SITT '97

Impressions of SITT 97

Dennis Dingemans is an Associate Professor in Geography. He participated in the Summer Institute in the summer of 1997.

Most of the topics covered during my forty hours of SITTing down with the experts were new to me. I learned for the first time about PowerPoint programs for making computer-generated slides that combine outlines, graphs, maps, simulations, photographs, gizmos, etc. I had been aware of the benefits linked to having a course Web site, but only through SITT did I first create a Web page that I will be able to expand and modify to provide timely supplemental information outside of class hours. The SITT curriculum reviewed the procedures for getting and using a computerized class e-mail list. Especially useful for my courses in regional and urban geography was the exposure to the techniques of scanning photographs and slides -- I now have a working familiarity with Photoshop and campus scanners that makes me ready to show my future classes (in lectures and on the Web page) edited and enhanced slides that are based on my own pictures and the wealth of other available "scannable" printed media.

There is a variety of ways that the benefits of SITT could be shared with a wider share of the UC Davis teaching community, to more than just the 43 summer participants each year. The Arbor, a new computer lab in AOB IV devoted to instructional technology hardware and software, might well allow for that to happen. What I needed most, as do most faculty, was the helping hand of a sympathetic tutor to take me to the machines and demonstrate or try out the programs.