UA News

Blogging, D2L and the Mosaic Project will be among workshop topics at the annual showcase.

Faculty members who want to offer classes or course materials online but aren't sure how to make the technological leap can get a crash course in the process at the  upcoming Technologies Showcase at The University of Arizona.

The May 7 showcase, hosted by University Information Technology Services, will introduce the campus community to various technologies available through UITS, from online instructional tools to the University's AZ-Live 3-D virtual reality room.

Now in its 14th year, the free annual showcase includes a poster session and workshops on various campus technologies. New this year, the showcase will also feature a UITS open house to introduce UA employees and students to UITS services and personnel through tours of the facility and its resources.

The day will begin with a poster session and interactive workshops at the Integrated Learning Center. In the afternoon, showcase-goers can attend the open house and visit locations like the Virtual Realty Annex and Multimedia Learning Lab and talk with UITS employees about how to put the technology to work.

"We're doing much more hands-on stuff this year," said Garry Forger, development and grants management officer for UITS's Learning Technologies Center.

The theme for the showcase is "Online Instructional Technologies: Tools, Strategies and Tactics."

The number of UA instructors interested in teaching courses or offering course materials has skyrocketed in the past year, Forger said. In the fall, 1,300 instructors were using D2L, or Desire2Learn, a course management system that allows instructors to post information like syllabi, class assignments, reading materials, quizzes, grades and more online, and that number continues to grow.

One of the showcase workshops, "Using D2L to Teach Online," will introduce attendees to the ins and outs of online instruction.

Other workshops include presentations on "Classics Instructional Technology Tools," focusing on the UA classics department's use of D2L to deliver general education courses to large audiences; a presentation on the new business intelligence systems being instituted as part of the UA's Mosaic Project to replace administrative computer systems on campus; a hands-on Mosaic Project lab; and a presentation by journalism assistant professor Jay Rochlin on using blogs in teaching.

"Everyone's heard of blogs and looked at blogs, but how do you use a blog to teach? You may not know," Forger said.

And that's largely what the showcase is about – helping UA faculty to utilize modern tools, like blogs, YouTube or iTunes, to enhance their instructional abilities. For example, instructors can post video lectures to the Web or create podcasts their students can tune into on their iPods. "We want to make sure people are aware this stuff exists," Forger said.

Registration for the showcase begins at 9:30 a.m. in the ILC courtyard, where a poster session featuring various UITS services will be available for viewing from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Workshops will be held at the ILC in two sessions, from 10 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. and 11 a.m. to noon, and participants are asked to sign up for workshop sessions online.

The UITS open house runs from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Computer Center. Those who wish to visit AZ-Live are asked to sign up for a tour in advance.

For a complete schedule and more information, including workshop registration, visit the Technologies Showcase Web site.