View source

== SIG Leadership ==

It's time to identify the Information Technology SIG's next Vice Chair-Elect! The duties of the Vice Chair-Elect are primarily to assist the Chair and Vice Chair, and to prepare for their future leadership of the SIG. At our June meeting, Gary Kepka will become Chair, and Ray Kimsey will become Vice Chair.

If you would like to serve as Vice Chair-Elect for the IT SIG for the upcoming year, or if you know of someone who might be willing to serve in this capacity, please send one of us your suggestions ASAP. This is a great opportunity to become more involved in ACE and gain leadership skills.

Also, please be thinking of issues and future goals for the IT SIG for the upcoming year. The SIG will have our annual meeting during the ACE conference in Quebec, June 2-6, 2006. See the conference Web site for some program information at [http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/ace2006/ ACE 2006]. Conference registration will be available March 22.

== NETC Registrations Due ==

Just a reminder, the early registration period for NETC2006 ends this 
Friday (3/24).  The hotel is filling up fast, so make sure to get your 
reservations in as soon as possible if you haven't made them already.

[http://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/NETC2006/ NETC 2006]

Howard Beck
NETC2006 Planning Committee


== New Members ==
The following have joined ACE and our SIT since the last newsletter. A few provided a little info to help us get to know them better. Maybe we'll here from more in our next newsletter.

* Donna Halloum, Iowa State
* Ashley Griffin, eXtension
* Henrietta Ritchie, eXtension
* Julie Hlas, Iowa State
* Vishal Singh, Univ of Nebraska-Lincoln
* Mary Kay Malinoski, Univ of Maryland
* Amy Trujillo, New Mexico State
* Robert Luikart, Ohio State
* Allison A. Bruchhaus, Louisiana State 


'''Julie Hlas'''

Julie Hlas is now entering her third year working as an External Relations Specialist for Iowa State University Extension. Julie works out of the NW Area office serving twenty counties in the NW corner of Iowa. Prior to this position she worked as a journalist for Rust Publications and as a Public Relations Coordinator for the Crime Prevention unit of the Minneapolis Police Department. Julie is pleased to be a part of ACE and is already receiving lots of helpful information from the group. 

Julie Hlas<br>
hlas@iastate.edu<br>
External Relations Specialist<br>
Iowa State University Extension<br>
3535 Southern Hills Drive<br>
Sioux City, IA 51106<br>
ph 712-274-0048<br>
fax 712-274-7323


'''Ashley Griffin''' 

Ashley Griffin currently serves as the Content Design Leader for the
national eXtension Initiative. Preceding this appointment she provided
instructional design support to the College of Agriculture at the University
of Kentucky as an Extension Specialist in the Creative Applications for
Learning Environments Lab. From 1996 until February of 2002 she gained
practical extension programming experience and delivered content through
distance learning technologies as the coordinator of the Kentucky 4-H Horse
Program. Ashley has a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Sciences and her
Master of Science degree in Equine Nutrition from the University of
Kentucky. 

Understanding available technologies and how to use them in the most
appropriate ways has always been a huge part of servicing institutional
clients and continues to be of interest as she begins working with eXtension
content providers.

Contact Information:
Ashley S. Griffin<br>
Content Design Leader, National eXtension Initiative<br>
University of Kentucky<br>
238 Scovell Hall<br>
Lexington, KY 40546-0064<br>
859-257-4736 x283<br>
859-323-1006 fax<br>
859-699-6086 cell<br>
ashley.griffin@extension.org


'''Allison Bruchhaus'''

Allison Bruchhaus is a graduate student at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA.  Allison will complete her graduate studies later this year in the School of Human Resource Education and Workforce Development in the LSU College of Agriculture in December 2006.  

Allison is also a graduate assistant with the LSU AgCenter.  Her current responsibilities as a research assistant in the 4-H Youth Development Department include assisting in the development of research-based youth and volunteer department programs that are documented by high quality evaluation and sound research underpinnings.

A few of her interests and hopes for the future include combining agriculture, communications and international development.  Allison is intrigued by infinite possibilities of teaming up international mission work with agriculture practices to better the quality of life for individuals across the world.

Allison Bruchhaus<br>
Graduate Assistant<br>
4-H Youth Development <br>
LSU AgCenter, Knapp Hall<br>
Louisiana State University<br>
Baton Rouge, LA  70803<br>
Office: 225-578-2196<br>
Fax: 225-578-7847<br>
E-mail: abruch1@lsu.edu


==State News==

'''New Mexico State University'''

Here are some of the things we're working on here at New Mexico State University:

We're continuing our efforts to reduce the reporting requirements of our Extension faculty by developing a streamlined, low-demand web application based on the idea of blogging.  Last year's reporting system was a success, reducing the reporting demands on our agents and specialists by great amounts while allowing us to harvest more useful information.  This year, we're streamlining the process even more, and now have a very simple system that lets Extension specialists and agents write their plans of work online, and then add impact reports (basically, blog entries) to RSS feeds tied to those plans of work.  In this manner, interested parties may subscribe to plans of work to see progress towards those plans' objectives (for instance, a state specialist may be automatically notified of impacts by county agents).  To learn more about this project, contact CC Chamberlin at cc@nmsu.edu.

In our multimedia studio, we are developing educational software based on research-backed game design principles.  This year, we're really raising the bar by developing an immersive 3D game called "Science Pirates: the Curse of BrownBeard."  In this game, kids find themselves in a swashbuckling pirate adventure where they learn the principles of science process and experiment design, while getting important lessons in food safety.  With fun games, constructivist activities, and humorous characters, the game is aimed at middle school classrooms and after-school programs.  If you're interested in finding out more about this project, CC Chamberlin will be presenting on it at the NETC conference this May.

Finally, the NMSU Learning Games Initiative is finally starting to take off.  We've devoted some space in one of our buildings to forming a Learning Games Lab, and its interior design is finally starting to come together into a fun, high-tech-looking environment.  We've already had several kid camps at the Learning Games Lab, where we bring in kids to teach us what works and what doesn't in game design, the idea being to help us make better educational game experiences for kids in the future.  Our current research focus is "fitness through gameplay," and we have already produced a game that uses the dance mat controller as a proof of concept for future game development.  With our collaborative research model, we're providing game research opportunities for several different Colleges and Departments across campus, and are starting to get inquiries from organizations outside NMSU, with possible partnerships with game and peripheral production companies.  If you're interested in learning more about the NMSU Game Lab, contact Barbara Chamberlin at bchamber@nmsu.edu.

-- CC Chamberlin [cc@nmsu.edu]


'''North Carolina State University'''

A pilot study of using the Mac minis and iBooks for office computers in eight of our county extension centers 
will begin soon in North Carolina.  The computers will be using Microsoft Office for office applications, and Firefox as the preferred web browser.  We have been using various flavors of the Apple Macs for over a year in our software development and computer support groups and found them to be  reliable, easy to support, and maintain.  The project also includes providing the office with automated offsite backups and new networking equipment. We should be installing the new computers in the pilot sites around the beginning of April.

On March 15th we completed an upgrade of our county websites.  An internally developed content management system was used that allows for the county centers to place current information concerning their office, events, and news into their local and state website.  The software is tied into an existing event calendar and news system.  The software allows county personnel to place XHTML and accessibility compliant content on their website, without having to know HTML.

-- Ray Kimsey [ray_kimsey@ncsu.edu]


[[Category:ACE IT SIG]]
[[Category:Newsletters]]