Home- College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
- Dr. Frank Breit
College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
Dr. Frank Breit
LB: But then you added faculty.
FB: Andrea Troutman who was in the Math Education Program joined our program. We got involved with IBM through a big grant. They were trying the get the IBM PCs, used in schools so they gave us enough computers so that one high school in each county near USF was considered the school of choice and received a lab of new IBM PCs we put several years of money out and serviced those schools. We taught teachers how to use the computers and at this point there were new software programs to work with. The emphasis shifted from programming to the use of software programs at that point. Andrea got involved at that point, but Bill Engle left and went to USF Fort Myers. At that point Andrea was in charge and Jim White, who was one of the doctoral students in the Instructional Technology Program, joined the faculty along with Garry Tubb.
LB: Jim White finished his doctorate in that area is that right?
FB: Right, we had five doctoral students at that time and they all finished and all went on to real good careers and Jim was one of them. He stayed here and became part of the Instructional Technology Program.
LB: When did the Florida Center for Instructional Computing, become the Florida Center for Instructional Technology?
FB: In 1988, but pretty much what you see today is was essentially what used to be the Florida Center for Instructional Computing. It’s changed a lot in terms of emphasis to keep up with the change in technology.
LB: That changed when Andrea was still director with funding from the state, I believe.
FB: Right, Andrea was still director before she retired. That was a few years after Ann Barron joined us. Ann has done a great job and right now the center is one of the top places in the state for developing new technology material.
LB: Funding has been continuous from the state over the years?
FB: Yes, continuous, and now one of our former doctoral students is now head of computing technology education for the state of Florida. Kate Kemker has a major position in the State Department of Education in computer technology. We’re hoping this is going to help us out even more, and she’s real close to all of us, so she could be real beneficial for us.
LB: What are some of the other projects that you recall in the department or in the College that you were associated with?
FB: One thing which was different for us was that it seemed unclear which department was the best fit for our program. Over the last twenty years we migrated from one department to another. We were in the School of Library and Information Sciences for a while, Educational Measurement for a time, and Adult, Vocational, and Technology Education Department in the Technology Program. We ended up in Secondary Education and maybe this was the best place for us to go because we had been there originally. But it was a hard fit because our interest was heavily on computer equipment needs. The departments felt we were a drain on their budgets because they could get buy without a lot of equipment. We had to constantly update our equipment so if we were teaching a course in digital video, it’s very expensive to spiff that course up and keep up with the new software and hardware. So, these are some of the reasons why the Department of Secondary Education was reluctant to invest itself into our program. Secondary Education is the best place for us because I think the College has now realized the kinds of needs we have as far as funding for equipment.
LB: I know when the new College of Education building was being built the technology faculty had a large influence on the technology infrastructure that was eventually put into the College.
FB: Very much so and the group in Technology Services Resources which is Scott Sefreit’s group that of kind of came out of our program were heavily instrumental in making decisions about how to set up the building and faculty with computer technology. One of the big issues that Scott fought for that the rest of the campus did not want was to put in fiber optics into the building for connecting the computers. He was scoffed at by the USF Technology Center people because they kept saying that the College of Education was not going to need that kind of speed of transmission. They were not going to give it to us, and so we fought hard and got it in by cutting corners in other areas and so now its five or six years ago now and the fiber optics are not only usefully for science, but for education as well.