1
Peter D. McAnally
(mcanalp@cda.morris.umn.edu)
Description of the Proposed Project:
PURPOSE: Purchase two portable ultra light computers to assure teacher education students can present technology based lessons in on campus (peer teaching) and off campus (practicum and student teaching) settings.
RATIONALE: UMM teacher education graduates (approximately 1/3 of each graduating class) have limited on-campus experience with instructional technology. We made advances this year, but still have a ways to go to assure our students develop skill in the design and implementation of technology based curriculum and instructional strategies that meet needs of young people and fulfill standards of state, regional and national accrediting agencies to which we are responsible (e.g. Minnesota Board of Teaching, Interstate New Teachers Assessment and Support Consortium, and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education).
Last year funds from the technology fee helped us move ahead on this agenda. We purchased a curriculum development workstation and portable computer for presentation of lessons. This purchase was matched by a U.S. Department of Education (USOE) grant through which we also purchased a $5,000 portable projection unit. The projection unit is now going to be permanently installed in MRC 205 where all elementary education courses are offered.
We are now preparing a proposal to USOE for a three year continuation of our project that will result in a very significant integration of instructional technology into courses throughout the UMM curriculum. The focus of this grant is on redesign of instruction and cannot be for significant purchase of equipment. As in the current grant, each dollar from USOE must be matched by funds from other sources (the technology fee grant last year was of significant help in our receiving the USOE grant). Technology fee funds granted this year will also play a significant role in, and are important for, our being considered for funding under the new USOE proposal.
PLAN: Two instructional design workstations have been set up in the Education Building and students are using them to develop technology-based lessons. Students use portable computers to present their lessons in classes on campus and in area schools.
With 90 students, 27 on –campus courses, and over 300 practicum and student teaching placements, the demand for portable computers is growing significantly.
We will use the portable projection units purchased through Media services for on-campus seminar sessions and the projection unit from the USOE grant in the large classroom. By having two more laptop computers many more lessons – on campus and in area school– can be presented.
Budget: Two Portable PC's $5,000
As you consider this proposal, it is important to note that we do not plan to request any allocation for replacement of Macintosh computers from the 2000-2001 technology fee. This single $60,000 proposal will be the only request for lab systems from Computing Services this year, and it is a substantially smaller allocation than has been funded in previous years to keep lab computers up to date. All Macs in Computing Services labs are recent G3 systems, and none will be due for replacement until next summer. This proposal fits in with wishes expressed when the student technology fee was introduced in 1997, that all computers provided for student use in Computing Services labs should always be less than four years old. If these 30 desktop systems are not replaced in summer 2000, they will be more than four years old during the spring semester next year.
Currently, UMM provides network/Internet access to off-campus dial-in student users with a pool of 39 modems. Most of these are 33.6K modems purchased in 1997, while a few are 28.8K modems from 1996. All are consumer-grade external modems, connected to the network via terminal servers, and each modem uses a single US West "measured business" phone line.
The V.90 specification for 56K dial-in modem service, which has been in place since 1998, requires an Internet service provider (in this case, UMM) to configure its equipment and lines in a different way. Instead of consumer modems, terminal servers, and phone lines, we must use digital lines, a rack-mounted managed modem system, and an Ethernet backplane connection. Commercial rack-mounted modem systems provide 24 dial-in lines per rack, so connections are not added individually, but rather in multiples of 24. Therefore, it makes sense to replace the entire modem pool all at once, to provide industry-standard 56K connections to all off-campus users, and to increase the size of the modem pool to 48 lines.
In addition to the obvious age and slow speed of the existing UMM dial-in modem pool, another crucial factor that has become clear this year is the inadequacy of our 39 dial-in lines. Usage patterns make it apparent that many off-campus users are redialing numerous times, even dozens of times, before a free modem is available. Peak congestion times, which a year ago were only in the evening, have now extended to afternoon, late night, and even some mornings. By installing two 24-line rack systems, we will provide 48 dial-in lines for users. This net increase of nine dial-in lines should help alleviate the congestion.
We propose replacing the existing 39 modems and phone lines with an integrated system accommodating 48 dial-in V.90 (56K) connections.
We propose to split the first-year costs evenly between the UMM student technology fee budget and the central UMM Computing Services budget. Therefore we request an allocation of $16,200 from the 2000-2001 technology fee.
The modem racks and T1 installation charges will be one-time costs. The monthly T1 charges will be ongoing. The total cost of $1732 per month for 48 lines ($866 for each T1 line, slightly more than $36 per month per line) compares with our current total monthly cost of $1222 for 39 lines ($31.32 per month per line for non-digital US West lines). The student technology fee currently subsidizes the cost of 23 of the 39 dial-in lines, which were added in response to an MCSA request in 1997 -- an allocation of $8,644.32 in 1999-2000.
Beyond the first year, we will propose that the student technology fee continue to fund half the ongoing monthly line costs, for as long as these rack modems remain in use. At current prices, that would be about $10,400 per year. Computing Services will increase its support of the UMM modem pool to the same amount. This proposal does not formally make an ongoing request for funds beyond the first year, but requests will be made annually and these ongoing funds will be needed to keep the dial-in service in place.
Total allocation requested for 2000-2001: $16,200.
Proposal to renew SAS licenses for 2000-2001
We are requesting the renewal of SAS licenses for the year 2000-2001. As noted in past proposals, SAS is one of the strongest and best statistical programs. It will meet most of the needs of our students. SAS is one of the most widely used and recognized statistical software programs both at the graduate school level and in the industry. It will help us to better prepare our students for their chosen career paths.
The statistics courses Math 3611(Multivariate Statistical Analysis) and Math 4601(Biostatistics) both use SAS software as the primary statistical package. Jon Anderson is planning to use SAS in Math 1601, Introduction to Statistics for analyzing contingency table data. This would involve 100-300 students per year.
Amount Requested: $2255
We are requesting that the technology fee be used to renew the license fee for this software. It is clearly something that will directly benefit students in the Economics and Management Program and other programs of study at UMM. The Math Discipline will contribute $100 toward the license fee at this time.
Option 1:
If Computing Services' Project to replace PC's in back of Behmler is approved
1 - Pentium PC ~$150.00
Option 2:
If Computing Services' Project to replace PC's in back of Behmler is not approved
1 - Basic Dell Pentium Celeron PC ~$700.00
Total Budget with Option 1: $3210.00
Total Budget with Option 2: $3760.00
Request for Funding
The Hasselmo Language Teaching Center serves the needs of all students enrolled in all courses at UMM in four languages: French, German, Russian and Spanish. In addition to offering majors, minors and teacher licensure in three of them (French, German, and Spanish) all are available to students seeking to satisfy the General Education Requirement in a foreign (second) language.
The center is also a public computer facility open to all students at UMM. As a public computer facility it currently has the oldest computers on campus, (4 years). Recently, the campus has adopted a 4-year cycling of computers on campus. The HLTC has reached the end of that cycle. The current computers are showing their age and need to be replaced. In the interest of students using this facility it is important that these computers and the accompanying accessories (e.g., monitors, keyboards, C-D rom drives, Accessory Kits etc.--see below.) be funded so that the facility accessible to the student body and other UMMers be updated and kept current.
15 Units: APPLE POWER MAC G4 @ $1655 EACH = $24825
15 Units: MONITOR @ $449 " = 6735
15 Units: USB Keyboards @ 79.95 " = 1199 (rounded)
15 Units: USB Imation Superdisk drive @ 149 " = 2235
TOTAL = $34,994 (rounded)
Total: $78,600