Academic Computing offers computer-based faculty development workshops every semester, and even in-between. Often, however, faculty do not have easily accessible computers to pursue actual development of projects. The Microcomputer Depot currently rents computers at $10 per day, $50 per week. While this is occasionally a nuisance to faculty members digitizing their courses, it is often an impassible barrier to graduate students.

This proposal would purchase a number of upper-end notebook computers that could be lent without payment to faculty and/or graduate students to support this work over a period of a week or so. A typical configuration notebook compute would contain:

• Macintosh or Windows 95 Operating System
• 16 Mbyte RAM
• 500 - 1,000 Mbyte Disk
• PCMCIA Ethernet Adapter with Modem
• Portable CD-ROM
• Network Software pre-installed

Notebook computers under this program could be lent for up to two weeks at a time.

Faculty, graduate students, and visiting lecturers wishing to offer the occassional computer based presentations face a number of administrative obstacles: they must bring their own computer or rent one from the Depot, schedule the loan of an overhead projector and a computer display panel, configure their computer to match the projector, and then, on the day of the presentation discover that the room they are using is too bright.

This project would these obstacles by purchasing complet computer plus projector systems that would become available for classroom use

• 2 state of the art (active matrix LCD, dichromatic optics, metalic halide bulb) projectors, e.g. InFocus 580
• 4 multimedia compatible notebook computers paired with these projectors
• Network connections for these computers to allow downloading and installation of software.

Information technology steams ahead daily, leaving regularly scheduled work behind. When we adapt to e-mail, there is gopher. By the time we adapt to gopher, there is the world wide web. Students often can keep pace with this activity, but it is often viewed as "extra curricular" activity, something that might interfer with their course work even though it might be at the leading of the discipline. Are there ways the university curriculum can smoothly integrate new information resoures, technologies, and methods ?

The proposal here is to create departmentally-based courses in information technology that would recognize student efforts by providing a 1, 2 and 3 credit using the existing 095, 195, and 295 course model. Though offered within a department, students would be encouraged to make use of extra-departmental resources:

• Students would prepare a course proposal, assisatance would be available from computing, library, and media services staff.
• Work would be pre-approved by student's academic advisor or other departmental faculty.
• Work would generally be independent, with interested faculty and academic computing, library, and media services staff available for content and technical consulting.
• Work would be evaluated and graded by student's academic advisor.

Funding for this project would hire a student(s) (graduate student teaching assistant?) to work as project assistant to work with the participating faculty, staff, and students as well as coordinating a funded seminar series presenting two or three visiting speaker per semester along the overall goals of ITS. The project assistant would:

• assist in developing ITS proposal
• create and maintain a web site for the UVM ITS
• coordinate seminar series (scheduling rooms, locating hardware, etc.)
• assist in developing other ITS grant proposals and projects

New Media Centers is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization helping institutions of higher education enhance teaching and learning through the use of new media. Bringing together pioneers in the new media field from academia and industry, NMC creates a collaborative network of institutions and corporations serving as a catalyst to integrate new media into education.

New Media Centers identifies academic institutions around the world best suited to serve as models for innovation, both on campus and in their communities. NMC and its corporate members then help them acquire and use state-of-the-art new media technology to create hands-on laboratories. These laboratories offer an ideal setting for beta-testing, software development and the training of tomorrow's workforce.

Acting as the program hub for its members, the NMC national staff convenes both traditional conferences and electronic forums to discuss the key pedagogical, technological and legal issues facing educators and corporations in the new media realm. New Media Center institutions work with each other and with NMC corporate members to develop the new technology needed for education. Individual centers are also encouraged to develop community-based programs, such as in-service training workshops for primary and secondary school teachers and professional development courses for lifelong learning.

For additional information, see the New Media Centers WWW page.

This proposal would collect a group of faculty and staff to develop a UVM proposal to join the NMC consortium and would hire a student to work as project assistant. Additional funding would provide visiting grants that host a two or three speaker per semester seminar series as part of the UVM NMC project. The project assistant would:

• assist in developing initial NMC proposal
• create and maintain a web site for the UVM NMC
• coordinate seminar series (scheduling rooms, locating hardware, etc.)
• assist in developing other grant proposals

This "center" (which could generally reside on the network) could serve as the core for a series of independent study project courses along the lines of a "Media Studies 095", "Media Studies 195", "Media Studies 295".

Using the internet or satellite video conferences as a classroom resource at UVM often runs into the problem of finding a classroom or seminar space with a video, data, and telephone connection. A major exception to this would be the (excellent) case rooms in Kalkin. Other wired classrooms are generally of the "computer laboratory" variety.

This proposal suggests wiring 24 classrooms across campus for data, video, and telephone. Sample spaces that would be suitable include

• Aiken 115 (Seminar Room)
• Billings Center (Martin Luther King Room)
• Waterman 501 (Grace Coolidge Room)
• Williams 301 (Small Lecture Hall)