With the unveiling of the College's "classrooms of the future" professors will no longer be forced to spend countless minutes fidgeting with classroom light switches.
Two classrooms, 101 Fairchild Hall and 28 Silsby Hall, are fully equipped with a plethora of academic technological advances and are ready to be utilized for classes this term.
While the College hopes to create more of these classrooms in the future, Michael Beahan, director of instructional services, said he would not call them "classrooms of the future."
"These [classrooms] are not all that futuristic," he said. He prefers to refer to the rooms as "smart classrooms."
These smart classrooms require trained professors.
"The capability was there last term but a lot of the labeling, faculty training and getting the word around to faculty" was not done last term, according Beahan.
The classrooms "try to support the past while anticipating the future," said Malcolm Brown, director of academic computing and computing services.
The equipment from "the past" includes video cassette recorders, audio compact disc players and cassette tape players.
The new advancements in academic technological tools include projectors capable of displaying images from Macintosh computers and a video system capable of running any program from campus cable services.
In addition, a Lutron lighting system was installed into the classroom in Fairchild which "helps lighting specific to common needs," according to Brown.
The Lutron system abolishes the use of multiple switches for lighting control and implements a preset system to simplify the lighting process for professors.
A lecture podium is fastened to the floor and is equipped with a Macintosh 7500 computer. Professors can now either use the computer for direct reading of lecture notes or project the computer's images for classroom viewing.
Beahan said the idea for the podium was based on a similar piece of equipment used at Penn State University.
Many of the advances implemented into the College's new classrooms reflect the influence of other universities, Beahan said.
The ideas for the classrooms were developed by the subcommittee of classroom development and utilization, he said. Brown chaired the subcommittee which was comprised of faculty, members of the facilities office and members of instructional services.
Beahan said the subcommittee has worked on the project for "the past couple of years" but the classrooms were first functional this past fall.
The subcommittee's goals were to "produce classrooms that had all the equipment and was organized in a way that we hope will be easy to use by the faculty," Beahan said.
In addition, Beahan said the subcommittee sought to create a teaching space which could be utilized by the faculty with very little technical assistance.
During the summer of 1994, the College revamped a classroom with "media modules." Beahan said classrooms described as containing media modules were equipped with a projector for video and data viewing and videocassette recorders capable of playing both American and foreign standard video tapes.
The media modular classrooms were developed in Dartmouth Hall and specialized in the teaching of foreign language classes.
