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Wheaton College     Norton, Massachusetts
Academic Computing > About Us > history

History

I. Building the Infrastructure of a Networked Community

Thoughtful incorporation of computing into the curriculum and community life of Wheaton was well underway in 1988 - that being the third year of an important Five-Year Plan initially emerging from Academic Computing under the leadership of Fred Kollett. 1988 became a pivotal year in that the departmental goals were transformed into institutional goals largely through the collective wisdom of the Committee for Computer Policy and Planning. In March of 1988, the committee submitted a plan in response to the Learning Environment Task Force, which stressed two major five-year goals: networking the campus and extending faculty and student ownership of microcomputers. Networking the campus was envisioned as a way of enabling electronic communication not previously possible. It also would provide a means for software distribution and for on-line library information services. That plan suggested steps to reach this goal "gradually, but steadily."

A small network was set up in Academic Computing. Macintosh computers and later VAX equipment were linked together providing access to software and printers. Programs in support of universal ownership continued, i.e., interest-free loans to faculty and a student purchase plan. A faculty development program had continuous funding from 1979 through 1987 and more than forty faculty took part in workshops in the two years prior to the 1995 report. The report stressed that "ongoing faculty development opportunities are also necessary. We must continue to encourage faculty to learn about and use the most innovative and productive computer applications. Faculty development funding is a crucial ingredient of our plan."

Academic year 1987-88 was characterized by the following:

  • realization of the full potential of the new Academic Computing Center (described in the brochure entitled "Wheaton, Computing and the Liberal Arts");
  • successful migration from Apple II to Macintosh computer
  • stabilization of a highly successful staffing structure relying heavily on student employees;
  • establishment of a new position: Coordinator of Educational Computing;
  • summer institutes sponsored by Bay States Skills Corporation, entitled "Computer Aided Instruction in Biology" provided faculty from diverse Massachusetts institutions to develop hands-on expertise in instructional program design and development.

Nine students typically used the center during the day; fourteen during the evening. Classes in many departments used the ne! w classroom in ACC, room 109, which was the first room on campus equipped with data projection for integrated class use of computing. Wheaton became part of the HEPP II program and began selling and purchasing Macintosh computers. Microsoft Works (word processing, spreadsheet and database) and Aldus PageMaker (desktop publishing) became popular software choices. The campus newspaper, the Wheaton Wire, and Rushlight, the literary magazine were produced using this equipment and software combination. The Student Staffing Project was recognized as a highly successful program. Student Managers provided software and hardware support and security, User Services Assistants learned about software and helped students who used the Center while Library Attendants staffed the Software Lending Library. Student staffing provided quality student support and enabled extension of open hours to 78.5 hours per week.

Twelve faculty members received support (the final year of the Pew Charitable Trust grant) on projects ranging from Sanskrit writing to computer-controlled videodisk integration and musical composition. The Committee on Computers and Telecommunications (COCAT) was formed in 1989-90 creating the foundation for future cooperative initiatives by academic and administrative computing. A common mission, goals and strategies for computing were developed. A network electronically connected the staff of Academic Computing with the Biology faculty. All connected users could access both Mac and VAX software and printers. These pioneers introduced email to campus. In the spring of 1989, Wheaton joined BITNET enabling faculty and students to communicate with colleagues and peers at approximately 720 BITNET institutions worldwide. Academic Computing hours extended to over 100 hours per week. 42% of the students own computers and faculty computer placements continue to rise. More professional staffing was needed.

The entire Science Center was wired and connections to all workstations in t! he computing center were completed during the 1990-91 academic year. 46% of students own computers. In cooperation with the Mathematics Department, a new introductory Computer Science course was proposed to the Educational Policy Committee and approved. It was offered for the first time in fall Aacute;89 and the CCP&P proposed a revised Computer Studies minor which included a new course in modeling and simulation.

The college network was extended to other classroom buildings in 1991-92: Watson, Meneely and Knapton. Fileservers and print servers became available. Likewise, Mary Lyon and Park Hall were fully wired. A Network Coordinator was added to staffing and plans made for fiber optic cabling to connect these five buildings with the Science Center, Balfour Hood, the library and others. More computers were placed into faculty offices and Academic Computing Center use increased. More complaints and frustrations were reported during the last two weeks of each semester than in other years. NSF funding for a short course for college faculty was received and the course Programming Language Paradigms was a great success. Fred Kollett was awarded the highly regarded NSF Distinguished Teacher Award for his innovative summer institute: Computer Paradigms.

