Its not uncommon for Gary Bissonnette to take a pen attached to his podium monitor and mark portions of his PowerPoint presentation like NFL analyst John Madden sketching a safety blitz on his Telestrator.
Jane Caldwell is just as likely to take a break from lecturing and ask her students to grab their remote clickers and answer a question on the screen behind her. Seconds after the pop quiz is over, she can tell how many got the question right.
Bissonnette, an environmental microbiology professor who teaches in the recently opened South Agricultural Sciences building, and Caldwell, a biology lecturer whose classroom is the Life Sciences Building’s Eberly Auditorium, are among WVU faculty members whose teaching has been enhanced by the latest technology developed for the classroom.
This technology includes a podium fashioned with a gooseneck microphone; a personal computer with built-in DVD , zip and USB port drives; a Sympodium interactive
monitor that is connected to the computer and has an attached pen for writing on the display; and a document camera akin to overhead projectors of old. All of the visual material made possible by this multimedia lectern appears on two retractable, motorized screens operated by a touch-screen display on the podium.
For me, coming from Brooks Hall, where I had a room with a blackboard, this is like heaven,Bissonnette said.
This summer, 11 classrooms on WVU s downtown and Evansdale campuses were equipped with the new technology as part of the Universitys ongoing campus renewal program, said Nancy Lohmann, senior adviser to Provost Gerald Lang.
Rooms that received technology upgrades included five in Allen Hall, three in the Engineering Sciences Building, two in Armstrong Hall and one in the Mineral Resources Building.
The renovations cost an estimated $2 million, Lohmann said, adding that the WVU administration plans to commit at least $1 million a year to classroom improvements over the next few years.
The high-tech classrooms are designed not to replace tried-and-true methods of instruction, but to give faculty more tools to enhance their techniques.
The best thing about the classrooms is they allow for flexible teaching approaches, so whatever your style, you can adapt the tools to whatever you want to do,Caldwell said.
For instance, Bissonnette uses both big screens, displaying his lecture outline on one and his PowerPoint presentation on the other. And he is a devotee of the Sympodium, circling or underlining parts of his lecture he wants his students to remember.
Caldwell, on the other hand, uses one screen for her PowerPoint presentation, but moves to the chalkboard when she wants to illustrate a point.
Her pop quizzes are popular with her students, who enjoy the break in the lecture and the chance to use the remote clickers assigned to them, Caldwell said. She likes it because the computer software can quickly tally how many students answered right,
letting her know if she is getting her material across.
Integrating the latest technology in the classrooms supports the third goal of WVU s strategic plan, that being to enhance the educational environment for student learning, Lang said.
Students and faculty expect to have access to the Internet, PowerPoint and other technology to enrich the classroom experience,he said.Only the newest of the 200-plus classrooms available in the general university have technology available in the room.
Faculty dont always teach in the same room or even the same building,Lang added.We are attempting to standardize the technology package so regardless of the room assigned, faculty will know how the technology works.
The Office of Information Technology Classroom Technology Group, or CTec, is in charge of developing the specifications for the technology, installing it in the rooms, training faculty to use it and maintaining the equipment. A faculty committee assisted in developing the technology specifications.
As part of the classroom upgrades, a document on classroom procedures has been developed with the assistance of college deans and others. A copy of the document is available athttp://www.wvu.edu/~acadaff/acad/policies/Classroom%20Policy-Final.pdf
WVU s high-tech classrooms on the Net:http://ctec.wvu.edu/classrooms.html