As a future LAC faculty member leaving behind my doctoral work at an R1 institution where the numbers of resources and colleagues working with digital media tend to be more plentiful, I am interested in discussing what to expect in terms of differences between large research universities and small LAC campuses as they relate to digital/new media practices.  Specifically I am concerned with the following:

• How does one create careful, thoughtful, and effective relationships with the college’s IT (instructional technology) or ET (educational technology) department staff?
• How does one balance being one of (possibly) only a few faculty who implement digital media practices into the classroom?  That is, how do we act as resource for other faculty who are interested in doing this kind of work without becoming overwhelmed as the “go to” person (or one of a few) for tech advice?
• How does one help administration to better understand the range of necessary resources and ever-evolving platforms, applications, software packages that comprise “new” media?

At my current (research) institution we have an Institute for Teaching and Learning (<a href=”http://www.albany.edu/teachingandlearning/”>ITLAL</a>) that handles a lot of the faculty training in working with the digital.  I am curious to learn about smaller/LAC models of this and/or how to create these kinds of resources on LAC campuses.