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By Anita Warren
There was a time, not so long ago, when the average
classroom was equipped with desks, chairs, a chalkboard, and little else. Not
anymore. Today's classroom is an interactive tool in the learning/teaching
experience. At Dartmouth, that means sophisticated digital projection, design
that allows those projected images to be viewed from nearly anywhere in the
room, and easy reconfiguration for small-group exercises. “The tradition of
showing slides, film, or overhead transparencies remains to some extent, but
increasingly it's a digital domain in the classroom,” says Andrew Faunce.
Classroom Technology
Services staff (left to right): Jim Goodrich, Frank Laundry, Keith
Borgstrom, David Choate, Andrew Faunce, Nancy Miller, Richard O'Brien,
Larry Basset, Dustin Maurice, Julie Martin, Robin Lull, Steve Dulli. Photo:
Joseph Mehling.
Faunce is assistant director of Classroom
Technology Services (CTS), the group that provides high-tech support for
learning spaces at Dartmouth. But CTS's
range goes much farther. Members of the group participate on the Classroom
Subcommittee and in new academic building projects, such as Kemeny Hall, now
under construction, to help develop new technology classrooms and improve
existing classrooms. Together with the Registrar's Office, they weigh
enrollment, technology requirements, and faculty preference to determine
classroom assignments on campus. CTS partners with Facilities Operation and Management
(FO&M) to maintain, upgrade, and permanently care for the technology
systems within these classrooms. And the group provides “co-curricular” support
for events the public and alumni can enjoy, such as speaker series and class
reunions.
“We're basically involved in the full lifecycle of the technology classroom
and can provide valuable perspective on how those spaces should be developed,
managed, supported, and maintained over time,” notes Faunce.
CTS also is collaborating with the new Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of
Learning (DCAL) on a conference room/presentation space/experimental
teaching area that will incorporate all of the basic smart-classroom elements.
This will be a place “where new faculty can come in and model or try on the
sorts of things that they might be doing in the classroom to which they're
assigned, and also a space that incorporates some of the newer technologies:
video teleconferencing, for example,” says Faunce. “Likewise it will be a space
designed around the premise of being flexible, allowing different kinds of
exercises to occur in the space such that faculty could look at technology but
also look at different ways of conducting their course.”
And there's more. Because learning increasingly involves more informal
spaces, says Faunce, CTS is getting involved in earlier stages of other
projects, such as the McLaughlin
Cluster and Tuck Mall
residence halls, to stay current and to broaden and fulfill its mission of
support. He and Malcolm Brown, director of academic
computing, have been talking with Martin Redman, dean of residential life, and David “Woody”
Eckels, director of residential
operations, about how to incorporate instructional technology for
entertainment, public presentation, and small niche learning areas in the new
halls that are being built.
“We have some fantastically capable and dedicated people within this
organization,” Faunce adds. “We have reached out to a number of other
organizations and individuals on campus and they've been wonderfully
supportive. That's been a great benefit to all our users — the faculty, the
students, alumni, staff, and administration at the college.”
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