When faculty members want to include technology in their classrooms, they now have a new option with the Center for Innovations in Technology for Learning.

Although an Ohio Board of Regents grant created the center in July 1998, it was not fully staffed and operating until this quarter, said Ann Kovalchick, the center's director.

Its mission is to help faculty develop new teaching technologies.

"Faculty come to us, describe the type of educational problem they are having, and we find the technology to help them," she said. "We train the faculty to use the programs themselves and then help them with maintenance."

Kovalchick said she wanted to stress the center is not a service provider, but an educational tool.

"The object of our program is for faculty to be able to work independently of the center at some point," she said. "We want them to not need us so we can help others."

The center uses several different methods to train professors, including testing the latest in Internet teaching templates and developing new software to help with specific educational concerns, Kovalchick said.

It also makes small grants each year under a Technologies Incentives Package program. Grants range from $10,000 to $12,000 and are given to individuals or groups of faculty members who have innovative ideas for using technology in the classroom.

The college of music received one of these grants Winter Quarter 1999 and is using it to facilitate a new practice program for music majors, said D. Scott Smith, associate professor of horn and theory. They are using the software application SmartMusic as a practice aid for students.

"The technology allows students to practice their instruments or voice without a human accompanist," he said. "Students can control many aspects of the program they can't with a human being."

Students should begin using the program late this quarter, Smith said.

But the center offers more than just money and training, said Doug Mann, associate provost for information technology. It also is developing more Internet-based classes and technology.

"There is a tremendous interest among the faculty in terms of improving Web-based courses and attracting new students to them," he said. "The center and the university both want to become more proficient in these areas."

In order to help Ohio University between technology and learning, OU President Robert Glidden spent part of his extended summer break at the center, learning the new technology and techniques.

"With the new computers in the residence hall rooms, the pressure on faculty to use technology in teaching will increase," Glidden said. "This type of project creates a lot of extra work for professors, and in some cases, the redesigning of whole courses."

Glidden said he did hands-on work with the new applications and also received private tutelage on some of the more complex template programs.