Students will be able to take their group projects to a new level with the completion of Miami University's new Learning Technologies Center.
The center, to be located on the second floor of Gaskill Hall, will have its grand opening at 3 p.m. Sept. 18, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and opportunities for students to take a tour and learn about what the center will offer.
The center will mainly feature four conference-size rooms and two addition rooms suited for podcasting and video editing. Carrels of desktop computers and three smaller, group workspaces will be located in the new center as well.
According to Tom Montgomery, manager of the Learning Technologies Center, the site hadn't been renovated since 1999. The student technology advisory committee (STAC), a standing committee of the student activities group, worked with faculty to plan the new center. A student survey showed that students wanted places for their laptops, high-end technology and space for group collaboration.
The center was funded through the student technology fee, which is part of students' tuition and fees. The center was allotted a budget of $169,000, and has currently spent approximately $158,000.
"Since it was funded with student money we wanted to make sure STAC had the final say (in the development)," said senior Sean Weaston, president of STAC.
Montgomery said Miami recently has seen a large decline in the number of students who used the former center, due to the increase use of personal laptop computers. Hoping to respond to this change in technology needs, the center will have three laptop areas with movable furniture, a table that transforms to a footstool, wireless and network capabilities, power outlets and chairs with the proper balance of "comfort and firmness," according to Montgomery. He hopes the new areas will encourage students to come to the center with their laptops, move around the chairs and use the areas to suite their needs.
"(STAC) tried to make it as simple and efficient for students to use," Weaston added.
Montgomery said the new center also will offer space for collaboration with state-of-the-art technology. The three group rooms are called MyStudio rooms because they will come equipped with TeamSpot, a program that will allow students to plug laptops into a main computer and work together on a project, whether it's a PowerPoint presentation or simply copying and pasting among multiple computers.
Another special facet, according to Montgomery, are the Klegg computer monitors built in each room. As one of the only schools in Ohio to have this technology, Miami's newest monitors profess the highest resolution monitor available. The rooms are also equipped with overhead projectors, graphics tablets, and wireless keyboards and mice for checkout.
One of the MyStudio rooms also has video conferencing capabilities that students could use to schedule video interviews for jobs, were they might not able to make it to the company for an interview, Montgomery said.
The center also has an additional room mainly for group work, where students can bring their own computer and display it on a large monitor.
Montgomery said one of the requests of the students was an area for multi-media work, including video editing and podcasting. STAC and the Learning Technology staff responded by creating a video editing room with two Apple computers equipped with iLife, a video editing program, as well as a Dell computer with Adobe Master Suite, which includes 11 programs for creating movies and editing.
Montgomery added that all rooms come with complete detailed, color instruction books create by an English 414 class, which is a technology writing class. All documentation is also available on the Learning Technology Web site.
For students who want more personal help getting acquainted with the new programs, graduate students will be available in the lab every week from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays.
Montgomery hopes students will take advantage of the state-of-the-art technology planned for the center.
"(The center) creates a higher level of learning, one of true collaboration," he said.
Sophomore accounting major Colleen Williams believes this new space will help advance group projects.
"It sounds like the center will successfully help us work better with other students on group projects, allowing us to connect to each others' computers and having every group member participate," she said.
