Tech lab recieves facelift

Renovations have been made to the GCSU Technology Lab that should allow students to work in a more flexible manner. The changes come largely from the feedback that GCSU students have provided, highlighting what they want, but also what is needed. All of the renovations are funded by the student technology fee, with the total cost amounting to approximately $35,000.

“That is a very cost effective change,” said Joe Windish, lead technical specialist for instructional support, about the renovations. New computers have been added throughout the entire lab, a sound booth for the media lab, and a newly designed Collaborative Computing Lounge is in the final stages.

“This lab is specifically designed for collaboration, to be laptop friendly, and to have a different kind of open comfort than the old traditional lab configuration.” Windish said.

The Lounge was based off of the Cox Computing Center at Emory, giving emphasis to student spaces and how to create the best working environment. One of the changes that makes the Tech Lab so flexible is the raised monitors, a marked improvement over the traditional embedded monitors, which are no longer being used by the Tech Lab. The new raised monitors give students an opportunity to work as a group without blocking other machines, and are much more ergonomic.

“The computers that were there were four to five years old. In technology, that’s 10 to 12 years.” Wade Johnston, technical support associate, said about the condition of the previous computers.

The other labs are also equipped with new computers 10 times faster than their predecessors, and include built-in cameras for personal use. One of the main features that is emphasized by the Tech Lab is the availability of media lab accounts. The major change associated with the media accounts is the fact that they are all now server based. This allows students who sign up for a media account to save their work and continually return to it throughout the course of the semester

A sound booth, in the workings, is the latest addition to the media lab, and will allow students to record state of the art voice-overs. The media lab is also home to 60 new high definition flip cameras, which surpasses by far the previous video camera equipment.

The lounge alcove is introducing a new row of Macs, compared to the public atrium computers. The alcove is equipped with power strips that replace the in-floor outlets that were previously used.

“I like the fact that they have Mac software.” Ann Cole, a senior mass communication major, said about the computers.

It seems that making students happy is a high priority of the TechLab, with student feedback a constant driving force behind most of the renovations. Student suggestions are vital to the Tech Lab’s success and to students needs being met. One of the ways that students can currently give feedback about the lab is by using an application on Mac computers. This information goes directly to Johnston and Windish, allowing them to see what works for students and what sometimes falls short. Though they receive a variety of responses, Windish and Johntson, along with the help from the Student Technology Committee, said they genuinely take the need of the student into mind when developing new features for the lab.

“We read, I read, every suggestion,” Windish said. “I think we want to follow where the students lead.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 11 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry