ACE IT SIG Fall Report 2005

2006-07-07T14:49:38Z

Special Interest Group Report '''Name of SIG:''' Information Technology SIG '''Mission statement:''' The Information Technology Special Interest Group (IT SIG) provides a means for communicators and technologists to share information internationally on current and emerging technologies with an emphasis on the intelligent and appropriate use of these computer-based technologies for education and information dissemination. '''Officers:'''
Chair – Beth Raney, Penn State
Vice Chair – Gary Kepka, Kansas State
Vice Chair-elect – Ray Kimsey, North Carolina State University '''Summary of SIG business meeting at annual conference:''' Number of members attending: 7 (Conference registration information did not include the IT SIG's meeting, so members were unaware of the time/conflicts. No clarification announcement was made during conference announcements.) '''Topics of discussion, decisions, plans, etc.:''' Thank You! to those who participated in the IT SIG Business meeting on Friday, June 3rd in San Antonio. '''Incoming SIG Leadership:''' The newest member of the leadership team is Ray Kimsey. Ray is a Technology Applications Strategist at North Carolina State University and joined ACE in 2004. Ray is our new Vice Chair-Elect. Gary Kepka at Kansas State moved up to Vice Chair. Beth Raney, Penn State, is now Chair. '''IT Award of Excellence:''' Congratulations to Ron Thomas, University of Florida, who was named this year's recipient of the Information Technology Award of Excellence! '''SIG Goals:''' We were to think about these during the meeting and plan to write them following. They will include some things mentioned below. '''SIG Web site:''' Many, Many Thanks to Dave Rice at NDSU for hosting our SIG's Web site for many years!! The ACE server can now host SIG Web sites, and we plan to work toward moving the IT SIG's site there. Gary Kepka will do some fact finding to determine what it takes to move or rebuild the site on the ACE Server. Emily Pitts at Univ of Georgia expressed interest in working on that project. Anyone else able/willing to help? Send a note to Gary at gkepka@oznet.ksu.edu. The current site is at http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/itsig/itsig.htm '''Critique and Awards:''' The four classes under Information Technology have a fairly low number of entries. We *do* good work... We need to enter the contests to allow recognition. If someone has a suggestion for a different class or for a judge for next year's contest, please contact your SIG officers. '''Journal of Applied Communication (JAC):''' Encourage SIG members to submit an article. Ron Thomas talked about a new type of peer-reviewed item for the JAC, a professional development paper. http://www.aceweb.org/JAC/jac.html Categories to which an article should be submitted are as follows: Research and Evaluation -- These are the traditional, scholarly articles, using quantitative (e.g., statistical and survey methods) and/or qualitative (e.g., case studies) methods.
Professional Development -- These articles take advantage of the author's particular expertise on a subject that will benefit career performance of ACE members.
Commentary -- These are opinion pieces. They speak to trends in communication or other issues of importance to professional communicators.
Review -- These are critiques of new books, journal articles, software/hardware, technologies or anything else that would be appropriate for the audience of the JAC '''Wiki Training:''' Discussion on whether the IT SIG would like to get involved with eXtension by helping folks use the Wiki on the eXtension intranet. A Wiki environment will be used for the National FAQ Initiative this summer and fall, and we decided to look into creating an instructional module of some sort to help extension people learn to work in a Wiki. We will also explore opportunities to conduct some live training webinars on the use of the Wiki. Ray Kimsey volunteered to work with this. Others at the meeting also expressed interest. Who would like to join in? Send a note to Ray at ray_kimsey@ncsu.edu. '''Upcoming National Extension Technology Conferences:''' 2006 in Gainesville FL; 2007 in Albuquerque NM joint with ACE; 2008 not yet determined. The NETC Steering Committee worked with IT SIG Leadership this year to rank the concurrent session proposals for the 5 IT topic areas of this year's combined conference. At the 2007 conference they would like to have 5-6 tracks that they would be responsible for proposal submissions, selections, scheduling, etc. Discussion by SIG members that many ACE SIG topics also use technology and separating NETC sessions from ACE sessions may be tricky. Looking forward to another good year! '''How are leadership responsibilities being divided among the officers''' The Chair will provide the overall leadership and coordination. Chair Elect will give leadership for updating the web site. Vice Chair will give leadership for the eXtension FAQ training project All three officers will collaborate on newsletter content and decision on Award of Excellence. '''How are SIG leaders communicating with members, and on what schedule?''' We plan to send bi-monthly newsletters via e-mail, and other correspondence as needed. '''How are SIG leaders encouraging members to communicate with each other?''' Members are encouraged to communicate with each other using the SIG's email list, or using the membership directory on the ACE Web site to find contact information for individuals. '''What is the status of the SIG Web site?''' The site is currently hosted by NDSU. Gary Kepka, Kansas State, and Emily Pitts, University of Georgia, volunteered to work on the project to move it to the ACE server. '''What are the SIG’s concerns relative to the C&A Awards Program?''' Our primary concern is that there are few submissions in the IT classes. Members were encouraged to comment if they had ideas for changes in the current classes. We will need a new judge for 2006. The previous judge did it for several years and is ready for a break. '''What steps will you take to solicit nominations for the Award of Excellence? How will the SIG select its Award of Excellence winner?''' We will solicit nominations from the SIG members. We also solicit renomination of unsuccessful nominees from previous years. The Chair, Vice Chair, and Vice Chair-elect are the selection committee. The Vice Chair-elect collects nominations, distributes them to the SIG leader group, and chairs the selection process. '''What steps are you taking to encourage members to submit articles and reviews to the JAC?''' Ron Thomas reviewed the categories for which items may be submitted for the JAC at the annual meeting. This was included in the newsletter following the meeting, and will be included in upcoming newsletter articles. '''What other issues or concerns would you like to bring to the board? What action would you like to request?''' None at this time. Submitted by Beth Raney [[Category:ACE IT SIG]] [[Category:Annual Report]]

Watching: ACE IT SIG Fall Report 2005

ACE IT SIG Fall Report 2005