The Pandemic Has Deepened my Love of AV
Josh Kaufman, M.Ed
In a few years, when I look back at 2020/2021, what will stand out? The smell of hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes? The feeling of a mask around my ears? The constant search for toilet paper? Well, yes. But possibly the biggest impression will be a year moderated through my computer screen, and the things I had to track down to make that work. At once it feels both sad and vindicating, because I miss the world before the pandemic, but also because it has proven what I keep saying about technology in education.
AV solutions we once thought weren’t essential, or that were out of reach, have become essential to our day-to-day teaching. In-room video conferencing systems, now repurposed to facilitate hybrid learning, are the standard, not the exception. We’re understanding that traditional methods of in-class learning aren’t the same as the best methods for distance learning. Across higher ed, the value of the AV team has been proven time and again since March as we upgrade classrooms, but the real value of AV, and something that reminds me why I love this field, is in the new applications that have emerged since March
In 2019, I spoke about the promise that AV holds for increasing access to cultural resources outside of the local area around the school. I suggested that by using telepresence, whether it’s via Zoom and a live presenter or something like it or a managed tool at a museum where telepresence robots can be controlled by remote visitors, to allow faculty to bring their classes to places much further away from their classroom than usual. And I’ll admit, that idea seemed like a pretty niche solution back then, aimed at art classes and maybe history classes, but it was based on universal access. Remember, for access to be universal it has to go beyond just providing access for individuals with disabilities, it has to consider a wider view of all barriers people experience to entry. And that is one of the things that makes me love AV so much because we have the ability to break down so many barriers, including ones that haven’t yet been discovered.
So how, you may be wondering, does AV break down those barriers? Is it because we can provide services in-person that provide greater access? Of course. But it’s more than that. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that higher ed AV teams can open doors for students to access educational materials at any time, any place that they choose. This is why I wanted to highlight the ability to do virtual site visits using existing AV tools. While nothing can compare to standing in a museum and looking at a piece directly, we’ve seen museums from the Louvre to the Neon Museum adding virtual tours throughout the pandemic. These can be as simple as a click interface that loads the accession information about a painting to rich,“virtual” experiences where the user can pan around a gallery and look beyond the art to the gallery itself or compare paintings by artists from the same period. And that is just the most basic application.
We’re at a point where innovating for access in the classroom also means innovating for access outside the classroom. As AV professionals, we can and must rise to the challenge. Thankfully, we are a rapidly evolving field, and I think we can do that. If you ask me what I love about AV, the fact that we can adapt to changing ways of doing our job, while at the same time utilizing our skills to make classes more accessible would be at the top of my list.
Get to Know Josh Kaufman
Josh Kaufman has spent his entire career in higher ed AV, starting as a student employee at Boston University where he worked for seven years and later moving on to Harvard University where he was the assistant director. He is currently the Operations Coordinator and R&D coordinator at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. He holds a masters in instructional design from the University of Massachusetts as well as two graduate certificates in instructional technology and instructional technology design.
Josh has presented at NWMET in 2019 on the application of Universal Design to AV in order to increase accessibility, as well as at HETMA’s virtual conference in June and at EdSpaces 2020 in November. He had been slated to present at Infocomm 2020 prior to its cancelation on the same topic.
In his spare time, Josh enjoys attending NCAA hockey games, exploring the historic sites of New England, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.