During academic year 1992-3, independent networks in academic buildings became part of a single network joining 10 academic and administrative buildings. We joined the Internet and discontinued our BITNET membership. We performed a complete migration from a VMS to unix machine, replacing communications and statistical analysis software and transferring faculty and student accounts and data. Email become available to all faculty and staff offices and faculty desktop computers increased by 12. Forty faculty attended a June workshop which focussed on use of the network including email, file transfer and remote login. We estimated that faculty email use was increasing rapidly and eight to ten faculty members were beginning t! o use the resources of the Internet. Plans for extending the network to the dormitories were given a boost by the Class of Aacute 93 gift.


II. Campus-wide Electronic Communication Changes the Way We Teach, Learn and Work

Beginning in 1993, all college employees used email and faculty and students use the automated library system. An attempt at reorganizing microcomputer support took place. Two microcomputer support specialists were transferred to Academic Computing. The network coordinator position was vacated. Email use by students skyrocketed &making one more reason to network the dormitories imperative. Plans were underway to make electronic access to the library, CWIS and software in the residence halls universally available. 16 more faculty received computers. The roles of AC and AIS were changing and required clarification. The Director of Academic Computing, Fred Kollett, provided a detailed report to the Provost stating that "a small academic computing staff, dedicated to running an efficient computing center and meeting the needs of faculty and students should remain with the provost & Aacute's division. Networking, the Internet connection and services, staff user support, and other network services that currently reside in AC might well reside in AIS. "

During 1994-95, considerable time and communication resulted in developing new reporting lines and consolidation discussions. Computing services experienced new strains and challenges: Banner, cwis, WWW and rapidly expanding email use. In the fall of 94, President Marshall appointed a committee to discuss and suggest bold initiatives using technology for teaching and learning. A preliminary report was released in April. "The two essential goals of Academic Computing must be

  1. to ensure to the best degree possible that all Wheaton graduates have mastered the use of networked computers and
  2. to transform the campus with vision and wisdom, thoughtfully crea! ting an environment in which electronic communication, process and access to information are universally used and appreciated."

III. The Integrated Curriculumand Faculty Development
The Report of the Subcommittee for Technology and Learning was completed in October of 1995. Reorganization continued with IT&S assuming support for technical services for the entire campus (hardware support and electronic services). The Library and Academic Computing increased collaborative efforts in support of teaching and learning. The operation moved forward significantly through collaborative faculty development planning and the creation of a new shared position called the Library, Information Technology Specialist. Seven faculty members completed funded projects in the summer of 1995 and another twelve in June of 1996. Significant projects initiated that year included the Art History Slide Digitizing Project, video editing, image editing and webpage authoring. "The COCAT model, with its emphasis on cooperative, college-wide planning continues to be of great value."

We began the academic year 1996-97 with a fully networked campus. The residential network (ResNet) was established as a support structure for students in the residential halls. All faculty have computers on their desktops. The Library, Technology and Learning Committee (LTLC) was reconstituted with the primary responsibility of influencing college technology decisions. The faculty passeda resolution in October 1996 in support of the incorporation of technology into the curriculum. Support for faculty emerged as the single most important need in our self-analysis exploring how to move the technology program forward. The faculty mentor program emerged as part of the solution. The Faculty Liaison position was also created to help meet that need.

The January faculty technology workshop that year was called" Pedagogical Issues of Technology in Writing and Text Presentation" and the 2-day May workshop dealt with "Exploring Alternate Forms of Interactivity." AC, IT&S and the Library proposeda consolidated budget to COCAT. The budget proposal was designed around the major technology goals for the institution. The Library, Information Technology Specialist position was filled a true bridge between the Library and AC. Classroom use of computer technology increased dramatically, more equipment was installed. A new 19-computer classroom (Science Center 102A) was designed and installed in January, 1996 and a small multimedia lab was established within the computing center. The Academic Computing Center was renamed in honor of Fred Kollett, its beloved and inspirational founding director who passed away in February, 1997. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation , the Culpeper Foundation and Davis Education Foundation provided Wheaton with substantial support for the technology program classroom installations and faculty development.

