Learning & Scholarly Technologies is a new name for a familiar office.
Formerly Educational Partnerships and Learning Technologies, we've joined with Computing & Communications
to serve the UW community more strategically. This new LST newsletter will provide an informative link
between you and the activities of our office. You'll learn about new developments to some of the
most cutting edge Web tools the UW has to offer and discover how we can help you to be more
effective and productive using our Learning Spaces. This first issue is a quick update of what we've accomplished this summer
and what to watch for in the academic year.
In response to feedback from UW faculty, students, staff, and researchers, the
Catalyst team has released several new tools in 2007.
QuickPoll single question polling
Updated in March, the new QuickPoll boasts a cleaner interface, and new graphical
formats in which to view results.
http://catalyst.washington.edu/web_tools/quickpoll.html
Collect It dropbox
Released in May, Collect It makes it easy to go paperless. You can receive and
organize files, provide feedback, and return files, all online.
http://catalyst.washington.edu/web_tools/collectit.html
ShareSpaces file sharing
As of July, anyone with a UW NetID can use ShareSpaces to share files with others affiliated
with the UW. With ShareSpaces you can control access to your shared file space, track versions
of files, leave comments on different versions, and search shared files.
http://catalyst.washington.edu/web_tools/sharespaces.html
File Manager Web-based file management
Also released in July, File Manager allows anyone with a UW NetID to upload,
download, and work with files in both the WebFiles and Homer/Dante storage
spaces using only a Web browser. Additionally, you can now also access the 1.5 GB WebFiles
space directly from your desktop.
http://catalyst.washington.edu/web_tools/filemanager.html
GoPost discussion board
GoPost received several upgrades in 2007 and in August moved from beta with the
addition of new features including searching, and the ability to bookmark a message.
http://catalyst.washington.edu/web_tools/gopost.html
We encourage you to drop into the Catalyst Learning Spaces and check
out the new equipment funded by the Student Technology Fee.
In the Mary Gates Hall Computing Resource center you will find over 180 new workstations including:
- 16 dual-boot Macintosh workstations. This experimental area provides client's a choice of
using the MS Windows XP or Macintosh OSX operating system. This is a great opportunity for you to test
Apple's dual-boot technology.
- New video-editing workstations
- Collaboration Studio. Similar to the Collaboration Studios in Odegaard and Suzzallo Libraries,
the CRC now provides a space for small groups to work collaboratively on utilizing a large
shared desktop and Tidebreak's TeamSpot software for multi-platform collaboration.
Throughout the UW Libraries you will find new Access+ workstations for easy computing access across
campus. These newest Access+ workstations are available in Suzzallo & Allen,
Social Work, Foster Business, and the Engineering Libraries.
The Special Interest Group on University and College Computing Services
(SIGUCCS) has given the Catalyst Web site the "Award of Excellence" in the
category of "Computing Services Public Web Site." SIGUCCS is an association of
professionals who support and manage the diverse aspects of information technology
services in higher education institutions. The judges described the "site's overall design
interface [as] an excellent example of how presentation and structure can combine to
produce a visually-pleasing and intuitively-designed Web site." They concluded: "the user
gets the feeling that this group knows what it is doing." Check out our site at:
http://www.catalyst.washington.edu and see for yourself!
The Center for Digital Education awarded the Catalyst Web site with a "2007 Best of the Web"
award for an integrated multi-focus Web site. The Center for Digital Education is a national research
and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in K-12 and higher education.
Marina Leight, vice president of education says: "This year's winners are exceptional examples of the incredible
potential and promise of education technology."
The Catalyst Student-Instructor team (a.k.a. the iTeam) recently received an
Honorable Mention for their submission to Educause's annual Security Awareness Video Contest.
This marks the fifth award for the student iTeam since their
inception in 2002—including two SIGUCCS awards, a CENTSS Best Practice Profile
and inclusion in the book 101 Best Web Sites for Teacher Tools and Professional Development
by James Lerman—for Catalyst and LST.
You can check out their submission, "For Their Inconvenience," online at
http://www.educause.edu/SecurityVideoContest2007.
During autumn, this dynamic team of students can be found, busy as usual,
teaching technology workshops, developing How-To Guides for our online Help Center
and laying the groundwork to bring future awards and accolades home to LST.
This panel of UW faculty and instructors will discuss their experiences
incorporating student-created content into a wide range of learning contexts:
blogging in the Honors in Amsterdam program, creating online portfolios in Construction
Management's distance learning classes, and developing content for the rich Web sites
of urbanarchives.org and the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project.
Panel members will describe their strategies for guiding the creation of digital
content and present assignment ideas that can be adapted to other teaching and
learning contexts. For more information see
http://catalyst.washington.edu/events/spark.html.
At the request of the Academic Technology Advisory Committee and with the support of the
Provost, Catalyst is developing baseline courseware functionality for UW faculty and
students. After a round of focus groups and individual interviews with UW faculty,
instructors, and students, we have identified five immediate areas of work:
- An improved "course portal"
- Greater course workspace functionality in Catalyst Tools
- An online gradebook
- Simplified course-related accounts
- Complete, accurate classlists within Catalyst Tools
Collaborating with several campus partners, the Catalyst team is currently making progress on all five areas.
You can check out the new "course portal" designs and the preliminary design for the course workspace online
at:
http://catalyst.washington.edu/research_development/development.html
Look for two new reports from Catalyst's research team this autumn. In November, we will share
what we have learned from the 2007 Catalyst Electronic Portfolio Contest and present
findings from the second year of our research on e-portfolio implementation in the UW's
Expository Writing Program. Both reports will be posted in OnTechNews.
Catalyst researchers have also recently contributed two chapters to Electronic Portfolios:
Emergent Findings about Learning and Engagement (due out from Stylus Publishing in June 2008)
and are currently revising an article on successful technology survey planning that will appear in
Educause Quarterly next year.
Changes in the core Windows experience are dramatic in Vista, Microsoft's new operating system (OS).
Catalyst remains committed to providing our clients with
safe, secure, and reliable systems. We are currently testing Vista for deployment in our
Learning Spaces and expect to be making Vista's rich new features available soon.
Nearly three years have passed since the office now known as Learning &
Scholarly Technologies led efforts to assess and report on technology use in
education at the UW. This summer, LST once again combined forces with Computing &
Communications, UW Libraries, Educational Outreach, the Student Technology Fee Committee,
and the Office of Undergraduate Education to begin planning a follow up Learning &
Scholarly Technologies survey, which will take place in 2008. You can read more about the
2005 survey and report at:
http://catalyst.washington.edu/research_development/papers/2006/edtech_2005report.html.
Join the Catalyst User Experience (CUE) Team--a growing community of Catalyst
users who have helped us understand campus technology needs and build more
useful tools.
If you are a student, staff, or faculty member, join CUE and have your voice
heard by our development team.
Learn more about CUE at:
http://catalyst.washington.edu/research_development/cue.html
We'd like to give a warm thank you to our current CUE members who participated
in the workspace usability studies last month. Look for
more opportunities to give your feedback soon.
