What's on the Table for Ocotillo in 2002-2003?

Ocotillo has started another year of collectively addressing instructional technology issues by working with faculty representatives from each of the Maricopa Community Colleges' instructional technology groups and committees.

Ocotillo People

Sheila Brandt (Scottsdale) and Rick Effland (Mesa) are serving as the 2002-2003 General Co-chairs for Ocotillo. We welcome a new chair, Mary McGlasson (Chandler-Gilbert), and a returning chair, Mary Long (South Mountain). Rio Salado Ocotillo Chair Pat Case is Ocotillo's representative to and faculty voice at the Technology Leadership Council. Doug Sawyer (Scottsdale) is the Ocotillo representative to the Strategic Planning Advisory Council.

Ocotillo Goals

The new co-chairs, with input from their colleagues, have outlined the following three broad goals for this academic year:

• Be an active force in the discussion and generation of ideas related to instructional technology and its strategic use.
• Share/collaborate across the District on instructional technology to reach more people and to improve teaching and learning.
• Be actively engaged in activities that support effective use of instructional technology.

Ocotillo chairs get together to discuss teaching, learning, and technology at October 2002 meeting with special guest Brian Hawkins, EDUCAUSE.

Among the key issues on the table are developing a common nomenclature for "hybrid course" (a course that is a mixture of scheduled classroom time and out-of-class work, often supported with technology), sharing resources and content, planning course management systems, and exploring electronic portfolios.

Ocotillo Technology Visioning Forums

With the support from Ron Bleed, Vice Chancellor of Information Technologies Services, Ocotillo continues to bring distinguished experts to help us envision the role of technology in the future. This fall, our visionaries include Mark Milliron, League for Innovation (October 2002) and Carl Berger, University of Michigan (December 2002). Mike Zastrocky, Gartner Group, will visit us in the spring semester.

From these forums, college teams carry ideas back to their campus discussions and influence the ongoing strategic planning processes regarding instructional technology and space planning.

Ocotillo Online Learning Group (OLG)

The OLG, which meets monthly at different colleges, is open to all faculty and staff interested in using the web for teaching and learning. This year's OLG facilitators are Sandra Wells (Phoenix College) and Anna Rosa Lampis (GateWay). Meetings consist of demos, discussions, and hands-on practice with software tools. For example, in September Marty Etchart and Kurt Chambers (both Phoenix College) shared their perspective and experience in teaching hybrid courses and Beverly Jenkins (Phoenix College) led a hands-on introduction to Respondus.

Ocotillo College Centers Group

This new Ocotillo group includes representatives from the college centers that support faculty development and instructional technology, and people from other colleges that do not yet have this type of center. The purpose is to collaborate on common issues and be a connection to the national New Media Consortium program, which Maricopa joined this year.

Ocotillo Technology Dialogue Days

Ocotillo continues to sponsor several dialogue days to promote the sharing of ideas and practices regarding instructional technology. In October, an ePortfolio Dialogue Day was held where Maricopa faculty shared their experiences in electronic portfolios. Guest presenter Ali Jafari (ePortfolio Consortium) demonstrated and discussed the possibilities of a standards-based system for portable student electronic portfolios.

Another dialogue day, Strategies and Technologies for Teaching Students with Disabilities is tentatively scheduled for January 24, 2003. We will repeat the format of the spring 2002 dialogue day, Technology by the (Discipline) Slice, on February 28, 2003.

Ocotillo Retreat

Participants from all colleges will gather May 21-22, 2003, for concentrated activities and discussion on Ocotillo issues. At the 2002 Ocotillo Retreat ("Building the Vision" ) in Tucson, speaker Alan November challenged our ideas of culture and technology. Participants developed ideas on blueprint paper based on the four key issues "One Stop Shop for Student Services," "Library of Re-usable Learning Objects," "24/7 Technical and Learner Support," and "A Schema for Hybrid Courses."

Alan Levine, mcli

Ocotillo
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/ocotillo/