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Designing TechnologyFriendly Classrooms
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Concentric Us: Seton Hall classroom (wired) and Marquette (wired) ... Seton Hall. 9/25/09. COTF X. 23. Flexible Furniture. Rooms. Floor boxes. Concordia. Carthage ' ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation
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Title: Designing TechnologyFriendly Classrooms
1
Designing Technology-Friendly Classrooms
- Carol Sabbar, Carthage College
- COTF conference
- May 21, 2003
2
Overview
- Key concepts and definitions
- The process of campus classroom design
- The theory of classroom design with examples
- Considerations for special facilities
- Recommendations and strategies
- Useful tools
3
Key concepts and definitions
- The technology-friendly classroom vs. the
electronic classroom - Technology only vs. environment renovations
- The classroom crunch and Labs to Classrooms
4
The process of classroom design
- Create a team
- Identify what makes a classroom technology
friendly - Brainstorm and determine which classrooms were
most in need of renovation - Assign each room or small group of rooms was to a
subteam leader or leaders - Each subteam makes plans and cost estimates for
the renovations - Determine available funding
- Prioritize which classrooms would be renovated
this year - Carry out renovations
- Some of these steps represent a cycle which will
repeat each year.
Next
5
Create a team
- Key members (21 total)
- Faculty 13
- IT and media support staff 4
- VP level people 2 (may be informational only)
- Physical plant 1
- Registrar 1
- Be inclusive (If someone volunteers, dont say
no) - Give them actual power and tools to work with
- Implement what they recommend
Return
6
Identify what makes a classroom technology
friendly
- Use reverse psychology to generate a list of
items that are detrimental to technology in the
classroom. - Make it 80 degrees in the room
- Make sure the lights are all on or all off
- Get a dim projector that is barely visible
- Make students have to look sideways to see the
screen - Have lots of buttons, and dont label anything
- Make it so you have to be in a certain department
to use the facilities - Make everything portable and have the instructor
put it all together him/herself each time
Return
7
Select rooms, assign to a team member, and do
estimates
- Many different kinds of ugly various criteria
for putting a room on the list - Team members as representatives of
- Themselves
- Their department
- The college
- Provide tools to do estimates
- Easy to use
- Based on campus standards
Return
8
The Theory of Classroom Design
- Rules of Thumb knowing the basics
- Types of room layouts
- Common mistakes to avoid
- The elusive instructor station
Continue
9
Rules of Thumb Step 1 Ceiling Height
- Ceiling height determines the maximum height of
the projection screen - Screen height lt ceiling height 3 ft.
- Example If the ceiling height is 9 ft., then
the max screen height is 6 ft. - The bottom of the screen must be no less than 3
ft. from the floor so people can see the entire
screen image
10
Rules of Thumb Step 2 Screen Dimensions and
Throw
- The aspect ratio of a normal projection screen is
4 units wide by 3 units tall (HDTV and 8mm
movies at 25x16) - Max width 4/3 max height
- Example If screen height is 6 ft. and the
maximum screen width is 8 ft. - The throw or distance from the projector to the
screen is somewhat variable depending on the
zoom capabilities of the projector (use
projector specs or experiment)
11
Rules of Thumb Step 3 Calculating Room Depth
- The rule of 6
- The furthest person from the screen should be no
further than the screen height times 6. - Example If the screen height is 6 ft., the
maximum distance from the screen to the furthest
seat is 36 ft. - Allow no less than 8 ft. from the front edge of
the closest table to the front wall. This is the
instructor space and makes sure no one is too
close to the screen. 9 10 ft. is preferable.
12
Rules of Thumb Step 4 Calculating Room Width
- Cones of silence
- Figure the placement of the screen. It may not
be good to center it. Dont place it so it
covers your entire white or black board. - Draw or imagine lines that go out at 45º angles
from the two vertical edges of the screen. - Make sure no one is sitting in the corners formed
by the 45 º lines. These areas have undesirable
viewing angles.
Return
13
Types of Room Layouts
- Hands on vs. demo-only rooms
- Rows small rooms, large rooms
- U-shaped rooms
- U in or out, concentric Us, spin around
- Pods
- Seminar, circle or square
- Flexible furniture
- Special rooms
Return
14
Hands-on vs. demo-only rooms
- Hands-on rooms
- Desktop computers
- Wired to the desktop for laptops
- Perimeter wiring, floor boxes, and octopus
carts for laptops - Demo-only rooms
- Wires vs. flexibility
Return
15
Rooms with Rows
- Pros everyone has a good view of a
lecture/presentation - Cons not very good for small group work
- Small rooms
- Wired Wake Forest small room
- Unwired Carthage business classroom
16
Rooms with Rows
- Large rooms
- Wired Wake Forest court room
- Wired Davidson physics amphitheatre
- Unwired Columbia Auditorium
- Wired w/ computers Marquette Sun lab
17
Rooms with Rows
- Variations
- Tables or amphitheatre seating
- Straight or curved tables
- Raked or flat floors
- More aisles (desk buddy model)
Return
18
Rooms with Us
- Pros
- U in has better class interaction than rows
- U out gives instructor a good view of computer
monitors. - Spin around offers a good mix of seating for
lecture and hands-on - Cons lower seating capacity, less flexible, less
instructor access
19
Rooms with Us
- Variations
- U in or out
- Concentric Us Seton Hall classroom (wired) and
Marquette (wired) - Spin around Davidson Language lab and Carthage
math classroom
Return
20
Rooms with Pods
- Pros excellent for small group work, CAN be
flexible - Cons in a lecture setting, some students have
their backs to screen/instructor
- Pod people rooms
- Carthage math lab
- St. Norbert videoconferencing room
- UM-Crookston science lab
- Davidson physics lab with tables
Return
21
Seminar, Circle, or Square
- Pros facilitates class interaction, good for
smaller classes - Cons lowers room capacity, not condu-cive to
presentations - Circles
- Usually done with regular desks
- Seminar/Square
- Carthage
- Seminar tables
- Winona State library (wired)
Return
22
Flexible Furniture Rooms
- Pros Flexibility
- Cons Difficulty of wiring
- Perimeter wiring with smaller tables
- Alverno
- Seton Hall
23
Flexible Furniture Rooms
- Floor boxes
- Concordia
- Carthage
- Octopus carts
- Concordia
- Wireless
- Carthage
- Greenville (no pic)
Return
24
Special rooms
- Distance learning rooms
- Rows Carthage
- Combination Pace University
- V Alverno
- U Marquette
25
Special rooms
Return
- Wireless technologies
- Best place to visit Greenville College
- Other rooms to consider
26
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Covering the white or blackboard with the screen
- Leaving insufficient space for the instructor
- Chalkboards and electronics
- Thinking you know where to put the instructor
station - Not labeling well enough
- Not planning for obsolescence
Return
27
The elusive instructor station
- Seated vs. standingPodium vs. desk
- Movable vs. stationary
- Integrated equipment rack
- How much counter space
- Touch-panel controls
Return
28
Our renovations project
- Classroom design team met and voted in late
April on how to spend our allotted budget - Our group favored basic technology projects
- Most of our rooms will no include instructor
computers accommodate laptops using a data
hose - Renovations were carried out by IT staff, media
staff, physical plant staff, and contractorsthe
past two summers
29
Conclusion
- Visit our web site at http//ulysses.carthage.edu/
classroom - Collect our tools
- E-classroom cost calculator spreadsheet
- CRAP form proposal form and scoring sheet
- Thanks to Bill Hoare, our classroom design team,
the Carthage budgetary process, Ameritech for
funding our research, and all of our host
institutions
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