Technology Faculty Mentors 2006

Administered by the Learning Enhancement Center (LEC), the Technology Mentor program is funded by a $1.8 million, five-year Title III-A grant. The fifth-year Faculty Mentors will receive a $2,500 stipend to assist them in accomplishing their own instructional technology projects. In addition to developing their projects, these faculty will also serve as an extension of the LEC ’s faculty development effort by providing peer-to-peer assistance within their respective colleges.

Dr. Janie Butts, Associate Professor
School of Nursing
College of Heath
Technology Project: “Mentoring Nursing Faculty Teaching in RN-BSN Online Courses”

Synopsis: Dr Butts says, “The purpose of this project is to develop an educational and supportive mentoring program for nursing faculty who are currently or will be teaching in the School of Nursing’s RN to BSN online program.” She also says that this is important because there are many similarities and differences between teaching in the classroom and teaching online. Through this project, Dr. Butts hopes to develop a mentoring plan that will help the faculty to increase their interactivity with their online students. She plans to purchase a laptop computer and other relevant software with her grant money to assist her with her project.

Dr. Elizabeth Haynes, Associate Professor
School of Library and Information Science
College of Education and Psychology
Technology Project: “Using Podcasting and Video for Online Student Orientation and Instruction in Library and Information Science”

Synopsis: “The purpose of this project is the purchase of hardware and software and the training of SLIS faculty in the use of technology to produce audio and video materials in order to improve student orientation, program integration, and education and to model the information technology needed to excel in the fields of education, librarianship, and information science,” says Dr. Haynes. Specifically, Dr. Haynes plans to use an iMac G5, iPod, and digital camcorder with memory card to create an orientation CD with video, MP3 audio, and other resources designed especially for those students who take most or all of their classes online.

Dr. Hollie Filce, Assistant Professor and Dr. Elgen Hillman, Assistant Professor
Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education: Dual Licensure Program
College of Education and Psychology
Technology Project: “Multimedia Portfolios in Teacher Education”

Synopsis: Drs. Filce and Hillman will work together on their project to establish a means through which they can incorporate a multimedia component into the portfolio requirement of the new dual licensure option in Elementary and Special Education. They said that this will “provide a more rich opportunity to review and evaluate individual teacher candidate skills and progress and provide greater documentation for program evaluation purposes.” With their grant money, they plan to purchase a computer, a digital camera, camcorders, and other accessories to assist them with these goals.

Dr. Sherry Herron, Director
Center for Science and Mathematics Education
College of Science and Technology
Technology Project: “Multimedia Training (MT) for Development of Science/Math Curricula”

Synopsis: By the end of her project, Dr. Herron expects to increase the number of math and science faculty and teacher candidates that use multimedia to develop class materials. She hopes to accomplish this through facilitating USM faculty development of Wheel Garden project materials in conjunction with the Mentor Grant. She hopes that a number of multimedia projects (podcasts, movies, song recording, web pages, etc) will be created through this. She will use the grant money to purchase a camcorder, relevant software, a color printer, and digital camera.

Dr. Joseph Kolibal
Department of Mathematics
College of Science and Technology
Technology Project: “Professional Publishing using LaTeX”

Synopsis: Dr. Kolibal hopes to develop software and instructional materials that can be used with LaTeX to create professional documents such as theses and dissertations. Dr. Kolibal says, “The project will develop two new style sheets (.cls files) for use in professional publication: a thesis style sheet; and a presentation style sheet. Both of these will be accompanied with detailed instructional materials and will serve as the basis for illustrating elementary and advanced features available in LaTeX scripting.” He will use his grant money to purchase a laptop running Linux, color printer, scanner, scanning and graphing software, and printing supplies.

Dr. Michael N. Salda
Department of English
College of Arts and Letters
Technology Project: “Podcasting World Literature”

Synopsis: Dr. Salda is planning to use podcasting as an alternative way for his students to access his World Literature class lectures and to determine its impact on learning. Dr. Salda says, “A survey of my fall World Literature students suggests they’re prepared to try the technology and believe it could help them.” With his grant money, Dr. Salda plans to purchase a laptop, portable audio player, and digital voice recorder memory cards.

Dr. Bruce D. Tychinski, Assistant Professor
School of Music
College of Arts and Letters
Technology Project: “The Hi-Tech Applied Music Studio: Taking Applied Study Beyond the Metronome and Tape Recorder for Enhanced Learning”

Synopsis: Dr. Tychinski summarizes his project like this, “Utilizing cutting edge software applications along with digital audio and video, a teaching environment will be created that will help students to recognize and correct technical deficiencies sooner with greater clarity, learn music in a broader scope, utilize technology for performance, and foster creative projects by students.” He will use his grant money to purchase software (Finale 2006, Garritan Personal Orchestra, SmartScore Pro, and SmartMusic Subscription) and other equipment (scanner, speakers, DVD burner, camcorder, etc.) to help him complete the project.

Ms. Kim I. Walker, Intermediate Block Clinical Instructor
Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education
College of Education and Psychology
Technology Project: “Making Connections: Linking Intermediate Block Courses with the Clinical Experience”

Synopsis: Through her project Ms. Walker hopes to increase the overall effectiveness of Intermediate Block by integrating coursework with clinical experience through digitizing teaching demonstrations to post in her Intermediate Block Blackboard course shell for class discussions. To accomplish this, she will use the grant money to purchase digital video equipment and Camtasia software.

Dr. Fei Xue, Assistant Professor
School of Mass Communication and Journalism
College of Arts and Letters
Technology Project: “Incorporating Multimedia and Internet in Advertising Classrooms”

Synopsis: Dr. Xue says, “The goal of this project is to create an interactive learning experience for advertising students in the School of Mass Communication and Journalism by incorporating Internet and multimedia technology in the classrooms.” He plans to do this by using a laptop computer, projector, and computer software such as Simmons Choice III, Media Flight Plan, SPSS, and Power Point in his Advertising classes that he teaches on the Gulf Coast. With this equipment, he plans to demonstrate to his students how to effectively use the software in their current and/or future careers.

Previous Faculty Mentors