Investing in Technology
and the Possibilities It Brings

Slide rules to calculators. Typewriters to computers. Chalkboards to PowerPoint presentations. Over the years, the tools of learning have evolved. Today technology continues to transform and improve the classroom environment and student learning.

To succeed in our ongoing mission of excellence in teaching and learning, UW-Eau Claire must keep pace with the ever-changing nature of technology. Keeping up with today’s incredible advances enriches the intellectual give-and-take between faculty and students — the kind of exchange that makes for great learning. Because our graduates will work with cutting-edge technology when they enter the work force, we must train them using similar technology.

Along with the need for new technologies comes the need for maintenance and support. Currently, our budget covers less than half the cost of adequately maintaining the university’s technological resources.

Our students have shouldered some of the burden. Each semester, they pay a 2 percent tuition surcharge, called the student technology fee, to support maintenance and improvements in technology on campus. However, private support is essential to fully meet UW-Eau Claire’s future technology needs.

To supply faculty, staff and students with the necessary tools for great learning, UW-Eau Claire seeks investments for the acquisition and long-term support of technologies like the following:

• Labs and electronic classrooms that offer the flexibility to accommodate new teaching and learning styles and more accurately simulate workplace situations.
  

• A Learning Technology Development Center, where faculty and staff could share, learn and practice the use of technology to enhance student learning.
  

• An intravenous training system that would give School of Nursing students realistic practice in IV insertion through a simulator and computer-generated feedback.
  

• New adaptive and assistive technologies to improve access to computer-based systems for students and faculty with disabilities.
  

• Distance education capabilities to reach sites throughout our region on a regular basis, allowing more part-time and nontraditional students to earn degrees.
  

• Cyberlabs through which students and faculty can have access to an array of applications software and databases any time and anyplace an Internet connection is available — thus eliminating the need to compete for time and space in traditional place-bound labs.

Our students have shouldered some of the burden. Each semester, they pay a 2 percent tuition surcharge, called the student technology fee, to support maintenance and improvements in technology on campus. However, private support is essential to fully meet UW-Eau Claire’s future technology needs.

To supply faculty, staff and students with the necessary tools for great learning, UW-Eau Claire seeks investments for the acquisition and long-term support of technologies like the following:

• Labs and electronic classrooms that offer the flexibility to accommodate new teaching and learning styles and more accurately simulate workplace situations.
  

• A Learning Technology Development Center, where faculty and staff could share, learn and practice the use of technology to enhance student learning.
  

• An intravenous training system that would give School of Nursing students realistic practice in IV insertion through a simulator and computer-generated feedback.
  

• New adaptive and assistive technologies to improve access to computer-based systems for students and faculty with disabilities.
  

• Distance education capabilities to reach sites throughout our region on a regular basis, allowing more part-time and nontraditional students to earn degrees.
  

• Cyberlabs through which students and faculty can have access to an array of applications software and databases any time and anyplace an Internet connection is available — thus eliminating the need to compete for time and space in traditional place-bound labs.