It is the beginning of spring semester. You stop by the HUB to pick up a cup of coffee on your way to the first meeting of a required class. You're thinking how much you are going to need this cup of coffeeyou expect a long lecture with little class interactionand you double check that you have an ample supply of paper for notes. You have no doubt that as you sit listening to the lecture in an uninspiring classroom, you'll be struggling to keep your attention focused this morning.
Then you walk into 105 Ferguson, one of Penn State's newest studio computing labs. Students are gathered together in animated conversation at work stations. The tables are arranged in a semi-circle forming a large modular conference table, and you notice several multimedia programs running on the computers which encircle the classroom. As you look for a seat, the professor turns toward the center of the room and aims a remote control at the ceiling. A large projection screen glides soundlessly down in the front of the room, and an image flickers on. The students stop talking.
From the podium the professor clicks a mouse, "Welcome to the White House Economics Statistics Briefing Room," he states, pointing to the screen, "This Web site has the most current economic statistics in the United States . . ." As the instructor browses through several economics related Web pages, you find yourself engaged in a lively round-table discussion, analyzing the statistical concepts presented at each site.
Later, students roll the tables back to form L-shaped collaborative work areas with the 16 computers positioned at the sides of the room. Then you and another student work with spreadsheet software at one of the room's IBM workstations to solve an economics problem assigned by the instructor.
When the class ends, you find yourself, like many other students, reluctantly getting ready to go. As you turn to leave, you look down and notice that your coffee is right where you left it when you first came in. You smilebecause you obviously didn't need itin fact it had not been touched!
In the last decade, instructional requirements have changed significantly. Today's university's are renovating old classrooms and building new ones to meet important technology-oriented teaching needs. Many instructors now use the Internet, multimedia and presentation software in their classes. Others combine computer-based learning with an emphasis on collaborative teaching methods. There is a growing demand for college classrooms to be more flexible than they were in the past, and to accommodate a wide array of instructional technologies as well as new styles of learning and teaching. In order to build successful educational environments for these current and future interests, administrators and faculty at universities across the country have been analyzing a variety of issues which include:
| The technology classrooms add value when they enable instructors to
enrich their courses in ways not otherwise technically or financially feasible.
Lectures can be enhanced by qualitatively improving presentations through
using bullet charts that can be read from the back of the room, incorporating
animations, simulations, and live visits to appropriate Web sites, such
as great museums. In teaching labs, students may be collaboratively involved
in "hands-on learning by doing" exercises with instructors functioning
more as coaches than as lecturers. |
According to Penn State Professor Thomas G. Fox, Coordinator of the Multimedia
Technology Classroom Group (MTCG), the Center for Academic Computing, Penn
State's track record for making technology accessible in University classrooms
equals or surpasses many other institutions. Fox has been orchestrating
the technology classroom operations and renovations at University Park
with the collaboration of MTCG members (a
group made up of representatives from the Center for Academic Computing,
Office of Physical Plant, Audio Visual Services, Office of Telecommunications,
Police Services and the Registrar's Scheduling Office.) "MTCG meets
every two weeks with a working agenda to maintain and upgrade the existing
multimedia technology classrooms, and design and install new ones - sometimes
in partnership with the colleges," stated Fox.
The prime MTCG focus is to support the faculty's innovative use of multimedia in the classroom by providing the best hardware, software and service available, and by making the technology as effective as possible within budget constraints, according to Fox. He adds that the membership of MTCG encompasses a range of expertise to support the technology classrooms including: software engineering, campus and building networks, audiovisual technologies, and campus security. MTCG additionally works with many other university organizations to accomplish its goals. Chief among these groups is the University Committee on Instructional Facilities (UCIF), chaired by John Cahir, Vice-Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education.
"Everything is done cooperatively with other university groups," Fox explains. "Problems in technology classrooms need to be addressed immediately, not scheduled for future work assignments when convenient. MTCG is becoming very successful in this area as cooperation is outstanding." The effort, not only involves collaboration among diverse parties at the University, but is almost always an innovative process: "For example, one of the requirements for Penn State's collaborative multimedia classrooms was for the student work-stations to be flexible," he states. So, in designing the new Ferguson 105 teaching/studio lab, MTCG worked with staff at Spectra Wood in State College to custom design tables with wheels, which can be moved into any configuration desired by the instructor or the students. The technology classroom podiums at Penn State have also been customized to suit faculty needs. Most podiums contain an IBM and Macintosh computer with Zip-drives, pullout keyboard trays, VCRs and access for ancillary equipment such as portable lap-tops, and an ethernet hook-up (which supplies the Internet connection).
