Community colleges go high tech

(AP) — Community college classrooms are getting "smarter," sometimes in unexpected ways. Very soon, students will be able to answer lecture questions using that indispensable accouterment of 21st century life - their cell phones.

"You enter in a text message code and you go from there," said Jones County Junior College Academic Dean Shannon Campbell.

When in place, text messaging will complement other high-tech learning devices, such as interactive whiteboards that contain information projected from a laptop. Or video files with lectures that students can download.

Officials at JCJC and Pearl River Community College say the drive to create technologically enhanced — or "smart" classrooms — on their campuses began about 10 years ago and is accelerating.

JCJC currently is building a $12 million, three-story liberal arts building called Jones Hall in which all 18 classrooms will have built-in smart technology capability. It is scheduled to be completed around March 2011.

PRCC received $200,000 in federal funding last month to continue equipping classrooms on its Poplarville, Hattiesburg and Hancock campuses with instructional technology. With half of the classrooms already upgraded, the funding boost will just about enable the school to complete the rest, said Steve Howard, PRCC director of information technology.

The purpose of the upgrades is to keep students engaged and retained, officials say. Meanwhile teachers get a better sense of what their students are learning.

That cell phone response system coming down the pike? Right now, students in smart classrooms are given clickers that they use to supply answers to questions posed by the instructor.

"It's set up in such a way that the students can't see each other's answers, but the neat thing is that the instructor can see who responded correctly and who didn't and get a sense of who is struggling to pick up the material," said Campbell.

In a budget-tightening economy, officials say they have been aided by the decrease in smart technology costs over the years.

"We can outfit a classroom with that kind of (smart classroom) technology for between $1,000-$1,500," Campbell said. As of seven years ago, smart classroom technology cost at least four times that amount.

The new technology accommodates the large number of nontraditional students attending community college by limiting classroom time, in some cases altogether.

PRCC biology instructor Jana Causey, for instance, teaches a "hybrid" anatomy and physiology class Wednesdays that combines online and classroom instruction. She is able to record her lecture and notes and put them on the Internet as a video file for her students.

The video capability is good for working students who miss class, Causey said.

So far Karen Jefcoat, 25, a part-time student in the class with a full-time job as a dental assistant that gives her Wednesdays off, hasn't needed to use the files yet. The once-a-week classroom format, which combines lecture and lab, does throw a lot of information at the students though.

"To go back would be extremely useful to brush up," Jefcoat said.

In some cases, students can complete their class work well in advance of the end of the term.

JCJC student Amy Ford, 26, who studies elementary education, is both a student and tutor in mathematics lab courses. The format features students working at computers either on tests, practice tests or homework assignments with an instructor and one-two tutors in the room.

"It enables people to learn at their own pace," Ford said. "I'm more hands-on. If I can sit down and do it, then I feel like I'm able to learn more by just applying it."

"Some (students) like it; some don't like it," she added. "Some people say they learn more in a lecture."

Smart technology-aided teaching doesn't always represent an advance over the past.

JCJC history instructor Carson Atwood, 34, found that his use of PowerPoint slides to convey information was making him unnecessary.

"I tried PowerPoint to facilitate lectures in the past and I found that the students weren't listening to me. They were just writing down what was on the PowerPoint," Atwood said. "That isn't teaching."

Atwood said his solution was to use fill-in-the-blank guided notes with clues provided in the lectures. The process helps speed up the transmission of information and focus on what the students "aren't getting."

"The most beneficial thing that technology has done for me is to allow me more time to discuss the material, more time to field questions, which allows us to deviate from the traditional structured setting of a classroom," he said.

Causey, 30, said she has seen mostly positive response as well, adding the advances in K-12 education have conditioned many students to expect the smart technology when they get to college.

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Information from: Hattiesburg American, http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com