Retiring TeachNet a Longtime Aid to Collaboration in the College June 26, 2012

If you’ve used TeachNet at all recently here in the College of Education, you’ve seen the bulletins and e-mails alerting you to TeachNet’s impending end. The “plug will be pulled” on the e-mail, conferencing, and chat system at the stroke of midnight August 31, 2012.

Although TeachNet has served the College well for almost 14 years as its internal e-mail and collaboration tool, time has taken its toll. The high costs of server updates and licensing for the FirstClass software, on which TeachNet runs, can no longer be justified during these times of budget reductions, especially since many of its capabilities are available in free or low cost applications already in use in the College or campus at large. So, it’s time to bid farewell to TeachNet, but as we do, it’s fitting to take a look back at TeachNet’s history and the benefit it has brought through the years to the College.

TeachNet was actually around for many years before it became the College’s e-mail system in the late 1990s. It began as an Instructional Technology (now Learning Technologies) graduate student project in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction around 1990. It ran on a Macintosh SE with two modems, so only two people at a time could log on via dialup.

TeachNet use got a big boost in 1993 when LTC Director Paul Resta began a Department of Education-funded project called CIRCLE, which helped secondary school teachers incorporate computer technologies into their instruction. TeachNet helped students become technology mentors for their schools by allowing them to communicate online with each other and a range of experts. “We found that teachers were less anxious about using technology when they had the students helping them,” says Resta. “The project also showed that online collaborative learning, which was a new concept at the time, was very effective. Students in classes that used online collaboration with TeachNet and other online tools had higher scores on state mandated exams than those who were in classes without online collaboration.”

At this time, the server was upgraded and eight dialup connections were possible. TCP/IP allowed anyone with Internet connectivity to log on directly, although very few people had Internet service at home.

During the mid 1990s several classes used TeachNet, and in 1997, when teacher education students in the first Technology Cohort were loaned laptop computers, theirs were the first teacher education classes to use the system fairly extensively. After a second Technology Cohort in 1998, it was decided that all teacher preparation students should be on TeachNet, and conference folders were set up for all cohorts. Besides e-mail, classes used TeachNet for online collaboration and discussion, document sharing, and submission of assignments.

Phyllis Robertson, Clinical Associate Professor in Special Education, started using TeachNet in many of her classes at this time. “TeachNet allowed the students to become a community,” says Robertson. “With TeachNet’s folders, it was easy for students to communicate with others in their classes, their cohort, or in the College. They discussed assignments and even planned social gatherings. It was also very easy for me as an instructor to use.”

TeachNet continued to be used by the teacher education cohorts as the Laptop Initiative for Future Educators (LIFE) began in 2002. Says Chad Fulton, LTC Coordinator for LIFE, “The innovations that the laptop requirement catalyzed would not have been possible without effective software tools. TeachNet served as the collaborative hub for faculty and students and was a critical element that allowed students to integrate technology into their teaching practice.”

But as the 2000s progressed, newer e-mail and online communication services, such as Google Groups and Facebook, began to make TeachNet seem dated. Students wanted a more streamlined approach to all the online services they needed to use in their coursework, with easy access from mobile devices. And, it was determined that the FirstClass software wouldn’t be able to provide these kinds of capabilities for the College going into the future.

In 2010, with these issues in mind and facing high costs to continue with TeachNet, the Learning Technology Center began planning for a transition away from its use. LTC technical staff developed recommendations for the e-mail services that should replace TeachNet for various groups of users. To take TeachNet’s place in the classroom, the LTC’s IDEA Studio piloted a communications system, PLACE, that they developed in-house. Then in 2011, the use of Google Apps for Education, in conjunction with the Blackboard learning management system, was piloted with good success. Students are able to easily work on documents together online, something not possible with TeachNet. This will continue to be the configuration used in most teacher education cohorts in the fall, with the additional option of a new learning management system, Canvas.

So yes, we are saying goodbye to TeachNet. And although we are ready to move on to new technologies that better suit the College’s current needs, TeachNet has undoubtedly made an important contribution to learning and collaboration in the College of Education.

Be sure to choose a new e-mail system now if you are still using TeachNet, and let your contacts know that you won’t be able to receive messages from your TeachNet address after August 31. For more information on setting up an account on a new e-mail system contact the LTC's Help service. Or, consult with the IDEA Studio on options for course collaboration and communication.

—Laurie Caldwell, LTC Communications Coordinator