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Information Technology Services

Instructional Technology Services

"This is an exciting time to work in this ever evolving field. From chalk boards to PowerPoint, to wikis, blogs, podcasts, and virtual worlds, technology is always evolving, shifting, and intersecting with teaching and learning. As faculty continue to adopt technologies to meet their needs, we'll continue to navigate and explore this intersection by finding new and innovative uses of these technologies." Ken Martin - Manager of Instructional Technology Services

The Instructional Technology Services Group offers the MyHLS course platform, administers the Presidential Instructional Technology Fellows (PITF) Program and provides year-round training and consulting for faculty and teaching staff at Harvard Law School. We also offer target service to our clinical programs to provide added support in the specific technolgies unique to their environment.

MyHLS provides students a common look and feel to their course Web sites and provides faculty an easy-to-use suite of tools for communicating with students and teaching with the Web. Harvard undergraduate and graduate students work directly with faculty to develop and use learning technologies and content in our PITF Program. PITFs are deployed and supported by Instructional Technology Services and typically work for either the summer or academic year. Instructional Technology Services consults with faculty who are interested in using technology to improve student learning or who simply are interested in learning about different applications of technology in teaching. We strive to provide faculty with individual service through one-on-one consultations by developing a thorough understanding of their teaching challenges and needs.

We welcome comments and questions from faculty, teaching staff, administrators and students about any aspect of learning technologies. We also welcome inquiries and suggestions for collaboration from colleagues at other institutions.

Teaching with Technology

The MyHLS Course Management System provides a powerful suite of tools for administering courses and teaching with the Web. Instructional Technology Services provides year-round consulting designed to serve the variety of needs and interests of the HLS faculty. An array of tools and services are available to faculty and teaching staff. Faculty and teaching staff are invited to email is@law.harvard.edu with ideas and suggestions.

Funds and resources are available for faculty and teaching staff who wish to extend the functionality of MyHLS or have learning technology project ideas that will enhance the student learning experience. Faculty are encouraged to submit a course-related project proposal to our PITF program. The Provost's Content and Innovation Funds offer faculty additional opportunities for implementing learning technology projects.

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MyHLS Course Management System

Harvard University's iCommons team develops and maintains the Course iSites platform. Course iSites, while centrally developed, is locally supported and is re-branded at Harvard Law School as the MyHLS course management system. The MyHLS Course Management System (http://myhls.law.harvard.edu) allows faculty to maintain a course Web site without knowledge of HTML or Web programming languages and provides a central location for HLS students to access their course materials. MyHLS has many useful tools for communication, document distribution and collection. Course shells are created by default for all HLS credit-based courses and class enrollments are updated several times per hour throughout the academic year. Instructional Technology Services provides training and support on the use of MyHLS. Faculty and teaching staff with questions about MyHLS should contact the Faculty-Staff Help Desk. Online help and tutorials can also be found on the iCommons Help Page and at www.law.harvard.edu/administration/its/faculty/icommons-help.php.

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Presidential Instructional Technology Fellows Program

The Presidential Instructional Technology Fellows (PITF) program recruits and trains Harvard undergraduate and graduate fellows (students) to work with faculty to develop digital course materials with immediate educational benefits. HLS PITFs are deployed and supported by Instructional Technology Services and typically work either for the summer or for the academic year. During the summer, PITFs typically are more project based while also working on course Web site development and enhancement. During the academic year, PITFs typically are more course focused working directly with faculty on immediate teaching needs. Teaching Fellows often make ideal course PITFs and we encourage faculty to contact us about using TFs accordingly.

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Training and Consulting

Instructional Technology Services offers training and consulting throughout the calendar year designed to serve the wide array of needs and skill levels of faculty and teaching staff who wish to use specific learning technologies or the Web in their teaching, or who have general questions about using technology to enhance student learning, improve communication, or to facilitate the logistics of managing a class. We offer beginning of the semester classes each term and are available throughout the year for individual consulting and needs analysis.

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Semester Start-Up Classes

At the beginning of each term, Instructional Technology Services holds several classes during the first few weeks of the semester for HLS faculty and teaching staff who are interested in learning more about MyHLS and how best to leverage its tools and functions. These classes are designed to introduce participants to MyHLS and several policies, procedures and best practices. Participants will leave the class with an understanding of the MyHLS tool set, best practices for using them and the policies and procedures for creating course shells and maintaining enrollments. Participants should bring their Harvard University ID and PIN to all classes. The class schedule will be distributed via e-mail to faculty and teaching staff and posted to this web site in June/July and October/November of each year.

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Consultation and Collaboration

Faculty often envision a way to deploy a specific learning technology, extend the functionality of a course web site, or simply want to know how technology may help them in their teaching. Instructional Technology Services fields inquiries from faculty and teaching staff throughout the year on these and all aspects of teaching with technology. We regularly meet with faculty and teaching staff to discuss challenges and needs and how technology may help mitigate or eliminate them. We will work with faculty to develop a project proposal, when appropriate, and work closely with the project team to guide and support the project through to completion.

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CALI(Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction)

The Law School is a founding member of the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI). Through the Law School's membership in CALI, faculty may make use of computer-based tutorials in dozens of legal subject areas, use CALI authoring tools to create their own computer-based lessons, and attend conferences for law school computing. See http://www.cali.org for additional information or contact Instructional Technology Services with questions.

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Copyright and Digital Course Materials

With the proliferation of digital course materials, faculty should be familiar with the University's policy regarding use of copyrighted material.

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Contact Information

Langdell 175
is@law.harvard.edu
Fax: 617-495-5002

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