The Center for Digital Education in conjunction with the North Texas Community College Consortium and the Convergence Technology Center will host the 7th Annual Texas Community College Technology Forum.
This event will provide an opportunity for Texas education technologists to convene and discuss trends, innovations and best practices in administrative, instructional and research computing technology.
This year’s event will focus on:
This day-long forum will feature inspirational speakers, workshops and an exhibit area. The conference is being offered at no charge to educators, administrators and non-profit entities interested in technology in higher education.
Running concurrently with the Texas Community College Technology Forum will be the Green IT and Mobile Convergence Technology Summit, sponsored by the Convergence Technology Center. This is the fourth year for the Green IT Summit and the first year to also focus on topics in support of the mobile network. The Green IT and Mobile Convergence Technology Summit will be held as a special professional development track throughout the day.
Join us on November 11th to learn best practices from industry experts and your peers from around the state!
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Gordon F. Snyder, Jr.Gordon F. Snyder, Jr., is Executive Director and Principal Investigator of the National Science Foundation-funded National Center for Information and Communications Technologies (ICTCenter.org) at Springfield Technical Community College in Springfield, MA. He is the author of four engineering and engineering technology textbooks and has over 20 years of consulting experience in the field of communications design. He serves on several local and national technology boards (including the Convergence Technology Center an Collin College) and, in 2001, was selected as one of the top fifteen technology faculty in the United States by Microsoft Corporation and the American Association of Community Colleges. His popular technology-focused tweets, blogs, videos and podcasts are followed by thousands.
8:00 a.m. – Registration and Continental Breakfast in Exhibit Area
9:00 a.m. – Welcome
9:15 a.m. – Keynote: The Shift to Mobile – How Technology is Revolutionizing Higher Education
The use of mobile devices across college campuses is growing exponentially. More than ever before, today’s students, parents and faculty are now empowered with mobile devices and ubiquitous access via technology. With the increase in access and innovation, college IT staff are also bracing for a new set of potential challenges. How does this influence instruction? What are the key considerations? How is the education technology landscape changing?
This keynote presentation will focus on what this “shift to mobile” means for community colleges and will explore successful technologies, policies and approaches for utilizing these tools to their full advantage.
Gordon F. Snyder, Jr., Executive Director, National Center for Information and Communications Technologies
10:15 a.m. – Break
10:30 a.m. – Concurrent Sessions 1
Head in the Clouds? That's a Great Idea
This will be an interactive session of the use of “cloud computing” technology using web 2.0 applications like Dropbox, Google Docs, Box and other programs across device and system platforms including PC, Mac, Netbook, Smartphone, iPad, iPod Touch, etc. The practical functionality of “cloud computing” for use in the context of education will be highlighted.
David Danforth, Digital Imaging Program Director, Eastfield College, Dallas County Community College District
Richard “Rick” Lumadue, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Leadership, Texas A&M University – Commerce
Virtualization Gives Colleges, Professors and Students Anywhere Anytime Desktop Access
In this time of ever-tightening budgets, higher education institutions are increasingly turning to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to reduce hardware costs and minimize security risks while enhancing the educational experience for students and instructors alike, allowing secure access to desktops regardless of whether they are in the classroom, the dorm or studying in the library. VDI provides greater flexibility to students for anytime, anywhere learning via mobile devices while allowing IT to track, maintain, upgrade and repair devices scattered across campus, thus reducing the operational costs of desktop management, an essential component when IT efficiency and cost reduction is key.
Ed Hubbard, Vice President, Product Management and Alliances, Virtual Bridges
Bring Your Own Device: Manage and Secure Mobile Technologies
This session will discuss current trends and strategies to manage and secure mobile technologies in higher education. We will explore the Symantec security strategy around embracing consumerization of IT and mobility in higher education. We will cover aspects of asset management, and security, and information-centric approaches to empowering the user to utilize the full capabilities of new technology, while mitigating the risks associated with sensitive information.
