Technology in the Classroom Links

Laptops

• Pilot Laptop Program, College of Engineering, University of Oklahoma. The case for a CES initiative in Information Technology is contained in this link. There are approximately 330 engineering programs in the United States and less than 10 require student computer ownership. However, most engineering administrators agree that over the next five to eight years all of the engineering programs will either require computer ownership by their students or so strongly encourage ownership that they will effectively achieve the same.
• Laptop Explosion Looming, College of Engineering, Oklahoma University. OU may become the first large public university in the country to require students to purchase laptops. For most of the university, mandatory laptops are years away, but not for engineering.
• College of Engineering, Oklahoma University, Pilot Project. The University of Oklahoma College of Engineering invites you to join us in an exciting new program which will place you at the leading edge of technology in engineering education.
• Grove City.
• Penn State University: Project Empower. The Commonwealth Educational System seeks to make learner-centered instruction the norm in all its undergraduate programs. Project Empower has been conceived to quickly bring as many CES faculty as possible into the learner-centered paradigm. Further, the project seeks to equip faculty and campuses with the human and technological resources required to support a contemporary, active and collaborative learning environment. Project Empower provides laptop computers to the faculty who agree, through proposals they submit, to enhance opportunities for collaborative and active learning in their courses. In addition to laptop computers, Project Empower provides multimedia development stations for instructional development personnel use in support of faculty initiatives.
• Laptop Computer Usage in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Wake Forest University. We convinced the University to purchase a site license for Maple and have installed Maple on all of the faculty ThinkPads and on all of the ThinkPads of our students in the first two calculus courses. The ThinkPad is then their laboratory. Some of our calculus teachers use the ThinkPad in their class daily. We have several classrooms that have power at every seat and also data connection at each seat.
• Universal Standardized Notebook Computers. The Vice President for Academic Affairs for two North Dakota institutions, Mayville State University and Valley City State University, makes a compelling argument for universal access to technology through laptops.
• Draft: Information for Students on the Georgia Tech Student Computer Ownership Initiative, 2 December, 1996. After careful study, Georgia Tech has adopted a policy requiring all freshmen, beginning with those entering in the summer of '97, and all students joining the class of 2001 and all subsequent classes to own a computer.
• Student Computer Ownership Advisory Committee Memo to the Georgia Tech Executive Board, 2 December, 1996. Memo concerning the recommendation for Student Ownership of Computers including software and support.
• Report of the Student Computer Ownership Committee, December 20, 1995, Georgia Institute of Technology. It is extremely attractive to envision an environment in which a faculty member can expect students to show up in class with a laptop that can be connected to a network outlet in the classroom, and which can be employed by the student and faculty to facilitate interpersonal communications. Wake Forest University, whose students will be employing laptops exclusively, reports newly discovered reasons for employing laptops: data acquisition in certain programs has been much facilitated, and astronomy students are finding great benefits in having starfield maps available on their laptops during field exercises.
• Why we should require student computer ownership. Article from the January 26, 1996 issue of The Technique, the Georgia Institute of Technology Student Newspaper. If the Institute decides to require laptops, another range of interesting possibilities opens up. Every classroom could be networked to allow the students to "plug-in" to the network when they started class. Having OIT move out of the business of supplying run-of-the-mill software and hardware would free up resources for them to devote to high end systems.
• Wake Forest Reengineers Student Learning. Beginning with the fall 1996 semester, Wake Forest University first-year undergraduates will be issued an IBM ThinkPad. Wake Forest seeks to create a learning environment that is not hindered by barriers such as limited computer laboratory resources. In effect, each student will carry the computer lab with him to the dorm, the cafeteria, even overseas. Students will be able to communicate by electronic mail, access the library, submit assignments and conduct research all from the lightweight ThinkPad.
• Wake Forest, the Plan for the Class of 2000. In 1993, faculty, students and administrators began work on a blueprint to enrich the quality of undergraduate education.
• Technology Guide for the Class of 2000, Wake Forest University.
• STARS at Wake Forest University. The mission of the STARS program is to bring students and faculty together in a joint effort to explore the use of technology in teaching and learning. The program will provide the resources to hire and train students to work one-on-one with the faculty to develop the critical mass of technological understanding on campus.
• Access to the Campus Network, Wake Forest University.
• Laptops update Wake Forest University's curriculum. USA Today High-Tech Article.
