Higher ed goes high tech

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Jan. 9. 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

Higher education is being driven toward alternatives to in-classroom instruction at an increasing pace, and Bemidji's two higher ed institutions -- Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College-Bemidji -- are striving to prepare themselves for the future.

Both institutions recently were part of $250,000 in grants awarded by the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system from a program called the Electronic Academy.

The Electronic Academy is a MnSCU initiative to apply and expand the use of technology in teaching and learning, said Gerrit Groen, MnSCU system director for distance learning.

"We want to develop regional sources to help campuses and faculty integrate technology into the classroom," he said.

Being a new program, the grant BSU received was only one of two grants that were awarded by MnSCU in its first round of grants last summer. The second round of grants to be awarded was scheduled for December.

According to Linda Baer, senior vice president for academic and student affairs, BSU wanted to pursue goals such as increasing "student learning success" and having electronically better-trained faculty and students by creating a Center for Multimedia Learning.

Each institution that receives an Electronic Academy grant has the authority to determine how it will be administered, and Baer said BSU asked its faculty and staff to submit proposals as to how the grant could be used to apply technology to its services.

A committee was assembled, which accepted 47 proposals, and project teams were developed for each. Student help was hired by the Center for Multimedia Learning, and the projects are now in developing stages, Baer said.

About a third of the projects should be implemented by this fall, she said, with another to be implemented the following fall. The rest are longer-range projects.

NTC-Bemidji is involved in the other of the two grants awarded last summer. Being part of a system involving six technical colleges, the grant was not awarded to NTC-Bemidji itself, but to the entire system.

IT will help develop an electronically complete associate degree in practical nursing, including lab experiences, according to Ray Cross, president and chief executive officer of the NTC system. Instruction will be administered through the use of multimedia methods including Internet courses, computerized workbooks, CD-Rom and satellite technology.

The University of Minnesota-Crookston, a partner in the project, will develop the general education credits for the program, while the NTC system will develop the practical nursing courses. For the clinical nursing experience, NTC will contract with a medical facility near the distance-learning student.

Cross said that without problems the distance learning program could also be ready by this fall.

According to Groen, the initial drive to develop the Electronic Academy arose from a concern of MnSCU Chancellor Judith Eaton that Minnesota higher education facilities need to "encourage more use of technology in education."

MnSCU developed a $29 million Electronic Academy proposal and submitted it to the last legislative session. The proposal was rejected, but the Legislature did authorize $4 million in grants for college and university trial projects.

Baer said MnSCU has submitted a new $34 million proposal for this session to fund an ongoing Electronic Academy. However, Groen said it is too early to determine what kind of reception the Legislature will give it.

"Generally, there is a great deal of support for this kind of project," he said. "There are a number of legislators who are forward looking. (Bemidji) has some of them in its region."