With the recent first-floor renovations in the Warde Academic Center, came new technology which will contribute to further innovative learning and teaching techniques amongst students and faculty at Saint Xavier University.
In addition to the recreational space that was put into the refurbished area, several rooms which could be used for academic purposes were also included into the remodeled space.
A recording and photo studio, two new computer labs – the Student Media Center and the Instruction Design Center – two private editing rooms, and a library teaching lab are all rooms that were created to help promote different teaching and learning methods at SXU.
Inside the Student Media Center – and its faculty equivalent, the Instruction Design Center – one can find 10 iMacs fully equipped with all the Adobe and Microsoft programs as well as two collaboration stations which allow users to connect their laptops and iPads and easily share information amongst themselves. In addition to the new equipment inside the room, the new facilities also have specially designed walls in which students or faculty could write on.
Christopher Zakrzewski, the Director of the university’s Center for Instructional Design and Academic Technology (CIDAT), explained the thought-process behind designing the renovated area.
“When we were designing this space, I always asked that there be lots of color and that it could feel like you were walking into Google. One thing Google does well in their office is that they just create creative spaces that inspire creation and that’s what this whole space is really supposed to do – inspire creation,” Zakrzewski said.
In between the student and faculty computer labs are private editing rooms which could be used for both audio and video projects. Several classes at the university are already planning on using the new editing facilities for certain projects, with Zakrzewski commenting that the Transitions classes are already set to do a video project for one of their final projects.
The technology installed will definitely serve as a fresh teaching mechanism for the faculty at SXU, with many professors already eager to learn how to incorporate the new facilities into their classes.
According to Zakrzewski, during the summer, 160 faculty members attended a workshop in which they learned how to teach with iPads in the classroom and even how to incorporate e-portfolios into their classes.
Faculty members were also introduced to the idea of “flipping” classrooms; as stated by Zakrzewski, “flipping” a classroom is when a professor makes his or her lecture available on podcast or video, students view it, and the next day, they attend class fully prepared to participate in discussion based on that lecture. This teaching method makes students more active in a classroom, instead of just having them passively listen to a lecture.
Zakrzewski believes that these new teaching methods will foster further learning development in the classrroom.
“My goal is, if we could eliminate 70 percent of lecture and change that dynamic into where it’s livelier in the classroom, where we’re challenging each other based on information we find on the Internet or wherever it might be we find it – that’s the way we learn best,” said Zakrzewski.
The support from faculty to the new technological changes has been overwhelming positive. Zakrzewski commented on the significance of faculty support.
“When I talked to my peers at other institutions, they don’t have this kind of response. We have successfully at Saint Xavier incorporated technological, innovative teaching into the day-to-day conversation that faculty are having. We actually have a faculty body completely engaged in this process; that doesn’t happen at many universities,” Zakrzewski said.
Reflecting on the multiple effects that the newly installed equipment will have on the university, Zakrzewski commented on how these changes will greatly benefit SXU.
“We’re now a step above most of our peer institutions with spaces like this. In the Chicagoland area, there’s about 70 or 80 universities of higher education. The competition is getting tougher and tougher; so we have to find a way to differentiate ourselves or make ourselves distinct from others. This and the conversation about innovation is a way in which we could make ourselves different than our peer institutions. This space shows that the institution has made a commitment to the future.”
Macy Zamudio
Senior News Editor
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