IT Staff Convention 2006: Classroom Technology

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Classroom Technology

Facilitators: Eugene Lew, SAS and Jerry Rudasill, ISC Classroom Technology Services

Notes: Jon Lee, ISC Classroom Technology Services

After a brief overview of the composition, users, and trends, of central pool classrooms by Jerry Rudasill, there was a discussion about the following three topics, with an emphasis in Managing Support:

1. Managing Support: Front line and second tier effectiveness
2. Take Inventory: What Equipment and Services are requested and not currently offered?
3. Keeping pace: Ever evolving technology and service needs

Participants made various comments and observations:

• Front and second tier support responsibilities need to be clearly defined.
• Open and clear communication between front and second tier support groups are two major factors of effective support.
• Similar or identical access to commonly supported equipment, e.g. access to a computer cabinet in order to swap out a mouse, may improve effectiveness.
• Build relationships with your clients:
  • Make sure you know and understand your clients
  • Make sure clients know you
  • Make sure that clients know how and when to reach you
• The Wharton School takes a centralized approach for classroom support. End users call a central help desk, where a staff member enters a ticket into a service management system, and then dispatches a member of the support personnel to troubleshoot the problem.
• Effective end-user training can significantly improve effectiveness and reduce the number of support calls.
• Properly and effectively educating end-users how to use technology was widely considered one of the biggest challenges with end-user support.
  • End-users may not care to learn about classroom technology until the last minute
  • End-users have varying preferences for learning, e.g. method, time, location, etc.
• There is an increase in demand for easily accessible or intuitively positioned USB ports.
• There is an increasing demand for audio streaming of lectures
  • The School of Medicine records all lectures and offers audio streaming
  • Wharton and SAS offers audio streaming of lectures to some capacity
• There is an increase in demand for wireless input devices (keyboards, mice).
• There is an increase in interest for the following items:
  • Video conferencing
  • Video production & editing
  • Smartboards
  • Electronic voting systems
  • Online survey systems
  • Sound-proof rooms, primarily for audio and video recording