Instructors assigned to one of the 40 general assignment classrooms renovated over the summer noticed something different their first day of teaching this fall: an Information and Educational Technology (IET) representative was there to orient them to the new equipment.

During summer and into fall, 40 classrooms-located in Art, Chemistry, Everson, Haring, Kleiber, Olson, Roessler, Social Science and Humanities, Veihmeyer, and Young-were upgraded with new paint, carpeting, seats, and media equipment, as part of the Registrar's Classroom Upgrade Project.

IET coordinated the installation and testing of the media equipment, including state-of-the-art LCD projectors (for projecting video images from a laptop, VCR or other device), Smart Panels (that make it easy to toggle between a laptop, VCR and the projectors) as well as microphones, speakers, VCRs, and network access ports. Some rooms were also equipped with cassette players, and all devices were placed in a media cabinet (http://av.ucdavis.edu/media-cabinet/).

As the classrooms were being upgraded, IET set up an action plan to alert and train faculty about the new equipment. "The last thing we wanted was for professors to be surprised to find the new equipment, not know how to use it, or be intimidated by it," says Dr. John Bruno, Vice Provost, Information and Educational Technology. "We needed to be out there to make sure faculty questions were answered and their needs were met." IET also offered seminars on how to use the new media cabinets prior to the first week of school. In all, 33 IET volunteers spent the first two days of classes assisting faculty with the Smart Panels and newly installed media equipment.

Instructors had many questions, ranging from where the lights were located to how to access the network. "Meeting the faculty was a fantastic experience," says Debbie Lauriano, assistant director of Information Resources. "Seeing the students, feeling the anticipation in the air, and helping the professors in any way we could was a telling reminder of why we are here."

"It was hard for me to leave the classroom after I'd talked to the professor....some of the topics were so interesting, I wanted to stay," adds Michael Buck, programmer, Information Resources.

Since classrooms will be renovated throughout the next couple of years, IET is working on a plan to provide quarterly orientations and ongoing training. If you are a faculty member who is certain you will need training, you may contact Tim Leamy at tcleamy@ucdavis.edu. For more information on the Classroom Upgrade Project, please see the Classroom Upgrade Project Web site.