April 14, 2005

Smart classrooms multiply

The development of more smart classrooms is part of a pedagogical strategy for teachers to better understand how technology can help students learn at a richer level

Stephen Anzaldi

By Marilyn Soglin

Define: Smart classroom

Answer 1: A Northwestern classroom full of students getting A’s and B’s.

Answer 2: Electronic or technology-enhanced classrooms at Northwestern that strengthen learning by integrating digital, audio/visual and networking technologies during lectures.

Northwestern’s smart classrooms (Answer 2) may lead to a room full of students getting A’s and B’s (Answer 1).

There are now a total of 46 smart classrooms on the Evanston campus. Since March of this year, 17 classrooms have been updated, using a design that emphasizes flexible technology and reconfigurable furniture arrangements. All of this is meant to better accommodate the variety of teaching styles favored by Northwestern faculty and students, according to Bob Taylor, director of Academic Technologies.

The 17 new classrooms are based on a laptop model. They have Macintosh and PC laptop connectivity at a mobile podium, simple touch-screen controls for ease of use and a high-bandwidth network connection for accessing on-line material. In addition, they have a bright, ceiling-mounted projector and screen, a DVD player, a VCR and a sound system. The original 29 smart classrooms have larger fixed podiums and a resident PC or Mac workstation.

Updating the 17 classrooms is part of a plan to provide enhanced technology in all 113 University-scheduled classrooms over the next 10 years, according to Jean Shedd, associate provost for budget, facilities and analysis in the Office of the Provost. Shedd is also the co-chair of the Classroom Committee with Ron Nayler, associate vice president for facilities management.

“The Classroom Committee recognized that the level of technology that faculty need in order to teach most effectively has changed significantly over the past several years. We needed to develop a long-range plan to improve technology and the physical condition of all University-scheduled classrooms,” Shedd said.

The development of more smart classrooms is part of a comprehensive pedagogical or teaching strategy that includes the creation of programs for teachers to better understand how technology can help students learn at a richer and deeper level. According to Gregory Light, director of the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence, “These smart classrooms are designed to provide teachers with more flexibility and scope in the range of materials they bring to students in the classroom. Additionally, these classrooms provide a platform from which more engaged and interactive learning and teaching activities can be tested, tried and refined.”

As part of that strategy, the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence and Academic Technologies have collaborated on a series of workshops and activities for both faculty and graduate student instructors to explore how these new smart classrooms can further enrich the high quality of education that students receive at Northwestern.

Bob Davis, associate director of Academic Technologies, said the original smart classrooms each have a resident computer. However, the newest smart classrooms allow Northwestern lecturers to hook up their own laptops. “Faculty members who use laptops are more comfortable with their own computers. There has been a very positive response to both training for and use of these new classrooms by the faculty,” Davis said.

Daniel W. Apley, associate professor of industrial engineering and management sciences, said he uses the laptop-based smart classrooms for his Statistics II course. Apley said he finds the laptop-based system more streamlined. “With the old system, I only used my laptop anyway. With the new system, I spend less time waiting for power up. I basically just plug the video cable into my laptop, and it’s ready to go. That’s nice because when the entire class is watching and waiting for all systems to power up, 30 seconds feels more like five minutes,” he said.

Apley, the Morris E. Fine Professor of Manufacturing, called the smart classrooms essential. “So much of modern statistical data analyses are conducted with the aid of powerful software packages, which can produce very sophisticated graphical displays of the analysis results,” he said. “Knowing how to interpret the graphical results is just as important as knowing the statistical theory behind how the results are produced. In the smart classrooms, I keep the statistical software up and running throughout the lecture so that I can illustrate every concept with a real data set and focus on how to interpret the results.”

Bob Taylor of Academic Technologies said there is another plus. “The laptop classroom model is less expensive to deploy and much easier to support than the older resident-workstation classroom design,” he said. “The economics of the laptop model classroom are allowing the University to accelerate the pace at which our classroom stock is brought up-to-date. That is making it easier for Northwestern faculty and students to get access to the classroom environments that they need for teaching with digital resources and tools.”

Improving technology means brighter projectors. “There is no need to close shades or turn off lights in classrooms. That means that everyone can easily maintain face-to-face contact for better communication during class,” Taylor said. “You don’t have class attention drifting off in the darkness. The new projectors are quieter than previous models, and they do a better job of displaying video clips in high fidelity,” he added.

Increasing numbers of faculty and students own and use their laptops for class work. That makes collaborative projects easier to do. As a result, teaching environments need to be flexible. In classrooms, fixed desks are being replaced with tables and chairs that allow for breakout groups.

Faculty members interested in smart classroom training should call (847) 467-7666. More information is available on the Internet at www.at.northwestern.edu/ctg/classrooms/

Laptop-based smart classrooms are located in Harris Hall, Kresge Hall, the Searle building, Technological Institute and University Hall.