Bringing Technological Innovation to the Pacific Northwest
The people at Chemeketa College would be the first to admit that their institution isn’t exactly a household word. But in the past few years, this community college in Salem, Ore., has been making quite a name for itself not only locally, but also regionally and nationally. The reason? Its innovative use of Macintosh computers and related technology.
Chemeketa serves a three-county district in Oregon’s Central Willamette Valley and enrolls nearly 9,000 students each term. Among its charters is the provision of training for government (Salem is the state capital), business, and industry. This was the area in which the college began its Macintosh use.
The first Macintosh computers to come to Chemeketa—aside from a few individual machines on staff desks—were purchased through a federal Title III grant. They were used to create a “Mobile Mac Lab”: a lab that could be packed into bags and taken out into the community to provide short-term training in computer skills at business locations or in the college community outreach centers.
Joining the Apple Alliance
Soon, Macintosh computers began moving into a number of the college’s departments, according to Terri Johanson of Chemeketa’s Information Technology Group, who claims, “Macintosh computers are like Cracker Jacks—the more you get, the more you want.” So when Apple teamed up with the League for Innovation in the Community College and solicited proposals for schools that wanted to become involved in an alliance to foster innovation, the Chemeketa staff was at the ready.
The resulting proposal was accepted, making Chemeketa one of 10 colleges across the nation that became charter members of the Apple Community College Alliance in March 1990.
Fostering curriculum development
At the heart of Chemeketa’s proposal was a push to foster faculty involvement in the development of curriculum materials that take advantage of Macintosh technology in order to enhance learning. Initially, the Alliance Project Advisory Committee asked for faculty proposals and granted machines to a number of faculty members interested in curriculum development.
In addition to the computers, the group also provided a central development facility. The ACCA Development Lab was—and continues to be—the place for staff to access resources that include everything from individual training materials and general reference materials to specialized software and hardware that includes a scanner, sound digitizing equipment, a laserdisc player, a CD-ROM collection, video cameras, and more. Other resources provided include a monthly “electronic newsletter” and a number of workshops, as well as individual aid to would-be faculty developers.
According to Johanson, this approach resulted in both “great successes and big failures.” She explains that the traditional model of developing curriculum materials relies on the faculty member to supply the content and instructional design, while support staff handles the actual technical implementation. But Chemeketa only had three people in the supporting role, so with 30 faculty projects in the works, such an approach was “clearly impossible.”
At first, the support staff tried to do projects that could be somewhat adapted to other purposes, but this approach was still highly support-intensive. Ultimately, the solution lay in empowering the faculty to work more independently.
The Textbook Toolbox
Early in the development cycle, Chemeketa support staff had toyed with the idea of creating some sort of shell program into which specific instructional content could be placed, so that faculty developers wouldn’t have to constantly “reinvent the wheel.” But this approach would have resulted in the creation of instructional materials that looked essentially alike—an outcome that they deemed unacceptable.
Instead, the Chemeketa staff developed a HyperCard-based tool that guides a nontechnical user through the process of creating—and differentiating—a HyperCard stack. Using The Textbook Toolbox, a faculty member makes a series of choices about how the resulting materials will look and operate. Once these choices are made, the system builds a shell that conforms to the user’s specifications. With the help of an authoring palette, the user then can import text, as well as add sounds, graphics, notes, movies, and glossary entries to enhance the content.
The completed “textbooks” adhere to Apple’s human interface guidelines and use standard objects familiar to all Macintosh users. Textbooks may be distributed or sold without paying additional licensing or royalty fees, and owners of The Textbook Toolbox can create an unlimited number of textbooks using the system.
Among the stacks developed using The Textbook Toolbox are the following:
• The materials for an introductory course in the college’s Deaf Services Department. The stack serves as a guide and reference for the student working with an instructor through the course. The entire staff is introduced with a picture, accessed by clicking a button by each name. Services and courses offered by the department are reviewed. The program features a variety of ways to navigate through the material and provides the student with additional information as appropriate, through the use of notes, graphics, and homework.
• The Chemeketa Fact Book is a stack developed in the Institutional Advancement Department. This stack is a reference used by all departments when they need access to statistical information about the college, its student population, and related topics. The developer combined text and graphs to provide the information in a readily understandable and easily accessible format.
Other developers who have taken advantage of The Textbook Toolbox as a means of communication have created course materials for a college math class, student term “papers,” stacks used for classroom and conference presentations, and stacks that record workshop experiences.
The Textbook Toolbox has been showcased at a number of conferences and workshops nationwide, as well as being featured on Apple TV’s IMAGINE series. Because of the degree of interest expressed by educators, Chemeketa staff prepared full documentation for the tool, and are currently marketing it themselves. They are also considering other distribution channels.
Collaborating with other alliance partners
Chemeketa and all of the other members of the Apple Community Alliance actively pursue opportunities to collaborate—an effort that is especially valuable in light of the fact that each of the alliance schools has specific areas of expertise to share.
Recently, Ann Green and Alex Bymhold from Jackson Community College in Jackson, Mich., visited Chemeketa to work with faculty interested in the implementation of technology to support collaborative learning. The workshop was held in a networked Macintosh lab, where faculty and technical staff experimented with teaching strategies such as electronic conversations, collaborative writing, and an interactive HyperCard lecture format.