Thirty-eight classrooms at University Park have already had technology "make-overs," and are assigned through the University Scheduling Office. Twelve teaching classrooms, fifteen auditoriums, and eleven computer lab/classrooms at Penn State's main campus contain recently installed state-of-the-art technologies such as: ceiling-hung computer image and video projectors, sophisticated lighting controls, podiums equipped with computers, VCRs, and control systems (used by instructors to control the technology features). Each of these rooms also has a direct-dial "hot-line telephone," and a sound system to support multimedia presentations. Larger classrooms additionally have cordless microphones and motorized projection screens. (A list of specific equipment and classrooms can be found at the MTCG Web site at http://classrooms.cac.psu.edu/Tech/index.htm.)
Two new multimedia production studio lab/classrooms, Ferguson 105 and
Rackley 107, are available at Penn State. Rackley 107 has 16 Macintosh
computers, which are equipped with Zip and Jazz-drives,
digital video editing, CD ROMs and cutting-edge multimedia software such
as authoring, editing and graphic arts tools - plus high quality scanning
and printing equipment. Ferguson 105 is almost identical to the Rackley
classroom, only the 17 computers are IBM PCs, and the room has a more collaborative
emphasis. (Ferguson contains the uniquely designed movable furniture mentioned
earlier, which enables students to work in groups, individually, or set
up a modular conference table with little effort.)
In another UCIF project, student seating in Keller Auditorium was renovated last summer to encourage student collaboration in a large multimedia technology classroom setting. Following mini-lectures, students can move to small group "break-out" sessions without leaving the auditorium.
"We're moving away from the lecture and the podium as the central focus for teaching," stated Fox. "Today students are being encouraged to collaborate with classmates and interact with instructors. Accommodating technology interests in the classroom is one way to address this movement."
Although he enjoys the challenge of collaborating with groups throughout Penn State to achieve instructional goals, Fox considers his best skill as MTCG Coordinator as, perhaps, the ability to listen to faculty's concerns and then to try to provide what is needed. He says this role comes easily to him, since, as a Professor of Economics for the past 32 years, he has experienced most of the challenges Penn State instructors face in using instructional facilities and technology classrooms. As Chair of the University Committee on Instructional Facilities' (UCIF) Subcommittee on Operations and Technology, Fox has the opportunity to help, as well as listen.
"If you're teaching a mathematics course, and you have a Java Applet which demonstrates an important principle you want to present, but you can't get the program to work in one of our classrooms. This is a serious concern for an instructor. The problem needs to be fixed now, not later." It's essential, therefore, that MTCG not only make technology features accessible, but that someone is available to make sure that systems work appropriately, and the installed technologies are dependable, he maintains. "We constantly strive to improve the reliability of technologies from the instructors' perspective. These are complex electronic installations that are working reasonably well, but we know we can make improvements in the future."
If there are problems, however, Fox says he hopes that instructors won't be shy about contacting him or other MTCG members: "When Penn State faculty members are having a bad day, I always know by the amount of E-mail I have . . . Conversely, when it's too quiet, as it has been recently, I worry about problems not being reported that we could address, if we just knew about them!"
How did a Professor of Economics become Penn State's Technology Classroom Coordinator?...
More than eight years ago, Fox began to explore the notion that using computing to enhance lectures in introductory economics courses would help students learn economics concepts, so he started developing software presentations for faculty to use in large classrooms. Eventually, he discovered the CAC's CBEL (Computer-Based Education Laboratory, which later evolved into Education Technology Services). With CBEL's assistance, arrangements were made for IBM to loan him a multimedia computer for software development and presentation. Fox was one of the early CBEL grant recipients, and was able to acquire the computing equipment and authoring software to prepare animated presentations. As programming questions came up or seemingly insurmountable technical problems were encountered, he states that "the CBEL staff always offered enthusiastic support." In 1994-95 he held a Faculty Fellowship in Academic Computing awarded by the Center for Academic Computing; and last year, when Professor Terry Morrow (former MTCG Coordinator) retired, Fox was selected for the Coordinator position, particularly because of his teaching/technology background.
His effort in educational technology has been recognized in other ways as well. In 1992 he won the first-place award in the Masters of Innovation IV National Competition in the College and University Business Division sponsored by Zenith Data Systems, for faculty creating innovative instructional DOS-based software. The prize included two Zenith 386 portable computers (one for him, and one for the Department of Economics). More recently, when Harper-Collins/Addision-Wesley learned of his economics software designs in the early 90s, the publisher supplied him with a high-end 486 multimedia portable IBM computer and funding for technical assistance to continue development of his economics software. In 1997 Addison-Wesley included the Fox economics software and several other instructional programs developed by economists on a CD-ROM distributed to university faculty.
Heather Herzog, Center for Academic Computing