The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges and the @ONE Training Project co-sponsored the second annual Technology for Teaching Institute June 13 through 18, 1999 at California State University, Monterey Bay. Over 90 participants from all around the state formed a cohesive and enthusiastic group under the leadership of co-coordinators Ric Matthews and Ian Walton and the masterful organization of Julie Adams.
Unlike the previous year when some participants attended only a three-day portion, this year everyone attended an intensive five-day track. Many participants reported that this format provided a more coherent experience and fostered a better feeling of group participation.
Participants pre-enrolled for one of five different tracks, described as follows:
Beginning Track: to create an adequate comfort level with the use of the basic office suite for instruction, including an introduction to web pages.
Multimedia Track: to enhance campus and online instruction by adding audio and video to course material.
Trainer Track: to establish a statewide network of campus resource people with common technology skills and approaches.
On-line Track: to learn the skills necessary to establish and conduct online courses using various course management tools.
Web Supplement Track: to create a website that enhances and enriches existing courses by putting course material online.
Each day opened with a general session, including one lively encounter with the upcoming Microsoft Office 2000 release. The general session was followed by one morning and two afternoon handson workshop sessions. An open lab was available for evening work for those who just couldn't get enough. The final general session featured an exciting "show and tell" to demonstrate work from each track. There was also a daily online news bulletin, much of which can still be viewed on the Academic Senate website at: http://www.academicsenate.cc.ca.us/TechInstitute/thedaily.html
The location, facilities and staff at Monterey Bay continued to be excellent. Most participants stayed in the campus dormitories, ate in the cafeteria and enoyed an assortment of evening extracurricular activities together, including volleyball, movies, dancing and Celtic music. The hands-on labs provided a comfortable learning and teaching environment. As in the previous year, faculty consisted of volunteers from the Academic Senate and from the @ONE Project.
Planning is already under way for a similar Technology Institute in June 2000. It will again be held at CSU Monterey Bay from June 4 through 9, so watch for registration information in early spring, and set aside some of your academic senate or staff development funds in order to attend.