Incubating Next-Gen.Edu

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The 21st Century Classroom

Incubating Next-Gen.Edu

6/1/2008

By Dian Schaffhauser

The room and its technology were arranged, says Schouest, to create an environment "where everyone is engaged with everyone else." And even though "everyone tends to be looking in different directions," he points out that it doesn't matter where a student is looking; he or she will see a screen. "The information follows the student, rather than the student following the information."

From the student's point of view. Behind this setup was careful assessment of how students learn, and how instruction should be delivered. "We started segmenting how instructors deal with information and knowledge, Schouest recalls. "We realized that in teaching, it's a dual process: You're first creating new ideas, then presenting those new ideas." To get that concept across technologically, Schouest and Fletes physically separated the two processes--and the technology controls.

"We wanted to add a bit more chaos to [the way education is delivered]," says Schouest. That meant both instructors and students would have the ability to present information and make annotations on any or all of the displays in the room, from any of the computers in the room. (Schouest likens presentation and annotation control to a baton passed from faculty to student, from student to student, or from student group to student group.) Master display controls are orchestrated by a Crestron DTT-17 touchpanel and UPX2 Universal Presentation Processor.

Since "students actually are creators of new knowledge," says Schouest, "we wanted to give them the ability to control any one of the screens in the room." So the school outfitted the Studio with 24 Gateway M285-E tablet PCs, which, when not in use, are stored and recharged on a Spectrum Industries H3 laptop cart. The tablets' batteries have a life close to seven hours and they can be recharged in less than an hour. Students also can bring their own wireless computers into the Studio.

To shift control of what's being displayed where, the Studio uses Tidebreak TeamSpot, a collaboration application. It enables the instructor, a group of students, or a single student to share the presentation on any display in the room. For instance, an educator can assign three groups of students to create a presentation, and then take turns sharing their work on the main display. Each group also can modify the others' work; as Schouest explains, "The instructor might say, ‘Team A, now I'm giving control of your presentation to Team C, and they're going to comment on it and make changes.'" He enthuses, "There's no single point in the classroom where students direct their attention. Instead, there are multiple points where information is shared, depending on how far the instructor wants the collaboration and engagement to go. There's a constant change in control."

For the anticipated day when podcasting and vodcasting will be requested, the room includes equipment for that, too: two Sony EVI-D70 room cameras for videoconferencing, which work like robotic cameras and can be controlled via a web interface managed remotely (e.g., by a member of Fletes' IT team, located elsewhere on campus); three JBL ceiling speakers; a Telex FMR-500 wireless microphone; an H-ITT classroom response system; and Abyss Media i-Sound software for MP3 audio recording.

Although the details may make Studio operations sound complex, the room was designed to be as user-friendly as possible, says Fletes, to prevent a class from feeling as if support people were there to monitor their use of the equipment. But in case of technical difficulties, he says, "We do have staff that can assist at a moment's notice." What's more, the first group to try out the Studio on a regular basis (a 200- level sociology class) only took a couple of sessions to learn how the equipment operates; they're flying solo now.

Robert Hanneman, the professor for that course, has blogged on the Hyperstruction Studio website about his experiences, and for the most part, he agrees that the format of the class is keeping participants "active." "I'm impressed by the extent to which most folks seem to be engaged," he reports, adding: "The other thing I like is that there seems to be a lot of ‘peer teaching' going on--fancy word for helping others."