Department Interviews - 1997

Interview with:  Steve Marqusee, Chair
                 John Omohundro
                 Anthropology Department

Interview date:  3/21/97



Questions:

   
1. How satisfied you (and your department) are with technology support and 
   services?

   Satisfied with support and service.  Very impressed with the Helpdesk which
   has improved the responsiveness from our department (DCTM).



2. What services and support could be improved?
   
   Access via dial-in after the noon hour is nearly impossible.  The recent
   effort we made to establish special dial-in access for business-work only, 
   may improve this situation.

   Laurie Rush did a distance learning course in medical anthropology for the    
   SUNY Plattsburgh Tele-Nursing program, but it was not stasfacory from her 
   point of view.  The quality of the video, as well as complications in using 
   the video conferencing technology to teach *from* Potsdam, presented serious 
   problems for her.



3. Is your department considering any new technology initiatives for the 
   next  year?
  
   It is important to recognize the need for acquiring computing tools that meet 
   the needs/desires of new hires.  This is a great recruitment tool because it 
   shows the college's commitment to them (the hiree).

   Email and the Web is essential to Anthropology and is widely used by everyone 
   in the field.  

   The department would like to reach out to a broader auidence with "distance 
   learning technology".  Also, there is interest in developing hybrid 
   coursework that incorporates both traditional and distance learning 
   technologies.

   There is interest in establishing a faculty development lab where any faculty 
   member could borrow technology to do their work and to go to for assistance 
   in developing instructional material.  This facility should have technology 
   that could not be afforded by a single department; for example, recordable 
   CD-ROM disks for slides, documents; a digital camera to take pictures of 
   artifacts.   This facility could have only limited hours, if necessary.

   Need to replace the archaeology lab computer and/or augment it with a 
   Windows-based computer.

   Need color printing capability (ink-jet quality is fine) which could be
   shared amongst department members.

   It was suggested that Carson 105 be developed into another instructional
   area with flexibility to be used as seminar space.



4. What are your most important concerns and priorities for the next
   year?
   
   1) Facutly technology/development lab (see notes in #3 above)

   2) Carson 105 technology space.