This essay is part of a collection-in-progress edited by Richard Selfe, Sustainable Practices: Cultures of Support for Technology-Rich Education. Please do not quote without permission of the author and editor.

A Gallop Through
The Best Computer Project I Have Worked On So Far
by
Elizabeth Sommers
San Francisco State University
for
Richard Selfe's Collection in Progress:
Sustainable Practices: Cultures of Support for Technology-Rich Education

Project Background and Purposes:

Five years ago, in 1996, Nancy McDermid, Dean of the College of Humanities at San Francisco State University, asked me to work half-time as the College of Humanities Computer Education Coordinator. The purpose of this position was and continues to be multi-faceted, involving system-university- and college-wide administrative work, leadership, teaching, and mentoring. It has also involved development and maintenance of a web site, the Humanities Educational Leadership Program (H.E.L.P.), liaison with local community colleges and much more.

From the start the roots of this program have been firmly planted in research, an early and pivotal decision. I designed and analyzed a lengthy questionnaire for faculty members in the Humanities that showed me most faculty members had no experience with or education in using computers for such basic functions as email, word processing, research, world wide web work, email lists. Nor did most of my colleagues have any sense of the pedagogical possibilities of computers in their classrooms. I was given both autonomy and power to work with departments, programs and faculty to change this as faculty requested; that is, we never pushed computers into classrooms or offices using a heavy-handed or top-down approach. I did, however, rely on a context-specific research-based educational program so that from the beginning we were well aware of student, faculty and college needs and could effectively plan for and succeed in addressing many of these diverse challenges.

As College Computer Education Coordinator, I work both on the macrostructure and microstructure levels. I help to form and inform statewide computing in the humanities as well as serve as mentor and tutor in small workshops and with individual faculty in our small offices. From the onset Dean McDermid and I have held weekly meetings as needed, during which we brainstorm and she provides both input and support, learning the rationale for every pedagogical decision I make, helping me to hammer out realistic and often daring administrative and political stances on computing in the humanities. Depending on the situation, we can and do take stances both for and against the uses of technology in education in forums small and large, statewide and program-specific.

Overview of Projects:



Central Administration Roles:

In this role I have served for eight years (five years as chair) of the Educational Technology Advisory Committee (ETAC), the primary presidential advising committee on our campus, focusing in particular on faculty intellectual property rights (FIPR), on implementing strategic planning, on equity issues and on helping to implement campus-wide initiatives to bring computers to the offices (and later the classrooms) of all faculty, first those in tenured and tenure-track positions. I also worked on a team that hammered out a twenty-four hour access policy for students, continue to serve as a grant rater for our Center for the Enhancement of Teaching (CET), and give university-wide workshops and talks about these larger roles.