Faculty paves way for technology at college of southern nevada.

With studies showing that online education is enabling students to outperform others taking the same courses within the confines of a conventional “on-ground” classroom, educators in settings ranging from K-12 on up to university levels are taking the power of technology a whole lot more seriously.

Interactive pen in hand, CSU’s Dr. Sondra Cosgrove enjoys an “Aha!” moment while receiving training on one of the college’s new SMART Podium ID370 systems. Photo courtesy Lindsey Bonk, College of Southern Nevada. Inset: Wireless AirLiner slates from SMART Technologies allow instructors to control AV systems from virtually anywhere in some of the newly upgraded CSN classrooms. Photo courtesy Lindsey Bonk, College of Southern Nevada.

The College of Southern Nevada (CSN) is a two-year college that has been at the vanguard of using technology to its advantage for over a decade. With three main locations spread across the Las Vegas Valley, the college’s Charleston Campus is the largest, enrolling nearly 12,000 students each semester and occupying 80 acres about six miles west of downtown Las Vegas. Offering a mix of on-ground, virtual, and hybrid classes that combine the two, the college has a total of 464 classrooms in all locations. Among this number, 301 rely heavily upon AV and communications technology, and 176 are networked.

Based upon past successes with technology as well as the recommendations of faculty committees, CSN set out to further expand its presence outside of traditional teaching with an upgrade completed in time for the fall semester. Designed and implemented under the direction of CSN multimedia manager Andrew McJimson, the project introduced a new complement of classroom control and intelligent, networked components to the college that includes custom lecterns that incorporate automation, multi-function wireless slates, and a number of new interactive whiteboards.

KEEP IT SIMPLE
In addition to satisfying efforts to bring the latest technology to the CSN classrooms, one of the main objectives of the undertaking was to make the process of using technology simpler for faculty members. “The challenge isn’t so much installing the gear,” McJimson believes, “it’s in the human aspect of interfacing with the components. For a number of reasons, not every member of the faculty is onboard with the idea of technology in the classroom. For many, the idea of doing most of their teaching from a flip-up screen mounted in a podium is a frightening, new proposition, even if it does hold the promise of better results. That’s why the training process has to be simple and easy to learn. Everything was chosen for this upgrade with that in mind. I knew that once we could get people who were unfamiliar with teaching this way to start using the systems, it wouldn’t be long before they started having fun with them. It’s always exciting to see people get to that point.”

Nerve central in each of the college’s newlyupgraded classrooms is a fixed, custom-built lectern located in front where the chalkboard would traditionally be. Housing most of the electronic hardware required for each room, the lecterns stand 48 inches tall. As the first step along the path providing the easy-to-use template of functionality the college was seeking, a SMART Podium ID370 interactive pen display from SMART Technologies was mounted inside the new lecterns. Accessed via a fliptop door that unfolds from its closed position to reveal its screen, the SMART Podium is used with a tethered pen that acts much like a mouse, allowing its user to control applications and also write or draw over any application in digital ink of different colors.

Function buttons found on the 17-inch high-resolution screen offer instant access to a number of other tools. Press one, and an onscreen keyboard appears. Others open up “Floating Tools” and “Capture” toolbars, or launch SMART’s proprietary Open Notebook software, which lets instructors organize, save, and share notes with the class.

All these technical details duly noted, from a user’s perspective, the SMART Podium lets you control any presentation in the classroom right from the lectern via a connection established between the interactive pen and each room’s host PC and NEC NP1150 LCD projector. With imagery projected onto a motorized, 8-foot Da- Lite screen, CSN faculty can use the ID370 to write over slides in digital ink, save whatever they’ve created, and access the internet or any multimedia file in the system of their choosing.

Powered by the same software used by SMART Board interactive whiteboards, the ID370 is used in some of the upgraded CSN classrooms in conjunction with SMART Board 600 Series interactive whiteboards. Featuring active screen areas that are both touch-sensitive and capable of receiving projected images, the whiteboards offer many of the same editing, capture, and save functions as the ID370, and allow faculty to write directly upon their surfaces with different colored pens, erase with their palms, and move objects about with a finger.

