Page 49 - College Planning & Management, March 2018

Technology INNOVATIONS FOR EDUCATION
Setting Goals in a Digital Age
With a little goal setting, administrators can use technology to advance
education and meet students’ needs. Here are two ways in which technology
is providing what today’s students expect—in the classroom and beyond.
BY ELLEN KOLLIE
IT CAN BE A chicken-or-egg conundrum. Do you take a look at your technology investment and ask
where it can take you, or do you decide where you want to go and invest in technology to get you there? The first approach can take you somewhere, with hopefully satisfactory results. The second approach, requiring a little up-front goal setting, can make a real difference in advancing your education pro- gram. Take a look at these two examples.
Gateway Technical College
Administrators at Gateway Techni- cal College (GTC) in Kenosha, WI, have worked diligently through the years to meet a goal of providing a robust educa- tional program via video conferencing. To
date, GTC has video conferencing equip- ment on all five of its campuses and in nine partner high schools.
“In its first iteration,” says Jeff Robshaw, GTC’s vice president for learning innovation and chief information officer, “the program was a partnership among various high schools in the district and a third-party gov- erning agency. Around 2010, the third-party agency experienced personnel changes,
and we opted to take control. We created a Virtual Academic Network (VAN).”
Here’s how it works. If a student in Elk- horn wants to take a class that’s only offered at the Racine campus, s/he can take the course via video conferencing. This works for large and small groups—even as small as five people. The high school partnership
Kenosha campus, Kenosha, WI
Racine campus, Elkhorn, WI
MARCH 2018 / COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT 47
PHOTOS © GREG LEBRICK, GATEWAY TECHNICAL COLLEGE