• Wake Forest Technology Assessment. The five year duration longitudinal study is being conducted my a team of researchers from the Department of Communication at Wake Forest University to assess the impact of wide scale computerization of the campus in preparation of the Plan for the Class of 2000.
• University of Minnesota, Crookston: Mobile Computing. All students have notebook computers that can be connected to the LAN in the dorms, classrooms, and the library. The computers are leased. The same model is used by all students. Models are changed yearly.
• Frosh Benefit From Powerful Laptop Computers, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Rose-Hulman last year become one of the first colleges in the nation to require freshmen to purchase laptop computers. This fall, freshmen will have an even newer, more powerful laptop to use.
• The Acadia Advantage, Acadia University, Nova Scotia. Beginning in September 1996, Acadia will be the first electronic campus in Canada. Use of notebook computers will be an integral part of first-year courses in business administration and computer science. Most departments in the Faculty of Arts, as well as mathematics and physics in the Faculty of Science, will also offer "notebooked" courses to incoming students. By the year 2000 all Acadia students will be involved.
• Technology in the Classroom, Michigan State University. The room in N106 BCC has strip tables instead of desks for the student stations. These strip tables contain an ethernet outlet and an electric plug at each seat. This allows students to bring properly equipped portable computers to the class, set the portables on the table at their seat, and plug them into the ethernet outlet. Again, dynamic addressing is employed so the portables do not have to be reconfigured to access the Internet. Wherever possible, the classroom technology improvements were done in conjunction with other improvements and renovations in the rooms. Since lighting is of paramount importance in any room where projection is being used, the lighting was modified in all the new technology rooms so there are banks of lights on different switches. Where possible, both fluorescent and incandescent lights were included, with each bank of the incandescents being separately dimable.
• Networked Laptop Computers, Educational Initiatives and Activities, RPI.
• Technologies inside the Classroom, Georgetown University. See the link Options for Computers in Classrooms.
• Education school might require laptop leases, Missouri University.
• Waldorf College equips students with ThinkPad computers. President William Hamm of Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa, has announced that freshmen at Waldorf College will receive an IBM ThinkPad when they arrive on campus in the fall. The laptop computer is included in their 1996-97 tuition package.
• Ethernet: Coming soon to a classroom near you, Yale University renovation project.
• Future Scenarios: Students in Education, Strategic Plan for the Department of Information Technology and Communication, University of Virginia.
• Exploratory Studies of a Flexible Computer Classroom, Stanford University.
• Academic Notebook Systems. We are constantly researching the net for information about schools that are using laptop computers.
• Laptop Schools. This article advocates the adoption of laptop computers for all students in public schools. Early studies indicate that writing and math skills have developed significantly faster and stronger in Seattle, Washington, and Anchorage, Alaska. Students with fine motor problems have improved both the quality and quantity of their writing by using laptop computers in Toronto, Ontario. The direction of the American workplace is demanding this of American educators. In 1950, 60% of all jobs were unskilled labor, 20% were skilled, and 20% were professional in nature. By 1990, the percentage of unskilled jobs had dropped to 45% with skilled labor rising to 35%. By 2000, economists project that unskilled labor will fill only 15% of the American workforce with 65% of those jobs will require skilled labor.
• Student Projects Using Laptops. The goal of Project PULSE (Pupils Using Laptops in Science and English) is to provide real-world use of laptop computers as a tool with an emphasis on getting involved in numerous hands-on research-oriented projects.
• NCIP Resources: Laptops. National Center to Improve Practice in Special Education Through Technology, Media and Materials.
• Floyd College: Instructional Technology Project. Two hundred and fifty laptop computers, the cornerstones of a joint Instructional Technology project with Floyd College and Clayton State College, arrived on campus September 1. The Instructional Technology Project as a whole will be brought before the Board of Regents this fall for approval. Their approval would allow Floyd and Clayton State Colleges to require that every student lease a laptop computer by fall 1997, to charge a student technology fee to cover the lease of computers, and to approve the use of funds generated as auxiliary funds, allowing them to be carried over year to year and be used for infrastructure and technology. By leasing the computers the college will be able to keep up with state-of-the-art technology by replacing the computers every two years.
• Laptop Proposal, Southern Utah University. Response to the RFP for the Laptop Computer Technology Initiative.
• Laptop schooling in a class of its own. An Australian method of using computers in schools has sparked imitations all over the United States. Mr. John Sabol, an assistant to Microsoft chairman Mr. Bill Gates, has come to Australia to study the approach. He has sent a video crew to Melbourne to make a documentary about it, has sponsored a visit by 10 US school principals and directors of education to show them how it works, and has sponsored Australian educators and computer consultants to the US to explain it.

