In the fall of 2006, as part of the Provost's Smart Classroom Initiative (SCI), Media Services installed SMART Sympodium interactive monitors into several SCI general purpose smart classrooms in the Psychology/Computer Science Building. These new touch screen monitors enable software to be activated by using a stylus instead of a computer mouse. The stylus can also be used to annotate and highlight over anything displayed on the computer monitor in a variety of ways.
During spring of 2007, Technical Services installed eleven more systems in these buildings: Anderson, Art, Cole, Davis, Faraday East, Faraday West, Montgomery, Music, Still Gym, and Still Hall. To complete the plan to install these innovative devices in all 91 SCI classrooms before the fall 2007 semester, Technical Services will be continue installing Smart monitors in Douglas, DuSable, Evans Field House, Gable, Reavis, McMurry, Stevenson South, and Wirtz Halls this summer. A key component to this program is the vendor-led training seminars conducted after each installation. The training sessions have been well attended and well received by the faculty teaching in these rooms. After all the installations are complete, Media Services will continue the operator training on these devices while the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center will present workshops on how to integrate this new technology into teaching.
Technical Services’ staff members involved in these installations are: Mike Verbic, Keith Bisplinghoff, and Festus Mwinzi, with some support from Jim Bollenbach, Tony Del Fiacco, and several student workers.