Michael Dennehy
Access to instructional technologies is growing across Brookhaven College. More and more faculty members are using these tools to enhance student learning in some unique and innovative ways, both in the classroom and with online learning. Here is a sample of some of the current technologies, and a few that we will be seeing in 2009.
In the Social Science Division, psychology and sociology faculty will soon be acquiring a new student response card system or “student clicker system” that helps students learn more effectively in the class setting. The new system is more versatile and doesn’t use the same type of proprietary software the previous system used.
“The student response card technology is vital to our teaching with students at Brookhaven College,” says Stephen Link, psychology professor. “This technology supports the latest research on engaging students, and in the last three years that I have been using these response cards I have seen a noticeable increase in student awareness and interest. This new generation of response cards increases the ability of an instructor to engage the student with a variety of possibilities.”
The new system is projected to be in place for Spring 2009 and Link, John Williams and Mike Garza, psychology professors, and Greg Jacobs, sociology professor, all will be using the new system in their classes.
The World Languages Division is acquiring a new Digital Foreign Language Learning Lab in Building J, Room J104. The DCCCD board of trustees recently approved the $79,114 language learning lab that will enhance foreign language instruction by changing the lab from the analog to the digital age. The SANAKO Study 1200 lab will give teachers the flexibility to use text, images, audio and video to create stimulating new learning material. The new lab will accommodate 26 students at any given time and will operate under the supervision of Gene Robinson, instructional learning lab coordinator. Robinson led the division drive to update the lab and bring new technology to language students and instructors.
Distance learning and the use of eCampus or Blackboard continues to grow at Brookhaven College as well as across the district. Compared to the fall 2007 semester, distance learning enrollments at the college have grown 28 percent, with the top enrolling courses being GOVT 2301 with 632 students, HIST 1301 with 534 students, PSYC 2301 with 458 students and GOVT 2302 with 372 students. According to Sam Govea, assistant instructional dean for distance learning, the college achieved a new online student record this fall with 4,523 student enrollments in online classes across all instructional divisions. The use of eCampus for lecture classes continues to increase with 44.5 percent of fall 2008 lecture classes using eCampus as a supplement to the lecture portion of the class. Brookhaven faculty are using eCampus to provide asynchronous discussion boards, e-mail, online quizzes, online exams, synchronous chat, Wimba video sessions, and grade book to enhance both online and lecture classes.
Sam also has been busy training and meeting with faculty to increase their technology skills and promote the use of new software such as Softchalk, Camtasia and Podcasting. Sam is slated to serve as a district-level trainer for Quality Matters, an online course design system program and will be one of the primary contacts for this quality enhancement system for online courses at Brookhaven College.“Smart Classrooms,” which provide the instructor with a fixed computer with Internet access, a digital projector, DVD/CD/VHS player, and in some cases a document camera, are becoming a standard across the college. Thanks go to Sarah Ferguson, executive dean of educational resources; Blanca Klingensmith, manager of media support services, and Carlos Vasquez, audio/visual production technician, for this collegewide innovation.
Finally, Tegrity Campus 2.0 is a new lecture class capture/recording system which will be implemented in spring 2009 across the district and Brookhaven College is scheduled to be the second college in the district to deploy this system after El Centro College.
The Tegrity Campus 2.0 system purchase of $250,000 was approved by the DCCCD Board of Trustees during the September meeting with an unlimited license access. This means that any faculty member can use this software with any computer connected directly to the Internet at any time or place. Tegrity Campus 2.0 faculty training sessions will begin this fall and will be conducted by Sam Govea and staff from the LeCroy Center. According to information from the Tegrity Web site, “Tegrity Campus 2.0 is the leading Web 2.0 class capture system, impacting learning, student satisfaction and retention across the entire institution. Requiring no hardware or software installation, Tegrity Campus 2.0 makes class time available all the time by automatically capturing, storing and indexing every class on campus for replay by every student. Educators know that the more students can see, hear and experience a class, the better they learn. With patented Tegrity “Search anything” technology, students instantly recall key class moments for replay online, or on iPods and other mobile devices. For more information about Tegrity 2.0 visit http://www.tegrity.com.These are just a few of the newest instructional technologies, which will be enhancing teaching and learning across the college in the near future.