The number of faculty actively engaged in incorporating technology in their teaching reached record-breaking numbers in 1997-98.We are witnessing the "breadth" we had hoped to achieve, i.e., diversity of projects and increasing numbers of disciplines involved. Likewise, we see "depth" in reflective applications, careful design of technology projects and enhancements of courses in all major curriculum areas. Reports of these projects were published on the Wheaton website for easy access by the Wheaton Community and beyond. Concurrently, we increased the number of computers available for students to use in public labs and experienced an increase in the number of computers owned by students.

We continue to plan and present faculty workshops in January and May in collaboration with the Reference Librarians. The one-day workshop in January, 1998 was entitled "Two Faces of Technology: A Look at the Effectiveness of Technology in Teaching and Its Potential in Classroom Assessment Techniques". It provided faculty with peer models for assessing technology applied to different teaching strategies in the morning session and then turned attention to the application of technology to diverse classroom assessment techniques for afternoon reflection. The conversation that began in the January workshop continued into two Teaching and Learning Workshops in the spring.

The two-day workshop in May encompassed "Visual Elements in Teaching and Learning: Trends, Tools and Techniques. It provided a forum for faculty to share impressive use of images in teaching and to become acquainted with new techniques for digitizing and capturing images and videos. On the second day, faculty conversed about "hot topics" in technology such as distance learning, the Wheaton Web site as an important academic resource and service and new services offered by Academic Computing. Afternoon hands-on sessions on both days included practice with Test Pilot, Web Crossing, simulations, and the new college software standard: Microsoft Office 98.

Faculty participation changed significantly this year: the Faculty Mentor program brought together experienced and inexperienced faculty in an innovative support program for the first time. Some faculty, as part of their technology projects, offered workshops and hands-on sessions for other faculty on topics and software they considered to be of significant pedagogical value (e.g., Alex Bloom presented a workshop on TakeNote! and Dick Pearce offered a session entitled "Writing for the Computer Screen.")

Academic Computing piloted a new program (Universal Access) making it possible for students who do not own a computer to borrow one during spring semester 98. Eighteen computers were borrowed and returned. Some were issued to roommates who applied together, others went to students with physical disabilities, extensive family responsibilities, or financial constraints. All recipients wrote convincingly that their academic performance would benefit by having a computer 24 hours a day. A Student Manager of Academic Computing ran the Universal Access Program. The evaluations returned by students were very positive. We consider the pilot program a success and will continue to offer loaner computers to students on a competitive basis.

The Director worked closely with the Director of IT&S, the College Librarian, and the Associate Provost in proposing a consolidated budget proposal for the next fiscal year to the Committee on Communications and Technology (COCAT). The budget proposal was designed to implement the strategies developed from the newly rendered COCAT goals.

The establishment of the Academic Web Server was a major accomplishment. This new server provides faculty and students with new opportunities for electronic interaction, such as threaded electronic discussions and web-based quizzes, surveys, etc.

We reorganized the student employee supervisory and training structure by dividing the student employees into three groups based on level and experience. A different supervisor now supervise search group. Training is carefully coordinated in an attempt to develop a strong service orientation as well as software expertise and problem solving skills.

Scanning of tests, surveys and questionnaires has become much faster and more reliable with upgraded equipment, software and expertise. Many people use this time-saving system routinely. Many new academic websites have been developed and incorporated into courses. Every academic department and interdisciplinary program has a webpage. The Technology Resources page was conceived as a centralized venue, now under construction, to highlight how technology is used on this campus - in teaching, learning and working.

More classrooms were equipped permanently with computers and data projectors (SC 350, KACC 103, the Holman Room, Watson 211and Meneely 301). Others are regularly served with roll-in equipment as needed, especially the Science Center Auditorium. Windows computers are increasing in numbers in the Kollett Academic Computing Center and SC 203 "the Windows Lab".

We have recently conducted an extensive technology upgrade of the Science Center Auditorium made possible by generous gifts from the Stratford Foundation and the George I. Alden Trust. We are also actively investigating re-inventing the Art History Digital Slide program with the intention of making slides available cross-platform and with more interactive opportunities.

Evidence of the dedication to incorporate technology in our teaching is everywhere. The significant financial investment of the College in this area and the infusion of external funds are transforming our curriculum and our learning community. The vitality, reflective application, pervasiveness and sophistication of technology use by our faculty is truly a manifestation of the educational community envisioned by the Technology Report of Oct. 1995.

Memorial to
Francis (Fred) Kollett

Content by Academic Computing
Last Modified: December, 1999