By Rebecca V. Frazee and Lisa Stephens of FLEXspace.org, featuring Andrew “Drew” Tucci, Director of Educational Communications at SUNY Binghamton University; and Marta Scoppa, National Sales Director, Wolfvision, Inc.
To browse details, images, floor plans, and more from spaces featured in this column, plus hundreds more, log in to FLEXspace.org and visit the Gallery “HEAV – Higher Ed AV Magazine Feature”
Everyone in education seems to share common symptoms around this time of year. An odd mix of gratitude for those of us in cooler climates to feel warmth infiltrate our classrooms, back yards, and cars – anticipating summer around the corner, and graduations wrapping up – all coupled with exhaustion that’s difficult to describe.
The Finish Line is the Start Line!
AV/IT Design and Install teams are likely walking into the shipping/receiving rooms multiple times a day to see what the supply chain hath wrought! Some equipment was so late for specialty applications that when boxes arrived a year after the order, it launched me into a state of wonder… Oh yea… that annotator I ordered… Now I remember! Darn COVID!
FLEXspace continues to be a useful tool even after equipment is ordered and space is identified for a refresh. Just browsing through the tile view sometimes inspires a different configuration than planned or the addition of tools not previously planned.
What are the Challenges this Summer?
The SUNY System is huge… 64 campuses all reporting up to a Chancellor who reports to the Governor. FLEXspace.org originated from SUNY as a system-level directive from the system Provost who said, “We’re spending millions of taxpayer dollars building and renovating classrooms – can’t we find a more effective way to share pictures and design details with each other?”
Enter EdToa! The Education Technology Officers Association is a New York State SUNY professional association that meets regularly to share ideas and “compare notes” on AV and classroom technology support issues.
Meeting in person this year for SUNY Conferences, as well as Infocomm and others, is a welcome return for the “Edtoans” to get back together, share a beverage and sit around the firepit with “can you top this?” stories.
Drew Tucci, SUNY Binghamton: “I took great pride in our partnership with campus facilities regarding our ability to schedule dozens of construction projects; all precisely timed to match trades labor, tech installs, construction efforts, etc.. Supply-chain issues have completely up-ended this model. We’re now largely a “build it as soon as we get the last piece” shop. I’m now in the position of calling the customer and saying “Hey we finally got that last piece of hardware…can I get started in there this afternoon?” Campus scheduling rarely works that way. I’m stressed that this will probably take a few years to fully work itself out… but I’m REALLY stressed to think this may be the “new normal.”
Further complicating summer installs is receiving partial packages. For example, receiving microphones but not the transmitters/belt packs. Drew continued, “I’m now starting to weigh the risks of ordering equipment out a couple of years against the risk of obsolescence. Sometimes larger orders seem to get processed faster. This really changes our funding models too.”
Wireless, Security, and Chalkboards… Oh My!
Obviously, if we could connect multiple devices for shared screens and display, that’s ideal! A number of campuses have experimented with Air Media, Apple, and Cynap – hoping to land on the right combo while keeping the peace with the network folks.
Speaking of Cynap, shout out to George Chacko and the Pace University team for hosting an ETC (formerly CCUMC) regional get-together to talk about classroom design and innovation, with a touch of VR (courtesy of Joe Way and the USC team). Marta Scoppa and her colleague Jason Dovel were there with the new Cynap system, so we asked them what the value-add is for the new Cynap Pro?
“Think of Cynap Pro as an “all-in-one” powerful content aggregator, providing users with a wireless presentation, collaboration, and web conferencing solutions capable of simultaneously supporting collaboration for both in-person and remote participants in classrooms and lecture halls.
Our Cynap Pro is meant to be the AV centerpiece of a classroom, affording users a much smaller hardware footprint, by eliminating rack space without sacrificing any of the functionality in the room. With the latest addition of vSolution COMPOSER, Cynap Pro can now be used to create, organize and manage unique content in academic spaces that utilize dual projectors or dual displays, again, eliminating the need for complex hardware setup. We are super excited to show off this latest addition to the Cynap product line at Infocomm and later at the SUNY Conference in Lake Placid.”
