SJSU Boosts Student Participation Using ClassSpot
Faculty at San Jose State University use ClassSpot to teach interactive courses in a variety of disciplines. Hear from instructional design staff how ClassSpot became an indispensable instructional tool in SJSU’s award-winning Incubator Classroom.
MTSU Adopts ClassSpot PBL for New Classrooms
Middle Tennessee State University students are learning in two new multi-disciplinary spaces powered by Tidebreak’s ClassSpot PBL software. Faculty are using these spaces to encourage student participation in class.
Read Campus Technology’s online feature profiling these classrooms.
INFOCOMM’09: Tidebreak’s Latest Innovations Featured
See the latest releases of ClassSpot and TeamSpot at the INFOCOMM 2009 expo in Orlando, Florida, June 17-19. The latest feature enhancements to these will be displayed, and the TideScope Analytics system will be demonstrated.
Visit us at Booth 3779.
Learning Space Flexibility Becomes a Strategic Imperative
Flexible learning spaces are not just a good idea, when planned well they can be strategic investments in an institution’s future. Tidebreak’s latest whitepaper, “Investing in Flexible Classroom Learning Spaces”, discusses design requirements as they relate to learning objectives. It presents a framework to guide effective planning processes and analyzes system architectures to identify critical leverage points that can have the greatest impact when budgets are tight. Learn where to invest resources and how to make the ROI case for flexible design.
Read this whitepaper and others on Tidebreak’s website.
Best Practices for Deploying Informal Learning Spaces
Based on successful installations around the world, Tidebreak has published a series of best practices for deploying informal collaboration spaces. These guidelines address issues such as:
- Deploy in areas where students already work in teams
- Avoid deploying in quiet study areas
- Install displays 18-24” above the table surface
- Locate in highly-visible areas to promote viral adoption
- Co-design the physical environment appropriately
Read more about these and other recommendations on Tidebreak’s website.
New! TeamSpot Site License Options Announced
A growing number of institutions are deploying TeamSpot widely across their campuses. In response to this demand, Tidebreak now offers a site licensing program for the TeamSpot software as an alternative to the existing per-location licenses. The three new licensing options provide for an unlimited number of TeamSpot Host installations across a Department, a Campus, or a University System, with pricing tiers based on student enrollment.
To learn more, contact Tidebreak by telephone at +1 650 289 9869 (Option 1) or send email to sales@tidebreak.com.
Forecasting the Future: Emerging Shifts in Technologies, Costs, and Energy Use
On April 2-3, 2009, I joined 99 other executives from technology firms around the world for the inaugural invitation-only INFOCOMM 100 summit in Palm Beach, FL. As a group, we were charged with charting the future of the Professional AV industry in the face of its rapidly changing technological and business environment.
Topics ranged from applying mass-customization strategies in design processes to the effects of mobile devices and cloud computing on installed system architectures. Developing sustainable, “green” responses to both system design and project delivery was another big discussion area, as was the impact of “Millenial” professionals entering the workforce.
Most compelling, however, was the group’s agreement that software technologies are rapidly taking the place of hardware as the dominant element in AV systems. In fact, it was proposed that the very term “AV” was an antiquated label. While the basic areas for design in the past were seen as Audio - Video - Control, we agreed that a new categorization is emerging, in which the design components are Hardware - Software - User Experience.
This trend portends dramatic shifts for technology-enabled spaces, whether they be classrooms, group study areas, or conference rooms. As hardware platforms become commodities, it will be the design of software infrastructure systems, as well as the “peripheral” components like mobile devices, that will shape the user experience and thus the value of new technologies. This shift will lead not only to dramatic changes in cost structures; it will also mean dramatic improvements in energy efficiency. While many in the ProAV community are still debating the best ways to respond to these changes, there was a general consensus that they will open up exciting new possibilities for end users.
A final report from the INFOCOMM 100 summit is due to be posted publicly prior to the INFOCOMM 2009 expo in June, 2009. Once it is published, Tidebreak will feature a link to the report in the “Resources” area of our website.
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “The mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.” We hope the ideas that we’ve shared in this issue of Next Wave will help stretch your thinking. If you are interested to learn more about these and other ideas, visit Tidebreak’s website or contact our team at sales@tidebreak.com.
Respectfully yours,
Andrew J. Milne, Ph.D.
CEO
Tidebreak Inc.