The UT Board of Trustees will hold a workshop in Nashville Aug. 27-28 to discuss technology use in higher education.
Held at the Ellington Agricultural Center, the workshop has three main goals: to identify future innovations for UT, to identify strategies for innovation engagement and to create a plan to pursue innovation opportunities.
"Basically, the workshop is going to discuss trends in technology," UT spokeswoman Elizabeth Davis said. "Board members are going to discuss what UT is doing and what else is out there in terms of technology, how it is changing and how to implement (new ideas). It's an overview of classroom technology."
The 26-member Board of Trustees oversees all systems of UT and is comprised of five ex oficio members (including the governor and the University's president and vice president), two students and two faculty members, as well as 17 congressional county and district representatives from across the state.
The board holds regular meetings three times a year to discuss an overview of topics, but workshops give board members more time to discuss specific topics of interest.
Over this month's two-day workshop period, faculty members from each campus will give presentations centered around technological innovations.
The UT Knoxville nursing faculty will be giving a presentation at the workshop but wished not to disclose any information on its content beforehand.
"I think it's important for students to know that we're interested in improvement," Davis said, adding that members want students to have access to innovations that will improve their overall educational experience.
UT students also have some ideas of what they would like to see discussed at the workshop.
"Everything right now is pretty much all online," said Emily Frame, sophomore in nuclear engineering. "Technology is more convenient at times, but sometimes it's also a burden, especially when there are times you can't get access to the Internet on campus. I'd like to see them working on ways to make technology more reliable for us."
Casey Smith, fellow sophomore in nuclear engineering, believes there might actually be an overload of technology use on campus.
"Personally, I think there's too much," said Smith. "I mean, even our room checks are online now. It's all becoming paperless, but I like to have a physical record of something, too."
As technology continues to advance, society is having to constantly adapt to utilize it adequately and efficiently. With so many new resources and programs available, those at the forefront of higher education are finding a growing need to ensure that faculty and students have access to the most prominent technological advances.
However, according to some UT students, it is important that the board not only discuss future possibilities in on-campus innovations but also explore ways to improve the reliability of current technology in use.