Travis Krischke, Endpoint Management and Mobility Specialist, State, Local and Education, Symantec
Using Student Learning Outcome Data: Closing the Loop
The collection of student outcome assessment data has become a key means of evaluating learning effectiveness. However, simple production and collection of learning outcome data is insufficient. Data must be made actionable in order for learning to be positively affected. This presentation aims to demonstrate how higher education must move beyond data collection if the effectiveness of learning is to improve. The continuous improvement loop, which is a significant emphasis among accreditors, requires data-driven decisions to enhance curriculum and instruction. This session investigates best practices for meaningful data collection and provides potential methods to document and support this process.
Luke Cable, Assessment Trainer and Consultant, Higher Education, Pearson eCollege
GREEN IT SUMMIT PRESENTATION – Cloud Resources and Distributed Administration
Information technology as a service is the new and efficient way of provisioning IT infrastructure. Distribution of resources across geographical sites eliminates islands of hardware resources and creates a unique opportunity for distributed administration of clouds. This session will focus on cloud resources and distributed administration of virtualized data center sites including storage, networking and virtualized servers.
Dr. Timur Mirzoev, Assistant Professor, Department of Information Technology, Georgia Southern University
11:30 a.m. – Lunch
Lunch sponsored by EMC Academic Alliance
Noon – Luncheon Keynote Presentation
Business and Industry Leadership Team Helps Prepare Students for High-Wage, High-Demand Jobs
Dr. Ann Beheler will facilitate a business and industry panel on the impact of emerging technologies on new and predicted careers for students. Practitioners in high-technology disciplines such as IT must strive to address current technology while preparing for the next new thing. This session will describe the next new technologies the CTC Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT) believes will revolutionize computing and networking. Essential elements of the BILT apply to any technology discipline.
Facilitator:
Dr. Ann Beheler, Principal Investigator, Convergence Technology Center
Panel:
Corey Kirkendoll, Technical Leader, Cisco Systems
Glenn Wintrich, Director of the Chief Innovation Office, Dell
Kim Yohannan, Manager of the Academic Alliance, EMC
12:45 p.m. – Concurrent Sessions 2
Tips and Tricks to Enhance Distance Learning Courses
Excellent course design techniques are especially important for distance learning. Additional attention must be placed on instructor presence, connecting with online students and wading through the vast amount of available online content, tools and resources. This session will feature two speakers who will look at a variety of techniques that can be utilized and developed to improve student achievement and retention. We will also showcase easy resources to add videos and activities to enhance the student experience.
Philippe Baugh, Assistant Professor, Music/Jazz Studies, Tarrant County College – Northeast
Alishia Nelson Spriggins, Manager, Academic Partnerships, LeCroy Center, Dallas County Community College District
View Presentation Slides
Consolidation and Silos – Storage Efficiencies in a Virtualized Environment
Storage can account for a large portion of DataCenter costs. Consolidation and virtualization can help reduce costs, but most companies do not apply efficiencies through the virtual silo. Storage efficiencies can offer both space-saving features and help remove roadblocks in ITaaS consolidation conversations. We will discuss how storage efficiencies help reduce CAPEX & OPEX, unburden the FTE and remove common consolidation barriers when moving from physical silos to virtual silos.
Bob Burwell, Chief Technology Officer, State, Local Government and Education, USPS, NetApp
Using Mobile Apps for Education
Participants in this session will learn about using mobile phone apps for both face-to-face and online courses. The apps work on multiple mobile phone platforms. Discussion topics will include accessibility, engagement and instructor and student perspectives on using mobile phone apps.
William Stowe, Instructor, Kilgore College
Virtualization – How We Bridged Business Strategies to Agile Infrastructure
Are you constantly being bombarded with cloud and virtualization terminologies? Relevant reference architectures, end point solutions and services you can leverage from many vendors? Come hear how we strengthened our infrastructure to be agile to growing business needs. How we are transitioning steadily from service oriented architecture. How we identified repetitive infrastructure patterns and design constraints to make our logical components reusable. We will detail lessons learned, how we worked with Dell's support services and performed health checks on our database environment-specific to the student system at University of Oklahoma. We will discuss our goals for lab and end point solutions and how we plan to get there using virtualization technologies.
