is&t Back Issues

Volume 19

No. 5 May/June 2004

IS&T Academic Computing Introduces Ed Tech Times

Vijay Kumar and Jean Foster

Information Services and Technology (IS&T) has launched a new publication, Ed Tech Times, at http://edtech.mit.edu/times/ This interactive, online newsletter focuses on academic computing and educational technology.

The change in format and delivery from its predecessor, The Insider, is intended to address the current nature of educational technology activity at MIT – dynamic and diverse, with a high level of engagement across campus. With the participation of faculty, staff, and students, this interactive site promises to be a rich and relevant resource for the community.

Sharing Strategies and Solutions
MIT's educational technology landscape is marked by growth and transition. Significant initiatives such as iLab, TEAL, and OpenCourseWare are moving into the next phase of implementation. New services and areas of activity, such as High-Performance Computing and Spatial Data, are in place. MIT is planning changes in the student computing environment, and building a sustainable software infrastructure for education. In light of these projects, there is a great need to share strategies and solutions and to receive feedback to support good decisions and best practices.

Ed Tech Times provides a forum for MIT's academic community to announce and discuss these developments as they occur. Content includes articles about educational technology services and research projects on campus, as well as links to related news outside of MIT. Ed Tech Times also tracks events and presentations about education technologies, such as Crosstalk seminars and training opportunities.

Interactive Features
The newsletter has been designed to allow readers to comment on articles, and feedback is very welcome. Comments are subject to review before they are posted to ensure appropriateness for a world-readable site.

Other features of Ed Tech Times include the ability to subscribe to email updates whenever an article is posted, or to receive a regular bimonthly email synopsis of articles. You can also choose to view updates via a Real Simple Syndication (RSS) newsreader.

Submissions and Feedback
IS&T Academic Computing welcomes submissions of educational technology news from other organizations on campus. You can submit articles via email, either in plain text or as attachments in Microsoft Word (.doc) or Rich Text (.rtf) format. Submissions go through an editorial review before being posted on the site.

IS&T would like to know what you think about this new format for educational technology news. Please add your comments to the "About the Ed Tech Times" article on the newsletter's web site, or send mail to <edtech-times@mit.edu>.

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