Thought leaders in education gathered in College Station, Texas last week at the second annual Active Learning Technology Tour (ALTT 2020), hosted by T1V. The tour took place on February 26th and 27th at Texas A&M University’s Zachry Engineering Education Complex, which touts one of the largest active learning technology deployments in the country.
The 525,000-square-foot-technology-integrated campus opened its doors in the fall of 2018 and encompasses 18, 96-person learning studios, 14, 48-person learning studios, 1, 18-person learning studio, 8 conference rooms, and 13 mobile carts.
These active learning studios are powered by T1V’s ThinkHub Connect™ technology solution that supports multiple teaching and learning styles for increased classroom engagement.
Participants of ALTT were winners of a unique active learning grant for higher education experts, including professors, technology directors and media specialists from around the globe.
The two day event included building tours and learnings from Texas A&M: how they qualified, vetted, tested, and deployed active learning technology. ALTT continued with best practices and Do’s and Don’ts of active learning technology, a real classroom experiences with ThinkHub Connect, and more…
Day 1 of ALTT 2020 kicked off with in-depth tours of Zachry, which covered the assortment of active learning studios, the Production Studios, and the Fischer Engineering Design Center - where engineering students have access to state-of-the-art prototyping tools and equipment.
After the tours, T1V’s CTO Jim Morris gave an overview demo of ThinkHub Connect active learning technology.
Dr. Mark Weichhold, Regents Professor, Executive Director for Halliburton Global Engineering Program, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs gave a presentation on why Texas A&M built Zachry the way it did to impact the delivery of education. A hint: student engagement and retention are high on the list!
A highlight of ALTT 2020 was the opportunity to participate in a real classroom experience.
Dr. Dale Cope led Texas A&M students and ALTT attendees through an engineering session complete with BYOD connectivity to classroom student stations, allowing interactive group work for equation problem solving.
Next up in the ALTT 2020 program were T1V partners - Jodie Penrod of Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and Root Integrated Systems’ Kevin Wenderoth - who presented on their innovative use of ThinkHub Connect MultiSite. Their use case deploys ThinkHub Connect MultiSite™ for team-based instruction and shared curriculum across Ohio University's three campuses!
Day 1 of ALTT 2020 concluded with Zachry’s own Mark Henry, Educational Technology Architect and T1V breaking attendees into groups for hands-on active learning studio demos followed by a networking dinner.
Texas A&M University proved to offer a multitude of valuable takeaways from their session on adoption and training with active learning deployments, discussed by Mark Henry, Educational Technology Architect, Ed Pierson, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Engineering IT and Dr. Sunay Palsole, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Engineering Remote Education.
Many of these learnings can also be found in the ALTT White Paper, which covers the top 10 challenges in active learning technology and how to solve them.
T1V CTO Jim Morris moderated a panel on examining ThinkHub in the classroom - where different types of use were explained by Dusty Smith, Director, Engineering Media Services - University of Wisconsin and Dr. Brandon Green, Adjunct Professor - University of St. Thomas, Houston. Here, additional challenges like troubleshooting and student access to technology were discussed.
ALTT veteran, Dr. Kristi Shryrock, Texas A&M Professor and Department of Aerospace Engineering Associate Department Head took the group through a mock classroom lesson, followed by a Q+A session with a focus on student engagement.
Dr. Sunay Palsole, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Engineering Remote Education, returned to ALTT programming with a presentation on faculty perceptions and practice of active learning, covering items like what the most popular active learning strategy used by faculty is.
The last official session of ALTT wrapped with Mark Henry and Ed Pierson speaking about the Texas A&M University Technology Committee and how they qualified the technology to deploy in Zachry. Notable topics like who to involve in the process, future-proofing and interoperability best were explored here.
Thank you to our knowledgeable partners and all of the ALTT attendees for their participation in this inspiring technology and higher education event - ALTT 2020 was a huge success!
For more information about ThinkHub Connect active learning technology, visit t1v.com/thinkhub-connect.