Technology upgrades coming to classrooms

By Steven Ho

Staff Writer

City College has launched a project to enable existing classrooms with smart technology equipment.

Decades of inadequate maintenance and deprioritization of technology have left classrooms across all City College campuses in a state of disrepair, according to Jay Field, the college’s chief technology officer.

Field said that the 100 classrooms with the highest occupancy will be upgraded first.

The new standard smart classroom setup will include a computer, telephone, projector, projection screen, sound system, an audiovisual controller and an instructor station that complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The project will also examine classroom aspects such as the paint, lighting, window shades and furniture.

The information technology services and audiovisual department will begin upgrading classrooms in July and expects to finish by December 2015.

“We will get some more money and start some more next year … We will just keep this cycle going,” Field said.

Two state grants, instructional equipment and scheduled maintenance from the 2014-2015 fiscal year have provided approximately $3.4 million to convert approximately 75 classrooms.

Field hopes to receive a larger grant from the state in the following fiscal year.

Features of smart classrooms

Mathematics instructor and advisor Kerin Keys currently teaches Math 70 (Math for Liberal Art Students) in a smart classroom, which has a computer, projector, document camera, and interactive whiteboard.

The classroom has the ability to record and live-stream classes for students that cannot attend a class through Educational Access Television.

One feature of the smart classroom that Keys finds most useful is the document camera.

“It’s like an overhead projector, but you can put anything under it. You don’t have to use transparency film and turn off all of the lights,” Keys said.

Instructors can save what is captured on the document camera as a file on a computer. When an instructor finishes lecturing a class, they can provide students with notes from the lecture as a PDF.

Problems with technology

The smart classroom includes an interactive whiteboard that allows instructors to virtually write on the whiteboard.

Keys was initially excited to use the interactive whiteboard but stopped because there were many problems with the software.

“Getting it to recognize math symbols is actually quite difficult; it changes the things I write into something I don’t want at all,” Keys said.

Keys said the text on the interactive whiteboard would be misaligned or appear in a different font based on changes in her movements.

The problems can be fixed manually by navigating through the program. However, it is a time consuming process which takes up class time.

Field said improvements in the technology infrastructure at City College are an ongoing process. He encourages faculty members and students to report problems to the information technology services help desk at helpdesk@ccsf.edu.

sho@theguardsman.com