Tidebreak

From laptops to netbooks to handheld devices like Apple’s iPhone and recently announced iPad, mobile devices play an undeniable role in the lives of both students and faculty. A recent Washington Post article noted that some faculty feel that laptops offer too much distracting content that competes for student’s attention. But an associate professor takes a more pragmatic view, commenting that given the profusion of smart phones and the coming tablet devices, “The question ‘laptop or not?’ isn’t as big a question as the question of a screen or not. And, sitting in front of 200 students, I can’t really enforce a ban on anything.”

Today’s students are used to working interactively, and they don’t want to sit passively and listen while faculty lecture. Ubiquitous mobile computing is changing the demands placed on classroom infrastructure. The fundamental question about mobile computing in learning spaces is not, “How can faculty plug in their iPad to give a PowerPoint presentation?” The real question is, “How can faculty harness the potential of these mobile devices to make them a positive asset in the classroom?”

The role mobile computing devices play in the classroom is poised to evolve rapidly, enabling room-wide interaction and allowing digital content to move freely between devices. Classroom systems infrastructures will similarly change; AV switching and control systems become less important in a world where students have their own information display screens that they can direct at will. The hardware required to create an advanced interactive classroom is already as simple as a projector, a computer, the campus network, and the appropriate pervasive computing software. The combination of new pedagogical opportunities and lower infrastructure expense that this new architecture provides significantly alters what classrooms can become.

Tidebreak’s ClassSpot and ClassSpot PBL help transform mobile computing devices from distractions to powerful learning tools.

An increasing number of campuses are planning for — or already deploying — project-based learning classrooms. (“PBL Classrooms”) Inspired by classrooms such as MIT’s TEAL and North Carolina State’s SCALE-UP classrooms, these learning spaces are built around team work-areas where students cluster to complete projects. In such environments student participation is not optional; it is required.

PBL classrooms place unique demands on their technology infrastructure. Faculty switch back and forth between presenting from the “teaching wall,” breaking the class into student clusters gathered around their own large-screen and walking around the room to interact with the individual teams. The technology systems and furnishings in the room need to be able to adapt quickly if they are to successfully support this mode of teaching.

Campuses such as Stanford University, Georgia Tech, University of Rhode Island, and Queensland University of Technology (Australia) are relying on software infrastructure to power new classrooms. They and other institutions have selected Tidebreak’s ClassSpot PBL software because of the unique way it delivers powerful interaction capabilities and greater physical flexibility — at a lower cost — than is possible using traditional AV systems based on video switching and specialized cabling.

Visit Tidebreak’s website to learn more about ClassSpot PBL.

Moreover, hardware-focused classroom systems provide a static set of capabilities throughout their usable lifetime; this becomes a problem when the needs of faculty and students shift and outgrow the equipment’s capabilities. Hardware systems also have a critical flaw in that if one component fails, a perfectly matched replacement can be difficult or even impossible to find in a timely manner. (An article in AV Technology Online gives a detailed discussion of life cycle planning for classroom systems).

A new design approach is emerging, one that favors IP-based networks and software infrastructures. Rather than racks of specialized equipment and custom interface programming of “smart” classrooms, more advanced “interactive” classrooms leverage the standard campus network and standard computers that each drive a screen or a projector. Because this approach uses off-the-shelf hardware enabled by standardized software products, classrooms can be easily upgraded as old equipment becomes obsolete or teaching needs evolve. If these rooms are enabled by Tidebreak’s software (ClassSpot or ClassSpot PBL), new features and enhancements can be implemented each year with a simple software installation process.

Learn more about how Tidebreak’s products help campuses create flexible learning spaces that evolve with faculty needs.

The March/April 2009 issue of EDUCAUSE Review focused on Learning Space design, with a wide range of topics including creating a common design vocabulary, encouraging faculty adoption, and strategic space planning. But perhaps the most critical — and yet largely under-examined — topic was the article on assessing learning space design. Academic institutions invest thousands or even millions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades for their learning spaces, creating exciting showcase classrooms that enable new teaching pedagogies. And while campus planners can likely tell you down to the dollar how much each room costs, most have no idea how, or even if, all this new technology is utilized.

There is a growing sense among academic institutions that we need to do more to create robust yet efficient tools for assessing learning spaces. This assessment needs to go beyond simply measuring equipment utilization, and yet not go down the slippery slope of trying to prove a link between space design and something as complex as student learning outcomes. What institutions need are accurate insights into how learning spaces are used. This requires a mixture of tools and methods.

Tidebreak provides a free tool, TideScope Analytics, which uses objective, quantitative data to show actual usage patterns within their Tidebreak-enabled spaces. The data that this system provides can indicate, for example, if the instructor monopolizes the room’s screens or if they encourage students to show their work on it. Or it can reveal the level of collaboration during a class by tracking all the times information was passed from one student laptop to another. When the data from the TideScope system is combined with other assessment techniques, campus leaders can get a powerful understanding of how their technology investment is working out.

As the need to demonstrate a strong ROI on technology investments becomes more urgent, assessment will become increasingly important if the “science” of learning space design is to be advanced.

Respectfully yours,

Andrew J. Milne, Ph.D.
CEO
Tidebreak Inc.