It was about four o'clock last Friday afternoon when I heard a knock at my office door. It was Brad, Derek, Frank and Baha, four students in Trent's Computer Studies Program. "Could you help us double-check the entity-relationship diagram for our project?", they asked. "What a good idea!", I replied, "let's take a look...".

These students are members of one of three groups that are currently working with the Trent Academic Technological Innovation Centre [TAcTIC] on "real-world" computing projects that have been brokered by TAcTIC with a number of university departments and organizations. Their particular project is to create a new public-access web site that will contain information on the world-wide research activities of Trent's faculty - utilizing state-of-the-art web application design and development tools.

Now in its fifth year, TAcTIC assists in advancing technological innovation at Trent University through the development of educational and administrative software and by promoting dialogue within the University about the issues that arise with the application of computing and multimedia techniques in teaching, learning and research. Arising out of a Presidential Planning and Priorities initiative in 1995, TAcTIC has evolved into a collegial workgroup of staff and faculty that pool a unique range of expertise in computing technology, interactive and workgroup learning models, video and TV production, educational product marketing, and knowledge of publishing and copyright. It is dedicated to fostering an environment in which collaboration and partnership for innovative academic projects can flourish. And its success is rooted in its association with faculty from a broad range of disciplines and their unique breadth and depth in academic and research interests.

To date, approximately one hundred students have received course credit for their work on TAcTIC initiatives. Typically, a student will choose to work with the Centre to: - gain new insight and facility with current computing technology (which increasingly affects so many aspects and sectors of society) - broaden their experience in areas not covered in the University's regular academic program - provide a special focus which complements their individual career plans - find out how technologically sophisticated tools may be integrated into their particular disciplines, and - gain practical experience in a "real world" production-oriented environment.

Students are encouraged to consider how information technology affects changes in the subject areas in which it applies. Often, the most important insight gained is in respect to one's ability to assess whether (or not) computing can be successfully applied in particular circumstances, and the results that may be expected.

For faculty, TAcTIC assists with research projects involving information technology. It assesses how technology can be incorporated into a particular course, subject-area or discipline. It also seeks external partners in response to faculty-identified needs and initiatives.

The two other projects currently in progress are an "on-line" web-based registration system for the Enrichment Program which is offered to area public school students through Trent's Conference Centre, and a web-based planning calendar for College events and activities.

In previous years TAcTIC students have been involved with developmental work on the web site for the collected letters of the Canadian poet E. J. Pratt and with the use of markup languages [SGML and XML] in a complex document delivery system. In the area of teaching and learning, a prototype Classical History Site Map has been developed for use in Classics courses, together with a Digital Language Laboratory prototype for teaching Spanish, French and German. In association with faculty in Trent's Cultural Studies Program, a video was produced for high-school instruction and recruiting on Ecology and Native-American Spirituality involving the American author Calvin Martin. As well, a variety of computer-aided instructional applications have been created that range from E-mail and web-page development tutorials to an interactive Environmental Mystery and a Climatic Data Presentation System.

Last year the Centre was particularly fortunate to involve two excellent groups of engineering technology students from the Applied Projects program at Sir Sandford Fleming College in Peterborough. One of these groups undertook a security audit of TAcTIC's web server while the other assisted with the redesign of the Trent Nature Areas web site.

With only six weeks to go, the current projects are nearing the final phases of completion and the students are beginning to prepare for a public presentation of their work in early April. They are also compiling information on their activity and experience this year and readers are invited to visit our web site at WWW.TACTIC.TRENTU.CA for further information on these and other new initiatives.

Completing his 35th year with the university, Peter Northrop serves as Trent's Educational Computing Advisor and TAcTIC Co-ordinator. He teaches part-time in Trent's Computer Studies/Science Program and is a partner in I.B.M's Objects on Campus Program. As well, he is a member of Sir Sandford Fleming College's Applied Computing and Engineering Science Advisory Committee. He is also Secretary and Registrar of the Canadian Information Processing Society of Ontario.