Randy Lisk

 Community college in Southeast U.S.  Faculty is ethnically and racially diverse  Nearly equal numbers of male & female professors  College has good professor retention rate

A significant population of instructors at this community college express frustration when attempting to operate multi-media equipment and create an inordinate amount of service requests that are easily remedied. Instructors should be able to identify simple solutions before requesting service from the technical support staff.

 Survey of Multi-Media skills measured instructor “comfort level” of classroom technology  Eligibility for survey include all full-time and adjunct faculty (tenured or non-tenured)  Excludes training staff, continuing ed. instructors, etc.  Qualified participants have unlimited access to multi- media devices and technical support.

 328 of 400 professors returned survey  54.3% of professors do not attempt to identify the problem.  Most common failures during class are projectors and computers  Most confusing device is the projector  91.5% would attend training sessions designed to improve their multi-media skills

 Studies indicate over 80% of some teachers receive less then 10 hours per year in technology training.  Concept of “self-efficacy” or development of a technological vision is encouraged.  Also called a PTIP; a Personal Technology Improvement Plan.

 Workshops are principle forms of remediating technological shortcomings.  Some workshops are available on-line and for free; others sponsored through Professional Development or county agencies.  Funding sources are available for those who are technologically adept, but have insufficient resources to put their knowledge into practice.

 Workshops have been developed and include:  Basic troubleshooting skills  Video editing and web publication skills  Basic accessibility options for disabled students  Principles of device operation  Creating accurate HelpDesk tickets

 Identify multi-media items and functions  Learn how to produce simple videos and how to publish them  Set up an Internet domain name and learn web page authoring software  Introduce adaptive technologies to help disability students  Understand functions of cables, rectify simple problems