Ed-Tech list members,
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Classroom renovations are taking place in Memorial and the Learning Center. If you would like to be kept informed, and provide input, please reply to this message to let us know, and we will add you to the MM & LC Renovation site on Blackboard as soon as it is created.
DETAILS
Major work is underway at UM to renovate 13 of the rooms in the Memorial Classroom Building and all 12 rooms in the Learning Center. This is coming directly from President Shalala, Provost LeBlanc, and the Board or Trustees. The rooms in Memorial are getting major makeovers, including new A/C, new AV, new podiums, new seating, and much more. The rooms in LC are also getting major makeovers including new AV, new podiums, new seating, new wall treatments, and much more. Ken Gamber and I, from Instructional Advancement, are working on the AV and podiums. Major interior demolition has already begun in Memorial, and the LC is scheduled to begin demolition tomorrow, I believe. Things are moving fast in order to be completed by August 1.
First, let me say that we apologize for not getting input from you before starting these projects. You are the people who use the rooms, so you should have a major say in what is provided. There has simply been no time. We are doing our best to meet your needs as specified on the MM/LC survey that we collect each semester. We are providing the technology that we think you will like, that will be easy to use, and that will enhance teaching and learning in your classes. We know that isn't enough. We need to communicate with you in this process.
If you are interested in being kept informed of progress on these projects, and providing us with input, please let us know. I will be creating a Blackboard site so that everything is available to everyone who is interested. Individual room specifications, equipment, and so on will be available for you, and the wiki will allow you to add comments and things to help the project succeed. Just reply to this message if you want to be added to the Blackboard site, You will be notified as soon as it is created.
One of the changes that is being incorporated into these rooms is a fancy LCD display mounted in the podium, the Sympodium DT770 Interactive Pen Display, that you can write on and have your writing show up on the projector. We are hoping that many people who use the white boards will write directly on the Sympodium, rather than working on the white boards. This allows you to face the students while you are writing, keep a copy of everything that you wrote, easily work with multiple colors, and much more. The down side (there are always tradeoffs) is that you don't have as much room. Rather than two wide boards you have one large screen. But you can scroll back to previous material at any time, much as you used to do with an overhead projector, so there is never any reason to erase a board when you run out of room. The Sympodium integrates directly into Microsoft Word and Excel, and can actually be used with any program. We will be doing extensive training on the Sympodium Smart panels prior to and immediately after the start of the Fall semester.
We wanted you to know what is going on, and make the offer to provide additional information to those people who want it. Please let us know if you want to be part of the Blackboard MM & LC renovation site.
Bill Vilberg
Assoc. Dir. of Instructional Advancement
305-284-3944
