University News

National Teleconference on Teaching with Technology

April 14, 2003

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MACOMB, IL -- The national interactive teleconference "Stuff and Staff: Assembling and Sustaining a Technology Infrastructure" will be broadcast live from the Memorial Hall studios on the Western Illinois University campus from noon-1 p.m. Tuesday, April 29. Horrabin Hall 45 will be open for local viewing of the broadcast.

For the past 20 years, university and college education leaders have raced to meet their faculty members’ and students’ expectations for computer hardware and software. Today, those educators are increasingly aware of the importance of creating a robust infrastructure to support this growing technology inventory. While infrastructure is often thought of as the "boxes and wires" necessary to support learning and teaching, savvy leaders know that infrastructure is more than just the "stuff." Without a competent and committed staff to maintain and to train, technology integration will fall short of expectations.

The United States Department of Education’s Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) Capacity Building and Implementation-level grants have assisted hundreds of teacher education programs to improve both their physical and human infrastructure. The April 29 broadcast will consider how several colleges of education across the nation have used PT3 and other external funding coupled with internal resources to build a viable technology infrastructure to support their teacher preparation efforts.

Program panel members will include William Bramble, University of New Mexico; Gary Hatch, University of Northern Colorado; and Tim Freesmeyer, Western Illinois University. Don Nelson, associate dean of the College of Education and Human Services at Western and director of the CATALISE Project, will moderate the program.

The 60-minute broadcast is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education’s (USDE) Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology Program’s CATALISE Project and USDE’s United Star Distance Learning Consortium (USDLC) Engaged Learning Star Schools Project. WIU is the lead institution for both the CATALISE and Engaged Learning Star Schools Projects.

For registration information and satellite coordinates, visit www.catalise.org or call Susie El Idrissi at 309/298-2807.

Posted By: Darcie Shinberger (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing