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arrow1.gif (140 bytes)Academic Computing Committee

arrow1.gif (140 bytes)Technical Literacy Working Group

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arrow1.gif (140 bytes)Computer Services

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 vert_line.gif (131 bytes) Academic Computing Steering Committee
(AcCSC)

Minutes of Meetings:
 October 10, 2002

Present:  (Virtual meeting.)

Review of last meeting's minutes. 

1. Web Office. Tom Smith has prepared some information about activities in the Web office: http://www.union.edu/Resources/Technology/Web/Update/
He will discuss these updates when we finally get together again.

2. Library. Tom McFadden will also address Library activities.

Tom also has made the case (again) that the Library could provide our alumni a valuable resource if we could devise a way to make some online materials available to them.  This would require some expense, and some re-negotiation with our online vendors.

3. EDUCAUSE. ITS staff have recently returned from the EDUCAUSE conference in Atlanta.  When we next meet, they will describe the highlights.  You can re-live the conference at:
http://www.educause.edu/conference/e2002/index.asp

4. GIS. Dave Cotter (Sociology) is participating in a Mellon-sponsored GIS course development project being run from Amherst College.  He, Kesheng Yu, and I will be at Amherst next Monday and Tuesday learning more about how to incorporate GIS into the curriculum. Geology will be offering a course on GIS during the Winter term, and David's course will be offered in the Spring.  Here is the Geology course description:

24. Geographic Information Systems (GIS; Winter; Staff). An introduction to GIS technology and its practical uses. A full range of fundamental topics will be covered including the history of GIS, technology overview, geographic data types, primary data structures, system design, map coordinate systems, data sources, metadata, census data, geographic coding and address matching, digitizing, remote sensing imagery, measures of data quality, and needs assessment. An emphasis will be on hands-on instruction using GIS software (ArcView). Students will work with ArcView throughout the term to complete assignments and a class project. Prerequisite: A good background in the use of modern computer software.
5. INITIAL MIT COURSEWORK GOES ONLINE
This week MIT began placing courseware online as part of its OpenCourseWare project (http://ocw.mit.edu/). MIT opted not to develop
a for-profit learning initiative, as some other colleges and universities have, choosing instead to make its courseware open to the public online. MIT plans to put lecture notes, assignments, syllabi, tutorials, video simulations, and reading lists from over 2,000 courses on the site over the next ten years, though no credit will be offered for those who complete the assignments. Questions remain about technology tools for the site and intellectual property issues, but a representative of the program said that so far the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Critics said the offerings so far are limited and that merely posting such resources online does not substitute for an education at MIT. Officials from OpenCourseWare agreed that the experience of learning at MIT is not replicated by the program, but they hope that it will serve as a model for other institutions to disseminate their own resources.
Wired News, 4 October 2002
http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,55507,00.html

Next meeting: October 17, 2002, 2:30 PM, Stmz. 237

© 2002  Union College, Schenectady, New York
Page maintained by J. Douglass Klein, Associate Dean for Information Technology.
Last updated 10/09/2002