History

Overview
Begun as a small, loosely attached collection of student workers assigned to individual departments, the ST program at MCC has blossomed into a full fledged faculty technology support team. Many different stages as well as a few major divisions help to outline these transitions and processes:

• Observation of a need for affordable educational technology support
• Conceptual Idea of the program
• Recruitment period of students
• Initial program
• Centralization into an office environment
• Infrastructure buildup in preparation for the future

Observation of a Need
With the explosive growth of the internet and other technologies, new tools and new strategies are developed daily to enhance education. However, keeping up with it all takes a considerable amount of time, and is a difficult task for many college instructors. A good example of this need is summed up in this article title - "Teachers On-line but Disconnected". Instructors who possess technology skills stand strides ahead of the non-equipped, however, who can take the time away from their priority job, namely instruction?

Conceptual Idea
Students have a voracious appetite for the internet and technology, and many have career goals in this field. They are perfect candidates for helping faculty with the task of using technology to enhance the education process. Students attempting to enter into the IT field will often cite getting that first job experience as the biggest roadblock. Entry-level positions usually require full-time employment and are difficult to obtain with no experience. Seeing a need in faculty technology support and a demand for entry-level student technology positions, the originators of the ST program sought to match faculty and students in a win-win position.

Recruitment Period / Initial Program
While the concept is very sound, a few practical issues remained. Namely, where does this student talent come from? Since nothing like this program has ever existed before, it was difficult to decide upon a good recruitment approach. The recruitment period became very important, considering that it is very difficult to just go out and find the most technologically adept students who are able and willing to work for their school. Good personal communicating skills were also necessary, as faculty are not inherently technology-oriented. It takes a very mature student to not only possess the technical skills, but to communicate those skills to others in an efficient manner.

Even further, potential candidates would also need to be reliable and loyal, as the plan was to have them working on very class-sensitive information. With so many considerations, the advisory committee decided to take it slowly and carefully find the best possible candidates to ensure the survival of the initial concept. Certain teachers, who were involved in or knew about the program, suggested students who showed potential. After agreeing to the tenets of the initial program, a ST was assigned to the Cultural Sciences department. Over time, other students were recruited and assigned to similar positions in other departments.

Centralization
Once a talent base was established, an initial meeting occurred (Spring 1999). At that time, Brooke Estabrook was named the new coordinator. During this meeting, all candidates were allowed to ask her questions about the new way things would be occurring. She stated the program would be centralized into a single office. The move would organize resources and help ST's prepare to take on more serious tasks. The ST's then set up regular work schedules in which they were required to be in the central office.

The centralization of the program accomplished two major steps towards the greater utility of the ST program:

Faculty Could Make Better Use of the ST Resources. Faculty could walk in and utilize any available ST, unless a teacher had something larger that would warrant a PROJECT. Therefore no matter who the ST was, they would be able to help the faculty member. Conversely, if the teacher required some special skill that only one ST possessed, then they could request a project using the database. Once the ST's were centralized, it became very easy to ascertain our resources and set goals.

The ST's Could Make Better Use of the School's Technology. Not only were the ST's offered new, top of the line, networked workstations, but also a file server. This gave the ST's the opportunity to configure and administer that server and network; simulating more accurately the career environment ahead of them and broadening the technological scope of available tasks. [ back ]