You may enjoy these testimonies from three relatively new professors to Taylor regarding the academic technology support they have discovered at TU (it's one of those secrets we're trying to get out!):
Testimony 1 (Statistics): "From my first day as a faculty member at Taylor University, I've been impressed with the quality of support for academic technology. Most importantly, the ETC staff has appreciated my own goals for my own courses...and then they've proven able to assist me with software and hardware that advance those goals. Sometimes those resources have been resources they suggested and taught me how to use; other times those resources have been special-purpose tools that I need in my discipline and which the ETC has helped to set up. The ETC staff have all been readily available, hard-working, versatile, and flexible. They have also prodded me to enhance my own "toolbox" for instruction, e.g. using DyKnow in the classroom. I find the level of support for academic technology at Taylor University to be far better than what I've experienced at a similar Christian College or at a larger state university."
Testimony 2 (Music): "Even during the interview process it was apparent that Taylor University was interested and intentional about implementing technology in the classroom to better engage student learning. I fretted about actually learning enough about PowerPoint to make a decent presentation! Thankfully, support abounds for the entire campus community to utilize the great resources that abound including the ETC, IT support staff, mini-grant opportunities, workshops and the like. In comparison to my previous (and wonderful) university where one projection unit was available in the entire Fine Arts department, Taylor is certainly a leader in advocacy for the exciting use of technology in higher learning."
Testimony 3 (Mathematics): "Taylor's academic technology support from the ETC has been, in my opinion, stellar in several ways:
1. They are proactive and aggressive in outfitting classrooms with educational technology hardware.
2. They are likewise proactive and aggressive in purchasing and supporting innovative educational software, such as DyKnow Vision and Turning Point.
3. They are wonderfully responsive to problems, questions and issues that arise with both the hardware and the software.
4. They are actively involved in workshops, grant programs, blogs and other means of encouraging faculty to innovate with technology in teaching.
5. They are responsive to faculty ideas about new technologies and new uses for existing technologies. In particular, they understand and support when faculty desire to use technology for student engagement and interaction rather than merely for better faculty presentation.
I recently spent a sabbatical year at a top-tier public research university and was surprised to find that the educational technology that is ubiquitous in Taylor's classrooms was rare to find there. At Taylor I can teach using pen-based technology and easily project my work on a screen in any classroom. There I had to borrow a portable projector, which I took with me to class every day in order to project my (Taylor-provided!) Tablet PC to the class."
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