Faculty Spotlight
March - April 2006: Dr. Michael Sims
The Catalyst, cont'd
One
of the results of his early interest in the Web is Vetnet, a one-stop,
Veterinary-centric, intranet-based entrance to College of Veterinary
Medicine. Everyone in the college uses it. It is Veterinary Medicine’s
equivalent to a hometown newspaper. Most of what happens in the college
is posted to their intranet—
everything
from promotions to the day’s lectures. Dr. Sims isn’t
the only faculty member in the college that advocates the incorporation
of technology. All faculty within the college are expected to understand
and use the current, technologically relevant professional practices
in class. Classroom and Lab computers log in automatically to Vetnet,
so students can easily access the notes during or after the class.
Lecture notes, searchable by faculty name or class date, typically
contain the Powerpoint component of a lecture and can include the
instructors’ class notes.
The process of adopting new techniques was slow in the beginning. Early efforts focused on digitizing willing instructors’ class slide trays for use in lectures while providing student access for after-class follow-up study on Vetnet. Positive student response to these early, digitized class slides was all the push other Veterinary Medicine professors needed to get on board. In order to assist faculty with the technological barriers, the college employs first responder students who upload instructors’ course lectures. What is the industry pushing? What do they want out of graduating students? The College of Veterinary Medicine deployed a curricular task force to evaluate the societal needs for student skills. The group investigates what industry wants our student to know. To make sure they meet these needs, the college currently asks for assistance from industry by encouraging relationships and donations to support student learning. The Veterinary Medicine faculty are 100% technologically literate and are using technology almost 100% in the classroom with many using technologies well beyond that.