Wharton Scales Up Collaboration in 70 Plus Classrooms
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is adopting new software in more than 70 classrooms to help students collaborate via mobile devices and built-in displays.
The software, provided by Solstice, allows multiple users to connect, share, and control a single display from smartphones, tablets, or laptops using an existing IP network. The software also gives instructors the ability to take control and moderate who has access to the system. As part of the upgrade, selected classrooms have already received flat panel displays.
Wharton’s Philadelphia campus has already been outfitted with the technology, and the school plans to expand it to other locations in the future--as well as link it with its room scheduling and AV control systems through Solstice’s open control protocol. IT staff can also manage all displays across campus from a central point, and see how many people are connected to the various displays throughout the campus to learn more about display usage.
"Solstice supports the increased integration of visual collaboration in the learning environment," said Marko Jarymovych, IT Technical Director at Wharton in a statement. "Incorporating Solstice is a simple software installation that can easily scale from the study rooms to our classrooms and commons areas and leverages the existing equipment we have already invested in. By doing this, we’re able to leverage mobile devices to display connectivity as a critical layer of our technology strategy."
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Stephen Noonoo is an education technology journalist based in Los Angeles. He is on Twitter @stephenoonoo.