Emerging Technologies (ETC)

Members

Faculty Chair: Jim Walters, PC
Co-Chair: Juan Marquez, DIST

Jerome Baxter, PVCC
Liz Dorland, MCC
Cathlyn Hart, SMCC
Laurita Moore de Diaz, SMCC
Nancy Siefer, GCC
Darlene Swaim, MCC
David Weaver, CGCC
Yvonne Zeka, GWCC

Charge

The Emerging Technologies Committee (ETC) examines emerging technologies, hardware, and software, and the issues and implications surrounding them. The goal of such technological investigation and evaluation is to contribute to quality instruction and learning.

Year in Review

ETC held three regular meetings during the year.

10/12/93, District Office, Meeting to define possible goals.
11/08/94, District Office, Meeting to set goals for the year.
12/13/94, Phoenix College, Demonstration of Mosaic.

The ETC Districtwide A1 distribution list @OCOETC was used to announce the meetings and agendas. At each meeting there was an average of four members, including the Chair and support staff. Even with low attendance, we were able to establish a list of emerging technologies that the committee would like to explore. After some discussion, the use of the Internet in the classroom was chosen as the technology to investigate. A demonstration of Mosaic, a multimedia Internet client, was scheduled for the next meeting.

Even though the committee did not complete the exploration, the members who were interested in the Internet still had other opportunities to learn about it. Phoenix College offered two "Exploring the Internet" teleconferences during the year. The Training Services department also offers training on external networks and Gopher. After attending some of these training sessions, the committee members might be ready for specific applications of Internet in the classroom.

A project to develop guidelines on how to use the Internet in specific courses was funded for fiscal year 1993-94 by an internal grant from the Instructional Technology funds. The project number is IT93B-4, and it is being directed by Philip Tompkins and Chas T. Moore from Estrella Mountain Community College Center and Mesa community College, respectively. When this project is completed, the information should be sent to all staff, so that we can be sure that the ETC members receive this report.

Conclusions

The definition of emerging technologies is very wide and encompassing. Each committee will determine what it means to them, thus allowing for varied outcomes from year to year. This year the membership focused on the Internet. There seems to be others outside of the committee that are interested in the Internet. Workshops, demonstrations, and teleconferencing on the Internet should be continued.

There are several technologists and faculty members exploring or using various emerging technologies, but what they are doing is not known to all faculty members in the District. We have to agree with what Matt Wozniak reported in the 1992-93 ETC Year-End Report:

"I believe the poor attendance at each of our meetings (usually less than five participants) is a reflection of the difficulty of getting active faculty to find time to attend meetings during the semester. This poor turnout was very disappointing as there were many college leaders in technology that were not part of the committee's conversation.

"Finally, there is a tremendous amount of innovation and experimentation going on around the District. The meetings held at the colleges were very enlightening. Efforts at cross connecting the individuals involved in all levels of technological development from across the District should be continued and expanded."

Index

Ocotillo Report '94-- Emerging Technologies (ETC)

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c 1994, Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction (MCLI) Maricopa County Community College District, Arizona