Component
2: Strengthening Information-Based Instructional Support System
(Instructional Support Network)
Component
2 will occur during Years 3-5 of the project.
SEARK
College also proposes to strengthen its services to students through
the development of a campus-wide Instructional Support Network (ISN).
Currently, the campus computer network is insufficient to support
the effective use of technology in classrooms, labs, and the library.
Therefore, the College proposes to design and develop a new network
with a fiber-optic backbone for on-campus access. This ISN will
provide information-based services including resource-sharing; student
information access; Internet browsing; email communications; the
development of web sites for student organizations, classes, and
projects; educational chat rooms; and similar services for participating
students, course- and program-related computer labs, technology-equipped
classrooms, the Learning Assistance Lab (an open computer lab for
student use), and the College Library.
The network will enable students to communicate with their instructors
more frequently and have much greater access to technological capabilities.
Students will be able to submit homework assignments electronically
and technology instructors will be able to provide detailed information
about new technology systems by showing web sites and demonstration
systems online. Other instructors will be able to provide online
demonstrations in the classroom, providing an immense supplemental
education tool for courses such as history and political science.
Students will be able to post to and access web sites of student
organizations and their activities. In addition to providing access
to innumerable new sources of information, using the Network will
improve students’ computer literacy. As Zeszotarski notes
in ERIC Digest D438016 (2001), “Skill in accessing, manipulating,
and evaluating electronic information sources and devices is necessary
for student success in higher education and the working world.”
Zeszotarski catalogs resources that build these skills including
assignments that enhance students’ computer skills, computer-assisted
instruction, the use of word processors, computer tutorials, distance
learning, and research capabilities, all of which will become available
to SEARK College students through the Instructional Support Network.
And, as Clagett (1998) notes, “Mastery of new technologies
benefits faculty through improving instruction, increasing productivity,
and expanding access to more instructional technologies, and using
technology . . . elevates the teaching role of faculty by reinforcing
the role of ‘designer of learning rather than dispenser of
information’ . . . [enabling] faculty to be learners as well
as teachers.”
The student network will be supported by information technology
students (students with majors in a computer technology field) with
supervision and technical support from the Instructional Network
Specialist and College network staff. It will, thereby, also help
these students prepare to enter the workforce by providing extensive “real world” experience and by enabling students to
building qualifications for employment upon graduation.