THE PAPERLESS CLASSROOM
“I grew up when we were still using chalk and blackboard version 2.0,” jokes CSN’s Dr. Sondra Cosgrove, dating herself a bit in a fashion incongruous with her youthful appearance. A moving force within CSN’s technology committees over the years, Cosgrove is an ardent booster of technology in the classroom. “To a large degree, instructors of our online courses had been driving our purchases of technology. Over time, more of us began to see the real value of the hardware and software, so we began to migrate the same technology backwards to our on-ground and hybrid classes.”

In Cosgrove’s history classes at CSU, she puts the SMART Podium ID370 through daily paces that include having students use it for their presentations. Working in tandem with the aid of ANGEL Learning Management Suite software and video cameras, the ID370 is vital to the process of making the presentation, which is archived. Cosgrove can then go back later to grade and critique it, with the added advantage of being able to stop, rewind, and review sections, or fast-forward. With the same ID370/ANGEL combination at her fingertips, she can additionally save any lecture notes, images, and even video to a website where students can review it as needed.

“The whole ephemeral quality of the traditional classroom has vanished with the technology we have at CSN,” Cosgrove notes. “Before, if you weren’t in class to hear the professor lecture, you had to borrow someone else’s handwritten notes, or were pretty much just plain out of luck. A student in my class today knows that each evening I upload everything we did in class to a designated site online that they can access anytime. The site gives everyone a chance to see and hear what happened again, which is perfect if you need to go back and catch something you didn’t understand the first time, or missed the entire class. Students can dig a lot deeper into the content of the class now, and, as a result, they ask better questions and gain an opportunity to learn even more.”

With the formidable technological arsenal she now has at her disposal, Cosgrove spends zero dollars each year on printing and copying. Everything for every class she teaches is done electronically: images, audio recordings, podcasts, information from social networking sites — it’s all displayed digitally and archived online.

SHOWING AND TELLING
“In a traditional sense, teachers had to content themselves with relaying information to the class by telling it to them,” Cosgrove adds. “Now, with technology, we have the ability to show and tell. If I’m lecturing about the kings of England, I can show the class images of the kings and make notes accordingly right on the pictures that are projected onto the screen. Conversely, if I’m teaching the class how to evaluate the credibility of a website as a source, I can actually go to that site on the classroom screen, circle the hyperlinks, and underline text to explain everything from the difference between a .edu and .com site to finding the date something was last updated. Some have argued that satisfying the need for students to actually see how something is done to this level should be left to vocational schooling, where instruction is more hands-on. We’ve shown otherwise, and the results we’re getting is solid proof.”

Sound reinforcement in each of the new CSN classrooms starts at each lectern with input from a Shure MX418 gooseneck microphone. Ten-inch, 16-watt, flush-mounted Bose ceiling loudspeakers spread even sound coverage across the classrooms, with amplification coming from a Crestron QM-RMCRX-BA controller/ media receiver with digital audio processing, Ethernet control, and stereo amplification. To facilitate the faculty’s ability to switch from the DVD/VCR combo decks, video cameras, document cameras, and other devices kept in each classroom, 12-inch TPS-12B touchpanels from Crestron were also chosen.

Bringing a portability factor to classrooms requiring more mobility for instructors and students, CSN took delivery of five SMART AirLiner wireless slates as part of its recent infusion of new technology as well. Offering many of the same capabilities of the ID370, the AirLiners effectively let instructors teach from anywhere in the classroom using Bluetooth, and also let students interact via the devices from their own seats.

The new classroom technology went online with the help of on-site trainers from SMART Technologies. With its debut, CSN found that training is becoming less and less of a problem. “Over time, those who haven’t embraced the new technologies yet are realizing that those of us who have are experiencing better success rates,” Cosgrove is happy to report following the commissioning of these latest systems. “Change can be difficult, but it comes a lot easier when you know there are truly positive rewards to be had in the end.”