Multimedia

• Enhancing Instruction with Multimedia, by James S. Noblitt, Ph.D. New technologies are incorporated into teaching methodologies when they help us do our job better.
• Classroom Design and Retrofitting. An extremely informative and detailed description for designing new classrooms and for retrofitting old ones with an emphasis on flexibility.
• Smarter College Classrooms, a complete source of classroom information, Dr. Daniel Niemeyer, consulting services.
• Classroom Technology Initiative, Baylor University. In an effort to facilitate the use of technology in the classroom, CCIS Instructional Technology has begun an initiative to install computer and video projection systems in classrooms throughout campus. The faculty, through direct requests and technology surveys, have expressed an interest in making use of technology-rich classroom environments to incorporate technology into the teaching process.
• Smart Classrooms and Video Conference Rooms, Northwestern University, pictures and equipment lists. Notice the lighting, projector placement, and technology podiums.
• Classroom Technology Initiative. In 1994 the University of Virginia developed the Classroom Technology Initiative (CTI), a project to promote innovative technology in teaching and course development.
• Plan for Classroom Improvements: 1996/97 through 1998/99, University of Virginia.
• Lynchburg College's Technology Classroom. The technical specifications link covers lighting.
• PennState University Technology Classroom Project. Includes plan views of classrooms and layout of projector podium and technology podium.
• Teaching, Learning, and Technology, Summer Institute June 1996, University of Delaware.
• Teaching with Technology, University of Delaware.
• Technologies and Learning Center, Moulton Hall, Kent State University. Moulton Hall will be the vehicle for aligning educational and informational technologies with new and creative approaches to teaching, learning, research and service. This facility and its programs will drive new models of education, research and service at Kent State University. Note: Kent State is putting in a $2.2M ATM backbone and investigating virtual networking solutions to the problem of dynamic addressing.
• New Technology for the Science Classroom, College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Ohio State University.
• Computer Projection, basic guide.
• Solutions for Higher Education, White papers.
• The BIG PAGE of School Internet Projects & Educational Technology.
• The Future of Networking Technologies for Learning. U.S. Department of Education reports.
• American Association for Higher Education Technology Projects. The Technology Projects seek to promote effective and selective educational uses of information technology and information resources across sectors, leading to significant educational (and societal) change.

Networking

• CiscoFusion: An Architecture for Switched Internetworks. Network administrators increasingly need to deploy scalable, flexible networks that will accommodate growing demands for bandwidth, stability, and manageability, while minimizing the financial impact on their existing network infrastructures.
• The Virtual LAN Technology Report. Virtual LANs (VLANs) have recently developed into an integral feature of switched LAN solutions from every major LAN equipment vendor.
• The Switched Network Revolution. Outline of a three phase transition to a virtual network.
• Making the switch to virtual networking. Virtual networking, or connectivity achieved through logical rather than physical means, is set to change the face of networking as we know it, and in more ways than one.
• The Evolution of Networking. Outline of past, present, future.
• Switched Virtual Networking. Ask network managers to list the top three problems they face, and you will hear about bottlenecks, the increasing difficulty of supporting distributed computing, and a concern about the looming needs of upcoming bandwidth-hungry applications. So how do you eliminate these problems?
• 3Com Unveils Transcend Virtual Networking.
• Network architectures: users’ new dilemma.
• Bay Networks, IBM and 3Com Announce Network Interoperability Alliance.
• Networking News. With the arrival of laptops came a major networking project across the Rose-Hulman campus. Even now, well into the third quarter of the year, Rose-Hulman is working to accommodate the networking needs of its students by optimizing the existing system, networking both on and off campus fraternity houses, and networking the student union. Already, every laptop classroom, residence hall, and library floor is networked.
• Byte, May 1996. Penn State evaluated NT for years before making a commitment. Finally, in March '95, the conversion began. It took about six months. Most of Penn State's client machines are running Windows for Workgroups on 75 and 100 MHz Pentium PCs; there are also some Power Macintosh 7100s. To handle these desktops and upwards of 100,000 users, counting full and part time students, the network has about 25 servers.
• Windows NT Server Product Overview.
• Windows NT 4.0 Server Information.
• Capacity Planning, Windows NT Server Networks.
• Platforms and Tools for Intranet Applications. Microsoft. At the core of the network services is the basic plumbing, including a built-in transport system. To reduce the cost of managing a TCP/IP network, Windows NT Server includes automatic TCP/IP address management with the Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP) as well as name lookup and resolution with WINS and DNS.
• NDS: Novell Outlines Ambition. LanTimes 7/22/96. Novell Inc. last week unveiled an NDS (Novell Directory Services) road map in hopes of dominating the world of directories. Running NDS on as many platforms as possible is at the top of Novell's to-do list, although the goal of porting its directory to Windows NT won't be complete until the middle of next year.
• Novell, Others Look to Fill NT Gap. LanTimes 4/15/96. Novell's NDS Application Server Manager module will help large organizations such as Chemical Bank Corp. simplify the way users log in to a mixed NetWare and NT network. The move will also help speed Chemical Bank's deployment of Windows 95 and Windows NT Workstation ... .

Asynchronous Learning Networks

• The Web of Asynchronous Learning Networks Networked delivered courses.