Smart Classrooms: Linking Classroom Design Elements to Effective Teaching and Learning - What Works?
with guest experts Bruce Taggart of Lehigh University and A. Darryl Davis of East Carolina University

Our Tech Talk team and guests had already met face to face, last week at EDUCAUSE. This second interview was transmited live on the Internet for your enjoyment and can now be listened to at your leisure.

Howard Strauss and Judith Boettcher will quiz our distinguished guest experts - and ask your questions, emailed in ahead of time and during the Tech Talk, to expert@cren.net.

Guest Experts

Bruce Taggart currently serves as Vice Provost for Library and Technology Services at Lehigh University. At Lehigh University Bruce is responsible for directing and managing university libraries, technology services, distance education, and faculty development.

Prior to taking this senior position at Lehigh Bruce was the Executive Director for Academic and Administrative Computing at Portland State University (OR) and prior to that was the Director of the University Computing Center at the University of Connecticut. Bruce earned his Master's Degree in Public Policy and Ph.D. in Education from the University of Connecticut. Bruce has written various articles and consulted nationally on: strategic planning for technology; organizational development; electronic classroom design, development, and assessment; and faculty development issues related to incorporating technology into the curriculum and distance education

A. Darryl Davis is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Distributed Education and Academic Information Technology at East Carolina University. He has served in that role since 2000. Darryl served as Dean of the East Carolina University's School of Industry for ten years prior to being appointed Associate Vice Chancellor.

Darryl directs planning and budget activities for East Carolina's distance education programs and as well as initiatives to support faculty efforts in integrating technology in traditional and non-traditional educational environments. He has been instrumental in working with deans and the Division of Continuing Studies to establish strategies to support more than 25 online degree and certificate programs generating 26,000 student credit hours per year. Other responsibilities include the Blackboard CMS, Instructional Technology Consulting Services, University Multimedia Center, and the Center for Wireless and Mobile Computing. A good place to start looking at his operational responsibilities is on the website for ECU's e-Learning Initiatives.

Co-Hosts

Howard Strauss (above, left), Manager of Technology, Strategy, and Outreach at Princeton University, is Tech Talk's Technology Anchor.
Judith Boettcher is CREN's Executive Director.

Together, Judith and Howard will ask the really tough questions—and relay the questions you email to them at expert@cren.net.

Our Sponsor for this event is The Sextant Group

The Sextant Group is a consulting firm specializing in digital media systems and architectural acoustics. Our services include strategic technology planning and programming, systems design and engineering, acoustic design, and project management.

Our clients and their projects span a broad market spectrum, including education, business, and entertainment. The one attribute all our projects have in common is a requirement for high-performance acoustics and/or media applications.

Background & Resources

A great place to start on background for new Tech Talks is our archives of years of previous Tech Talks. A good background for these next Tech Talks (face to face and virtual) would be our November 15, 2001 event, The Smart Classroom: What Does It Look Like Today? with guest expert Malcolm Brown of Dartmouth.

Join this classroom design discussion list. Another special resource is an email discussion list dedicated to sharing knowledge about classroom design that is co-sponsored by CREN and by the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). It is called "SMARTC," although the title is a misnomer in that it is about all aspects of classroom design–not just smart classrooms, but smart design of classrooms. You can join that list by sending an email message to "smartc-request@umich.edu" with the word "subscribe" in the subject line of your message. Once you are a member, options include browsing its archives and digesting, etc.

Practice Theory, Pedagogy, and the Design of Learning Environments: A general, theoretical resource.

The Classroom Design Forum is a rich list of detailed, practical resources relating to classrooms and classroom technology.

The Black Box Theater and AV/IT Convergence: Creating the Classroom of the Future is an on-topic article (PDF) from the latest issue of EDUCAUSE Review. Here's an IBM case study of "the classroom of the future" at Kent State University.

Some good websites on smart classrooms include Rice University Classroom & Lab Information, Dartmouth's understated Equipped Classrooms, MultiMedia Classrooms from the University of Central Florida and from Penn State, Multimedia Technology Classrooms at University Park Campus. (See more like these, below.)

Many schools have online listings and descriptions of their technology-enhanced classrooms: Ahead of the curve in many ways, what George Mason University has to share about its Electronic Classrooms is of interest. Comparing what these rooms have and how they are defined is interesting. Some others include:

• University of Tennessee
• San Diego State University
• University of South Dakota
• Rochester Institute of Technology
• Hamilton College
• University of Alberta
• New Jersey Institute of Technology's "smart carts"

2002
• Learning Centers that Really Work
• Achieving Integrated Workplace Through Learning Laboratories: A Government / University / Corporate Partnership
• Planning the Classroom Technology Project: How to Avoid Being Cut on the Leading Edge of Technology
• Campus Centers for the 21st Century: Creating Stronger Learning Environments
• Planning for Learning Technology Resources: A Case Study from the University of Monterrey
• Adaptive Learning Environments: Meeting Educational Needs in a Changing World

  2001

• Creating a Digitally Integrated Learning Environment
• Planning for the Wired, Flexible and Smart: The Technology-Enabled Classroom
• Programming University Facilities: Making Space
• Technology-Enhanced Classrooms in Graduate Business and Law Schools
• Classroom Evolution at the University of Cincinnati
• Virginia Tech�s Advanced Communication and Information Technology Center: A 21st Century Space
• Vassar College Classroom Master Plan: One Year Later
• Old Buildings and New Tricks