THE INFORMER PAGE 6

OCTOBER 18, 1989

Just what is this Applied InfoTech?

There’s a buzz going around campus and it could be catching.

The new Applied Information Technology program beginning

this January will have students making computing connections
with each other and around the world.

The brainchild of Media Resources instructor Gerry Blitstein
(who has had his head inside a Macintosh for several years now),
the ten-month program is designed to initiate students into the
notion of “information navigation”. A new concept in computing,
the term suggests steering a course or controlling the passage of
information. In our fact-mad, computer-happy world, that’s not
such a bad idea. Gerry says it will train students “how to deal
with and organize information in an effective and eloquent
manner using the latest in interactive computer technology.”

Basically, students will be learning how to access international
databases, critically select the information they need and present
it in entertaining and enlivening formats using the latest in whiz-
bang interactive technologies, such as video disks, digitized
sound, and the like.

“To the best of my knowledge, this is the first program of its

kind," says Gerry, who believes the next stage of computer
technology will revolutionize the world’s concept of
communications. "Graduates of this program will be ahead of
the information revolution. We will train students in effective
writing, critical thinking and concept development, as well as
developing interpersonal communication and team-building
skills.”

The course is expected to attract students from a wide range of
backgrounds, from computer specialists, corporate
communicators, media producers, graphic designers, industrial
trainers, to philosophers.

Some specific areas of training include: the study of computer
systems, communication theory, critical thinking, writing for the
medium, interactive communications, sound integration,
graphics, design, Mac/IBM interface, interactive video disk, and
marketing.

Applied Information Technology is being offered in a full-time
ten-month diploma program beginning this January and in part-
time evening certificate programs of varying lengths.

Faculty Development continued...
3. Travel must be directly related to the project.

4. The project should produce some measurable product:
published material, software, statistical information, real
product, case study, simulation, or the like.

5. You must provide the names of two colleagues who will
vouch for the professional level of the project and agree to
advise the committee of the successful outcome of the project.

2. Conferences:

1. Speaking at a conference, or participating on a panel or
planning committee carries more weight in evaluation than
simply attending a conference. If you are speaking, apply first
(or also) to the Deans’ funds for conference speakers or the
conference’s own speakers’ fund and include an indication of
how you are sharing costs among various granting agencies.

2. The conference programme is designed to allow attendance
at conferences which will help the professional growth of the
faculty member. Regular articulation meetings, annual
meetings, student gatherings with faculty sponsors, etc. do not
normally add to individual PD. (If you believe such a meeting
will directly benefit your professional life, be sure to indicate
how.)

3. At any conference, certain seminars or meetings have more
direct value to our individual PD or our current projects.
Indicate any such specific segments of the conference or
special features which clarify how the conference will aid you.

4. Grants are spread among as many people as possible, so the
Committee can rarely grant more than partial funds to any
distant travel. Please be aware in asking for funds over $500.00
that the grant will probably not fully cover your costs. Again,
cost sharing among various granting agencies should be
indicated where possible.

All applicants from all areas of the college are treated
equally and are judged by an objective process. The
Committee welcomes all applications.

Writing Across the Curriculum

In the last issue, I included the word supercede and Bill
Schermbrucker of the English Dept. kindly pointed out to me
that it should be spelled supersede, coming from the Latin
sedére, “‘to sit.” An entertaining moment with the full size
Oxford English Dictionary solves the mystery: both forms
have been permissible in the language, although modern usage
does prefer Bill’s “s.” The word comes to us in English
through the Old French superceder, arising from the medieval
Latin suffix cedere, spelled with the ‘“c” until sometime
between the OED’s 1491 example (‘‘He sall supercede ye
payment of ye said v‘ frankis”) and its 1533 exampie (“Thus
mycht nowthir thare weris be supersedit.”) . [Isn’t it fun to
work in an academic institution!] Last spring, John Sayre of
the Economics department pointed out to me a syntactical
ambiguity in an Informer article. I take these asides as proof
positive that we are all genuinely concemed with the quality of
language at Capilano and that Writing Across the Curriculum
is alive and well! (Now, if we could only get rid of phrases
like “zones of opportunity.”)