Camp worked in North Carolina school districts as a teacher before coming to Winthrop
last August. Since she started here, the number of students who visit the ITC has gone up by about
5 percent.ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA - Joyce Camp calls Winthrop University's Instructional Technology Center (ITC) a "hidden gem" on campus.
Hidden, because not many students visit that side of campus, said Camp. A gem, because
the ITC offers more services than students can imagine.
Since she took over as ITC director in August, Camp has worked diligently to make
sure that gem becomes a little less hidden.
"The number of students [that have visited the ITC] has gone up by about 5 percent
since the beginning of the school year," Camp said. "That's about 100 more students
a month. We're happy with that."
Still, she hopes new changes will bring even more students to 307 Withers/W.T.S. Building.
˜All are Welcome'
Camp said students may not have felt welcome to the ITC in the past, perhaps mistakenly
thinking it was only for education students or consisted only of a few computers.
Camp, along with her student workers and graduate assistants, started putting the
word out that all were welcome. She also added different seating to the ITC and moved
around existing seating to create a space more conducive to studying, chatting and
relaxing. She plans to add more seating. They've also converted space into an extra
study room.
Outreach continued with a Pac-Man tournament, in which students could come, play the
video game and win prizes for the highest scores. A sign-up list next to the game
console showed how many students had come by.
Camp also would like to add student artwork to the walls.
"It's nice to have one more place for students to show off what they're doing," she
said, adding that a gallery opening could be in the works.
Yet another outreach effort includes hands-on activities like Little Bits, a set of
electronic circuits students can use to build different objects, and mini-robots students
can code. Both fall into manual skills and problem-solving that Camp feels is so important
for today's students.
Other things the ITC offers that many people don't know about include a green screen
for video projects and school supplies students can purchase at cheaper prices than
in stores.
Camp gave her student workers and graduate assistants a lot of credit for the changes.
"I really could not ask for a better group of students," she said, adding that she
often gives them the first go at solving a problem. "I turn to them for ITC ideas
because it's their peers we're trying to get in here and give them more ownership
of the ITC."
˜Art + Technology'
Before coming to Winthrop, Camp taught and worked in North Carolina schools for 18
years. Her classes often combined traditional art elements with newer programs of
the time like Kid Pix, a bitmap drawing program originally released on Macintosh computers.
"As an arts teacher, I was really interested in how to combine art and technology
together," she explained.
When Cabarrus County built new elementary and high school buildings, Camp was part
of a team that made the decisions on technology for those schools. She spent three
years as an art teacher and the remaining time as technology facilitator for Cabarrus
County, eventually moving to Rowan County schools to be in facilities with 1:1 technology.
The schools integrated Apple Mac books into their programming.
Then, she saw the ITC job posting.
"When I saw all of the things listed as responsibilities, it was all the things I
really love to do," Camp said. "I thought I might as well try. It was like they wrote
the job for me. I'm loving it."
For more information, contact Camp at 803/323-2583 or campj@winthrop.edu.
