Millersville University, Faculty Senate

Attachment 1

Faculty Senate Meeting

1 September 1998

INFORMATION
TLT Catalyst Institute
&
STA Pilot Project

TLT Catalyst Institute
November 3-4, 1998
Millersville University

Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) Catalyst Institutes are two-day working conferences organized around four or more workshops. Each workshop helps participants with a specific strategy for using information technology to improve teaching and learning. some workshops focus on developing institutional infrastructure, while others address specific parts of the curriculum. Colleges and universities are strongly encouraged to send teams of several individuals so that each institution can benefit from most of the workshops offered.

TLT Group plans each Catalyst Institute program with advice from the local host. Each Institute can include a selection of workshops to match the needs and interests of participating institutions and individuals. Available Workshops at the Nov. 3-4 Institute at Millersville University include:

Millersville will have a team of 10-20 individuals participating in this Institute. Interested faculty should contact Jim Stager, x3599, jstager@marauder

STA Pilot Project
1998-99

What is an STA?
A way to partially address the 'support service crises' in information technology at universities has been advocated by Steve Gilbert of the TLT Group, an affiliate of the AAHE and the founder of the Teaching and Learning with Technology Roundtable (TLTR). His suggestion is to use our large student resource in a much more coordinated way, to train students more formally, to link their service to their educational program and to give students more responsibility for managing themselves in their technology support roles.

Steve Gilbert was our spring covocation speaker in February, 1998 and was impressed with out programs, faculty, and staff. As a result he invited Millersville to participate in a workshop in March at Seton Hall which had the goal of establishing a national program for helping institutions build Student Technology Assistant Programs to address their information technology support crises. Participants at this workshop were invited to become STA pilot sites and Millersville agreed.

The first official STA workshop presented by the TLT Group was held on June 12-13 at Union County College in New Jersey. Three Millersville people attended, Scott Anderson, Bonnie Duncan, and Khalid Chaudhary. This workshop provided us with more concrete ideas on how to create our STA Pilot Program.

A Student Technology Assistance (STA) Program was defined at Seton Hall as having the following componenets which differentiates it from simply employing students as technology assistants:
  1. It is an institution-wide, coordinated program with institutional commitment
  2. There is a sound and on-going financial base for the program
  3. There is a strong educational grounding to the program
  4. Students have management authority
  5. There is professional staff supervision of every student
  6. There are growth options for the students
  7. There is a formal training curriculum
  8. There are diverse roles for the students to play

Millersville already uses students in many ways as technology assistants; e.g. consultants in our computing labs, building web pages, helping with dorm connectivity, support, staffing the Help desk in IT. However, there is no formal training, no educational grounding, no growth options, little student management, and mostly uncoordinated. The pilot program will attempt to bring these elements to the table. It will also involve our existing cooperative education program in the STA program.

What is required of an STA Pilot Site?
The following is a list of commitments which each pilot site is requested to adhere to:
  1. host a STA workshop
  2. visit/exchange information and/or resources to other STA Sites
  3. link the institutional web site to the TLT Group site
  4. provide progress report/case studies on status of the STA program
  5. participate in the unmoderated, closed, pilot site listserv for contact of the pilot site
  6. involve students in local and national meetings
  7. use the online help desk (run by students) by Phil Long
  8. give feedback, comments and suggestions to the TLT Group in the development of the STA program

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