UWired

History

Over a period seven years, UWired evolved from a small pilot project to a university-wide program. This chronology outlines key events in our history.

1994

• Provost's initiative leads to establishment of UWired, a collaboration between the Office of Undergraduate Education, Computing & Communications, and UW Libraries.
• Opening of Laptop Plug and Play Collaboratory 1 for students and classroom use.
• UWired Freshmen Interest Groups begin with 75 first-year students and laptops from Apple Computer.
• First "Teaching with Technologies" weeklong workshop held for faculty, teaching assistants, peer advisors, and librarians.
• UWired hosts series of workshops, seminars, and special "sit-in" presentations.

1995

• Ongoing lectures and class observations hosted to promote the effective use of technology
• Innovative Courses Program launched to support upper-division and graduate-level courses
• Technology workshops begin for UW faculty and TAs, 18 topics are offered each quarter
• Collaboratory 1 converted to 28-seat desktop lab for classroom use
• Eight of 60 FIG clusters participate in the UWired program, enrolling in General Studies seminar 199; each cluster is now paired with a librarian
• UWired Intercollegiate Athletics Program, modeled after the FIG program begins with participation from the men's and women's basketball teams
• UWired sponsors the development of two telecourses for UWTV

1996

• 60-seat drop-in collaboratory opens for classroom use
• UWired Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology opens, offering daily drop-in workshops to university educators
• Symposia on Teaching, Learning, and Technology developed and offered for community college faculty and staff
• UWired hosts Community College Symposium for teams of community college educators from across the state of Washington
• All 60 FIG clusters--1,250 students--participate in UWired program, enrolling in General Studies seminar 199
• UWired sponsors technology in-service training for K-12 educators
• UWired outreach coordinator hired

1997

• Linked courses program initiated, giving students the chance to enroll in two-credit information technology seminars focusing on discipline-specific uses of information technology
• Educational Outreach becomes a UWired partner
• Renovation of Odegaard Undergraduate library and construction on UWired Commons begins. Collaborators are reconfigured and the UWired Center is relocated (twice)
• FIGs program expands to 75 individual student learning communities; all 75 FIGs have a UWired component
• Launch of UWired Outreach Web sites:
  • Seattle Epidemiological Research and Information Center
  • The Pipeline Project
  • Teaching, Learning, and Technology endorsement program for K-12 educators
  • Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest
• Opening of the 240 seat UWired Commons
• Odegaard Undergraduate Library celebrates its 25th anniversary
• Office of Educational Partnerships formed and becomes UWired partner.

1998

• Launch of UWired Outreach Web site for the K-12 Institute
• Electronic Peer Review system launched as first UWired Web tool; widely used by Interdisciplinary Writing Project instructors
• New UWired Web site is unveiled
• Office of Educational Partnerships assumes responsibility for Suzzallo Computing Resource Center & UWired Commons
• Development begins on the YourClass initiative to improve support for faculty uses of technology
• UWired center conducts faculty focus groups to determine campus instructional technology needs
• Catalyst initiative is developed after extensive user feedback on the YourClass design
• Public presentation of Catalyst initiative begins with the 1998 Educause conference
• UWired co-sponsors a campus-wide Intellectual Property symposium for over 200 interested faculty and staff.

1999

• Catalyst launches!
• UWired Center radically changes its faculty workshop series to include day-long web development sessions and stop-in clinics
• UWired co-sponsors fitness, a campus-wide summit on information and technology literacy
• WebQ version 2.0 is released as the UWired Center hires its first full-time programmer to initiate an aggressive web tool development program
• Four multi-media workstations add digital and analog video production capabilities to the UWired Center
• The Catalyst initiative is profiled in the Chronicle of Higher Education
• Based on extensive user feedback, the Catalyst web site is redesigned
• Student Access & Computing Group formed to address the computing needs of UW students

2000

• 240-seat general-access computing lab expands to 350-seats
• UWired Community Technology Partnership program launched in 8 Seattle Public Schools
• 180-seat general-access computing lab opened in Mary Gates Hall
• UWired Community Technology Partnership program builds computer lab in Bridgeport middle-school, Bridgeport, WA
• 2 48-seat PC computing classrooms open in Mary Gates Hall
• 1 28-seat Macintosh computing classroom opens in Mary Gates Hall
• UWired Community Technology Partnership designs computer lab for Triomf Primary and Cowan High Schools, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
• UWired Community Technology Partnership program builds computer lab in Song Hieu Primary School, Dong Ha town, Quang Tri Province, Vietnam
• UWired Community Technology Partnership program expanded 20 Seattle Public Schools

2001

• UWired Community Technology Partnership program expands to include 20 Community Technology Centers and 50 Seattle Public Schools