Interactive whiteboards replacing chalk and blackboards to upgrade college classrooms
Robin Erb, Detroit Free Press
Issue date: 9/30/09 Section: News
DETROIT - Today's college classrooms are high-tech marvels-overhead projectors and grease pencils replaced by document cameras, handheld clickers, and interactive whiteboards.
Multimedia carts with a TV and DVD player? Relics.
Even PowerPoint has lost some of its shine.
And faculty-most of them - see technology as a way to better connect to students in their interactive, multi tasking, apps-ready world.
"Some are ... not going to change without kicking and screaming. But for the most part, even our older faculty are embracing it," said George Preisinger, Oakland University's assistant vice president for classroom support and instructional technical services.
The school recently spent $15,000 in technology upgrades in each general-purpose classroom for students, Preisinger said.
In some classrooms, a professor can watch each student's computer screen simultaneously to monitor their progress on a project-or even catch them Facebook ing.
A lot has changed since his first days in the tech department, Preisinger laughed: "We were the ones wheeling the old AV carts around."
Of course, technology has its limits and it still takes a skilled speaker to engage students, said Charles Parrish, political professor at Wayne State University.
Likewise, a lack of technology is far from debilitating, said Parrish, who uses the Internet and posts his notes on the university-wide Blackboard system for instant student access.
"A good professor is a good professor," he said. "Socrates sat under trees and didn't have PowerPoint."
Central Michigan University this year opened its $50-million Education and Human Services Building. Inside is 76 miles of Internet networking cable, 11 miles of phone cable, and 27 "RoomWizards" - keypads outside classrooms to allow users to reserve rooms.
Motion-sensitive cameras follow a pacing professor or link out-of-town students with the classroom. Whiteboards upload to e-mails. Elsewhere, clickers-tiny remotes in which students send answers instantly to a professor's hand held computer screen-allow professors to pop-quiz a class or take quick surveys.
Multimedia carts with a TV and DVD player? Relics.
Even PowerPoint has lost some of its shine.
And faculty-most of them - see technology as a way to better connect to students in their interactive, multi tasking, apps-ready world.
"Some are ... not going to change without kicking and screaming. But for the most part, even our older faculty are embracing it," said George Preisinger, Oakland University's assistant vice president for classroom support and instructional technical services.
The school recently spent $15,000 in technology upgrades in each general-purpose classroom for students, Preisinger said.
In some classrooms, a professor can watch each student's computer screen simultaneously to monitor their progress on a project-or even catch them Facebook ing.
A lot has changed since his first days in the tech department, Preisinger laughed: "We were the ones wheeling the old AV carts around."
Of course, technology has its limits and it still takes a skilled speaker to engage students, said Charles Parrish, political professor at Wayne State University.
Likewise, a lack of technology is far from debilitating, said Parrish, who uses the Internet and posts his notes on the university-wide Blackboard system for instant student access.
"A good professor is a good professor," he said. "Socrates sat under trees and didn't have PowerPoint."
Central Michigan University this year opened its $50-million Education and Human Services Building. Inside is 76 miles of Internet networking cable, 11 miles of phone cable, and 27 "RoomWizards" - keypads outside classrooms to allow users to reserve rooms.
Motion-sensitive cameras follow a pacing professor or link out-of-town students with the classroom. Whiteboards upload to e-mails. Elsewhere, clickers-tiny remotes in which students send answers instantly to a professor's hand held computer screen-allow professors to pop-quiz a class or take quick surveys.
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