FHU to Open Teaching and Learning Center, Innovators' Rooms

The newly renovated Teaching and Learning Center and Innovators’ Room are set to open during the Fall 2011 semester, according to he Center for Instructional Technology at Freed-Hardeman University. These facilities, which are located in the Brown-Kopel Business Center, were developed by the CIT and IT staff to better serve FHU faculty and students.

The Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) will feature a soundproof room, which includes a Mac Pro, two displays, a web camera and a microphone; this equipment will allow faculty to produce podcasts and video casts to enhance their lectures. A centralized digital commons area will be used to watch tutorials and house faculty technology references.

Patrick Bolton, an FHU instructional technologist, was involved in researching and designing the TLC. He says, “It is a location where the faculty can work on special projects and take advantage of the more powerful Macs and more robust software. These systems should allow faculty to produce some very informative lecture material for their students.”

The Innovators’ Room is equipped with a projector, two LCD panels and upgraded audio and video equipment. These features will be capable of such tasks as lecture capture, blended course instruction, remote presentation and group engagement activities. Starting in the fall, faculty members will have the opportunity to teach out of this room for the semester; they will receive training from the CIT staff so that they can interact more effectively with the equipment and their students.

Bolton believes that the Innovators’ Room will be beneficial in a number of ways. He says, “This room offers the opportunity for the faculty to develop their pedagogical use of technology in an environment unlike any other on campus. It will allow the teacher to share more information with the student than ever before. It also gives CIT and faculty the opportunity to test what technologies are most useful as we equip other classrooms on campus with similar technology.”