Already faculty and students with Airport cards in their portable Apple computers can access e-mail and the web from the East end of the Memorial Union. Those who frequent the Graduate School of Management, and Mishka's Cafe can enjoy the same freedoms. One can also check out wireless PC cards from the reserve desk of the Shields Library. See http://it.ucdavis.edu/Solutions/wireless.html and http://ac4.ucdavis.edu/minutes/04_16_01/#agend4 for other campus responses to this issue.
Will we be gratified or distracted by the sounds of typing in our lecture halls? See this news release on our partnership with Sacramento High School in constructing the "Classroom of the Future."
Medical schools and teaching hospitals have been equipping doctors with PDAs for years (see a few dozen articles on that subject). In the Information Age, will we reward students in our classrooms who may not remember important facts, but who can access them quickly? For more, see this article on Information Literacy.
As Dick Walters has pointed out to us this week, many hundred of studies have indicated "no significant difference" in student performance between traditional and distance education classes. How soon and in what capacity will UC administrators and faculty feel comfortable embracing/allowing distance ed classes to be taught at U.C. Davis?
Yesterday I overheard Dave Burger offering regrets to a colleague, admitting that his vacation would preclude him from participating in some forum or conference. Ten seconds later he added, "Maybe we could teleconference!" Will our students accept increased use of tele-lectures? Will they prefer it? Here is the UC Berkeley site on teleconferencing.
Should we have access to our SITT-inspired web animations and captured film clips from home? Some universities, such as Carnegie Mellon and the University of Washington, offer discount DSL or adjusted salaries to faculty who use home DSL for academic purposes. Should we propose the same to the IET decision-makers here at UCD?
Through Pamela Major's Writing Ambassador's Program, I have presented SITT-like talks to teachers at Woodland middle and high schools (an example of one recent talk). As the Dean of the new School of Education arrives this fall, how should more of us expect to share our expertise with those who are now preparing students for our classrooms? See the U.C. Davis Outreach site.
In February of 2001, Brandeis University launched the country's first "Internet Studies" Program. Should U.C. Davis be far behind? See our own Center for Technocultural Studies.
Poet Gary Snyder's faculty page is more visited than all other English Department web pages combined. How will faculty use the web to "publish" their ideas, and increase the visibility of their work and home departments?
How will you share with your colleagues what you have learned at SITT? As John Stenzel says, "Computer Literacy is a Two-Way Street."
Contact Andy with questions or comments.