Community of Educational Technology Support (ComETS)

ComETS is an Iowa State University community that promotes dialog and events focused on technology in learning & teaching. ComETS is a university-wide community where ideas and resources can be shared, and debate can occur on future technology directions at ISU. ComETS is open to all interested ISU faculty and staff.

ComETS objectives:

ComETS has established a listserve to maintain dialog about, share news, and to publicize events related to educational technology at Iowa State. Any interested faculty, staff, and graduate students are welcome to participate. Subscribe to the ComETS listserve here, or click "Subscribe" in the menu on the left.

ComETS 2012 Symposium March 22nd Save the date!

The 2012 ComETS Symposium will occur the afternoon of March 22, 2012 in the ISU Memorial Union. The focus of the symposium will be on mobile computing, mobile-enabled computing strategies, and will feature a keynote by Dr. George Saltsman, Executive Director of the Adams Center for Teaching & Learning at Abilene Christian University (ACU). ACU was an early adopter of mobile technology, distributing iPhones to all incoming freshmen in 2008 to create a ubiquitous platform on which to build multiple student services. Dr. Saltsman has travelled internationally to present on mobility in computing. His keynote, "Empowering the Academy for the Digital Age", will address the progression of documented knowledge from the Stone Age to today, and engage the audience in the issues related to the information explosion and the need for computer-mitigated strategies for accessing it.

Here is the abstract for his keynote:

"We live in the golden age of information. Digital technologies are transforming the world. Universal access to information has reshaped industries, governments, and human society. Despite this exponential growth, formal teaching and learning remain largely unchanged. As we collectively consider the future of the academy, the digital world continues to evolve without us. Will the historical ideals of traditional education continue or decline into extinction? This presentation addresses why and how mobile computing, digital textbooks and the ubiquity of information will ultimately transform the academy as we know it."

The 2012 ComETS Symposium will also feature the popular "lightning strike" sessions; 10 minute mini-presentations by ISU faculty and instructional support staff on technology innovations and strategies. Lightning strikes are designed to wet the information appetite of the audience, and entice new dialog amongst those potentially separated on campus. The Symposium will conclude with a student panel addressing mobile technology use on campus, including a fresh 2012 survey of student needs on mobile computing. Watch this site for future information on the Symposium, and a proposal-submission form for the lightning strike sessions.

Online Media Interest Group

On December 4th, the Online Media Interest Group held another meeting in room 1230 of the Communications Building. The group discussed the upcoming move to the latest version of the Panopto classroom capture software and learned about some of the new features that will be available. They also talked about activation of the Blackboard Learn building block which will integrate the two systems and make it easier for instructors to use classroom capture material in their online courses. The next meeting will be held in early February.

Needs Assessment Surveys Reports

ComETS has conducted a campus-wide needs assessment to learn more about educational technology use, needs, and attitudes. The first step of the needs assessment has been to conduct two separate surveys. One for faculty/staff, and a second survey for students.

The student survey is now complete. It was conducted during the fall of 2010, and is summarized in a 27 page report. Student comments provided during the survey are also included as an appendix to the main document. The full report, complete with the appendices is available for download as a PDF file at the following link:

Besides the overall responses in the report, the appendices include responses stratified by year in school (freshman, sophomore, etc.). For responses stratified by college, see the link immediately below.

The ComETS steering committee has made recommendations based on this report. Those may be found on page 26.

The faculty/staff survey is also available. This survey was conducted in April 2010, and is summarized in a 63 page report. Additionally, respondent comments to open-ended questions are included in subsequent appendices. Both the report, as well as the report plus appendices, are available via PDF download at the following links:

The ComETS steering committee has collectively come up with the recommendations of the report on page 62.