Art, Science, or Both? Instructional Technology Collaborations among Liberal Arts Colleges

Midwest Educause Regional Conference 2005

Nancy Millichap Midwest Instructional Technology Center (MITC)

Colleges and Universities Participating in theColleges and Universities Participating in the Midwest Instructional Technology Center Midwest Instructional Technology Center

Midwest Instructional Technology Center: Collaboration, Distributed

26 colleges (members of Associated Colleges of the Midwest and Great Lakes Colleges Association) in collaboration

Quarterly RFP and review process Distributed programs: conferences, symposia,

technology workshops, projects Faculty, library, and IT staff teambuilding Support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,

moving to sustainable model with participant feeswww.midwest-itc.org

Collaboration: Art or Science?

Developing new professional networks? (Create.)Art.

Doing something new inter-institutionally? (Experiment.) Science.

Assuring needed materials and using them together? (Provide and support.)Both.

Collaboration as Art: Developing a New Professional Network

Instructional Technologists at Liberal Arts Colleges (ITLAC) annual conference

Preconference workshops Seminar Retreat MITC Fellows Program

Collaborative professional development

What’s in it for instructional technologists?

Advice and support New skills New relationships

… a sense of community

Collaboration as Science: Creating New Shared Resources

Image Database to Enhance Asian Studies (IDEAS)

ideas.midwest-itc.org

IDEAS Collaboration

Collaborating colleges St. Olaf College Earlham College Lake Forest College Colorado College

Collaborating professionals Faculty members

(discipline knowledge - and pictures)

Technologists (knowledge of systems and applications)

Librarians (knowledge of standards and metadata)

National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE)

“Connecting the dots” Providing coordination among three regional

Centers - MITC, CET in Northeast, ACSTC in South) serving 81 liberal arts colleges

Developing programs of cross-regional interest Partnering with national organizations such as CNI

and CLIR Informing the liberal arts community about

technology developmentshttp://www.nitle.org

Institutions Participating in NITLEInstitutions Participating in NITLE

Collaboration as Art and Science: Extensive Curricular Resources

Arab Culture and Civilization web site

and

al-Musharaka teaching collaborative

http://arabworld.nitle.org

MITC and NITLE Collaborations: Take-home Messages Collaborators are both artists (creators) and

scientists (experimenters). Liberal arts colleges are collaborating - and in

the process developing useful things. Successful collaboration within a specific

sector produces results and resources that benefit both that sector and others.

http://ideas.midwest-itc.org

http://arabworld.nitle.org