Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Learn how to make your campus-to-campus videoconferences immersive

Higher-ed instructors are always looking for new ways to make their courses more attractive, engaging, and convenient for students. Doing so helps institutions remain competitive and ensures they are meeting students’ needs. One way that many colleges do this is by using videoconferencing technology to connect far-away classrooms or campuses to each other to provide better access to courses.

A basic videoconference is fine, but students want a more immersive experience when they are paying to learn. That’s why Rutgers University in New Jersey used AV technology to take our videoconferencing program to the next level through our “Immersive Synchronous Lecture Initiative.”

We launched the initiative on our New Brunswick campuses to connect students in different buildings and on different campuses that are miles apart. Our university is unusually spread out; our New Brunswick students take busses between classrooms that are up to 10 miles apart. The Immersive Synchronous Lecture Initiative addresses this challenge and allows students on two different campuses to take the same lesson from the same instructor at the same time, while making it feel like they’re all together in the same room.…Read More

3 cheap ways to amp up campus A/V

Campus A/V officials are striving to justify needed upgrades to campus auditoriums, stadiums, classrooms, and theaters.

AV-campus-cheap

Campus technologists say that college and university finances have largely recovered from the thin times after the 2008 economic collapse, though the purchasing of A/V equipment remains an expenditure that many campus decision makers are loathe to discuss.

Budgets for A/V equipment aren’t falling, campus officials say, but they’re not rising either. It’s that budgetary stagnation that leaves many in higher education at a loss for how to approach A/V upgrades that modernize school facilities and make the college or university more appealing to prospective students.…Read More

Three key developments in educational AV technology

BenQ’s ‘SmartEco’ technology automatically adjusts a projector’s lamp settings based on the ambient lighting and the nature of the content being displayed.

Campus officials must design their technology infrastructure to accommodate a host of different student devices, all running on various operating systems. Now, developers of audio-visual products are responding to this need as well, making it easier for students and instructors to collaborate and share their presentations wirelessly from a wide range of mobile devices.

The “bring your own device” (BYOD) phenomenon has exploded in popularity among K-12 schools, as educators look for cost-effective ways to leverage technology in the classroom.

Developers of audio-visual products are responding to this trend as well, making it easier for students and instructors to collaborate and share their presentations wirelessly from a wide range of mobile devices.…Read More

New developments in campus technology: September 2012

Here are some of the latest ed-tech tools featured in the Sept. 2012 edition of eCampus News.

A new way to measure the color brightness of projectors, and a cutting-edge app that can help save lives during campus emergencies, are among the latest developments in campus technology described in the September 2012 edition of eCampus News.

Our September edition is now available in digital format on our website. You can browse the full publication here, or click on any of the headlines below to read these highlights:

New developments in AV technology come into focus…Read More

New developments in AV technology come into focus

Besides saving money over time, lampless projectors also turn on/off instantly.

A new way to measure the brightness of colors; the ability to recognize inputs from any source, and not just a computer; and the move toward more lamp-free projectors are among the latest developments in audio-visual technology that have big implications for schools.

These developments—along with a wider range of formats that give school leaders new choices for deploying digital signage—were some of the key trends discussed at the 2012 InfoComm conference in Las Vegas earlier this year.

Measuring color brightness…Read More

InfoComm 2011 reveals the future of AV technology

InfoComm brought more than 33,000 people to Orlando in June.

The 2011 InfoComm conference and exposition, the nation’s largest trade show devoted to the audio-visual (AV) industry, in June brought more than 33,000 people to Orlando, where several hundred companies demonstrated their latest AV products. Here are some of the highlights from the conference (click on each headline to learn more).

Companies reduce barriers to school video production

Many schools are building high-quality video production studios to give their students valuable experience in recording, mixing, and producing video broadcasts—from live coverage of concerts and athletic events to student-run news programs. Using professional-grade video equipment in these efforts can be costly, but at InfoComm 2011, several companies exhibited products designed to make live video production easier for schools.…Read More