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Technology-Enabled Teaching >> If You Build It, We Should Come
6/28/2005
” Yet, involving the campus technologists in the programmatic detail of how the end users envision the spaces will be used allows technologists to assess potential needs more accurately, with fewer expensive changes late in the process or after project completion. Bender at LKPB agrees with this approach: “Facilities that are prepped for present and future cables and devices mean less cost of future installation, without tearing up walls, floors, ceilings, or finishes.” What’s more, discussion of the architectural program with technology staff at an early phase can bring to light additional program requirements that may have been overlooked with respect to technology issues.2) Looking good. Involving the campus technology staff early in the process will help to develop the necessary user technology interfaces. This includes location of floor boxes, poke-throughs, wall plates, switches, and other cable access and control decisions. The earlier in the process that these can be identified, the more likely they can be resolved in a way that is user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing.
3) Protecting the dollars. Identifying technology needs early in the project ensures that adequate funds are budgeted for these needs. This will reduce the budget shock that results when administrators are presented with the actual technology budgetary needs midway through a project, long after the initial (inadequate) technology budget has been reduced further in order to pay for the terrazzo mosaic in the building’s lobby. Further, a free flow of information about best practices among architects, consultants, engineers, and campus technology staff allows standards to be raised where appropriate (and when new technologies have become available or are on the horizon), while retaining control over costs through careful evaluation of whether lists of requested items are necessary or sufficient.
Set standards. Another approach that has worked for many schools, is to develop a set of design standards that is given to the design team at the beginning of a project involving classrooms or instructional spaces. The standards cover all areas of design that impact or are impacted by technology, even though the technology itself is not specifically identified, because of the rapid change involved in telecommunications and audio/visual systems. Rather than listing model numbers of individual technology components, general assumptions are made regarding the use of projection systems, display monitors, cameras, and the need for interconnection cabling and cabling pathways. These standards should be reviewed at a high level every two to three years, to ensure that they represent the current best practices of the institution. Part of this review should involve looking at what comparable institutions are doing with respect to building and technology standards; an architect and/or consultant can prove useful for this review process.
In the End…
The success of providing technology-enabled teaching systems depends to a large degree on the ability of campus technology staffs to have their voices heard during the planning and design of campus building projects. Early involvement brings a greater degree of foresight in preventing costly changes, and it also helps build relationships and open lines of communication with the architects, engineers, owner’s representative, and consultants, for the inevitable changes that need to be made. Understanding the role that each person or group plays in the development of technology-enabled teaching spaces helps everyone on campus do his job better.
Will Craig is a Multimedia Systems Design Consultant for Elert & Associates, a nation-wide multi-disciplinary technology consulting firm based in Stillwater, MN.
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