2003 Highlights

October 2003

Leslie Harris and Dee Ann Holisky present a DoIT Dialogue discussing the state of the TAC program and its impact on student learning in the College of Arts and Sciences (opens in new window). Several TAC faculty in humanities disciplines do Spotlight Demonstrations as part of the Family Weekend Academic Open House, emphasizing innovative teaching that uses technology to enhance student learning. Other TAC faculty also participate in the Innovation Hall Grand Opening (opens in new window) to demonstrate how the facilities of the building are being used to promote student IT skills and to transform teaching and learning at George Mason University. As the program indicates, several TAC projects from four different departments were featured at the event.

Also in October, TAC and the IRC sponsor a second Image Workshop series as part of the faculty development workshop program to teach faculty image manipulation skills in order for the faculty to develop assignments that promote such skills among their students. Anne Agee, Dee Holisky, and Star Muir publish an article in the September/October issue of The Technology Source (opens in new window). The article, Faculty Development: The Hammer in Search of a Nail, discusses this faculty development program within the larger context of the TAC program itself, describing the database and image workshops offered by TAC and the IRC. The authors host a live WebChat as part of The Technology Source's October Author Forums, discussing the article with attendees from across the nation.

September 2003

Leslie Harris chairs a Personal Bibliographic Management Software Working Group composed of faculty and staff to consider implementation of such a software package in majors and programs in the College of Arts and Sciences, through the leadership of the TAC Program. The overall purpose of implementing such software is to satisfy the TAC IT Goals of online research and evalutation, using databases to manage information, and creating structured electronic documents. The group evaluates the major packages available and issues a Report to Dee Holisky recommending the use of EndNote (opens in new window) and discussing ideas for implementation. A Call for Proposals is posted for faculty in the College to submit proposals for a pilot implementation of EndNote in courses for Spring 2004.

August 2003

Steve Weinberger's Speech Accent Archive (opens in new window) is featured in the New York Times Technology section, under Circuits, as part of Pamela LiCalzi O'Connell's August 28 Online Diary (opens in new window). In July, the Speech Accent Archive was also listed as one of the Yahoo! Picks. Soon after its mention in Yahoo! Picks, the archive passed the 100,000 hit threshold; after its mention in the New York Times, it crossed the 250,000 hit threshold. The archive was funded as a TAC project in 1999-2000.

July 2003

Anne Agee and Dee Holisky publish a chapter in Leadership, Higher Education, and the Information Age, eds. Carrie E. Regenstein and Barbara I. Dewey, New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 2003, 61-80. The chapter, entitled "Crossing the Great Divide: Implementing Change by Creating Collaborative Relationships," discusses the importance of collaboration to overcoming the historical divide between IT and academic units. The authors describe their experience with the TAC program as an example of fruitful collaboration; their overarching point is that collaborative involvement of IT and academic leaders promotes a culture of mutual understanding and respect among what would otherwise be (and often are) adversarial units, dramatically improving the success of initiatives involving learning and technology.

June 2003

Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania, has embarked on a program to integrate information technology across the curriculum and looks to George Mason University's TAC program as a model. They invite Dee Ann Holisky to spend a day with a working group talking about the TAC program and discussing W&J's plans. Her advice to W&J includes nine steps to keep in mind.

May/June 2003

On two successive Friday mornings, TAC hosts an Image Manipulation Workshop for faculty to learn how to acquire and to manipulate digital images. The ultimate goal is for faculty to develop course assignments that promote the essential and advanced graphical and multimedia representation technologies TAC IT skills for their students. In preparation for the workshop, and to help promote the successful implementation of the assignments, TAC leads a collaborative search (in cooperation with DoIT, the IRC, Classroom Technologies, the STAR Center, CAS staff, and represenative CAS faculty members) to determine the best mid-level graphics package for use on-campus. The group reaches an overwhelming consensus that Adobe Photoshop Elements v.2.0 is the best package for our needs. TAC thus orders copies of Photoshop Elements for widespread installation on campus and to be demonstrated to faculty attendees during the workshop.

April 2003

At Innovations 2003, two projects are selected to receive the CAS/TAC Award for Best Use of Technology to Enhance Learning: "Making It Click: Integrating New Media in the History Classroom" (Jessica May and Stephanie Hurter) and "Hypermedia Poetry: Saving the World from Effective Interaction" (Daryl Eurich). Both projects demonstrate how the integration of technology into a course can raise fundamental issues about the nature of the subject matter, transforming not only how the discipline is taught, but also the scope and nature of the discipline itself. For the "Making It Click" project, the award recipients described how hypertext can expand one's approach to history, moving away from a typical narrative view of events happening over time in a specific order, and towards a view of examining a single event or phenomenon in multiple contexts and from multiple perspectives. For "Hypermedia Poetry," students commented that the integration of other media into personal expression raised issues about the nature and purpose of art, prompting them to consider the effect of various media on their audience.

March 2003

At the 2003 AAHE Learning to Change Conference, Ginger Montecino, Lesley Smith, and James Young of New Century College facilitate a workshop for a highly appreciative, standing-room-only audience, explaining how a small group of innovators implemented a department-wide TAC project to promote innovation with technology among the NCC faculty as a whole. For a more detailed description of their presentation, see: http://classweb.George Mason University.edu/nccassess/aahe/ (opens in new window). In late March, Leslie Harris becomes the new TAC Coordinator. Also in late March, a group from North Carolina State University travel to George Mason University to learn more about TAC as a model for their LITRE (Learning in Technology-Rich Environments) program that they plan to implement as part of their re-accreditation drive.

January 2003

Anne Agee and Dee Holisky lead a seminar at the Educause Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, along with Colleen Eisenbeiser and Trish Casey-Whiteman of Anne Arundel Community College. The seminar, "Building a Culture of Collaboration: A Practical Guide," draws upon their history of collaboration in developing programs like TAC that require frequent communication between IT and academic stakeholders.