News

Learning and Scholarly Technologies offers over thirty free workshops each quarter at UW Seattle to students, faculty, and staff. Workshop topics range from using Microsoft Excel and Adobe Photoshop, to publishing a Web site, to working with digital audio and video. Check out the Autumn Quarter workshop schedule online.

Find out what’s new and what's next for green computing, cloud computing & mobile computing at the UW? Listen to the following presentations from the 2009 Student Technology Fair in streaming audio:

UW Green Initiatives: How Green IT is maximizing energy efficiency and minimizing waste in IT resource plans
Kelli Trosvig, COO of UW Technology, reviews what is possible in Green IT, what is in scope for this year at the UW, as well as what is on the horizon. Find out how you can help the environment by supporting the current and future UW Green IT programs.

• Audio
• Powerpoint

Cloud Seeding: the story behind UW's deployment of Microsoft and Google services
Terry Gray, Technology Strategy & CTA, UW Technology, provides an overview of UW's Cloud Computing Initiative, including motivations and challenges, and how the introduction of Microsoft Outlook Live and Google Applications will impact the school's Uniform Access services.

• Audio
• Powerpoint

UW on the Go: There's an app for that!
David Morton, Mobile Communications in UW Technology, demos the UW's iPhone and mobile Web app--m.UW, our student and staff cellular discounts, coverage improvements and other ways to help you on the go.

• Audio
• Powerpoint

LST researchers, Dr. Cara Lane and Henry Lyle, presented a virtual paper at this summer’s 2009 ED-MEDIA World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications, which explores supports and obstacles to using technology among faculty, TAs, and students at the UW. The paper was later published in the conference proceedings. The data used for this study were taken from a larger research survey, the 2008 Surveys on Learning and Scholarly Technologies, investigating the use of learning and scholarly technologies at the UW.

As detailed in the EDMEDIA paper, the findings indicate that individuals with technical expertise at the beginner level rely on different sources of supports and encounter different obstacles than do individuals at the expert level. This research demonstrates the importance of recognizing a range of expertise within all populations when assessing and trying to alleviate obstacles related to adopting educational technologies. To coordinate with this presentation and publication, LST is releasing new data from the 2008 Surveys on Learning & Scholarly Technologies. The expertise data tables compare faculty, TA, and students with different expertise levels in regards to the perceived severity of technological obstacles, helpfulness of particular supports, opinions about technology use, and priorities related to educational technologies.

The following materials are now available online:

• Presentation video: Part 1   Part 2   Part 3 
• ED-MEDIA conference paper
• Technological Expertise Data from the 2008 Faculty, TA, and Student Surveys

With the aid of three generous grants from the Student Technology Fee Committee (STFC), LST spent September break upgrading equipment and software in the Odegaard Undergraduate Library. These enhancements were made in response to the findings of the 2005 and 2008 Surveys on Learning and Scholarly Technologies carried out by LST, where students highlighted improvements to technology facilities as their top priority.
 
With STFC funds, LST replaced 185 workstations in the Odegaard Undergraduate Library Learning Commons, all of which had become less dependable due to high usage. The replacement computers, 24” iMacs, allow for additional desk space, which means more room for students to work with others and spread out their books and study materials on their workspace. Apple hardware will also reduce energy consumption.

LST also expanded the number of  video-editing workstations from 6 Macs and 6 PCs to 16 of each. The video editing Macs are all brand-new Mac Pro towers with have dual-monitors for increased workspace. The video editing PCs are new Dells, and will expand the number of stations that have Adobe Premiere to 16 total, allowing more students to edit videos while freeing up our HDV/DV decks for those who need to import video.

The DPS and the three Collaboration Studios in Odegaard also received upgraded hardware as well.

Lastly, in partnership with UW Libraries, LST upgraded over 50 Access+ workstations, located on the first floor of the Odegaard Library. These workstations allow students to quickly check email, complete assignments, or print papers on their way to class, without having to enter the LST Computing Commons or a departmental computer lab.

These technology improvements, made possible by STFC, contribute to LST’s goal of responding directly to student needs and of providing a continuously stable and secure computing environment for UW students.