Notes from CIT Advisory Board meeting November 27, 2007

Attending: Wayne Miller (Law – for Dick Danner), Jean Ferguson (Library), Roger Loyd (Divinity), Owen Astrachan (Comp. Sci., A&S), Lynne O’Brien (CIT), Patricia Pawlak (CIT), Molly Tamarkin (A&S), Trey Turner (Nursing), Lee Willard (A&S Dean), Len Spicer (Bio-chemistry), Joe Harris (Unv. Writing Prog.), Bob Price (OIT – for Julian Lombardi), Peter Haff (NSOE)

1. Announcements:

Welcome to our new member: Peter Haff from NSOE.
Peter is a professor of Geology and Civil and Environmental Engineering with Earth & Ocean Sciences

Notes from the last meeting are posted. Let me know if you have corrections or additions.

Reminder: all meeting materials, agenda, notes, etc. are on the CIT web site under http://cit.duke.edu/about/citab/. If you forget, just go to the Duke web site and type “CIT advisory board” in the search box.

Spring meetings – Would lunch time (with lunch provided by CIT) be a good time to meet? Or, would you rather continue with 4-5 pm on the 4th Tuesday of the month?

- Lunch time meetings are a good possibility for most members.

2. CIT Grants programs will be advertised by the end of November

The revised descriptions of grant and support options (reflecting your input at the last two meetings) will be on the web by Nov. 30, 2007, at http://cit.duke.edu/help/grants/index.html.
Please help advertise these opportunities to your colleagues.

- We will be advertising through our CIT email newsletter, through a mailing to each department chairs and DUS which includes a report on their department’s use of CIT programs in past, and through other communication channels.
- CIT website will be up to date with grants and funding info. Larger type grants added. Kept IT Fellows, new teaching and learning center, jump start, materials development
- CIT will be sending out letters and summary info to each dept chair and dean with grant info and help available from cit to instructors/faculty.
- Notification also sent via cit email list (550)

3. Consulting with faculty on Web 2.0 / non-Duke tools (Revised)

The revised version of the document reflects suggestions you made at previous meetings. Please send any final comments to lynne.obrien@duke.edu by Nov. 30. This document will be then be added to the main CIT website. The major changes are:
10 tips consolidated into 6 tips. Tips are presented as short, bulleted, directive. Explanatory text follows the overview.
Case studies have bullets highlighting key points. Descriptive part of case study gives more explanation.

Comments:
- Joe: Document is excellent, much improved.
- Lynne: This doc will be used as a guideline.
- Wayne: Thinks structure will work well.
Action item: Add more links from main page.
- Owen: Use an accordion interface (Owen will send link) –
Action item: Molly- if concerned with copyright issues, Trinity has info on http://www.duke.edu/
Action item: Add creative common link to webpages.
- Joe: Suggested changing the header “Web 2.0” Many people do not know what this means.
Tools external to Duke that make uploading and sharing easy.
- Owen: When using software hosted externally, may have to create an account or download something. Risk is involved.

4. Mobile devices in education – interests and options

A discussion document describes educational uses of mobile devices and options we could consider exploring at Duke.
Discussion:
Which of these potential uses seems interesting and useful?

- Wayne: A short messaging tool tied into Bb. Students have been requesting this. If using Cleartext you can receive email alerts (announcement and grades notice always requested). The Law school would definitely be interested. CALI (provides basic review lessons) Would be great if it was available on a mobile device.

- Len: Grad students would utilize.
- Trey & Peter: Would like more info on flashcards.
- Wayne: Prentice Hall/McGraw-Hill will make electronic quizzes available
- Molly: Podcasting is good for people doing fieldwork. Match with GPS. Coverage issues will improve in the near future. Verizon has an open network available to anyone.
- Roger: Discussed the Kindle, Amazon’s new e-book. Can automatically bookmark. On Sprint’s network and may order e-books online. Provides free high-speed wireless network connection.
- Bob: Mediascapes: HP approached Duke to do pilot with Mediascapes.

Would faculty in your departments be interested in a pilot project involving experimenting with educational uses of mobile devices?

CIT is interested in working with faculty.
- Trey: Suggested that CIT should survey their workshop attendees on this question. He will mention this at his IT meeting. CIT should approach individual schools to gauge interest.
- Molly: Faculty more likely to try if they can “see” and “touch”.
- Wayne: Announce at Showcase. Bring in vendors, introduce to faculty.
- Peter: Faculty need to have a “problem” out there that a new tool can help with.
- Lynne: Campus based courses vs. online courses. Mobile devices have a different meaning for each. Ask on-line students what their preference is.
- Action item: Trey to survey his on-line students.
- Joe: Approaching faculty directly may not be the best technique. Better to approach network org. Study abroad, groups that are mobile.
- Owen: Duke does not encourage intellectual sharing. Mentioned Plaxo tool. May not be such a good idea to use Facebook. Classtalk is old and dead.
- Action item: Lynne/CIT find better example for clickers (Wake Forest Class in Hand).
- Majority of students appear to have phones and computers…but not all do. Students have various carriers, plans, coverage and multi-function devices. International cell devices are more standard. Is Duke working on universal access? How do we identify these students?
Molly: Unv. should be able to fund this. Easy development issue. Tie to financial need.

-Lynne: Please read the 7 things to know about Facebook

5. Future agenda items

Grad student instructional tech support (update from Hugh Crumley)
Other topics?

6. Reminder: Remaining CIT Advisory Board meetings for 2007-08 (Perkins Tower Room 201)

January 22, 2008
February 26, 2008
March 25, 2008
April 22, 2008