Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Features
St. Joseph’s College: Smart Classrooms Build Tech Skills for Future Teachers
9/13/2002
Keeping up with the technology that powers kids’ lives is a challenge.
In the classroom, it is no different. New technology tools are empowering schoolteachers
to present ideas and information in exciting new ways. To children, most of
these innovations are intuitive, but sometimes it takes a little longer for
the adults to catch up on the learning curve and begin using the tools for teaching.
So-called smart classrooms are only as smart as the people who use them. That’s
why St. Joseph’s College sought out, and won, grants that will allow them
to build an on-site smart classroom for pre-service teachers.
Founded in 1916, St. Joseph’s College has a long history of graduating future teachers and administrators of New York’s children. The Long Island campus serves about 3,000 students, one-third of whom are Child Study majors. There is also a Brooklyn campus, home to the renowned Dillon Child Study Center laboratory school for preschool and kindergarten children. Students in the Child Study major work closely with children and make classroom presentations about their observations and research. For now, they rely on a rolling technology cart to back up their presentations. Next year, however, as part of the college-wide implementation of smart classroom technology, there will be a dedicated smart classroom for pre-service teachers. This classroom will contain the sorts of technology tools the students are likely to encounter in their future K-12 classrooms.
The plan is for each smart classroom to support LCD projectors, VHS and DVD players and recorders, a Polycom videoconferencing system, a satellite download interface, and a teacher station equipped with a flat screen monitor, CD and DVD burners, SmartBoard, and white boards that will replace the traditional blackboards. College staff will train campus users on the various tools.
Says Clare Keh'e, associate director of institutional advancement, “We’ve received a number of corporate, foundation, and alumni donations to fund the smart classrooms, including grants from the Verizon Foundation and the George I. Alden Trust which will support outfitting the classroom for pre-service teachers.” She adds, “We’re planning to begin the process of renovating the first of our 20-something classrooms in 2003. As we begin using them, we’ll fine-tune the equipment lists based on our experiences implementing the technology in the classroom.”
Reports from educational organizations such as the National Education Association and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education point to a deficiency in preparing future teachers to us technology in the classroom. The teach-the-teacher classrooms at St. Joseph’s College will facilitate new approaches to introducing and presenting concepts, using a range of multimedia and online tools. As a result, students graduating from the St. Joseph’s program will be up to date on the latest technology, with the skills and experience to handle everything that’s available to their future charges in the public schools.
For more information, contact Amy Kerrigan at St. Joseph’s College: akerrigan@sjcny.edu or (718) 636-6880.
Recommended Reading
- Sun, Stanford Working To Archive History
In May in San Francisco, experts from leading universities, libraries, and research institutions around the world met as part of an ongoing effort to address a pressing issue: archiving the world's history, right up to today.
- The Quilt Coalition Rolls Out XO Communications for High-Capacity Network Services
The Quilt, a coalition of 28 regional network organizations, has added XO Communications Services to its authorized vendor list. The Quilt represents 200 universities and thousands of other educational institutions across the United States. With this new relationship, Quilt members can purchase XO's high-speed IP transit and network transport services at competitive rates.
- Wimba Classroom 5.2 Expands Classroom Capture Support, Adds MP3 Downloads
At the NECC 2008 conference in Texas this week, Wimba launched a new version of Wimba Classroom, the virtual classroom component of the company's Collaboration Suite. The new 5.2 release expands options for classroom capture and adds a variety of other functional and ease of use features.
- Automation Chimera: Education Is Not Management
The lure of automating workflow online so human intervention is minimized is continually reinforced in the minds of higher education administrators by examples of automated campus systems such as financials, student information systems, and other enterprise systems. But what's good for management is not always good for learning.
- Cognos Releases BI Software for Linux-based IBM System z Mainframe
Cognos, which IBM acquired in January, has released an update to its business intelligence software that will run on the Linux operating system on IBM System z mainframes. IBM Cognos 8 BI was being developed by the two companies prior to the acquisition, but assimilation of Cognos into IBM accelerated development.
- Facebook and Collegiality: A Serendipitous Social Niche
Facebook is a way to greet a colleague as if she or he is on your own campus: a wave at a distance, a hello at the corner burrito place, a honk as you both leave the campus parking lot. Informal collegiality has been extended over the miles.
