Connie Schmidt

cschmidt@mtsu.edu

Connie Schmidt

Instructional Technology Support Center

Open computer labs

LRC 101, 101A, 101B, 101S, 241

New Technology

We would like to replace or supplement the CD drives in our student Pentium computers with DVD drives (DVD drives will supplement the CD-RW drives on 53 computers and replace the CD-ROM drives on the remaining 31 computers). We have received an increasing number of requests by faculty and students for DVD drives. Instructors have begun to integrate DVD’s into their teaching, particularly now that DVD drives are available in many master classrooms. Instructional Media Resources (our media library on campus) has been purchasing DVD’s for instructors to use in their teaching. Currently, none of the student access computers in our facilities have DVD drives, limiting student access to the DVD titles in the IMR collection.

The Instructional Technology Support Center provides students with University-wide access to 101 computers in the Instructional Media Resources (IMR) Computer Center, two computer labs, a multimedia classroom, and the graduate student multimedia center. The IMR Computer Center is open 72 hours per week for walk-in use by students. Faculty across campus install software on IMR computers for student use. Open lab times are scheduled in the computer labs up to 57 hours per week. Faculty members from all five colleges schedule class technology training sessions in the labs. One hundred thirteen such sessions were scheduled during 2002, benefiting 2712 students. Student walk-in visits to the IMR Computer Center and the computer labs during 2002 totaled 20,634 [10% Basic and Applied Sciences, 14% Business, 25% Education and Behavioral Sciences, 13% Liberal Arts, and 28% Mass Communication]. The Graduate multimedia center offers high-end computers, video-editing capability, digital cameras, workshops, and individual consultation to any MTSU graduate student. The ITSC proposes purchasing 3 color laser printers for the computer labs and the graduate multimedia center to meet growing student demand for color printing. We also propose replacing or supplementing the CD drives of all student Pentium computers with DVD drives (see below).