The thought of eliminating rack space is reason enough to consider the new Cynap Pro, but many of the campuses using Wolfvision products over the years have been really happy with the general durability and reliability of their entire product line. Many professors during the pandemic would just turn the wolf head and point it directly to them for a “head and shoulders shot” at the teaching station to have an occasional presence in remote classes if they didn’t have access to rooms designed for capture, let alone HyFlex!
The Conference on Instruction and Technology (CIT) at SUNY Oswego this year provided some insight into how faculty are dealing with two key issues: the refinement of HyFlex and the onslaught of interest and concern with AI. The University at Buffalo has a new AI institute that is focusing on these concerns with a summer workshop, as well as a SUNY-wide Task Group that aims to get input from multiple campuses/disciplines.
FLEXspace 3.0 on the Horizon!
Last but not least – our next column is likely to describe some more detail about the new FLEXspace 3.0 portal in development. Many thanks to all who have filled out the ongoing survey feedback form on the flexspace.org website and many who participated in the KWALL-led focus groups defining personas as users, partners, architects, AV/IT integrators, and faculty! To be honest, I wasn’t completely convinced initially that we needed to go through this exercise in order to migrate from Drupal 7 to 9… but I’m glad KWALL provided a sound rationale… and in the end, it’s much easier for people to provide candid feedback about the strengths and less-so of FLEXspace when your co-authors (Rebecca and Lisa) aren’t in the room.
Yes, we’re guilty of being a little “over-invested” in the adolescence of the portal growing up… it’s taken nearly a decade to get us to an incredible level of early maturity, and we can’t wait to see your response to the wireframes and mobile platform, as well as LSRS integration! We anticipate a production rollout (or darn close) by EDUCAUSE and A4LE in Chicago. Perhaps we’ll have access to clickable wireframes by SCUP in Cleveland by early August!
Guest Contributors
Andrew “Drew” Tucci
Andrew “Drew” Tucci, Director of Educational Communications at SUNY Binghamton University and long-time member and officer of the SUNY Education Technology Officers Association
Marta Scoppa
Marta Scoppa, National Sales Director at WolfVision, Inc (marta.scoppa@wolfvision.us)Website: wolfvision.com
The FLEXspace Team
LISA STEPHENS, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean, Digital & Online Education
School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, The University at Buffalo
Project Director, FLEXspace.org
Lisa serves as Assistant Dean at the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences leading the Office of Digital & Online Education, and also serves as Senior Strategist for Academic Innovation in the Office of the SUNY Provost. She enjoys an appointment in the UB Department of Communication as an Adjunct Associate Professor. Her SUNY portfolio includes leadership of FLEXspace.org™ and serves as the SUNY Partner Manager for Coursera.
REBECCA V. FRAZEE, Ph.D.
Faculty, Learning Design & Technology Program
San Diego State University
Associate Director, FLEXspace.org
Dr. Rebecca Vaughan Frazee recently joined the University of California San Francisco as a Digital Equity Education Analyst, helping the IT Education team ensure equitable provisioning of a robust teaching and learning environment to meet the needs of the UCSF faculty and students and serve the UCSF education mission. Rebecca is a former faculty member in the Learning Design and Technology program at San Diego State University, School of Journalism and Media Studies where she taught for over 15 years and served as a faculty peer mentor. ]
The Flexible Learning Environments eXchange (FLEXspace.org) is an award-winning community and open digital repository for higher ed that houses a growing collection of user-contributed content “by campuses for campuses,” with detailed examples of formal and informal learning spaces ranging from multimedia studios, maker spaces, computer labs, hybrid/flexible classrooms, and huddle spaces to large exhibit spaces, simulation labs and renovated lecture halls. FLEXspace was launched in 2012 as a collaboration between SUNY, the CSU Cal State University system, and Foothill-DeAnza Community College District and has since grown to include over 5000 members from 1400 campuses around the world, with PennState joining the partnership in 2019. FLEXspace won the Campus Technology Innovators Award in 2016, and the California Higher Education (CHEC) Collaborative Conference Focus on Efficiency Award in 2018.
FLEXspace users include practitioners, experts, and decision-makers in higher education, K-12, libraries, and museums who are focused on campus planning and facilities, learning technology, A/V systems integration, instructional design, teaching, and research. The FLEXspace portal provides a sophisticated suite of features that enables users to document and showcase their own campus learning spaces, share research, best practices, and tools for planning.