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Skidmore IRC recommends the continued institutional support of information technology and resources to enhance and promote the academic mission of Skidmore College. To this end, it is our task to consider the potential use and impact of information technology on every aspect of campus life.
Whenever possible, Skidmore College will maintain a general posture of "early follower" with respect to investments in new technologies in order to optimize the value of financial and human resources. Rather than broadly adopting "cutting edge" technologies, the College will generally employ and support reliable, mature technologies. Where appropriate, IRC recommends supporting members of the campus who might benefit from utilizing leading edge technologies within their discipline or area of responsibility.
IRC thus recommends that we:
1. Educate Skidmore community members regarding the rights and responsibilities of information citizenship.
• Educate technology users of their rights to privacy.
• Provide information concerning the application of copyright laws in the digital world, supporting the rights of intellectual property holders and the fair use of educational materials.
• Encourage the honor code's evolution into the world of information technology.
2. Promote information literacy training for all students, traditional and non-traditional.
• Promote an environment in which students will become discerning technology users, proficient information seekers, critical thinkers and responsible, ethical members of the electronic community.
• Provide a diverse collection of information resources to serve curricular and co-curricular interests of students enrolled in campus and external programs.
• Prepare all students for lifelong learning in the information age.
3. Provide support for the integration of technology into faculty teaching.
• Provide instructional spaces with appropriate technology that meet pedagogical and curricular needs when appropriate.
• Provide resources and technology that encourage interdisciplinary work.
• Develop multi-media curriculum resources.
• Provide basic course support and appropriate training for use of electronic resources.
4. Provide support for the technology required for faculty research and scholarship.
• Continue to expand the information resources in the library seeking to move from print to electronic resources whenever appropriate.
• Provide for appropriate technology as required for individual faculty research, scholarship, and teaching.
• Provide resources and technology that encourage interdisciplinary work and collaborative research among faculty and students.
5. Provide technology training and support for all members of the campus community.
• Continue to provide and enhance support and training resources for faculty and help to identify discipline specific resources.
• Continue to provide and enhance training opportunities for staff, including "just-in-time" training as well as departmentally specific training.
• Enhance and support a variety of training opportunities for students
• Explore ways to extend training opportunities to all members of the College community, such as offering training at a variety of times and utilizing on-line training and documentation.
• Foster the increased decentralization of support through greater use of "local experts"
• Offer enhanced support to individuals who help promote increased use of technology within their own departments and continue to cultivate, support and reward this community of "local experts."
• Increase the staffing within the principal information resource centers (CITS and Library) in areas that directly support faculty pedagogy and scholarship as well as student learning.
• Increase training resources and opportunities to empower users throughout the College.
6. Create an effective and responsive technology infrastructure that is supportable, sustainable and scalable.
• Continue and enhance communication with the community to disseminate new ideas and learn ways in which information technology can help individuals and groups meet their goals and objectives.
• Insure that systems and services are accessible to those who need them regardless of place and time.
• Provide appropriately secure access to the electronic resources of the College.
• Assure sufficient personnel resources to support the use of information resources throughout campus.
