Emerging Technologies | HETMA
Emerging Technologies | HETMA
by Jim Wellings, Senior Classroom and AV designer/Programmer- Utah State University
It’s almost spring, time to trample the tulips in our rush to grab the fresh emerging tech sprouting from the sun-warmed soils of the convention floors.
New products introduced at CES in January, and Infocomm in June always excite and keep jaded AV techs like me recharged and thinking about unusual applications. It helps keep us interested in our jobs for another year. We have all seen the news, drool-tested the waterproofing of some of the items we actually laid hands-on, and thought about all the cool stuff we can do, if only. I won’t spout a shopping list of the latest toys, that’s what CNET is for. Instead, I’m thinking of how we choose to implement new tech. Unfortunately, budgets rarely include money for extra products to test and evaluate.
To truly change direction, we have to push against momentum and the inertia built up over years of linear incremental upgrades from old systems to new. The boxes get smaller and faster, the rack space shrinks, but we’re still building the same systems in much the same way we always have. So what drives innovation and adoption of new technologies, what allows us to truly turn a new corner? One answer might be in your pocket. And in the pockets of 1.2 billion of your closest friends.
“I can do this on my phone, why not in my classroom?”
To use Apple as an example, in an unscientific survey of a half dozen coworkers whose opinions I don’t necessarily trust on this subject, faculty make up a large proportion of the 211 million current US iPhone users. At any given teaching technology demonstration or faculty technology event many of them will ask about using this and other personal tech in their classroom, and unsurprisingly so. The devices are familiar, capable, and easy to use.
The latest iPhone offers secure access and personalization with facial recognition, advanced audio processing, file sharing, video conferencing, voice control, and the camera system even offers cinematic tricks like follow focus and background blur. Interestingly, almost 20,000 of the more than quarter-million devices registered on our campus network are Apple devices. Surprising, but perhaps not so surprising. I write this with an iPhone sitting next to my keyboard. Even the coworker I thought would never give up his Pixel quietly traded up.
If I had an iPhone for every time I heard, “I can do this on my phone, why not in my classroom?”, – well, you can fill in the appropriate metaphor here.
We struggle to find the funds to break the mold and add a convenience feature or two and simple automation to classrooms, and proudly show off the results to indifferent faculty who see us playing catch–up. How do we maintain a position of trust as the technology experts on campus when Business as Usual is the usual day-to-day business, and much of what we build is compared perhaps unfairly with a pocket full of personal tech?
Collaboration is the key.
Working with faculty to determine technology needs and applications for emerging tech is a process, and it should happen outside the classroom. We see the stuff, we know the trends. We ogle the latest reviews after bedtime like an adolescent under the blankets with a flashlight and a Radio Shack catalog.
A good starting point is asking about the needs of the faculty, and their teaching methods.
As much as we want to buy and build what we think is cool, faculty will only use what they are comfortable with and feel they need. There is a place for collaboration, evaluation, and demonstration of new technology but hopefully, this happens outside of the classroom production environment.
We are fortunate to have a supportive administration that assists us with budgeting for development and experimentation. We have an innovation lab on our campus to set up, test, and evaluate with faculty the latest tools. Sometimes it’s something we see and want to test, sometimes it’s something an instructor asks for, and sometimes it’s an effort at finding a creative solution to a faculty problem or request. Faculty can evaluate, test, even teach from the lab. After a thorough review and evaluation, the new tech can be deployed.
We can all try the latest app or have Siri send us a hot pizza, but it takes work and collaboration to adapt new ideas and innovate in the classroom environment.