Interns Telling Stories: Chapter 1

Welcome to the newest newsletter from ITS: Interns Telling Stories

Hello! We're Adria, Yu-Jin, and Josie, all student interns with U-M Information and Technology Services. Over the next few weeks, we'll be sharing the stories from inside ITS, including the people who run it and the services you should know about. Join us as we go through this journey together!

Innovation defines ITS Executive Director’s career

By Josephine Anderson - ITS Marketing Communications intern

Sean DeMonner started his career at the University of Michigan right around the same time the Internet went public. After getting a masters degree from the university in Educational Technology, DeMonner’s career took off with projects integrating the new technology into the educational curriculum for everyone on campus.?

“I was particularly interested in the intersection between technology and education and that program gave me an opportunity to explore those things I had been working for,” said DeMonner, now the executive director of Teaching and Learning for Information and Technology Services.?

In 1994, DeMonner joined the Office of Instructional Technology at the University of Michigan, part of a larger IT organization at the time called the Information Technology Division (ITD). By 1995, U-M instructors were working with DeMonner to design new teaching modalities, including on the World Wide Web.

“All of a sudden, it was like, holy cow, everything's going online,” DeMonner said.?

Dr. Deborah Ball, a professor at U-M, developed the Space for Learning and Teaching Exploration with DeMonner and the rest of the ITD team. Ball, who later served as the university’s Dean of the School of Education from 2005 to 2016, co-authored a paper with DeMonner on the revolutionary emerging technology.?

“She had all this video content of exemplary teachers delivering instructions,scans of all the students' workbooks and so on,” DeMonner said. “We took all that media, and we made it available to students in the School of Education as part of their pre-service teacher education.”

Since that time, DeMonner has watched how online education has evolved, staying up-to-date on emerging technologies and the new ways students are using those technologies in their education. ITD has also evolved into Information and Technology Services, a leader in the appropriate use of technology among its peers and in the world.

“It's important for us to play a leadership role when it comes to the use of these technologies and do what we can to help inform the canvas conversation about appropriate use,” DeMonner said.

He was able to witness this leadership first-hand when the COVID-19 pandemic forced campus to move entirely online. Within the span of a few days, the ITS Teaching and Learning team moved all instruction to virtual delivery.?

“My team in particular had to support at least hundreds, if not thousands, of faculty,” DeMonner said. “That was a very difficult time and there were a lot of long hours that people worked. The level of commitment from the staff was just amazing.

“One of the things I'm most proud of is the culture that ITS has built. It's not accidental. It's sort of the aggregate of many, many, many decisions by a team of people working together, helping students and faculty be successful.”

With the emergence of artificial intelligence, DeMonner is watching his team take on a role similar to his in the mid-’90s: leading the way in integrating this new technology into education.

“I think that there's an argument, a reasonable argument, that students should have exposure to these tools as part of their education, and the university and instructors should do everything they can to help provide guidance to students about how best to use these tools,” he said, “The fact that the team has held together and has continued to deliver service is something that I'm impressed by and, in many cases, humbled by.”

--Josephine Anderson is a junior at the University of Michigan studying Creative Writing and Communications. Her guinea pig, Richard, helps out with publishing when she gets stuck.

Did you know...? You have access to Adobe Creative Suite!

By Josie Anderson - ITS Marketing Communications intern

When I was interviewed for the Information and Technology Services internship role this past March, I was asked if I had any experience with Adobe Photoshop. I said yes, but it was limited. I mentioned one of my friends attending Washtenaw Community College had access to Adobe Creative Cloud through his university and he had offered to let me borrow his account, something I would be happy to use to practice and expand my skills with if hired for the role.?

Needless to say, I was quite surprised when Joel Iverson of the ITS Communications Team pulled me aside at the end of the interview to let me know the University of Michigan offers this service, too.

In fact, the University of Michigan was the one of the first schools in Michigan to be made an Adobe Creative Campus back in March of 2020. The Creative Campus includes access to Adobe Creative Cloud services for all three of the university’s campuses - Flint, Dearborn and Ann Arbor - as well as Michigan Medicine.

The Adobe Creative Cloud and all its services can be found under the “Essential Websites & Apps,” dropdown menu on the ITS Just for Students page and clicking on “Adobe Creative Cloud.”

The agreement gives all active students, faculty, and regular full- and part-time staff free access to over twenty Adobe applications and services, from Illustrator to InDesign, 100 GB of Creative Cloud Storage, discounted prices in Adobe Stock assets, and tools for designing and hosting portfolio websites to name a few.?

The program also includes training services to help users navigate these tools and utilize their full potential.?

It’s also available to alumni, retirees, temporary staff, and select affiliates for university related activities. Full details on who is eligible and how to complete an access request form can be found under “Adobe Software'' on the ITS Software Information page, on the Adobe Creative Cloud Learn & Support page, or by contacting the ITS Service Center directly.