Technology opens door for advancing research, teaching and public service

Last fall, the Department opened its high-tech conference room in Joseph R. Pearson Hall on the Lawrence Campus. The room is equipped with interactive video conferencing (IVC) capability and a 52-inch plasma television, as well as many other useful technology features.

Department chair Chriss Walther-Thomas and Advanced Learning Technologies in Education Consortium (ALTEC) staff led the implementation of this project. Some of the room's new capabilities include: incoming video can be recorded digitally; classes can be taught in Room 550 and up to four remote sites can simultaneously participate via IVC; Visual Concert technology allows visuals such as PowerPoint slides, streaming video, and web-based graphics to accompany live video conference transmissions so that a presenter is able to supplement his or her presentation with an almost unlimited variety of multimedia functions.

In addition, Room 550 is equipped with an Interwrite tablet, a clipboard-size interface enabling the user to supplement slides and other graphics that are projected on the screen and/or plasma TV or transmitted via IVC/Visual Concert with text and graphic illustrations that can remain static or be manipulated similar to a SmartBoard in ability but easy to carry around the room. Text that is hand-written on the Interwrite tablet can also be digitized into typewritten font and uploaded to computer files such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

"Room 550 has brought the Department of Special Education into a stage where we can communicate face to face with anyone, anywhere," said Deb Griswold, practicum coordinator for the Department.

"For example, this past semester we were able to  consult with colleagues from out of state, such as Matt McNiff, a behavior consultant in a rural Nebraska school district," said Griswold. "Becoming acquainted at a conference where students and faculty from our Department presented on the use of IVC, Matt shared that he used the same technology to observe student behavior in his district. We decided to keep in touch! Once room 550 was up and running, we "called" Matt on the internet using our polycom and made plans to collaborate on a study. In addition we have invited Matt to field questions during a class session with our Master's students. Matt was at his home in Nebraska, talking to KU students in real time."

A great benefit of the high-tech conference room, according to Griswold, has been the ability for students at the Kansas City Edwards campus and the Lawrence campus to partcipate simultaneously in a class or special lecture. "The technology in the JRP conference room in conjunction with like technology at the Edwards Campus enables guest speakers to participate with our students from the campus that is most convenient for them," said Griswold.

Trish Steinbrecher, special education doctoral student and one of the Department's practicum supervisors, said, "The high-tech conference room has provided a vehicle for delivering practicum course content between the Lawrence and Edwards campus. As transportation costs continue to escalate, the technology employed in this conference room will result in decreased costs for students and the university."

"In the future, it is hoped that many of the observations conducted by practicum supervisors in a face to face format will be performed via IVC," said Steinbrecher. "This will reduce departmental costs and may result in 'truer' observations since observation effect might be reduced," she explained.

The Department has used internet-based IVC technology—a live, two-way audio and video transmission over an Ethernet line—for approximately five years. With Room 550 up and running, teaching classes, coaching teachers, conducting research and creating virtual field experiences for students can be accomplished across physically separate sites. While Department faculty have been involved in each of these kinds of endeavors, the Department anticipates an expansion of these instructional innovations to advance teaching, research, and public service on the part of its faculty and students.

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Special Education
Joseph R. Pearson Hall,
Rm. 521
1122 West Campus Rd.
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66045 3101

phone: (785) 864-0556
fax: (785) 864-4149
kuseconnect@ku.edu

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