Each summer, a large batch of rooms receive upgrades or repairs to ensure they are ready for the Fall semester. Although the installation work occurs primarily during the summer months, the assessment and planning phase for the work begins in late Fall and heavily involves the input and recommendations of our Faculty Technology Council.
The Faculty Technology Council engages feedback from the faculty within their respective school on technology changes or needs. This year, we received recommendations to ensure all shared classrooms had the interactive podium monitor for annotation and digital whiteboarding.
Additionally, they also requested that all shared classrooms have the ability to wireless screencast content to the projector. This allows students (and faculty) to quickly connect to other devices to share content during presentations or discussions without losing valuable instructional time. Fortunately, we were able to accommodate both requests as we planned our work in over 130 rooms this summer.
Standardizing screencasting setups and interactive monitors across classrooms allows faculty to build those technologies into our teaching with the confidence that the same resources will be available in next year’s classroom.
Tim Cassedy, Associate Professor,
Department of English and Faculty Technology Council Member
Last year, we introduced the new Advanced Technology spaces in the Lyle School of Engineering and Perkins School of Theology. As a critical component of the delivery of the Lyle Anywhere program, we converted five classrooms within the Engineering school to this enhanced technology configuration. Lyle now has six of these advanced technology classrooms to facilitate their distance education programs for the Fall.
Also introduced this summer are the classrooms and various meeting spaces in the beautiful new Frances Anne Moody Hall. There are two classrooms, an auditorium, several hotel spaces and collaboration spaces, and a high-tech video wall similar to the one in Ford Hall. The rooms are available now in STABLE for booking.
Finally, we are nearing completion on three of the four event spaces that were being upgraded this year. O’Donnell Hall’s work was completed in July. The Palmer Conference Center in Caruth and the Great Hall in Prothro should be completed this month. We will upgrade the Martha Proctor Mack Ballroom during the Fall semester.
As we approach the new semester, the team is walking through each classroom space on campus to ensure we are ready to go for the first day! Remember, you can view the room pictures and technology attributes within STABLE. As always, if you need assistance with technology in the classrooms, contact our emergency classroom support line at 214-768-8888.