Chemeketa staff, in turn, are often asked to share their expertise and experiences with Macintosh technology and education at other schools, as well as at conferences and workshops nationwide. This year alone, the staff has presented at The League for Innovation Conference, EDUCOM, ISTE, NCCE, NC5, and several small regional events.
In addition to formal presentations, Chemeketa regularly hosts visitors interested in technology and education. Visitors have an opportunity to see the Chemeketa facilities, as well as to spend time with staff members working in their particular area of interest.
Promoting regional innovation
One of the stated goals of the Apple Community College Alliance was that its member schools “serve as regional centers to other community colleges by providing model demonstrations, training, and support for the use of Macintosh technology by students, faculty, and staff.” Last year, Chemeketa took a highly ambitious approach toward this goal by sponsoring a conference and trade show in Portland, Ore.
Johanson explains, “We started thinking about how we could serve as a regional resource. First we considered a small, local ‘service area’ approach, but we quickly decided to think bigger.”
The Chemeketa Information Technology Group focused on the fact that the Pacific Northwest had no tradition of large Macintosh-centered events—no Macademias or MacWorlds. So they decided to remedy this situation, working in tandem with Apple.
The result was a conference for educators, business trainers, and professional communicators, titled “Communicate: Technology for the Information Age.” Held on April 27 and 28 this past year, at Portland’s Oregon Convention Center, the conference drew 400 attendees. Events included a keynote address by David Nagel, Apple senior vice president and the head of Apple’s Advanced Technology Group, as well as a series of workshops covering such topics as Macintosh as a Visualization Tool, QuickTime 101, Macintosh and Music, and Video Production and the Macintosh. The conference also served as the springboard for the formal public launch of The Textbook Toolbox.
According to Johanson, one of the goals of the conference, in addition to sharing information about applications of Macintosh technology, was to put attendees in touch with the sorts of vendors and resources that Chemeketa had gained access to through its alliance membership. However, the conference organizers realized the difficulty of tempting “the big players” with an audience of 400 educators and trainers.
Their solution was to produce a trade show in conjunction with the conference, and to open it up to the public, thus guaranteeing their participants a broader—and larger—audience. The result, the MacNorthwest technology trade show, drew around 50 vendors (including such big names as ACIUS, Adobe, Claris, and Microsoft), and more than 2,600 attendees—a runaway success for a first-time show.
Having confirmed the market for such an event, Chemeketa is currently preparing its second annual conference and MacNorthwest show. This year’s conference, “Challenge: Merging and Emerging Technologies,” will be held May 4 and 5, 1993, again at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. This time, the college is partnering not only with Apple but also with the University of Oregon’s Continuing Education Center, which has broad experience in handling technology-focused conferences and trade shows. Chemeketa and the university also hope to collaborate on the development of several training programs for Macintosh users who wish to explore and integrate the technology into the way they work and learn.
MacTeacher TV
Another way in which Chemeketa is reaching out to the larger community is through the use of video technology. As one of its alliance projects, the college is discussing a partnership with The Computer Store to produce a weekly television show to assist teachers in the process of incorporating Macintosh technology into the learning process.
The program, which will air on several public-access cable systems, focuses on showcasing the use of Macintosh technology in education. Shows emphasize the practical use of computers in the classroom, and fall into four basic categories:
• Illustrations of integrating Macintosh technology into the learning process;
• Introductions to commercial software packages;
• Demonstrations of curriculum projects developed at Chemeketa; and
• Step-by-step tutorials on using computer peripherals. In addition to being broadcast on cable systems, Mac TV shows are also available on videotape. For information, contact Greg Peters, The Computer Store, (503) 754-8441.
Training: The next wave
Chemeketa staff are currently moving the emphasis of their alliance project away from curriculum development and toward the delivery of instructional training. The idea is to prepare instructors to use available technology tools to facilitate and enhance their instruction.
At Chemeketa, the first step will be to identify a core group of faculty members and provide them with intensive training in the use of computers—everything from using word processors, databases, and spreadsheets to working with scanners, video, and sound. In parallel with this internal training effort, Chemeketa staff will develop seminars and workshops that they can market to the region, attracting instructors from kindergarten through university levels.
Already, a core class called MacWorkshop for Educators is being offered through the college. MacWorkshop is a week-long, six-hour-a-day course that offers total immersion in the area of instructional technology.
The course, offered in collaboration with Oregon State University, provides a good, solid basis for instructional use of the Macintosh, from fundamentals of word processing to relatively advanced multimedia applications.
Productivity and Pizzazz is a new two-day course developed for novice computer users. It focuses on using the Macintosh to improve personal productivity and the professional appearance of correspondence and presentation materials.
Participants experiment with applications such as grade-book programs and calendar applications, and develop computer-generated presentation materials.
Productivity demonstrations include electronic checking services, electronic bulletin boards, and the use of templates to improve productivity.
In addition to MacWorkshop and Productivity and Pizzazz, Chemeketa staff are hard at work expanding their instructional technology offerings. The goal is simple, according to Johanson: “To get more information to more people about the possibilities of Macintosh technology.”
Contact Terri Johanson, Information Technology Group, Chemeketa College, P.O. Box 14007, Salem, OR 97309-5008; (503) 399-8636.
