James Herman

James.Herman@mtsu.edu

James Herman

Womack Dept. of Educational Leadership

Smart Classroom

DYS 116

N/A

N/A

This is a request for updating the Center for Dyslexia’s master classroom, which has not been updated since the Center was opened in 2001. Many technological features are obsolete, which have caused ongoing problems. One of the IT personnel stated that we need a complete overhaul to bring it up to scale with the current technology. The classroom at the Center is used for many purposes, one of them being university classes. The classroom is scheduled for undergraduate and graduate courses, generally one or two per semester. The classroom is also used for training purposes, with the ability for students to observe assessments live from the testing rooms. For this reason, our request also includes cameras, which are not on any scheduled replacement cycle. Additionally, dissertation defenses and the National Linguistics Olympiad have taken place in the classroom. The classroom is often used for workshops and professional development for pre-service and in-service educators and parents across the state. Updated technology is needed for use by college professors, speakers and presenters to meet our goal of demonstrating current best practice and assistive technology for educators, parents and students. If the classroom remains in an outdated state, it will no longer be functional enough to maintain our standards of excellence in current levels of instruction. In today’s world, the university requires interactive classrooms, which demand technology be up to date. If the technology is updated to current standards, we believe that more professors will choose to use the classroom in the future.