Feature: MSU Uses New Technology to Connect to Communities

            New technology enables MSU to fulfill its time-honored outreach mission in a far more powerful and effective manner.

            In its early history, Michigan State University connected with communities through technological advances, such as railroads.  In “Putting Michigan Farmers on the Right Track”(Michigan History, Jan/Feb 2000),LeRoy Barnett describes MSU’s seed trains that traveled from one farming community to another demonstrating new and better methods for increasing crop yields. 

            Today, however, the Internet and other digital media promise to be superior means of fulfilling that commitment—potentially more effective than the seed train and all the other means that the land-grant university has used to share knowledge and experience with the people of Michigan.

            As President McPherson has emphasized, “Our land-grant commitment is to provide knowledge that serves people—in the classroom, on the farm, in the research lab, in the board rooms of multinational businesses.”

            MSU is working in three areas to insure that the Internet meets that promise: making high quality, research-based information available through the Web; preparing more people to learn from and communicate with this tool; and helping communities use the interconnectivity and power of the Web to understand and address issues more comprehensively than ever before.  With the Internet and other new digital technologies, the University reaches out further, faster, and by multiple means to K-12 educators, families, health care providers, business professionals, communications specialists, and urban and rural communities.

EDUCATION

            As most parents can attest, children hop aboard the new technology with ease.  Kids Learning in Computer Klubhouses (KLICK!), an innovative after-school program developed by the College of Education with the help of local school districts, is a virtual network of 21 Michigan middle school computer learning centers serving over 5000 students. The program, located in districts with large numbers of at-risk children, stresses both hardware and software usage as well as the principles of web design and communication. Klubhouse members take responsibility for computer maintenance and repair in all classrooms in their building and also build websites for community businesses and organizations, thus enhancing the students’ sense of community responsibility.  The kids have produced websites for ACE Hardware and Old Kent Bank and multimedia, video, and 3-D projects which are displayed on the KLICK! website (http://www.klick.org/website/showcase/index.asp). According to Project Coordinator Blaine Morrow, “There’s nothing like KLICK! anywhere else in the country.”

            Various MSU units and faculty have developed virtual attractions for use in the classroom. Under the direction of Carrier Heeter, the Communication Technology Laboratory (http://commtechlab.msu.edu) provides websites and CD-ROMs for K-12 teachers and students such the 4-H Children’s Garden Exploration, American Identity Explorer on immigration and migration, the civics curriculum on the death penalty, and the virtual Microbe Zoo where kids can find pictures and descriptions of microscopic wonders and of the scientists who study them. The Learning Exchange for Teachers and Students through the InterNet (LETSNet) is a dynamic online environment that uses real examples by practicing teachers to help other teachers develop their understanding of the Web and find ways to use it in their classes; the site covers most K-12 subject fields. Created by the Department of Geography, the Digital Atlas of Michigan, a multi-media CD-ROM, portrays Michigan and its development through maps, video, imagery, sound, graphs, and interactive learning tools. Teachers and students can also tour several virtual art exhibits, including the South African Online Exhibit, prepared by the Kresge Art Center.

            For educators who need to learn how to utilize new technologies in their schools and classrooms, the College of Education offers an Educational Technology Certificate Program.  Participants improve their own skills in the use of technology, including the Web, and develop approaches for teaching others to use technology.

FAMILIES AND HEALTH CARE

            Human services and community organizations benefit from the new technologies used by MSU experts to analyze the needs created by increasingly complex community structures. The Community Assessment Technology Changing Children’s Health (CATCCH) project, sponsored in part by the Institute for Children, Youth, and Families and the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, seeks to achieve better maternal and child outcomes in Kent County, such as improved MEAP scores, safer schools, and reduced birth complications and mortality among mothers and infants, by sharing complete data on each patient among all health service providers.  However, while such database technology allows more efficient coordination of patient services, it also raises concerns about privacy. LeeAnne Roman of MSU’s College of Human Medicine says that community leaders and MSU scientists have developed mechanisms to protect data and to allow linking of health data across institutions. 

            The medical field relies increasingly on new technologies to provide better health care and better health education. The award-winning Breast Cancer Lighthouse, developed by the Comm Tech Lab, contains the stories of 14 survivors of breast cancer as well as medical facts from health care professionals about diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Two new products providing cancer information, Easing Cancer Pain and Cancer Prevention, are now available. Another award winner, the Personal Communicator provides deaf children tools to communicate via signing, speech synthesis, and digital video with their deaf and hearing friends (commtechlab.msu.edu).

BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY

            The colleges of Engineering and Communication Arts and Sciences are working with industry partners and MSU and international students to study how to improve the performance of geographically distributed teams of engineers. In Project INTEnD (International Networked Teams for Engineering Design), the industry partners present a design problem to a team of about eight students, half from MSU, half from international universities. After four months of collaboration over the Internet, they present their ideas to the industrialists. According to Charles Steinfield, Professor of Telecommunications, the project uses videoconferencing, streaming video, and collaborative software developed by MSU called “Teamscope Software.”

            MSU’s Center for International Business Education and Research (MSU-CIBER) developed GlobalEdge, a “global business knowledge web-portal that connects international business professionals worldwide to a wealth of information, insights, and learning resources on global business activities” (globaledge.msu.edu//about_globaledge.asp).  According to Irem Kiyak, Assistant Director, this young site has been receiving a million hits a month; and its “Resource Desk” an extensive web resource for U.S. and international news, periodicals, journals, trade information, statistical data, country-specific information, and government resources, has been cited in numerous journals, including The Industry Standard.

LAND USE AND AGRICULTURE

            Land use—urban sprawl, disappearance of prime farmland, and fragmentation of forest and natural areas—is also a major issue facing communities. The Center for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Science (CRSGIS), under the direction of Professor Richard Groop, produces land use analyses that play an important role in community development by helping local planners assess infrastructure emergency service, educational, and other needs. The Institute for Water Research, Department of Resource Development, and MSU Extension maintain the Land Use Assistance website (www.iwr.msu.edu/landuse/) to assist citizens in finding planning and zoning information. 

            As farming has expanded into complex agribusinesses, the need for technology to provide predictive information to improve yield as well as to keep accurate business records has also increased. Telfarm serves Michigan’s farm businesses by providing valuable customized software that contains accounting, payroll, and check writing capabilities for diverse farm businesses.  Larry Borton, MSU Extension Manager, says that Telfarm services about 600 farms; 480 of these farmers use the software on their own personal computers while the other 120 send their records to the College of Agriculture to be processed. Telfarm also has a web page from which farmers can download updates to the program or read articles and papers.

E-LEARNING AND WEB PORTALS

            Delivered from the campus “anytime, anywhere,” Internet courses reduce student travel time and enable students to master technology that plays a major part in their professions.  MSU is expanding its offerings of online courses and degree programs to nurses, packaging professionals, educators, watershed managers, beam physicists, medical technicians, facility managers, security managers, advanced high school students, and the list is growing.  Now prospective students looking for advanced and continuing education can access the full list of MSU programs through the Continuing Education and Online Learning site (see sidebar). Professionals and practitioners can link to MSU expertise and information by visiting the Statewide Resource Network website at www.msustatewide.msu.edu.

TRAVELING INTO THE FUTURE

            As MSU faculty and specialists use new technologies to communicate knowledge and expertise to citizens and organizations across the state and around the world, they expand their own knowledge that they incorporate into their future teaching and research. Even more efficiently and effectively than the seed train of an earlier generation, today’s technologies enable a continual exchange of information and learning that connects the University with communities around the globe.

authors note: Former Vice Provost for University Outreach, Dr. Bob Church provides academic leadrship for development of online courses and programs.  As Director of Outreach Administration and Advancement, Dr. Diane Zimmerman leads the team that designs websites that link MSU's knowledge resources to professionals, organizations, communities, and citizens.

CONTINUING EDUCATION ONLINE LEARNING WEBSITE

            Continuing Education/Online Learning, a new website developed by MSU Outreach, brings together all of MSU’s online and off-campus programs for individuals and groups, including business professionals, educators, health care practitioners, adult leisure learners, overseas study candidates, even upper-level high school students. 

            Searchable by type of continuing education, keyword, topics, or mode of delivery, the site gives users a single, easy-to-navigate point of entry. Prospective students will find program and course information, and step-by-step instructions to apply, enroll, register, and pay.

            “For the first time, MSU’s continuing education offerings have been organized to facilitate ‘one-stop-shopping,’” says Provost Lou Anna K. Simon. “The website goes a long way in helping us interface with and better serve our off-campus and online learners. It demonstrates the University’s outreach commitment to extend the campus instructional capacity to distance learners who might benefit from an MSU education.”

            In addition to serving prospective students, the site also connects corporate and organizational administrators to MSU Global Online Connection for group learning, customized programming, and consulting.

            The Outreach team that developed this new site also launched two other popular sites within the last year:

            * Statewide Resource Network (www.msustatewide.msu.edu), connecting professionals with MSU’s vast body of expert assistance and information, and

            * Spartan Youth Programs (www.spartanyouth.msu.edu), a single portal providing access to all MSU programs available for PreK-12^th grade students. 

            All three sites can be accessed through the lobby page of the new Continuing Education/Online Learning at http://online-contined.msu.edu