Don_Porter@mts.rpi.edu (06/14/91)
We at RPI are considering the construction of a new classroom building which would have as an explicit goal provision of state-of-the-art technology for teaching and learning. Classrooms, labs, lecture halls, etc. with computing and communications tools especially for teaching of science and technology. Where are there currently state-of-the-art facilities we can visit to get examples, suggestions, pointers? We'd especially like to learn from successes. Please reply by email; I'll summarize to the net. Thanks in advance, Don Porter, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Don_Porter@mts.rpi.edu
Don_Porter@mts.rpi.edu (06/19/91)
In article <6m8ksg_@rpi.edu> Don_Porter@mts.rpi.edu writes: >We at RPI are considering the construction of a new classroom building which >would have as an explicit goal provision of state-of-the-art technology for >teaching and learning. Classrooms, labs, lecture halls, etc. with computing and >communications tools especially for teaching of science and technology. > >Where are there currently state-of-the-art facilities we can visit to get >examples, suggestions, pointers? We'd especially like to learn from successes. > >Please reply by email; I'll summarize to the net. > >Thanks in advance, >Don Porter, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute >Don_Porter@mts.rpi.edu > Here are the notable responses I've receivedso far. .... Don ________________________________________________________________ The University of Vermont has some marvelous facilities that seem to make use of state-of-the-art computing tools. If you decide to visit them for a day and would like some company for the trip, let me know. It's probably a full day's outing to Burlington. Try Jim Whitby or Lynne Meeks at Univ of Vermont, (802) 656-2970. They were most helpful with setting up the equipment and running the computers. Please include our Computer Classroom in your summary. [The Math Dept at Albany has a new classroom with Commodore Amiga workstations arranged very creatively for interactive instructional use.- DP] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Herb Brown Math Dept The Univ at Albany Albany, NY 12222 (518) 442-4640 hibrown@leah.albany.edu or hibrown@cs.albany.edu or hibrown@bst.albany.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________________ I work on a "computer classroom" project here at the University of Maryland. We just finished a room funded by AT&T and the university. It's called the AT&T Teaching Theater. It has 20 AT&T 6386/25 workstations networked together using AT&T StarLan. We are running Novell Netware 386. We have paid a lot of attention to the environment of the room (soft colors, receded monitors, acoustic panels, receded lighting, etc.). We also have a variety of sophisticated A/V equipment. The room is basically complete - we are still waiting for the completion of the instructor's desk and the room controller. Our room here at the University of Maryland is unique in that it is not associated with any particular school in the university. It is run by the Computer Science Center. Our emphasis in the room is on teaching rather than research (although we will be using a certain percentage of the time for research). There are many other "rooms" on other campuses in the U.S. A lot of them are in the Business School and are setup for business decision models. I believe Brown University has an electronic classroom run by the computer science department. Other schools include University of Arizona, MIT, Columbia University, and many more that I can't think of right at the moment. I don't have a lot of time now to elaborate. If you would like more details, feel free to call me or email me. Ellen Yu ========================================================== Ellen Yu | Phone: (301) 403-4623 office Computer Science Center | (301) 474-9217 home 4321 Hartwick Rd., Suite 500 | Internet: eyu@umd5.umd.edu College Park, MD 20740 | Compuserve: 71641,1764 ________________________________________________________________ How about coming to visit CMU? Leslie Burkholder Hi Leslie, Thanks for the invitation. Actually I've been to CMU a number of times. I've seen some of the facilities there -- at least those that were in place at the time of EDUCOM (in 88?). What specific things would you suggest that we see at CMU? Don CMU has a couple of new multimedia rooms. You might send email to Gregg Mathis (gregg.mathis@andrew) and Tracy Futhey (tracy.futhey) about the facilities. Gregg Mathis should be contacted about the one in CFA and Tracy Futhey about the one in H&SS. Leslie Burkholder ________________________________________________________________ Our campus has been through a five year rennovation period in which 5 technology lecture halls and about twelve computer classrooms have been installed. The technology classrooms utilize a system called TAG (which stands for something but I can't remember what at the moment) which acts as a mediator between the technology and the instructor. The system was designed by Ali Jafari and Reza Pishgahi here at IU and has been quite successful both in terms of performance and in getting professors who would normally not use the technology available to use the technology. The lecture halls have a console consisting of an IBM PC, Mac, and NeXT (soon to also have Sparcs). Ceiling mounted Barco projection units display the screen display onto a 5'x8' viewing screen for the audience. We have full network connectivity in these rooms. Other technology mediated by the TAG system includes LaserDiscs, CD, CD ROM, video cassette (super VHS and Beta), audio cassette, and cable television, as well as a slide projector and hi-fidelity audio. The computer labs/classrooms have also been quite successful. Bill Welty is the primary contact person for computer classroom design. We currently have classrooms with IBM-PCs, Macs, Nexts, and Sparcs and all classrooms are networked through our campus ethernet. If you'd like more information, please don't hesitate to contact Reza Pishgahi (pishgahi@ucs.indiana.edu) or Bill Welty (weltyw@ucs.indiana.edu). I'll tell them both you're looking for information. Good luck. -LoriLee Sadler Department of Computer Science Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405 812-855-7860 ________________________________________________________________ I've been out of education circles for a while, but the Media Lab's Vivarium project in LA and Apple's Classrooms of Tommorrow seem like they might be appropriate. I'm not sure what age groups your addressing, but in k-12 Apple has pretty much been it.... Tomo tomo@ocf.berkeley.edu ________________________________________________________________ I would love to hear what replies you get, what you see if you actually go visit some facilities, and what you folks will be doing. I'm an adjunct in the evenings at St Petersburg Junior College and would love to push them into the 1990's :-) Thanks, George -- George W. Leach AT&T Paradyne reggie@paradyne.com Mail stop LG-133 Phone: 1-813-530-2376 P.O. Box 2826 FAX: 1-813-530-8224 Largo, FL 34649-2826 USA ________________________________________________________________