Designing TechnologyFriendly Classrooms

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Designing Technology-Friendly Classrooms

• Carol Sabbar, Carthage College
• COTF conference
• May 21, 2003

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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

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Key concepts and definitions

• The technology-friendly classroom vs. the
  electronic classroom
• Technology only vs. environment renovations
• The classroom crunch and Labs to Classrooms

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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
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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

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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

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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

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The Theory of Classroom Design

• Rules of Thumb knowing the basics
• Types of room layouts
• Common mistakes to avoid
• The elusive instructor station

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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

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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Rooms with Rows

• Large rooms
• Wired Wake Forest court room
• Wired Davidson physics amphitheatre
• Unwired Columbia Auditorium
• Wired w/ computers Marquette Sun lab

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Rooms with Rows

• Variations
• Tables or amphitheatre seating
• Straight or curved tables
• Raked or flat floors
• More aisles (desk buddy model)

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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Flexible Furniture Rooms

• Pros Flexibility
• Cons Difficulty of wiring
• Perimeter wiring with smaller tables
• Alverno
• Seton Hall

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Flexible Furniture Rooms

• Floor boxes
• Concordia
• Carthage
• Octopus carts
• Concordia
• Wireless
• Carthage
• Greenville (no pic)

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Special rooms

• Distance learning rooms
• Rows Carthage
• Combination Pace University
• V Alverno
• U Marquette

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Special rooms
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• Wireless technologies
• Best place to visit Greenville College
• Other rooms to consider

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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

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The elusive instructor station

• Seated vs. standingPodium vs. desk
• Movable vs. stationary
• Integrated equipment rack
• How much counter space
• Touch-panel controls

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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

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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