Strength in Numbers

The Tech Team at the University of California, Irvine's SchoolofHumanitles fosters a collaborative environment that convertstechnology-reluctant faculty to the technology-receptive. Wehave created a culture of collaboration and free flow ofinformation between staff and faculty in the interest ofpromoting the incorporation of technology with Humanitiesteaching and research.Prior to the formation of the Tech Team, our efforts in the Schoolwere fairly disjointed and at times misguided. We are now ableto provide bettersupportand to implement new services basedon demonstrated faculty interest and need. Working togetheron the School-wide instructional technology budget allows usto provide complementary resources on a departmental basis,so that our efforts coincide rather than compete.We strive to redefine the computer lab as collaborative space byreinforcing the element of human communication. We willdiscuss lab design and management as means to achieve thisgoal.The HumaniTech team has been a model for a variety ofdepartments and schools on campus and for other universitiesto which members of its team have been invited to speak.HumaniTech's discipline-centered approach reaches facultyin ways that a central resource center cannot, and its staff teamworks in close collaboration with various campus-wide centerswith the combined goal of responding innovatively to everchanging instructional technologies.