The following Delegate Assembly resolution was acted on by the NCTM Board of Directors during its meeting in July 2008:
* RESOLUTION O.NR.08.01
Be it resolved that the Delegate Assembly recommends that the NCTM Board of Directors strives to increase the opportunities for participants to use technology in sessions at the Annual Meeting and Exposition and Regional Conferences and Expositions. This should be done by computer labs, the Internet, and other state-of-the-art resources to support the use of technology in mathematics education.
Action: The Board of Directors accepts the spirit and intent of the resolution. It is important to note that the Council has endeavored to provide conference speakers and attendees with ever increasing access to technology. Specifically, the vast majority of speakers at conferences are provided with LCD computer projectors and very large projection screens. Wireless Internet access has been added in the exhibit area. This is in addition to the hard-wired computers in the exhibit hall that also have Internet access. The costs associated with providing this level of AV support is significant.
At its July meeting the Board and staff agreed to strive in the coming year (2008-2009) to provide additional access without significantly increasing the costs to the Council. The Board of Directors is highly cognizant of the fact that additional technology costs will lead to increased registration fees. The following actions will be taken this year:
1. Sponsorships are being solicited to provide speakers with Interactive Whiteboards (SMART Board, Mimio, etc) in a limited number of rooms at the 2009 Annual Meeting and subsequent Regional Conferences. Sessions scheduled in these rooms will be evaluated to determine if the technology is integral and essential to the presentation.
2. A limited number of workshop and session rooms will be provided with Internet connectivity for the presenter. The cost of providing this connectivity in a convention setting is significant. The cost will be approximately $1,200 per room at each site. Scheduling will be adjusted to place sessions in these rooms that require this access as an essential part of the presentation. Again, presentations scheduled in these rooms will be evaluated to determine if the technology is integral and essential to the presentation
3. Based upon the final reports of past program committees that provided computer laboratories at their conferences we will not provide hands-on computer laboratories. These reports have indicated that the costs far exceed the benefits. The cost of providing a single 24-station laboratory Internet connection at the Washington Annual Meeting is $26,500. This amount is much higher than any of our existing sponsorships and it is unlikely that a vendor or exhibitor would choose to sponsor a room with this technology. This cost does not include specific software packages or specialized technical support that might be required for each workshop. Given that eight workshops at most could be scheduled into a single laboratory room during the three days, only 192 seats would be available. A check of the offerings of other professional associations indicates that they either do not provide computer labs or they impose a direct fee on speakers to defray the AV costs. Because of the significant cost, we do not plan on providing computer labs at the 2009 Annual Meeting.