C-Level View :: August 22, 2007

• 08/22/07

Executive View

The Promise and Challenges of Integrating Interactive Technologies into University Pedagogy

By Randy Jackson, University of Washington, Seattle

Excerpted from the Campus Technology 2007 conference proceedings for the session, "Realizing Your Smart Classroom Dream"

At the University of Washington (UW), Seattle one of the key factors driving AV purchases these days is the quest to create added value in our existing learning environments. In the past this simply meant installing data projectors, Ethernet, and AV control systems. It was largely a capital projects effort with little or no thought being put into the precise pedagogical demands that we were meeting by doing so. This was something that almost everyone wanted regardless of their personal approach to instruction and we happily met that demand. Life was easy.

Now that many of our rooms have reached a certain standard of computer-based multimedia display sophistication we are turning to pedagogical-based analyses of the roles technology plays in our classrooms....

Worth Noting

LOC Funds U Illinois Virtual Content Preservation Project

The Library of Congress announced $2.5 million in grants for projects to establish digital format standards for preserving photos, films, music, and video games. The funding covers eight organizations involved in significant digital content projects, including UCLA's Film and Television Archive and the "Preserving Virtual Worlds" project at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign....

Wayne State Launches Emergency Text Messaging System

Following the example of colleges and universities across the United States, Wayne State University launched an emergency broadcast service that can send warning messages directly to students' cell phones....

NSF Funds 'Blue Waters' Petaflop Computer at U Illinois

The National Science Foundation approved $208 million in funding to build the world's most powerful supercomputer. The "Blue Waters" project, undertaken by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will build a machine capable of more than one quadrillion operations per second, or a "petaflop."...

SUNY-Maritime College Partners with History Channel for Online Courses

The State University of New York-Maritime College this fall will debut two new online courses developed in collaboration with The History Channel. Both courses are to be based around History Channel television series and will be offered for credit, marking the first time The History Channel has developed a course for college credit....