Gayathri Swaminathan, Systems Analyst, Infrastructure, Information Technology, University of Oklahoma
GREEN IT SUMMIT PRESENTATION – Emerging Broadband Technological Developments
This session will cover the emergence of Next Generation Access (NGA) including Next Generation Broadband Converged Networks (NGBCN). Wireless, cable and telecommunication provider technology strategies will be discussed as networks evolve and converge voice, data and video services onto common infrastructures. The future of alternate last mile technologies and technical alternatives for wireline broadband will be included in the session along with how they will impact teaching and learning.
Gordon F. Snyder, Jr., Executive Director, National Center for Information and Communications Technologies
1:45 p.m. – Break
2:00 p.m. – Concurrent Sessions 3
Faculty + iPads, A Study
Mobile devices like the iPad can allow instructors flexible access to information, resources, personalize learning experiences, record, share, and collaborate. This session explores the findings of a replicable pilot iPad Project and the implications for instructor presence. Many useful apps that participants installed on their iPads will also be explored.
Objectives:
(1) Outline ideas from iPad Project research regarding increasing instructor presence.
(2) Appraise the usefulness of various iPad apps.
Ed Bowen, Dean, New Product Development, LeCroy Center for Educational Technology, Dallas County Community College District
Secure Online Testing by Reducing Cheating Capabilities
There are many ways institutions can discourage students from cheating during online exams. This session will overview a variety of methods, including the use of Respondus LockDown Browser. Implementation of even a few of these approaches will strengthen the online testing initiative at your community college.
Amita Mahajan, Network Analyst / System Administrator, Alamo Colleges
Extend Your Campus Resources by Granting Anytime, Anywhere Access from Any Device
Come learn how higher ed campuses are using the cloud to extend anytime, anywhere access to students and faculty from any device, all without the need for expensive desktop virtualization solutions or VPN. Allow your resources to work 24x7, while allowing end users the flexibility to use their own equipment to securely access campus resources from a desktop built in a browser. Allow people outside your campus to collaborate safely and securely by delivering them the appropriate resources without allowing physical touch of your network.
Greg Tan, Chief Marketing Officer, Stoneware, Inc.
GREEN IT SUMMIT PRESENTATION – Making Space for Mobile in Your Classroom
Tips and tricks for using mobile devices for classroom activities and learning exercises. Bring your smart phone and be ready to participate in this fast-paced, interactive session.
David Keathly, Senior Lecturer, Computer Science and Engineering, University of North Texas / Co-Principal Investigator, CTC
3:00 p.m. – Adjourn
Room Reservations
There is no room block set up for this event. The Sprint Creek campus is located in Plano, TX, but hotels in Plano and Allen are three to five miles away.
Best Western Park Suites Hotel
640 Park Boulevard East
Plano, TX 75074
972-578-2243
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites
700 Central Parkway East
Plano, TX 75074
972-881-1881
La Quinta Inn
1820 North Central Expressway
Plano, TX 75074
972-423-1300
Ramada Limited
621 Central Parkway East
Plano, TX 75074
972-424-5568
Red Roof Inn
301 Ruisseau Drive
Plano, TX 75023
972-881-8191
Hampton Inn & Suites-Dallas
830 West Stacy Road
Allen, TX 75013
214-495-7667
Hilton Garden Inn Dallas/Allen
705 Central Expressway South
Allen, TX 75013
214-547-1700
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites
Allen Twin Creeks
205 Central Expressway North
Allen, TX 75013
972-727-2000
Pyramids Hotel
407 South Central Expressway
Allen, TX 75013
972-396-9494
