Meeting 01.09.98

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Ocotillo Chairs Meeting Notes

Agenda

Introduction & Overview of Ocotillo Manny Griego, GCC, Ocotillo General Chair
Technology Access Discussion Summary Mary Long, SMCC and Nancy Matte, PC, Ocotillo chairs
Aspects of the Access Issue remote access by students, faculty; Internet and local network access; access to on-campus technology, access for disabled; access to support; fees for access; requirements for access; ??
GCC Innovation Center
Future

This meeting is scheduled for 1:30 - 3:30, Friday, January 8, 1999 at the All-Faculty Convocation at Scottsdale Community College.

The next meeting of the chairs is Friday, February 12, 1999, 2:00 - 3:30 PM District office - Room 311

Meeting Notes
Ocotillo Chairs
Friday, January 8, 1999, 1:30 PM
1. Introduction & Overview of Ocotillo
Manny Griego provided an overview for those attending who were less familiar with Ocotillo and shared that much of the past has been captured from the Ocotillo web site.

He then led us through the development of the five main issues that were surfaced and developed at the 1998 Ocotillo Retreat and how this session was a continuation of the December discussion on Access.

2. Technology Access Discussion Summary
Mary Long, SMCC and Nancy Matte, PC, Ocotillo chairs reviewed the areas discussed from the previous meeting on Access. Nancy described a summary that access issues fall into the categories of:

availability
affordability
usability
interoperability and standards

Karen Schwalm (GCC) shared how Glendale was trying to compare the demographics of their community to those that use the on-campus technology; as the percentage of students using technology reaches 50-60%, it begins to closely mirror the broader community demographics. This data collection allows GCC to identify interventions for students that have access to technology but are not using it.

It was also raised that often the demographics of the support staff do not match the community.

3. Aspects of the Access Issue

on-campus access to technology
barriers to technology: "I'd like to use it, but..."
students ask for it more and more
fees for technology:Under the present situation of course by course lab fees, the demands of printing schedules cause a problem in lead time. GCC is close to implementing flat fee applied to all students, proposed $1 per 1 credit course and $2 per other courses. Students get the Instructional Palette from the "student server", access to a common suite fo software, email, plus group conferencing, 10 MB of storage server space including personal web pages. At GCC, the students are responsible for the legal and ethical consequences of their behaviors (see the Reminders and Guidelines from GCC)
access to instructional tech support for faculty (see next section)

GCC Innovation Center
Our guest from GCC Karen Schwalm answered extensive questions about GCC's planning and support system for technology.

GCC's decision for the long term planning and use of funds from the District Desktop Project has paid off with standardization on software which "can make support resources go farther", reliability, consistency, and sharing. They also have implemented an upgrade rotation so that new machines are systematically purchased every year and replaced machines are re-allocated to other users. Faculty were offered different time-lines and approaches for learning the new technologies presented, and the Innovation Center assisted those that needed to convert content created with software that was no longer supported. Students are no longer faced with having to use 4 different spreadsheet programs for 4 different classes.
In working with faculty, the GCC Innovation Center tries to talk with them about the functionality they need rather than the software package they heard about.
Innovation Center is staffed, has its own budget, and is directed by a faculty member. It works in conjunction with the other three departments of Instructional Computing, Network Services, and Training and Employee Development.
The Innovation Center is staffed with 1 Director (full-time service faculty); 1 Instructional Technologist (MAT 5); 2 programmers (MAT 1); 1 Graphic designer; 2 programmers (PSA 7), 1 part-time Toolbook programmer. This staff of 7 is supporting 250 FT faculty at GCC.
Other support is provided by Training and Employee Development (TED) with 1 director (MAT), 1 trainer, 1 assistant, and 3 staff members that run the Help Desk. TED provides classes in A1, phone, web page creation, MS Office, and has recently been able to have available a training classroom with 20 stations.
more "just-in-time" support in faculty offices over scheduled classes.
"teach people how to help themselves"
provide software documentation online
urge academic departments to set up open purchase orders at major bookstores (Borders, Barnes and Noble) so faculty can choose books they prefer
build "outposts" for support
create ownership at department level

Future

Next Meeting: Friday, February 12, 1999, 2:00 - 3:30 PM District office - Room 311. Pat Medieros (SCC) and Peter Thiel lead a discussion of the Assessment and Evaluation of Technology
See also, the Ocotillo Chairs Web Discussion board
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/cgi-bin/bbs/chairs.pl