Newham College of Further Education, London
| Contact Details: | Philip.Badman@newham.ac.uk Brian.Cooper@newham.ac.uk |
| Type of Project: | Refurbishment to create two 'concept classrooms' on the East Ham and Stratford campuses. The East Ham development centres on three c.50m2 classrooms being converted into one new learning suite. The work at Stratford will begin summer 2007. |
| Start/End Date: | East Ham Campus trial due to open March 2007. Stratford Campus trial site will go into construction over the summer 2007. |
Technology
The facility is all hardwired because of some interactive desks within the unit. The PCs retract into the desks so the desk can be a clear topped desk for normal study or you can raise the PCs out of the desk to create an IT area. They are permanent fixed desks so it was easy to hardwire those desks. The college is looking at a wireless network for the staff so they can use their laptops as their office based activities within the room, but as yet they haven't put the wireless in.
Two plasma screens and an interactive whiteboard (a promethean whiteboard using the activate system on the whiteboard so students can actually work within the whiteboard, and answer the questions live and then it summarizes what's gone on in that lecture) have been installed.
There will also be a facility so that any lecturer can take over all the plasma screens, interactive whiteboard and all the PCs in the room to broadcast a message. If you need to get something out for example in the morning about a fire instruction that everyone needs to be aware of, the lecturer can take charge and promote that on every screen.
It's not all going to be a hard high technology area. There is also a tropical fish tank in the wall to lend a soft touch to the room and add to the harmony of the room. The fish tank is actually a part of the wall structure so as students walk down outside of the classrooms towards other classrooms it draws people's attention to what's going on inside the room and they feel they want to be in there and not in the other classrooms. It was a psychological approach as well to get people to go inside.
Adding Value
The college is in the middle of a wide-ranging information learning communications technologies review at present. ILCT investment is currently over £3 million a year with an IT estate of well over 2500 PCs and a considerable amount of investment in the IT network both in terms of facilities and in terms of ensuring it's robust so failsafe approaches, back up etc. The concept classroom approach is a trial before a hard look at what future investments will be. There will be at least a year's evaluation to see whether it is adding value to teaching and learning.
The physical estate comprises quite a mix of technical specialist learning areas from motor vehicle maintenance to construction through to fashion and textiles or science labs but there are a lot of generalist classrooms and if this concept works the college may invest further over future years to convert more rooms. If they were to do this in the whole estate of 230+ generalised classrooms then at the level of investment that this one classroom has taken the estimate is that it would cost c. £6 million.
