Dr. Leanna Blevins, Dr. Nina Huff, Dr. Pamela Randall, and Larry Hasson discuss how Dewberry’s design of the New College Institute includes interactive technology that helps to expand learning opportunities for students, enrich the teaching experience, and connect with students around the globe.
Transcript:
[Dr. Leanna Blevins, associate director, New College Institute]
We wanted something that was different. We wanted a little bit of the wow factor, but we also wanted it to be very user friendly.
[Larry Hasson, architect, Dewberry]
What we try to do is come up with a concept of how we would want to teach and then we decided what kind of technology would be required to make that possible.
[Dr. Nina Huff, research instructor, Piedmont Governor’s School]
We’re working on a research project and we had a remote lecture from one of the scientists at the Smithsonian, directly related to what we’re doing. We sat right here and watched this gentleman and we could talk, questions and answers, it was amazing.
[Dr. Pamela Randall, faculty and program director, Longwood University]
I taught a class from my daughter’s living room in Richmond last semester because you can link into the poly-com system and see the whole class. If I want to call on you and ask you a question, if Eagle Eye is engaged, rather than just giving me a pan of the room it will, the minute you start talking, find your voice and zoom in on you. We can see you, we can see your expression, we can see your body language, we can see all those things that make good teaching happen. That pedagogy of connecting with the student. It’s just amazing.
[Dr. Leanna Blevins, associate director, New College Institute]
As you walk through the facility you’ll notice technology is incorporated into every nook and cranny. We broadcast our programs that are taught live here to a variety of other places. We also receive educational content from a lot of our universities’ home campuses. We also deliver what’s done here, what happens inside the building, to a lot of different places throughout the Commonwealth and really throughout the world. It has changed what we do here because now there’s an expectation that NCI and our programs here will be cutting edge, not only in the terms of the technology we are able to provide but in terms of the way we design what we do here. That’s getting attention at the state level and we hope to take that beyond to the national level.
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