Technology Training Offers more than Workshops to Ball State Faculty, Staff

Advancing and promoting technology fluency on campus is the mission of University Libraries’ Technology Training Support Services (TTSS) unit.

To accomplish this, training specialists Linda Putman, Barbara Wills and I continually offer workshops, consultation, and support to the Ball State community. In addition, we are frequently invited to be a part of technology-related projects around campus. Through such projects, we discover, learn, and make additional contributions to the University's mission as a dynamic learning community.

Content Management System for Ball State Web Site. Barbara Wills has been involved in planning the re-launch of www.bsu.edu. Serving as our designated Vignette trainer, Barbara is very familiar with Ball State's Web site and Vignette, the content management system (CMS) that powers it. When the University made the decision to migrate to a new CMS, Barbara joined the project team. Working with a consulting firm and gathering input from the University community, the team has narrowed their selection and are now in the process of testing one product. When the selection process is complete and various departments migrate their Web content to the new CMS, Barbara will offer relevant training sessions.

Promoting Faculty Talents. I am working in partnership with Teachers College’s Technology Director Michael Modesitt to facilitate the Laptop Study Group. This group, made up of Teacher Education faculty from various disciplines, is exploring creative ways for using laptops in the teacher education curriculum at Ball State. Our objective is to publish a book of individual projects that highlight faculty and student experiences with technology. Interested readers can follow along the project's progress at http://ytunc.iweb.bsu.edu/laptop.

Best Practices Conference. On Friday, February 16, 2007, Ball State will host the first Technology Enhanced Distance Education Conference. I am co-chairing this conference with John Burton of Extended Education. The purpose of this conference is to provide a forum where Ball State faculty can share their expertise in this area with University colleagues. The conference will have valuable presentations, demonstration of collaboration technologies, and distance education services. Afternoon panel discussions will deal with issues such as student assessment and sharing of the "… good, bad, and ugly of distance education" by experienced faculty. Learn more about the conference at http://rsmall.iweb.bsu.edu/techconf.


Technology Training Support Services personnel find that training and teaching are closely intertwined, and we enjoy our interactions with mini-course and workshop attendees. Working in partnership with colleagues around the University in special projects also keeps our Technology Training Specialists close to see first-hand how faculty are using technology in the classroom.

For more information, contact Yasemin Tunç, Ball State University Libraries’ Director for Technology Training Support Services, YTunc@bsu.edu, (765) 285-5902.