Submitted by:
Dr. Marvin Bratt
Associate Professor
Educational Theory and Practice
Ohio State University
1465 Mt. Vernon Avenue
Marion, OH 43302 USA
v: (614) 389-2361
f: (614) 389-2361
e: hbratt@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Categories:
Education, higher
Keywords:
Innovative or improved ways of doing things; More equitable access to technology or electronic information; Creation of new ideas, products, or services; Technology transfer; Volunteer contributions of time and energy; Partnerships between public and private sector
Supporting Documentation (contact author for more information):
Documentation
The Story:
I direct a project known as the University Classroom of Tomorrow, funded by the Ohio Board of Regents. The purpose of the project is to develop creative solutions using technology in Education. Over the past two years, I have been teaching my students to use the Internet for a variety of purposes, the most useful of which have been email between myself and my students (new and novel way to communicate with a faculty member and/or student) and other faculty, and the use of OhioLink, a linked system of library resources here in Ohio. We, at Ohio State, have watched the library system automate and now grow into a system that anyone can use with little intimidation. I see graduate students coming back to school that are somewhat overwhelmed with technology but able to search with tools such as Fetch* and TurboGopher* across the Internet in libraries where interlibrary loan would have been a dream in the past. We cannot overlook the inestimable impact this technology has had in just the past 6 months. I can only hope that such interconnectedness spreads to small school districts such as River Valley School district in rural north central Ohio where I would be able to share files, assist students with their work and train our teacher education majors to communicate.