Classroom Technology
Binghamton University has 150+ Classrooms and Learning spaces on campus. The Educational Communications Center designs and maintains all the technology deployed into these spaces:
The Design Process
The Educational Communications Center has partnered with Facilities Management, the Registrar's office, the Office for Course planning and Space Management, as well as key members of each school on campus to create the Learning Environment Committee. The mission of the Learning Environment Committee is to help steer the design and deployment process in classrooms in conjunction with the needs/expectations of the faculty. The committee works diligently to come up with proper standards with a mindset focused on accessibility, ease of use, variety of function, support capability, and cost. With the Educational Communications Center's guidance, the Learning Environment Committee has come up with 3 room tiers and the associated technology contained in each.
All spaces with these tier designations contain the same/similar equipment:
Laptop Ready
70% of the classrooms on campus are "Laptop Ready". These spaces allow a user to plug a laptop into the projection system in the room. Each Laptop Ready room contains: A ceiling installed data projector pointing to a retractable screen. A VGA connection for a laptop, a DVD player, a VHS player, a Document Camera, and a sound system to provide audio for all installed devices. Laptop ready rooms also contain the Extron Medialink user control system. This is an intuitive user interface system for the technology in the room. The extron panel allows users to turn on the projector, select their source input, control sound, and control the DVD and VHS player.
Multimedia
Multimedia rooms on campus are high functionality spaces. These spaces usually contain two projectors and two screens allowing users to utilize two sources at once. Each Multimedia room contains: A Windows-based PC, an Apple Mac, a DVD player, a VHS player, a Document Camera, a Laptop connection, a wireless lapel microphone, and a sound system to provide audio for all installed devices. Multimedia classrooms also contain the Extron Medialink user control system. Multimedia rooms contain 1 Extron controller for every projector in the room. Additionally, our two largest classrooms have 3 projectors and screen in order to accommodate for their size. These rooms contain the Crestron touchpanel control system to improve user functionality with the volume of equipment.
Learning Studio
Learning Studio classrooms are unique "one off" spaces usually designed with specific pedagogies or experiences in mind. These can be group work set up, active learning, web-conferencing enabled, wireless sharing, etc. Reach out to the Center for Learning and Teaching for more information on booking a Learning Studio for your class.
