Emerging Academic Technology Services
Description
The Office of Information Technology (OIT) The Emerging Academic Technologies group (EAT), explores, analyzes, evaluates, pilots, and implements emerging academic technologies. EAT team members investigates these emerging technologies as a part of their day-to-day work practices, at the request of clients, and at the request of strategic planning groups at the University of Minnesota. In order to share the knowledge gained from these investigations, several EAT team members manage processes and practices that allow an efficient and transparent process for sharing this knowledge with peers and key decisions makers at the University of Minnesota.
The Emerging Academic Technologies group, comprised of staff from the (DMC) and Java and Web Services (JaWS) leads the emerging technologies exploration-through-implementation process for OIT.
Services
The EAT group currently performs the following services.
Writes reports. EAT team members will conduct research and provide reports related to “on the horizon” technologies and other topics of interest, e.g. the comparison of current portfolio applications, or current level of adoption of publishers Web sites for storing student data. These reports are often short white papers, trend documents. Etc.
Manages initial pilot studies for emerging academic technologies. EAT team members manage teams that pilot and evaluate the technical, support and work-related (e.g. pedagogical, research) issues associated with implementing emerging academic technologies, e.g. mLearning, Moodle, iTunes U, 3D Immersive Environments.
Coordinates (along with the ATAC co-chairs, Academic Technology Sr. Director, DMC Director, JAWS Director, and Customer Engagement Director) the Academic Technology Advisory Committee (ATAC). The ATAC is comprised of faculty and staff from every participating academic unit (for the purposes of this document an “academic unit” is one of the twenty-two coordinate campuses, colleges, schools, or institutes that comprise the University of Minnesota). Specifically, ATAC members will provide advice and input about and help evaluate issues surrounding:
- academic enterprise system integration needs,
- the adoption of new academic technology tools/systems,
- the use of academic technology, and
- faculty, staff, and student support services.
Manages the Academic Technology Investigation Process (ATIP). The ATAC committee sponsors the ATIP process, which is an open, structured, and transparent mechanism for academic units to request OIT central support for specific academic technologies. Types of academic technologies that are well suited to be investigated by the ATIP process include but are not limited to academic support tools like survey tools, course management system PowerLinks or Building Blocks, and stand-alone Web 2.0 applications. These types of tools and applications will generally not be stand-alone, enterprise-level systems like CMSs, portals, or portfolios which would benefit from more complex, long-term investigations. ATIP committees are comprised of ATAC members, OIT staff, and additional University professionals as appropriate to the investigated technology. The ATIP process is intended to be an open, nimble process that takes only two to four months.
Serve on OIT and University-wide committees investigating enterprise level academic technologies.
