DACC & Technology

Sarah Balizan teaches human anatomy, physiology, cellular & molecular biology, and medical terminology at DACC. In 2017, she became the only Apple Distinguished Educator in New Mexico and the first higher education teacher in the state to earn this recognition. She was part of the DACC faculty group that partnered with Apple to bring iPads into the classroom and helped launch XCITE, a program that started with 28 instructors and grew college-wide. In her classes, she uses Apple technology to let students manipulate and explore anatomy and biology at their own pace, rather than relying on static diagrams. Her recognition highlighted what was possible at DACC and what the college could become.

The Automotive program was the first to use iPads at DACC. People doubted iPads would survive the shop or be useful. Instead, they became an essential tool. Seeing this success, other departments adopted iPads, spreading the idea across our 6 campuses.

They don’t call New Mexico “Tamalewood” for nothing! In Creative Media Technology, students work in crews on real productions. They shoot on an iPhone, control lighting from an iPad, and edit on a Mac Studio using Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere. The work they produce is in Apple ProRes at studio quality, the same format and standard used by working professionals on small productions. We’re gearing up CMT students for real successes right in their own backyard. With three soundstages in the county to house productions, this pathway is no longer a dream but a reality.

DACC is launching a new journalism program built around a simple idea: a student should be able to do the whole job from one device. Take the photos, record the interview, write the story, edit the video, and publish it, all from a single iPad light enough to carry anywhere. The program is just getting started, but the approach is deliberate. Instead of a newsroom full of separate equipment, a student journalist will carry the whole workflow in one hand.

In our Dental Hygiene program, students were struggling with tooth anatomy. Memorizing the names and positions of every tooth in the human mouth is one of the foundational tasks of dental practice, and most students find it genuinely difficult. So, the faculty did something most schools never get around to. They built an app for it.

Tooth Sleuth is an iOS app developed by faculty at DACC. It turns memorization into a game students actually want to play. 

This is what learning at DACC looks like when students and faculty have the right tools. They do not just use them. They build with them, and what they build helps the next group of students who walk through the door. Other dental students have followed. We see users across the world competing in this educational app that started as a solution to a challenge at our campus.

In nursing, timing matters. Counting a pulse, tracking a heartbeat, timing interventions, these are precise tasks, and a nursing student's hands are usually full. Some of our nursing students have found that the Apple Watch helps. They use their own watches to time vitals, set reminders, take notes, and track tasks by voice, without putting down what they are doing. The technology stays on the wrist and out of the way, which keeps their hands free for the thing that matters most: the patient. It is a small device doing a serious job, and it reflects something we see across DACC. When students have access to the right tools, they find their own ways to put them to work.

At DACC, faculty choose what best fits their preferences. We love options, and so does our faculty. Whether they decide on an Apple device or a PC, it’s their choice. The instructor next door might pick something different, and that is fine. Since the college set this as the standard, the IT team has seen production increase and service tickets decrease. People do better work when they are not fighting with their equipment, and the numbers reflect it.

"Out of 2533 tickets, I could find only a handful related to Apple device issues: 2 Apple TVs that were stuck and could not do AirPlay and one MacBook not connecting to our fileshares."

- Gerald Lisik 5/26/2026