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Teaching and Technology Services: Getting Help with Instructional Technologies

In today's higher education environment, faculty have remarkable tools available to enhance instruction. Yesterday's Show-and-Tell has evolved into today's multimedia presentations, with access to enormous amounts of information online. But what are the best ways to use these technologies to teach effectively? The Teaching and Technology team at UTS can help.

Teaching and Technology Services specializes in supporting software and hardware used in instruction and research. Their expertise covers everything from using Blackboard to developing courses for distance education.

There are a number of common software packages that TTS supports:

• Blackboard - used by faculty to create up-to-the-minute class announcements, communicate with students via email, post course materials and student grades online, and even check papers for plagiarism.

• Adobe Connect/Breeze - allows you to add audio narration to your PowerPoint presentations, and allow students to access them online.

• Camtasia - has screen and video recording features that allow you to create high-quality presentations for the Web, CD-ROM and portable media players like iPod.

• Flashlight Online - online software, free to University staff, that allows you create, administer, and analyze surveys.

• SPSS and SAS - statistical analysis software for research

The Teaching and Technology Services team can help both faculty and students make sense of these, and other educational technologies.

"We have seven experts on instructional technology," says Chris Brown, director of Teaching and Technology Services. "We can brainstorm with instructors, meet one-on-one with them, or even present seminars to address a group's specific needs."

Twice a year the Teaching and Technology staff conducts the BEST institute for both faculty and students. BEST, which stands for BlackBoard and Educational Software Technologies, has sessions on how to navigate different educational software packages, as well as their most effective use in teaching. This month, over 350 faculty and graduate students attended the Fall 2008 BEST Institute, which featured 35 different training sessions.

"We had twelve instructors for these sessions, who covered everything from different features in Blackboard, to developing online wikis and blogs," says Brown. "And our instructors are available throughout the year to help faculty. We're just a phone call or email away."

If you have questions about using technology in the classroom, or need support on software platforms such as Blackboard, visit the TTS website at: http://www.uts.sc.edu/tts/index.shtml

Submitted by

Mike Brown

University Technology Services

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