Ed Tech Blog
At the Midwest College and University AV Summit, we were able to tour one of the most technology rich 2-year colleges I have seen- Saint Paul College. While the technology in the classrooms was impressive, it was the technology in the technical areas of the college that were truly exciting. In general, 2 year colleges are under-funded and are, therefore, stuck in a cycle where the budget only allows for minimal upgrades over time. Larger technology investments are typically put on hold, indefinitely.
Saint Paul College is different. Consistently ranked in the top 10 technical and community colleges in the US, they have found a way to stand out. We toured high-technology sim labs for their nursing and medical sciences programs with observation rooms and lecture capture equipment tailored to help students and faculty review the information they need, effectively and efficiently. We tried out divisible flex-rooms with installed wireless presentation products for content sharing.
VR Technology for Skilled Trades
But, one of the unique spaces that made an impression on me was the welding shop. Located in the basement, they teach four or five (or more) different welding techniques in this large and well-outfitted area. Available to students are every type of machine and material you can imagine for this course of study. In general, you don’t expect to find cutting edge technology in a welding shop. BUT Saint Paul College is different (I may have mentioned that). They have purchased a VR welding machine. YUP! Virtual Reality welding machine. Many schools I tour are still evaluating how VR can be used successfully. Saint Paul College has been using it for years.
Why Teach Welding Through VR?
This machine is used for new students to be able to:
- learn without safety concerns
- develop muscle memory necessary for this...
There has been some discussion recently about recommending AV consultants. It’s an especially tough type of recommendation because all projects’ scope, firm specialties and overall bandwidth are different and can change in weeks and sometimes days depending on multiple variables. Ultimately what you should be looking for is an overall stable firm with a good reputation and a specialty team, if needed for your project (acoustics for theaters and music halls, large venue focus for arenas, etc). It also helps if the consultant has a local office or at least a clause in the contract that they will be available and on campus when needed.
Most institutions have a process for hiring a technology consultant including a thorough and multi-stage interview process, a portfolio review of prior projects of similar size and scope, and a cost analysis. But what happens when you come away from the process with what you think is a winning firm, until things start going sideways. What are the signs that signal red flags for your consultant-client relationship?
- They start questioning or changing your established standards, without discussion.- Some experts (as you hope most consultants are) often think they are helping you by changing out...
Read more: Three Signs It May Be Time To Look For Another AV Consultant
Five well known audiovisual and classroom technologies manufacturers, FSR, Inc, Biamp Systems, Christie Digital, Draper, Inc. and Quam Nichols, have partnered to offer a full day of cost free training to AV industry technology managers.
The Technology Managers’ Summit (TMS), formerly the Higher Education Technology Summit (HETS), was originally created for college and university managers of educational technology to combine a day of product training, networking and peer-to-peer discussions in a fast moving format. After considering the great success of this format among those in higher education, the team of 5 manufacturers decided to expand the audience to all technology managers including education, corporate, government, hospitality, worship, etc. Also new this year: Tim Albright of AVNation will be the TMS host and moderator.
Gina Sansivero, Director of Business Development, Education at FSR, Inc tells why they expanded the audience reach. “As industry leading manufacturers, we understand that the challenges that educational technology managers face are not exclusive to their market. All technology managers are increasingly taking on more responsibility to develop technology standards and specify products for their in-house AV systems.”
Michael Frank, Sales Development Director, Eastern North America at Biamp Systems notes, “Technology managers typically have limited budgets...
Read more: NEW NAME, EXPANDED FOCUS FOR THIRD TECHNOLOGY SUMMIT
While attending the LearningScapes annual conference this year I was particularly interested in a small break-out session that highlighted junior high school student teams from across the country as they presented their own perception of the “Schools of the Future.” Each of the three diverse teams I sat in on had one common theme; they recognized need to bring nature into the learning environment for hands on and “real-life” experiences that offer the opportunity to engage in learning practically rather than theoretically. Some teams went so far as building parks, rivers and lakes INSIDE their school buildings to learn about ecosystems and interconnectedness. Can you make the entire learning environment an effective ecosystem?
The educational (and health) reasons and benefits for bringing the outdoors inside are numerous and well documented. Here is an article from Private University Products and News that gives you a good summary of the positives. However, there are inherent challenges when trying to design buildings that incorporate nature both inside and out. How, then, as technologists, do we complement and supplement natural and hands on learning while overcoming these obstacles?
- Natural/ Ambient Light vs. displays- Natural light is like the arch-nemesis of most projectors and...
Read more: What Students Want: Experiential Learning with Nature INSIDE the Classroom
New York, NY (September 7, 2017) – The verdict is in — the John Jay College of Criminal Justice has selected five FSR HuddleVU Collaboration Systems, for its small-group study rooms located in the Lloyd Sealy Library of
Haaren Hall. The systems allow multiple users to share and view their laptops, tablets, and smart phone screens on a main display, underscoring the school’s efforts to encourage student collaboration, group study and shared projects. FSR, a leading manufacturer of a wide variety of infrastructure solution products for the audio/video, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), education, hospitality, and government markets, released project details from Company headquarters in Woodland Park, NJ.
Lloyd Sealy Library, which holds more than 500,000 books, periodicals, films, microfilms, and digital collections, offered students all the resources necessary for group study and shared projects, except the technology that would result in greater collaboration and increased use of the study-group rooms. Following an exploration and evaluation process of affordable options that would create the ideal environment for people to view and share ideas, the school made the decision to install FSR HuddleVU Collaboration systems.
According to Geng H. Lin, Library Systems Manager, “Everything was built-in so we didn’t have...
Two different annual conferences, in two different parts of the country took place this month. EdSpaces and LearningScapes. While the individual course content of these conferences can be somewhat dissimilar, they both have a very similar focus: the learning environment as an ecosystem. This broad subject matter includes a variety of topics from space planning and furniture to educational technologies.
I attended LearningScapes this year and was impressed with the expert sessions. I was particularly interested in a small break-out that highlighted junior high school students from across the country as they presented their own perception of the “Schools of the Future.” Each of the three diverse teams had one common theme, the need to bring nature into the learning environment for hands on and “real-life” experiences that offer the opportunity to engage in learning practically rather than theoretically. Bringing the classroom outside or the natural environment inside offers unique challenges. How, then, as technologists, do we complement and supplement natural and hands on learning? This will be an evolving discussion [likely necessitating the inclusion a variety of manufacturers from different markets who will help to create innovative solutions.] VR/AR and adequate power may be a start. I will table...
Read more: How Well Do You Work With Your Institution’s Interiors Team?