Edge Hill University, Ormskirk: Flexible Teaching Space (SOLSTICE CETL)
| Contact Details: | John Davey, daveyj@edgehill.ac.uk |
| Type of Project: | Refurbishment to create a flexible teaching space in order to explore the use of that space and inform practice elsewhere in the University. |
| Start/End Date: | Summer 2005 - October 2005 (work not continuous) New Build due for completion late 2007 |
Technology
Wireless laptops, data projector and interactive whiteboard. It is a fairly standard AV fit out so that any staff coming to use it are generally familiar with the basic technology. There is DVD and VHS playback and an amplifier. Anything played through video or DVD goes straight onto the interactive whiteboard. A portable voting system has been purchased but not yet deployed.
The laptops stay in the room in a storage cabinet, which is also a charging unit, and there is digilock security on the door. The team are considering whether to take the doors off the cabinet completely. This might pose slightly more of a security risk for the laptops but in some respects having the doors on the cabinet locked almost goes against the principle of making the technology feel very accessible in the space.
Adding Value
It has added value in that lecturers have been able to integrate the technology into teaching sessions as and when it is required. They are no longer tied to just having a standard teaching room with desks or an IT lab. This has also meant that not all students have to do the same thing at the same time; depending on activities that the students were doing some could be using technology while others weren't.
It allows the tutor to make decisions on the day as to how much they want to integrate technology into the session. For example, on one module where the students had just come directly from another session that was very much focused on ICT, the tutor did not necessarily always want to bring out more technology straight away.
