Communication Initiatives - School of Education

AY 2005-2006

Regular communication currently takes place between the Dean and the Director for User Support Services.  There is also regular communication between the IT support specialist and the faculty for identifying issues, communicating any problems or changes, and problem solving.  

The IT support specialist will have set office hours in the dean's suite two days per week

The support specialist for the School of Education will have an office in the dean's suite so that the faculty can address IT matters directly with the support specialist.   The dean and support specialist will agree on the schedule including which days and times would be best.

Fall 2005 Update

The support specialist for Education had office hours in Forcina every Tuesday and Thursday, alternating weekly from am to pm and was based out of the Dean's suite.  Although there weren't many requests for assistance during these office hours, the support specialist was able to use this time to do early upgrades for some of the faculty that were due for replacement computer equipment.  We will evaluate this for spring and may adjust the hours based on input from the dean.

Spring 2006 Update

The support specialist for Education continued office hours for the spring semester.  There still weren't many requests from faculty, but the support specialist used the time in Forcina to start the summer computer upgrades earlier than expected.

IT will meet once per semester with the School of Education liaisons.

The AD for USS and the support specialist from IT will organize one meeting per semester with the IT liaisons of the five departments within the School of Education.   The meeting will be to discuss the needs of the faculty in each of the respective departments.   These periodic meetings will help IT better understand what the faculty would like to accomplish using technology and will also help the faculty members learn what initiatives are being undertaken by others on campus that may result in collaborative efforts.

Fall 2005 Update

Met with the dean and assistant dean to discuss current technology needs for the school.  There were a few requests:

Mount the portable smart whiteboard to be permanently affixed in the Dean's conference room.  The support specialist will work with the appropriate personnel to do this.

Evaluate data and power to see if we could move three macintosh computers from SPED to the faculty lounge.

Spring 2006 update

Met with the School of Education liaisons in mid-March.

Distributed liaison responsibilities via email.  Also, sent links via email regarding academic budget requests for faculty that may not be familiar with the process.

Interest in using the Thunderbird email client from home to send to other than tcnj.edu emails - support specialist will write up documentation and provide to the liaisons for distribution

General questions about equipment distribution and length of time that equipment can be borrowed. 

Provide information to the campus community about the activities of the media classroom committee.

Develop a method to inform the campus of the progress made by the media classroom committee including project plans and status reports.

Fall 2005 Update

Working with the chair of the Smart Classroom Committee to develop a method to inform the campus of progress in this area.

Additional info - The summer upgrade for computers assigned to full time faculty and staff that are due for replacement in Forcina Hall will begin May 25, 2006 and in Packer on May 30, 2006.