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Managing, Delivering and Supporting
Lecture Room Services for the Multimedia Age
Dr Anne Mumford
Sites are under pressure to make provision for multimedia delivery in lecture rooms and conference facilities. The provision is difficult to manage in terms of supplying suitable facilities to those with the requirement. Teaching staff wish to make use of resources generated through programmes such as TLTP as well as in-house initiatives. Appropriate facilities need to be provided for both teaching and student self-study. At the same time, the technology is moving on and it is difficult to manage a phased implementation to ensure the provision of up-to-date equipment which meets the demands.
This workshop addressed the issues caused by these demands and made recommendations for ways in which sites could be assisted in taking on these new technologies in the classroom.
The workshop is part of the programme being run by JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee of the HE Funding Bodies) to examine the potential use of technology within a range of areas of concern to Higher Education. This JTAP (JISC Technology Application Programme) project is being run through the Advisory Group On Computer Graphics (AGOCG) who run a programme of technology awareness activities concerned with the potential and use of computer graphics, visualization, multimedia and virtual reality.
The recently published JISC Strategy states:
"The very rapid rate of technological change in IS and IT makes it essential that the community is well informed of developments when they are of proven value. The difficult financial climate in HE makes it essential that these opportunities are identified in a well focused way, in consultation with the community, and that duplication of effort is avoided."
and:
"the opportunities presented by IT are outstripping the ability of the sector to assimilate and exploit them. More guidance and education is required, as is a greater degree of awareness of the benefits and pitfalls of technological opportunities."
This workshop was aimed at addressing issues which reflect the concern of JISC, through AGOCG in this case, to examine the potential of technologies and to address the issues of introducing the technology both in terms of the technical problems and the human and organisational issues.
The aims of the workshop were to:
The workshop attracted 67 people from 49 sites reflecting the considerable interest in the topic being addressed and the timeliness of the workshop.
The format of the workshop was a series of introductory presentations followed by group sessions to tease out the issues and make recommendations to a plenary session for approval and subsequent forwarding to funding and decision making bodies through AGOCG. The presentations and group discussions are presented in this report. The agenda for the event and the list of participants are given at the end of this report.
Graphics Multimedia Virtual Environments Visualisation Contents