July 19th, 2010Study scholar
Brilliant.
June 9th, 2010But wait! There’s more..
Now we are getting to the eXperimental part of the NEXT Classroom’s name. While updating, we have decided to upgrade Safari to version 5 that was just released AND we turned on the Developer menu to allow extensions to be installed on Safari as well.
Apple won’t have the Extension Gallery open for a while but with thanks to Jonas Wisser and his Safari Extension Tumblr, we will have a few installed and a framework in place to add more as they come along.
Only wish we could do that centrally like we are doing with the NEXT Classroom Toolbar!
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June 9th, 2010Some updating for the NEXT Classroom
I know, I know…this blog has been all NEXT Classroom all the time lately. I promise that it will change but this pretty exciting stuff that we want to share with everybody.
This summer the NEXT Classroom will be used for training and workshops for faculty as well as showing it off to various groups who are coming through and on the New Student Orientation tours.
Oh, and we have to upgrade all of the computers to Windows 7!
In fact, that task is just about done. Along the way, we also upgraded Firefox to 3.6 and along with the other plug-ins we have already mentioned, we added a few more things:
- Zotero (why I didn’t think of it in the first go around, I do not know!)
- Helvetireader for Greasemonkey (thanks to @v1Dlmnan for the suggestion!)
- Greased Lightbox for Greasemonkey
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March 22nd, 2010A video tour of the NEXT Classroom
The wireless is working in the NEXT Classroom! The laptops are configured! The instructor station is configured!
So, what’s an Educational Technology Services staff to do? Make a video tour, of course!
Enjoy!
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One of the features of our New, Emerging and eXperimental Technology (NEXT) Classroom is the use of wireless networking and dual boot computers for the students. We chose to build a custom toolbar for the browsers (well, most of the browsers – it doesn’t play nicely with Google Chrome yet).
By keeping the toolbar centrally managed, we can easily edit all of the links available for all students and the instructor. THis means we can delete the things that “disappear” on the web, edit links that move and easily add new tools that are identified by students and faculty who are using the room.
We are using a toolbar from Conduit to do this. The really neat thing is that anybody can download this toolbar so they will also have the links and resources available on their home computer as well. If they refresh the toolbar, the changes are there….like magic!
We really want folks to tell us what they want in the toolbar. So, if you have a suggestion, head over to the NEXT Classroom suggestion box and pass along a tool or resource that needs to be in the NEXT Classroom toolbar!
NEXT Classroom Toolbar suggestion box!
Image Credit: ‘This box, it suggests?‘ (used with CC license)
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February 12th, 2010The Next Classroom is coming together
From some scribbles on a whiteboard to a full-fledged room!
If you want to see it as a super groovy slideshow, check it out here:
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February 12th, 2010The Class
If you are a fan of the television show, “The Office”, then you will find this parody particularly amusing.
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January 25th, 2010FUSION 2010: Architects of Education
If you are planning some professional development this summer, keep the Desire2Learn users conference in mind. This year is is from July 11 – 16th in Chicago. It is always a good time with lots to learn and share with other colleges, schools and institutions who use D2L.
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January 7th, 2010Setting up the NEXT Classroom
Well, the concepts for the physical technology and furniture in our New, Emerging, and eXperimental Technology Classroom are all about fluidity, flexibility, modularity and adapability. That is why we chose the furniture that we did:
- Desks
- Chairs
(see it in action action) - Teacher Station
Our current step is the setup of computing environment. For this, the concepts of user (student and faculty) generated content, open source, cloud computing, collaboration and sharing are very much in the forefront. This is why we chose to go with dual boot laptops for the students and a dual boot Mac Min for the teacher station.
The teacher station will contain many of the familiar elements like touchpad controls, document camera and remote mouse. It also will contain a few items that are not found in our current classrooms like:
- Webcam
- Airliner (now called the SMART Slate from same manufacturer as our Sympodiums)
- USB based second monitor
- Ports for iPod, media cards and other inputs
- Guest computer access
The computers are being set up with our standard load of Microsoft Office, SFTP clients and other software. We are also adding media creation software and mind mapping software.
Here’s where we are with that list right now:
Software:
Browsers
- Internet Explorer 7 (PC only)
- Safari (Mac only)
- Google Chrome
- Firefox 3.5 with these extensions:
With an interest in cloud based services and tools, we are also building a custom set of bookmarks for the multiple browsers that will include links to services/tools that can be used by the faculty and students.
To centrally manage those within multiple browsers, except Google Chrome, we are going to use a NEXT Classroom browser toolbar (built from Conduit)
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December 11th, 2009What’s NEXT?
Educational Technology Services (ETS) has been working over the summer and the fall term to plan and design the New, Emerging and eXperimental Technology/Techniques Classroom – AKA the NEXT Classroom.
The NEXT Classroom provides Pellissippi State with a test bed environment for trying out technologies that are cutting edge to explore their efficacy in higher education as well as a place to install higher cost technologies that could not be deployed in every classroom. Moving beyond the technology, the vision for the NEXT Classroom is also as a place to test new teaching techniques and approaches. The work of the SCALE UP project at North Carolina State University was influential in the planning of the NEXT Classroom even though the scale of their work was for much larger classes as was Designing Learning Spaces for 21st Century Learners by Diane Brook and Learning Spaces, an EduCAUSE book edited by Diana Oblinger
The room is being designed to allow maximum flexibility and adaptability to meet needs both known and anticipated as well as respond to situations that have not yet even been imagined. The furniture will be mobile and flexible with desks that are able to be grouped easily and chairs that transform into “game chairs” and tables so classes can configure the room as they need. The walls will be painted with whiteboard paint to create surfaces for instruction, brainstorming and other work that are not limited to normal whiteboard sizes and shapes.
The teacher station will be a dual boot computer so an instructor can teach with Mac or PC. There will be two projectors that will allow for input from any video source in the room in a mirror (both projectors showing the same input source) or in tandem (different video source to each project)
Students will have access to a laptop cart with dual boot laptops so they can work in PC or Mac environment as they wish or need. The room will be served by wireless networking to keep the layout fluid and flexible.
As many avenues for bringing in connections and media area also being planned including:
- webcams for all laptops and the teacher station
- microphones for all laptops and teacher station
- central sound system for all audio sources and teacher voice amplification
- media card readers for all laptops and teacher station
- iPod docking station for teacher station
- guest computer port for the teacher station
Teaching in the NEXT Classroom will be assigned by a competitive process that will be adminstered by the Instructional Development Committee (IDC). Faculty who wish to teach in the room will develop a proposal for testing new technologies or techniques and/or action research within the room. Future additions to the NEXT classroom will be based on criteria such as:
- Faculty request
- Demonstrations of new technologies at conferences or meetings
- Research based findings on the needs for the next generation of learners
What else does the NEXT Classroom need?
What else does our NEXT student generation expect?