Hello Colleague,

We hope you had a relaxing and productive summer break and that your semester is starting smoothly. As you settle into your fall semester routine, we want to share some announcements and upcoming opportunities.

First, this summer we have been working on the first phase of a new Showcase Web site at http://home.umwdtlt.org. You’ll find information about the division, projects we’ve worked on with faculty, and upcoming events. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be adding new features to the site including a way to subscribe to site content via email, profiles of DTLT staff members, and additional resources for using technology for teaching and learning. We invite you to check out this first version and to check back often!

We’re also pleased to announce a calendar of upcoming events that we will be hosting. First, on Monday, September 14th at 2:00 we invite you to attend an Open House in our office in duPont 310 on the Fredericksburg campus. On Wednesday, September 16th we’ll be hosting a similar event at our office in CGPS North 128 at 3:30. Both events will offer opportunities to meet the staff of DTLT and learn more about incorporating digital technologies into your teaching and learning. Be it a small project focused on a single technology or an entire course redesign, we would love to exchange ideas with you. Stop by for a conversation!

As a follow-up to our Open Houses, we will be hosting a two week series of showcase workshops starting on September 29th. The workshops are designed to help you develop a deeper understanding of emerging and innovative digital technologies. Each workshop will be 2 and 1/2 hours long (including breaks) and will allow attendees to go more in-depth with specific technologies. Topics will include Digital Imaging, UMW Blogs, Google Docs, Digital Story Telling with Voicethread, and Zotero (a follow-on to the “Zotero-fest” happening on Sept 11). We will introduce specific tools for each of the topics, and we’ll cover tasks such as how to install the necessary programs, basic and advanced uses, as well as highlight completed projects. Sessions will occur in the morning on the Fredericksburg campus and in the afternoon on the Stafford campus. Check http://home.umwdtlt.org/event for the schedule and a link to a sign-up sheet. If you have any questions, contact Andy Rush (arush@umw.edu) or Lisa Ames (lames@umw.edu).

Speaking of Zoterofest, DTLT has been pleased to be a part of the planning for that event, as well. It will be taking place this Friday, September 11th, and will include demonstration sessions on getting up and running with Zotero as well as a guest lecture by Dan Cohen, director of the Center for History and New Media at GMU. You can find out more at http://zotero.umwblogs.org/zoterofest/.

For those of you joining us for our Open House on Monday the 14th, please consider coming a little early and sitting in on the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative’s Web Seminar, “Teaching without Walls: Life Beyond the Lecture” at 1:00. We will be broadcasting the seminar at our conference table in duPont 310 and anyone is invited to join in. You can find out more about the program at http://net.educause.edu/eliweb099.

Finally, as you are making plans for the rest of your semester, please consider participating in the New Media Consortium’s “Symposium for the Future.” This entirely online event will explore actual and potential applications of technology that could impact issues of global importance of the next five years and beyond. Former UMW Professor of English, Gardner Campbell, will be one of the featured speakers at the event. You can find out more at http://www.nmc.org/2009-future-symposium. If you are interested in participating in this event, please contact Martha Burtis at mburtis@umw.edu.

Thank you!
The Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies