History

The first website created for the Multimedia Development Studio (now the EdTech Center) in 1993

An initiative that would evolve into the EdTech Center started years before nearly anyone at Northeastern had heard of the World Wide Web. In 1992, the Center's founding and current director, Alicia Russell, proposed a Northeastern facility that would help faculty members learn to develop computer-based teaching aids. Russell, who formerly taught at Northeastern's English Language Center, had received a grant to develop such software for ESL students, but was unable to find service to support her efforts. With the support of then director of the division of academic computing Glenn Pierce, her proposal won a $25,000 grant from the provost to launch the Center's forerunner, the Multimedia Development Studio (MMDS). Staffed by Russell and two co-op students, the MMDS opened in January 1993 in a narrow basement room in Dockser Hall. Faculty members attended workshops in scanning and editing images and crafting presentations. Assisted by the studio's graphic design and computer science co-op students, faculty members created simple computerized quizzes, conceptual aids based on digitized video and computerized drawings.

Seth Merriam teaches a hands-on workshop to faculty in EdTech's previous facility located in Dockser Hall - January 1999

With the advent of the Web, use of the MMDS grew from 30 faculty members per quarter to over 200 faculty members per quarter attending workshops in creating interactive Web pages and CD-ROMs. Faculty were eager to develop online conferences, simulations and "dynamic syllabi," or to find and use existing educational software. EdTech Center staff were able to show faculty members how to make class aids interactive and easy to access. Instead of requiring students to check out programs from a library computer lab, faculty members could show them the work on any computer that had a Web browser. Students could view an online interactive syllabus and interact with each other from their dorm rooms or campus computer labs. Northeastern recognized the need to take advantage of the new ways of using computers to teach and sought funding from a private corporation to jump-start its effort. The EdTech Center, an expansion of the MMDS, was created with the help of $150,000 seed money by Fidelity Corporation, which was matched by Northeastern, to address the dramatic increase in demand. When it opened in 1998, the Center filled a critical need at Northeastern for a much-expanded, dynamic facility for the rapidly growing number of faculty who were eager to enhance their teaching with multimedia resources and skills.

The first group of Culpeper funded co-op students - Fall 1998

In fall 1998, Fidelity awarded the Center additional funds for equipment, and the university committed $180,000 annually for three additional full-time staff members. The state-of-the-art facility helped Northeastern win a $220,000 grant from the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation in November 1998, which enabled the Center to hire four additional co-op students per quarter, boosting EdTech Center staff to 12. In 2001, the University and EdTech Center received $314,000 from the Davis Educational Foundation for the creation of cost effective, sustainable, replicable projects.

Since its opening, the EdTech Center has received widespread recognition, capturing the inaugural Center of Excellence Award from New Media Centers, a not-for-profit organization that brings forward-thinking learning organizations - colleges, universities, and museums - together with innovative high-tech companies to collaborate in a non-competitive environment. The EdTech Center's Website was selected as the site of the week by Educause, a national nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.

The EdTech Center currently shares a state-of-the-art facility with the Center for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching and Learning, located in 215 Snell Library

Today, the EdTech Center is working on numerous projects receiving grant funding from organizations including the Sloan Foundation, National Science Foundation, New England Association for Schools and Colleges, Davis Educational Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts as well as several receiving institutional support from Northeastern University.