A “Chat” Sneak Attack

Terry Calhoun, Commentator
Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)
University of Michigan

Here at the Syllabus conference in San Jose, we were all thrilled with our day-long visit to Stanford University on Monday and the wonderful facilities we experienced. Of special interest were the many sessions in Wallenberg Hall, home to the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning (SCIL). There we interacted in several experimental “smart” learning spaces utilizing video, large screens, and various collaborative software programs. If you can picture Tom Cruise in Minority Report, utilizing floor-to-ceiling transparent displays of visually arresting data and moving the data around by waving his arms in the air . . . well, we’re not there yet . . . but these are clearly good first steps on that path. Many attendees from other institutions were in awe of the capabilities and of their apparent cost!

In the panel discussion following most of the day, David Brown or Wake Forest University made the distinction between such “experimental” learning spaces and learning spaces designed with “proven-to-be-best” technologies. We’ll talk a bit more about some of what we saw, but this author thinks that a really inexpensive way to enhance learning in classroom space is pretty easy to introduce and quite inexpensive. I’m talking about instant messenger, IRC chat.

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