11/01/11 ks/ds

HAYS, Kan. -- Fort Hays State University has a history of integrating new technology into the classroom, and university officials demonstrated that spirit of innovation during a news conference today in a newly renovated classroom in Rarick Hall.

"Today's generation is a more connected generation, and today's businesses require more teamwork and collaboration," said Dr. Edward H. Hammond, FHSU president. "Therefore, we are in the process of creating redesigned classrooms that provide tools tailored to meet these new challenges. Our goal is to build classrooms that allow for a lot of flexibility and increase the ease of use of technology for communication and collaboration."

President Hammond said that because there are differing educational needs, FHSU is creating more than one kind of new classroom. "Two classrooms were built with mobility and collaboration in mind, and a large lecture classroom was enhanced to increase presentation options and interaction," he said. "These classrooms will improve learning and will help to increase retention, which is one of our priorities."

The redesigned classrooms are also an essential element in FHSU's effort to move higher education in a new direction. Dr. Larry Gould, who, in his role as provost, leads the academic division of FHSU, explained the Red Balloon initiative and the role of the new classrooms in advancing that initiative.

"The Red Balloon Project, in cooperation with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, is a national initiative to re-imagine and re-design learning for the 21st century," Gould said. "As Dr. Hammond implied, institutions of higher education across the country are facing the challenges of emerging technologies, reductions in funding, generational change, increased competition, and calls for more access and accountability. The Red Balloon Project is attempting to create a national dialogue and serve as a repository of resources to foster innovation and transformation with regard to how our students learn.

"As many of you already know, many of our classrooms look just like those we experienced when we went to college 30 years ago. Its an enduring model, but one that does not fit the technology of today and the focus on collaborative learning and collaborative knowledge-creation. In the effort to re-imagine our learning processes, we need learning spaces that cultivate new ways of thinking, encourage collaboration, increase all forms of interaction and build knowledge in a discovery-driven process: what you might call real-time learning. Our newly redesigned learning environments like the one you're in right now -- formerly called classrooms -- do just that," Gould explained.

David Schmidt, director of FHSU's Computing and Telecommunications Center, talked about the development of the new classrooms.

"We recognized there is no single solution that fits all needs, so we targeted different solutions for different classrooms," he said.

Schmidt talked first about the classroom in Rarick Hall that was the site of the news conference. He pointed out that it features three kinds of chairs and tables made by Herman Miller, an innovative Michigan company. A team from FHSU worked with David Brite from Herman Miller on the classroom design.

"Students can choose among movable lounge chairs, barstool chairs or movable desk chairs," Schmidt said. "Instructors have students work in teams using the movable tables and chairs. They can gather around the round table with their bar stools or around the square tables. There is a mobile lectern with wireless projector that instructors can use while supporting the teams or making presentations. Dual projectors show input from multiple sources onto a large area of the wall that has reflective paint. Students can choose to display images on a movable monitor or write on a high-quality movable white board."

He said the classroom allows the instructor to survey students using a system called Poll Everywhereto receive yes/no or multiple-choice answers to questions by collecting results from smart phones or laptops.

"Students and faculty who use the classroom participate in research about the classroom," Schmidt said. "There are pre- and post-use surveys and participation in focus groups to determine the best uses of and satisfaction with the classroom. The results will be compared to the results from 20 other universities using similar furniture in a partnership with Herman Miller."

The news conference took place during a class taught by Dr. Cheryl Hofstetter Duffy, professor of English, and she talked about the difference the classroom makes in the learning experience.

"I am convinced that this learning environment is having a truly positive effect on the atmosphere and the learning in our writing class," Duffy said."Compared to students in a more traditional classroom, these writing students are relaxed and engaged. When we do group work -- collaborative brainstorming for papers, peer review of essay drafts, whatever -- they are not afraid to talk and get involved. As I move from projected images on one side of the room to the white board on the opposite wall, or from table to table during writing workshops, students can't 'hide' at the back of the room. There IS no back of the room! It's not so easy for a student to be detached and aloof in a learning studio like this one."

Schmidt also described the other two new classrooms.

"In the large lecture room in Albertson Hall, we installed dual projectors so that one continuous image can be projected onto a new large screen," he said. "The image projected can be single or multiple from an Excel spreadsheet, the Internet, a YouTube video or other application. It is sometimes quite useful to have multiple images displayed from different video sources."

A program called Hotseat from Purdue University will be available to allow students to interact with the instructor or chat among themselves in response to instructions.

"Rather than sitting passively in class, students will be called upon to post responses that the instructor can view or project for all to view," Schmidt said. "Students will be able to use Twitter,Facebook or text messaging to post comments during or after class, and instructors have access to lecture-capture technology that records their voices and computer presentations for viewing after class."

A classroom in McCartney Hall was designed for display and collaboration. "As in Rarick Hall, dual projectors cast their images on a wall with similar special reflective paint on a large surface," Schmidt said. "This room has a unique kind of chair on wheels, a chair with a surface for a laptop and book and storage underneath. Steelcase has named this chair the 'Node' chair, and it is intended to appeal to a generation of students who use laptops and tablets in class. Students can wheel their Node chairs to share desktop space in a variety of configurations."

Because the chairs are highly mobile, instructors will often have students move together into groups to work on projects, Schmidt said.

The new classrooms were funded as a pilot project with action plan money through the FHSU strategic plan. Working with Herman Miller and other companies, FHSU plans to renovate an additional 3 classrooms by 2012.