Newsletter # 9 /June - July 2005
Classroom Technology Survey Results

The axiUm Ortho module has been rolled out successfully in the Grad Ortho clinics on June 30. The Dental Informatics staff wishes to thank Debbie Stambaugh and Jennifer Peterson for their valuable help in making it possible: with enthusiasm, attention to detail and performing such tasks as cleaning and mapping the data.
News Flash!
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We asked the faculty how to improve the technology they use in classrooms so that they can focus their classroom time on quality teaching rather than on operating the equipment. Thirty-eight people answered the ninety-nine questions in the online survey. We apologize to the two faculty who answered all the questions only to be unable to submit their responses, due to server failure.
  • 80% answered that when problems with audio-visual equipment occur they are quickly and adequately resolved ("John Squires is indispensable.")
  • the new pre-clinic lab is great
  • the Ortho Library seminar room is a model for the school
  • 71 % voted Kellogg Auditorium as the least favorite lecture hall ("a disgrace")
  • some data projectors have poor resolution and odd colors
  • LCD projector in most used lecture hall appalling
Based on the survey responses, Dental Informatics is planning to work to:

HIGH PRIORITY

  • upgrade equipment in G390 and G378
  • identify and train students for technical support in each class
  • add remote mice to classroom computers
  • train faculty

  • Seminar rooms

    • a projector in every room
    • DVD/VCR in every room
    • slide projectors are decreasing in importance (28% voted to remove them)

  • Lecture halls

    • keep projectors up-to-date (most important piece of equipment)
    • retain both Macs and PCs
    • ensure USB ports on front of all machines
    • phase out zip disks
    • make the podium laptop friendly
    • install only high resolution document cameras (low resolution cameras are useless)

For all classrooms:

  • standardize equipment
  • provide better documentation: written instructions should fit on one page (laminated or glued on cardboard to make it difficult to disappear); label the equipment with numbers ; include basic software instructions
  • training for faculty and students at the start of classes

MEDIUM PRIORITY

  • create classroom website (with functionality chart)
  • renovate Kellogg Auditorium, G378 and G390, 1033 (in this order, as funding allows)
  • add videoconferencing
  • NOT replace slide projectors when they break

    Seminar Rooms

    • add wireless access
    • add computers

MORE GOALS

  • phase in Life Cycle Plan to guarantee standardized equipment, upgraded every four years
  • pilot PPT files stored/accessed on central server
  • a data projector in every seminar room by the end of the 2008-2009 academic year
  • create a plan to upgrade the network including phasing in wireless in the classrooms
Write to us at DINewsletter@umich.edu.