Office of Information Technology

Technology Advisory Board (TAB)
Minutes of Meeting of November 20, 2002

Location: 4th Floor Conference Room, Andy Holt Tower
Time: 2:00 - 3:00PM

Attendance:

Members: Bill Britten, Stephen Esposito, Jim Gehlhar, James Hughes, Matt Johnson, Julie Little, Bryce McKenzie, Jenny Wright.

Others: Michael Burke, Nancy Gnilka, Slade Griffin, Robert Ridenour, Jerry Riedl, Judy Travis.

Educational Technology Projects Update

Mr. Matt Johnson, Co-chair, opened the meeting by introducing Dr. Julie Little, Executive Director, Educational Technologies and Innovative Technology Center (ITC), and Dr. Michael Burke, Technologies Integration Specialist. Dr. Little presented an update on the current Educational Technology projects:

Faculty First Grant Program – Call for Proposals for 2003 School Year

The ITC invites applications from full-time faculty to participate in the Faculty First Grant program which is targeted at faculty interested in reshaping a course or course component to enhance the use of technology in the course delivery. The primary focus of this grant program is development and technical assistance. Faculty recipients offer the ideas and serve as the subject matter expert, and the ITC staff does the development, incorporating the appropriate technology. Inquiries should be directed to Jerry Riehl. (email: jriehl@utk.edu or telephone: 974-9309)

Geography 101/102 Curricular Reform Project Status

In the coming year, the Geography department will be working on a comprehensive integration of information technology into the Geography 101/102 course curriculum. The following areas are being reviewed for this project:

• Developing a master course site for all Geography 101/102 instructors and uploading current and generalized teaching files.
• Developing a module “What Geographers Do” based on diverse expertise resident in the Geography department.
• Developing the framework for a searchable database for all department faculty to upload and/or annotate their extensive, media-rich collections of teaching materials (digital and non-digital).
• Developing an interactive, multi-media based tutorial for students that addresses and assesses basic technology skills (how to use the web), campus-specific knowledge (i.e., understanding net-id, email aliases, student technology training), student responsibilities (i.e., proper way to communicate with faculty, checking email), etc.
• Enhancing team-based projects through use of Online@UT communications tools.
• Continuing to examine where technology can be leveraged to manage large-section courses.

Student Technology Assistants for Research & Teaching (START) Project

Dr. Little presented an ITC proposal for an undergraduate student technology support effort called the Student Technology Assistants for Research and Teaching (START). This program would provide the technical component of the pedagogical support required to maintain the advances made in integrating technologies into research, teaching, and learning environments at UT. The program will fund hiring students to support development of faculty instructional projects as well as provide on-site support for technology-enhanced classrooms. The full proposal with budget needs was presented to the TAB and will be discussed further in the February meeting. (3/4/03 Editor's Note: The full proposal has been added for reference. START Proposal )

Security Overview Presentation

Mr. Robert Ridenour and Mr. Slade Griffin from the Information Technology Security Group (ITSG) within the Office of Information Technology (OIT) presented a brief overview of the information systems security at the University. OIT is charged with the responsibility of network and systems security at The University of Tennessee.

Responsibilities of the ITSG include responding to abuse and security incidents and other violations of university policies, management of IDS/Firewall/VPN systems, firewall/VPN design, implementation, and support, vulnerability assessment, system hardening assistance, incident response and forensic analysis, and security awareness training. The security posture of the university needs to have some groundwork that is based on industry standards. The ITSG goals include a migration toward a standards based information systems security implementation that include: Policies and procedures, increase security awareness, education on protecting user systems, physical security enhancements, campus data security, and identification and protection from attacks.

The ITSG is soliciting help in the development of a campus wide security awareness training program that is planned for fall of 2003. All input and suggestions should be forwarded to security@utk.edu or visit the website at http://oit.utk.edu/infosec/ .

New Technology Fee Funding Request Procedures

Ms. Gnilka announced, starting with the FY04 request period, all requests for Technology Fee funding for departmental computing labs will be required to be submitted via the new revised online form. Among one of the more useful new features of the revised form will be the ability to accommodate attached files. The FY04 form should be available after December 9, 2002, on the Technology Fee Funding Request submission webpage.

General

The next meeting of the Technology Advisory Board will be Wednesday, February 19, 2003, at 2:00PM in the Andy Holt Tower 4th Floor Conference Room. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned.

Minutes prepared by: Judy Travis