Fall News from Component I

Our Title III technology project identifes three program areas- Communication Arts, Education, and Nutrition - in which development of an electronic portfolio will become a graduation requirement. We have chosen Lectora, from Trivantis, as our portfolio development tool. Lectora uses a familiar book metaphor to organize content, and offers the ease of drag-and-drop for embedding multimedia, as well as title and button wizards. Lectora allows for user interactions, logic paths, and even testing, so faculty may find this a useful tool for their own courseware development. Lectora content can be published to a variety of formats, including HTML and CD-ROM.

New Equipment for Instruction and Access

Additional classrooms were equipped as either full or mini "EECs", and some of the older Elmos were replaced. Our newest configuration is a “mini-COW” - a portable LCD projector and laptop computer with wireless network card. OIT has compiled Classroom and Other Instructional Technology Hardware, a document that describes all computer labs and classrooms, as well as COWs and AV equipment.

Because KN 145 is so heavily used for training, a separate facility for production was needed. The Multimedia Room, located in the library in KN 232, has been configured for that purpose. Two new workstations were acquired, each equipped with a

CD writer DVD player 750MB zip drive scanner video editing card

The multimedia room also features a VHS to DVD converter, allowing users to store VHS tapes on a DVD. The Multimedia Room is open to faculty and staff.

Because the Department of Educations emphasizes improved academic success for all students, the grant sets asides funds for ensuring that students with physical and learning disabilities have full access to technology Consequently, we have used Title III funds to purchase two ADA compatible tables that have been set up in the Benedictine University library. The height of these tables is easily adjustable and they provide ample room for wheelchair access. They also have specially designed mousepads and adjustable keyboard trays. The computers on those tables are equipped with both JAWS and ZoomText software. Additional computer workstations like these will be acquired.

The Benedictine University Library web site provides links to over one hundred different databases. However, many of those databases can only be accessed from on-campus computers. Title III recently purchased a proxy server which, once configured, will allow off-campus access to the majority of those databases. An announcement will be made on the library web site when the proxy server is ready for use.

A second Tegrity WebLearner Platform was purchased and, thanks to funding from Don Taylor's Howard Hughes Medical Institute Grant, our existing unit upgraded to current standards. A Tegrity Platform is a self-contained unit that captures instructor audio and video along with PowerPoint annotations. Once captured, the presentation can be uploaded for viewing on the web, or burned to a CD for distribution to students. The Platform also includes a document camera which can be used in place of the instructor camera, thus capturing equipment demonstrations, for example.

Workshops Planned for January

The highly successful week-long Faculty Technology Workshops that were offered in June and August will be repeated in early January, 2003. The workshops include three days of directed, hands-on sessions covering copyright issues, imaging, PowerPoint, Excel, Dreamweaver and WebCT, followed by two days of independent project development. Check for outcomes of those workshops in the Faculty Projects area of this website.