By: Kimberly Osborne
Posted In: News
Photo credit: Elisabeth Steinhardt
Dave Spalding, PC technician, uses his laptop while working.
Your fellow Salve students are all around you, staring at their computer screens, typing away, pointing and clicking. Some are conducting research, some are proofreading a paper and others are finishing a PowerPoint presentation. This may seem like a familiar scene to you. Perhaps it reminds you of a typical Sunday night in one of the library’s computer labs, but it’s not. It’s the future of the Salve classroom, a not so distant future with the beginning of Salve’s new laptop program.
Thomas Brennan, director of information technologies (IT) at Salve, said that the idea of using laptops in the classroom has been in the back of the minds of university officials for quite a while and finally began to materialize last year. Brennan and other members of Salve’s IT department met with Dr. Madonna, vice president of academic affairs, last year and addressed the question; how did they see the Salve community using technology in the next five years? One recommendation was to start a laptop program, where students and faculty would all be given the same kind of laptop and could explore in the classroom together. “This would create connectivity in the classroom,” said Brennan. According to Brennan, there are many issues that need to be addressed when implementing such a program. Not only must the university ensure that each student and faculty member has a laptop, it also must be able to provide the infrastructure that a program like this requires to run efficiently. Financing must be taken into account when establishing such a project, along with making sure that the university has the technical support available, both internally and externally, to all those within the system. Another important question that the university had to address when considering the laptop program was if Salve’s curriculum could lend itself to integrating the use of laptops in the classroom. In an effort to find out, the university is conducting a trial run this year. Brennan said that the university equipped about 65 faculty members with laptops at the beginning of this year and that incoming students were encouraged to use the same model (HP model NC6230). Brennan said that about 250 students are currently using the recommended model. If all goes well, the laptop program will officially be in effect next year. All incoming freshman will receive a laptop which will be replaced when they are ready to enter their junior year. “We call this year zero where next year would be year one,” said Brennan. Brennan said that students and faculty members using the laptops this year have had positive experiences with the computers. Dr. Myra Edelstein, assistant professor and graduate program director in business studies at Salve, is part of the group of faculty members who received laptops this year. Edelstein said that she is thrilled with the possibilities available to her having a laptop present in the classroom. According to Edelstien, preparing a lesson plan using the internet in advance on her laptop gives her greater confidence that it will function smoothly in class than if she did so on the server. This is because Edelstein has discovered that different teachers’ stations in some of the classrooms have different capabilities. Edelstein said that the model she received is very portable and serves the needs appropriately. She also likes how it gives students and faculty the ability to find and verify information together. Edelstein also believes that having laptops in the classroom will expand the capacity for learning, if they are integrated into the lesson plan. “We will have this tremendous capability to do research [in the classroom] that is so profound,” said Edelstein. Cathy Rowe, librarian at McKillop Library and volunteer on the Academic Technology Planning committee, agrees that learning will be enhanced through the use of laptops in the classroom. Rowe believes that adapting to the laptop environment at Salve may be a gradual process for some, but she has complete confidence in Salve’s faculty and their ability to find new and interesting ways to enhance student learning. “I think that it is important that the curriculum drive the use of technology and not the other way around,said Rowe”
