101 BEST PRACTICES >> Smart Classroom

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101 BEST PRACTICES >> Smart Classroom

11/21/2006

19 :: TOOLS FOR EFFECTIVE PRS

At Florida State University, personal response systems (aka PRS or “clickers”) are used in the classroom to engage students in learning and provide instructors with immediate feedback. (Students answer a few questions per class period from questions embedded in the class Power- Point presentations.) To encourage faculty to incorporate PRS in the classroom, training for use of the systems is provided via a series of instructional videos created by J'e Calhoun, lecturer in the Department of Economics and assistant director of the Stavros Center for Economic Education. This approach, used in place of standard face-to-face workshops, lets faculty review the materials as many times as needed, at their own pace and convenience. A “how-to” video is provided for students and can be linked to/from an instructor’s website. More info here.

20 :: WEIGHING DESIGN PRIORITIES

MACALESTER's Kaplan (left) and
Koralesky outfitted a 'smart' classroom
that enjoys constant use.

At Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, a project involving the outfitting of a data statistics exploration classroom (the brainchild of DeWitt Wallace Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science Daniel Kaplan) demonstrated the value of careful planning and the inclusion of input from users. The professors felt strongly that putting standard LCD monitors in front of each student would obscure sightlines and prevent students from interacting effectively with the professor or with each other. The technology project managers evaluated the ergonomic relationships between users, furniture, and technology, and in the end, chose NEC 15-inch LCD monitors and small Wacom touchscreen monitors for the student workstations. Barron Koralesky, associate director for academic technology services, explains, “We chose these monitors because all the others had higher stands or larger bezels. Now, the faculty members are happy and the room is booked solid every class day.” Demand for teaching and learning in this type of lab has also increased campuswide since the room was installed. More info here.

21 :: TAKING FACULTY TO TACC

UTAH’S Technology Assisted
Curriculum Center helps faculty
incorporate technology in the classroom.

At the University of Utah, the Technology Assisted Curriculum Center (TACC) helps faculty members gain a better understanding of technology and incorporate it into their lesson plans. The center—part of the university’s library— employs more than 40 librarians to help educators get comfortable with technology. In some cases, this is as simple as showing professors what kinds of databases they can make available for a particular class. In other cases, the librarians help educators build syllabi around one-of-a-kind software.

In addition, TACC Director Alison Regan says the center provides workshops for faculty members three times a year. These workshops teach educators how to use everything from Adobe’s Photoshop and Dreamweaver, to software that combats plagiarism. “We provide them with whatever kind of technology support they need,” Regan says. “They have questions; we have answers.”

Most recently, Regan says the office added a streaming media division, designed to help teach faculty members how to digitize video and stream it over the internet. More info here.

22 :: FOR THE LEARNING RECORD

At the University of Texas-Austin, Peg Syverson, associate professor in the Division of Rhetoric and Writing, has developed a comprehensive ePortfolio system that moves the learning record into a standalone application that UT faculty and educators at other schools can download for free and use at their convenience. The professor created the application with FileMaker Pro from FileMaker, and named it Learning Record Online.

In a nutshell, the product is a freeware relational database that stores the most current version of a particular file. Teachers input course information, and students, in turn, submit the most current copies of their assignments. The instructors make comments in the files and upload the comments. Students then import those comments into their versions and proceed accordingly. Educators can see the observations students have been keeping for the duration of the process.

Behind the scenes, teachers simply download the standalone application, input the course information, and make it available for students. To date, more than 7,000 students in 14 schools are using the tool. “Don’t think of this as a buffet for the masses, think of it as a Big Mac: substantial, portable, and cheap,” says Syverson. “I think of it as a small, elegant implementation that d'es one thing very well.” More info here.

23 :: ‘SMART’ CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

AMX ClassroomManager

Baylor University’s (TX) 508,000-square-foot Sciences Building is designed to encourage interactive collaboration in research and teaching. As Anthony Lapes, technology project manager, explains, “A critical component of the vision for the building was to provide flexible teaching and learning environments incorporating a wide range of technologies that can be easily operated via a single point of control.”

To meet this goal, Baylor turned to a variety of systems from AMX, including ClassroomManager. All of the Sciences Building’s classrooms are networked via ClassroomManager, which allows Baylor’s IT staff to perform system updates over the network and track device usage. With reports generated on equipment usage, the university knows which devices are most in demand, enabling administrators to allocate funds for technologies offering the highest return on investment. Says Lapes, “Not only has [the technology] enabled us to maximize our limited IT personnel resources, but we can also make more educated purchasing decisions, which should save the university money and time.”

24 :: ENHANCING DIGITAL DOCUMENTS

The University of Virginia, which houses one of the most respected digital libraries in academia, combined its Etext Center and Rare Materials Digital Services Center into a uni- fied Digital Research and Instructional Services department. The new department contains everything from electronic maps PRACTICES to social science data sets, journal articles to book chapters. Works in this new department are much more than just electronic copies of physical documents; all of the pieces have been digitized and marked up by certain scholars to enhance the original content. Donna Tolson, director of outreach and instructional services, says the approach makes learning so easy that students don’t even realize they’re doing it. “The medium is now so engaging,” she explains (referring to age-old textbooks as “useful but dry” to most students), “it allows you to access this information in many more multifaceted ways than the printed book has allowed over time.” www.campustechnology. com/ article.asp?id=18438 More info here.

25 :: ASSESSING LEARNING OUTCOMES

Iowa State University’s “eDoc” ePortfolio system is helping students take a bigger role in their professional development, as well as helping to mitigate the pressure from outside agencies for departments to demonstrate competence in learning outcomes. One example: The Food Science and Human Nutrition department uses electronic portfolios for all of its students, in order to track student competencies against pre-established learning outcomes from the American Dietetic Association. Dietetic interns are required to note in their portfolios when certain outcomes are accomplished.

“The key idea was to custom-build departmental and general ‘themes’ to meet each department’s requirements,” says Pete Boysen, senior systems analyst in the IT Services department, adding that students in the Educational Leadership & Policy Studies and Mathematics Education departments track performance against similarly pre-established outcomes. “The customized approach eDoc provides has given us the flexibility to meet all of these needs.” More info here.