Indiana University explores that question by bringing together tech partners and university leaders to share ideas on how to design classrooms that make better use of faculty and student time.
While students are starting to gain more access to augmented/virtual reality headsets and 3D printers, a new report from Educause says ensuring access to these technologies is important to students' academic success.
NEC Display Solutions has introduced a new collaboration tool that is intended to include everything needed to set up collaboration among multiple locations. Infinity Board includes hardware and software to "elevate" the interactive meeting experience.
Two engineering schools, one in New Mexico and the other in Texas, are investing in active learning classrooms to increase freshman retention, including among Hispanic women. New Mexico State University and Texas A&M University are turning to spaces that are set up to encourage teamwork and use furniture that integrates with technology.
IT analyst firm Gartner has named its top 10 trends for 2019, and the "immersive user experience" is on the list, alongside blockchain, quantum computing and seven other drivers influencing how we interact with the world. The annual trend list covers breakout tech with broad impact and tech that could reach a tipping point in the near future.
As AV-equipped classrooms on campus increase in both numbers and complexity, have AV departments staffed up accordingly? A recent survey sheds some light on how AV is managed in higher education.
With more employers looking for specialized skill sets, the University of Connecticut's Operations and Information Management Innovate initiative is working to give students real-life experience with 3D printing, internet of things, virtual reality and microcontrollers. In 2018, the program started to work with the university's Spring Valley Student Farm to deploy sensors and data analytics to help monitor real-time conditions in its aquaponics greenhouse.
At Washington College, students become curators, using augmented reality to create museum exhibits of materials that otherwise require restricted physical access.
An Educause project is examining the integration of 3D technologies — 3D scanning and printing, virtual reality and augmented reality — into education to create "extended reality."
In a pilot program at Berkeley College, members of a Virtual Reality Faculty Interest Group tested the use of virtual reality to immerse students in a variety of learning experiences. During winter 2018, seven different instructors in nearly as many disciplines used inexpensive Google Cardboard headsets along with apps on smartphones to virtually place students in North Korea, a taxicab and other environments as part of their classwork.
