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Statewide/Rural Regional Center Conference
September 9 marked the first face-to-face meeting of the staff and faculty members involved in the beginning stages of the California Virtual Campus Statewide/Rural Regional Center. The two day conference held at Bakersfield Community College was an opportunity for participants to meet one another, and receive training that will assist the center in serving the 35 community colleges covering the length of the state. The conference was planned and implemented by the partnership of Paul Meyers, Director of the Regional Center at Cerro Coso College in Ridgecrest and Yvonne Maller of the Los Rios District in Sacramento. The conference covered key issues and introduced many skills to the four lead faculty mentors, two high school mentors, and other regional staff in attendance. Thursday morning began with an introduction of all those present, allowing participants to put faces with the hundreds of emails that have been sent over the past year. The first instructional session began with a presentation from Wayne Chenowith from the De Anza High Tech Training Center. His presentation on accessibility issues introduced many products and services available to colleges. His presentation also included many online resources and product demonstrations. A list of the resources that were presented can be found on the web at www.cvc4.org/web_pages/accessibility.htm. After a short break, Eric Miraglia, Senior Consultant at The Information Management Group began the Microsoft Mentor Program Training. The first lesson was an introduction to Microsoft NetMeeting. This demonstration introduced the many features and ease of use of this product. Using synchronous chat, a whiteboard feature, and document sharing, participants were able to get a taste for the possibilities. The addition of a microphone and a relatively inexpensive camera left many wondering why we put up with expensive long distance phone bills. The afternoon sessions were devoted to an introduction to FrontPage 2000 and the possibilities for online quizzing and surveying. Also included was a quick introduction to the ease of using Excel in the collection and analysis of data from other sources. Friday morning began with a discussion of the needs assessment survey that will be mailed and administered to five key people on all 35 campuses. Following this brief meeting was an introduction to the new and improved features of Microsoft PowerPoint. The presenter began with the creation of a PowerPoint lecture and proceeded to demonstrate how to either broadcast it live over the web, or post it, complete with streaming audio and slide timing, onto the web for viewing online. Further, he demonstrated the ease of incorporating Excel spreadsheets or tables into a PowerPoint presentation. An overview of Office 2000 as well as an introduction to the many new features of Word 2000 followed the lunch break. New formatting options, more extensive drop down menus and HTML options have made Word much more than a word-processing program. The Foundation for California Community Colleges currently has an agreement that allows faculty and staff of California Community Colleges to purchase Office 2000, FrontPage 2000 and Windows 98 for a fraction of the retail prices. For more information on this offer, see www.foundationccc.org. The Conference ended with an introduction to the functionality of Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange. These products incorporate asynchronous discussion, shared work folders, as well as a calendar feature and organizational options. While the use of Exchange requires the proper server, the introduction was quite informative. While everyone attending this conference came with a very different list of skills and knowledge, all left with some new knowledge and many new resources. Another conference is scheduled to be held in November, and will continue the communication among the contact staff as well as provide further instruction in educational and technological developments and functionality. Contact: Web Site: |
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