Executive Summary

The Educational Technology Center is the hub for integrating technology and teaching at Northeastern University. The center's mission is to improve teaching and learning with technology through research, development and training. The EdTech Center's 6-member staff, along with two co-op students, helps Northeastern faculty assimilate everything from digital imaging devices to software for developing web sites. EdTech Center also collaborates with faculty teams to design, develop, assess and evaluate technology-related projects that receive instructional or external grant support.

The EdTech Center brings together the university resources needed to secure funding; plan, design and implement projects; and measure their effectiveness. The EdTech Center collaborates with the Center for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CIETL), Information Services, the Disability Resource Center, Physical Plant and University Libraries and many other campus units.

The scope of the centers' work encompasses a wide range of activities, such as developing custom, web-based tools; creating innovative, instructional web sites; customizing generic software for Northeastern professors; and holding workshops that encourage faculty to examine and, in some cases, reconstruct their teaching methods to take advantage of exciting ways technology can help faculty engage students. The Centers' common, overarching goal is to contribute to a university environment that attracts and retains students, while preparing them for careers in the next century.

Faculty, staff and students attend EdTech Center demonstrations and workshops, use our resources to develop Web-based interactive teaching tools or consult with our staff on special projects. Corporations and foundations have endorsed our efforts by awarding the EdTech Center grants totaling more than a half-million dollars. Colleges and departments, including Arts and Sciences, Bouve, College of Business, and Engineering, have enlisted the centers as a partner on Northeastern grant-funded projects. The Center's staff has served as a key advisor to groups and task forces exploring new technology and software including eportfolios, personal response systems (clickers) and learning spaces.

The Center also plays a key role in broadcasting Northeastern's technology offerings to those outside the university. The Center spearheads the annual Teaching with Technology mini-conference, a day-long event demonstrating the integration of teaching, technology and library resources.  EdTech Center staff regularly speak at national forums, including the Educause, Campus Technology, and New Media Centers conferences, and publicize ways Northeastern faculty are using new technology to broaden and deepen students' learning experiences. EdTech Center staff also consult with local community groups on digital technology, helping to bolster Northeastern's reputation as a good citizen.

The Center's activities support Northeastern's commitment to foster close collaborations among faculty and students, as well as the core principle of experiential education - learning by doing. Most of the EdTech Center's software offerings are Web-based, enabling a wide array of novel interactions between faculty and students outside the classroom. Professors work with our staff to develop interactive web sites for courses and programs, multimedia lecture aids, and interactive video. Our workshops provide the opportunity for hands-on learning, giving faculty a chance to construct digital media projects and explore new technologies in a user-friendly setting. The EdTech Center includes a SmartBar in which faculty can work on their Blackboard course sites or web-based projects and receive help from EdTech Center co-op students. Faculty can also request assistance from EdTechies, co-op students who will come to their office for Blackboard assistance. Additionally, Northeastern faculty also frequently work with the Center's co-op students to develop Web-based interactive teaching tools. The Center gives faculty access to a variety of Web services, including resources to support Blackboard, the university's Learning Management System.

The EdTech Center is a unique organization that is crucial to maintaining Northeastern's competitive edge and shaping its vision of the future. Since its opening in January, 1998, the EdTech Center has grown into the principal university resource for educational technology related resources, workshops and consultation. The EdTech Center's staff's skills and experience combined with the cutting-edge facility is an extremely valuable resource for Northeastern. In short, the EdTech Center plays a vital role in helping Northeastern continue to offer captivating learning experiences during an era of dizzying technological change.