Pam Petty - CGCC            Peter Thiel - PVCC
Chris MacCrate - EMCC       Nancy Matte - PC
Manny Griego - GCC          Pat Case - RSC
Richard Shortridge - GCC    Pat Medeiros - SCC
Fred Gaudet - GWCC          Mary Long - SMCC
Brad Kincaid - MCC          Alan Levine - MCLI

• College Technology Plan Website - should link common elements within the colleges. What are these elements?
  • See outline proposed to Ocotillo by ted Wolter (and used for CGCC's plan)
    http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/ocotillo/chairs9798/elements2.html
  • Linkages between plan prototype:
    http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/ocotillo/plans.html
• Did the chairs want to cover sub-portions of each element instead of trying to solve the whole issue at once?
• Focus issues on obtainable goals.
• For example, under the Access issue, a goal might be "Every college has a unified technology fee structure" or "Every college provides dial-in network access to faculty for development of course materials and research".
• Replacement computers is a problem that all colleges need to deal with, Pam reports from CGCC that the cost is staggering.
• Can't get rid of OGF, because new system won't support Mac computers. Do we need to go to one platform? Or do we want to suggest putting one PC in each department? Are the needs of an adminsttrative information system driving the technology used for teaching and learning?
• Is there a District Roundtable to discuss these issues? (no)
• The group would like to invite different district people to the Ocotillo Chairs meetings to determine what their iniatives are and how they relate to our common elements. The group would like answers and dispell rumors about a1, IBM vs. Mac, etc.
• There is now a task-force that will determine a district-wide distance learnng iniative... an issue Ocotillo has been working on for more than a year. Yet we hear about these initiatives only through round-about means (like the computer policy document of August 1998)
• How does the Ocotillo group become a conduit for these issues? What are the Districts iniatives? How do our elements relate to their iniatives?

It seems difficult for the college roundtables to be developing instructional technology plans when they lack connections and information about district initiatives.

What did everyone like about last year's retreat?

• The cross discussions within groups and colleges.
          balanced with
• The individual college discussions.

• Invite the Deans of Instruction, Dr. de los Santos etc. to get them involved.
• Get the District people involved to talk about intiatives that relate to our elements.
• Ocotillo chair and district person to co-facilitate?
• Begin with a panel discussion and then break-up into issue discussions that include the district person; Follow-up with questions next day in another panel discussion.
• 10 chairs, 5 issues - everyone wants to roam around and not be locked into one issue.
• Share facilitation of issues

Proposed agenda. Break-out sessions need to address an outcome related to administrative support. During each breakout, 4 or 5 different sessions are available, so during the retreat, people can address as many as they like, or can focus on a few.

• Day 1
  • 2:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. - Panel Discussion about district issues and relation to Ocotillo issues
  • 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. - Break-out session 1
  • 4:15 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. - Break-out session 2
  • 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. - Dinner
  • 6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m - Meet as college teams or group summary?
• Day 2
  • 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. - Break-out session 3
  • 9:45 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. - Break-out session 4
  • 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. - report back on specific suggestions and ideas
  • 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. - lunch and meet as college teams
  • 1:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. - closing and prizes

• Assessing technology itself is meaningless; we should be looking at how technology supports or inhibits learning activities and their intended outcomes.
• Is the assessment used to improve Teaching and Learning? NCA says it should.

What is being assessed at each college?

• SMCC - The Math and Science division is trying to show the effectiveness of using technology and the non-use of technology.
• GCC - Menu selection in computer area can answer questions [physical environment]. What other courses/content would you like to see? Students had a chance to decide between taking English courses with or without technology - How many choose each type of class?
• PC - WebCT to assess online classes: Demographics - How many credits are being taken online? Why are they taking the course online versus in class? What are the best/worst aspects of the course?
• SCC - Planning to access what individuals have learned about technology.
• GWCC - Doing a self-assessment of level of use [the number of computers divided by how often they are replaced]. If the computer is used only 'casually' then the person needs more training.

Exposure to technology is good no matter what. How are they learning from technology? We need to get away from 1 semester tests - we need to study over time. See the change from Freshman English to Senior Physics with an Elecronic Portfolio.

Is technology having a negative result on people? Grade should not be dependent on the use of technology during the course.

Feedback on Flashlight (via Billie Hughes, PC)
A few Maricopa people were able to attend a local workshop on Flashlight, a tool for helping institutions evaluate technology. See:
http://www.tltgroup.org/flashlight/FlashlightServices.html

This is a project that was initiated by Steve Ehrmann who visited us at the 1992 Ocotillo Retreat, and because we were involved in some of the early development, all of our colleges were provided a copy of the Current Student Inventory (yellow book), a question item bank that can be used for developing student surveys about technology use.

Work is underway to place the survey system online, so colleges, instructors, ect could assemble and perhaps even administer the surveys online. Work is also underway for a Faculty technology inventory as well as a cost analysis tool.

Billie Hughes (PC) strongly recommende that we send some people to a one day workshop on Flashlight, to be held as a pre-conference activity at NAU.Web99 (http://star.ucc.nau.edu/~nauweb99/), May 15. Ocotillo can spooser one person from each college to attend the workshop and the conference as a whole (covering the registration fees and hotel costs) and the Ocotillo retreat follows right after this conference.

Please send names of interested persons to Alan Levine ASAP.

• Discussion of Distance Learning (Brad Kincaid, Chris MacCrate)
• Brad and Chirs plan to invite members of the District Distance Learning Group.
• Names & Ideas for Retreat