Standing about four feet tall in the corner of most lecture halls and seminar rooms on campus, media cabinets like this one serve as the heart of the multimedia class so many instructors are initiating these days. These simple cabinets contain a receiver, known as the Smart Panel, that allows instructors to connect a laptop to the internet and project Web sites onto a viewing screen for students to see. The cabinets, which also contain VCRs, audio jacks, microphones, power strips, and projectors, are being upgraded to include DVD players, bringing even more convenience and flexibility to instructors who wish to use multimedia components in their lectures. The number of these handy cabinets continues to grow, according to Rick Sprunger, the Classroom Technology Team Manager. "At the beginning of the 2002-2003 school year, 67 classrooms were equipped with media cabinets. By the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year, 114 of 115 classrooms will be outfitted."

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The IET Classroom Technology Team will also upgrade specialized rooms around campus. They will soon equip the distance learning room with an LCD large screen projection system and the Smart Sympodium interactive integration module, which functions much in the same way as the handwriting recognition pad on a PDA, allowing users to project writing onto a large screen for group viewing.  Video conferencing is also possible from any room with network access, thanks to a portable video conferencing cart.

The campus committed to standardizing media equipment in all classrooms in 1998, and  Registrar Jack Farrell explains that the classroom technology improvements during the past few years have been a fortunate confluence of events, timing, personnel and financial support.  As Farrell upholds his  vision and concern to  "keep up with the evolving technology," campus faculty and students enjoy the benefits the effects of the current improvements to classroom technology

For training and practice with media cabinet equipment, contact the Arbor in 161 Everson at 754-2115 to make an appointment You might also check out the "Meet and Greet" sessions which are held at the beginning of each quarter to train groups of instructors on the classroom equipment. For more details call 752-3333. Visit http://cts.ucdavis.edu/ to learn more about classroom technology equipment.

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