which is where CITE
comes in, to help keep things in context. Many faculty won’t see it as a useful tool until they see
some of the benefits broadly.
TLAC Conference Grant: Applications were due the day of the meeting, and James was still working
on his. As an applicant, he would be ineligible for the selection subcommittee. Lisa volunteered for
subcommittee, and Leslie and Cale joined her. The ineligibility period for previous grants is two
years. Gary agreed to collect and forward grant applications to subcommittee and will report then on
applicants’ eligibility. Clarifications from last year were recapped, especially retroactive eligibility
for those who weren’t able to use prior awarded grants and the commitment to make awards within
the two-week period after application deadline.
TLAC Website: The Web site was a little behind and needed updating, as at least one grant
application noted. Tom has volunteered to take that on and would begin updating the roster and
minutes/reports. Gary had some additional ideas, including a resource section. Tom had updated
that six months ago, removing some old links, but would welcome new ones to add. We can add the
list of Magna DVDs there, and Gary asked that additional ideas be sent to him.
Magna Online Seminars: Besides the DVDs, many of us get emails listing webinars, some of which
sounds interesting; let’s seek feedback on hosting one of those as a teaching engagement. These cost
around $200 and offer unlimited attendance. If you subscribe to one f the online newsletters, you get
those notifications. Gary had noted a few interesting ones, and Anne Sherman had noticed one that
she’d be willing to have HR pay for, on sexual harassment in the classroom.
Other possible teaching engagements: Gary said he hadn’t done a lot on that this Fall, partly due to
illness; he had some leads has planning to follow up on next week. He asked whether anyone had
additional ideas for presentations, or knew of anyone in their departments doing interesting things.
Gary had presented a couple of years ago on group exams following up on individual exams,
following up on individual exams; sometimes you don’t realize how cool something is until you start
talking about what you do.
Other business: We are working on a DVD-checkout procedure. At the last meeting, we had
discussed a student representative; we thought we’d had one in years past, but not recently. Gary
noted that TLAC had floated the idea to ASNMU but received no response yet; there seemed to be
some upheaval there at the moment. We won’t expend a lot of time/energy to pursue it under the
circumstances, as it’s not crucial to the success of the committee.
We have subscriptions to two online publications. Online Classroom and Teaching Professor. There
were up to 66 people subscribing--surprisingly few, and the question arose on whether people knew
about it. Gary observed that the technical directions to sign up seemed to be problematic, and there
were some varying reports on whether subscriptions renewed automatically. Cale volunteered to test
the directions and see how they might be updated or improved. Once those are nailed down, Gary
will send them out to everyone. Tom explained how to express-send something to Outlook’s safesenders list, which would also prevent future messages from that list from winding up in junk mail.
The Excellence in Teaching committee is not a TLAC endeavor but Jon Sherman and Carol Bell
volunteered to represent TLAC; that committee was scheduled to meet on Monday, November 1.
The instructions from Academic Senate are that we meet as necessary, which has seemed to be about
monthly. We’ll probably meet once more this term, and this time seems to work well for everyone.
GS will find a few dates/times and use MeetingWizard to schedule.
The meeting adjourned at 2:57 .
Respectfully submitted,
Douglas Black, Secretary