4—Tlie Daily Collegian Wednesday. Oct. 28, 1987
Electronic classroom sparks students' attention
By ERIC E. MUNSON
Collegian Selena, Wrfter
A new electronic classroom enables University
students to communicate with professionals in
industries throughout the country.
With the use of a new electronic classroom and
satellite uplink equipment used to transmit
video and audio signals to a satellite students
may now see and talk to people anywhere in the
United States.
The electronic classroom, which is run by WPSX
and located in 1061) Mitchell Building, houses four
video screens, television cameras and an elab
orate ceiling microphone system used to pick up
the voice of anyone who is speaking in the class
room.
"It's like something out of 'Star Wars,' " said
Jun Canelos, director of instructional devel
opment in the Utiiversity's College of Engineering.
Installed in early September, the electronic
classroom and satellite uplink are used by many
different organizations at the University.
The room is used by the University to send live
broadcasts of lectures at University Park to Com
monwealth campuses around the state, Canelos
said. It is also used by the electrical engineering
department in its Electrical Engineering 449 de
sign course, he said.
Under the instruction of David Landis, assistant
professor of electrical engineering, students in EE
449 use the electronic classroom to talk to engi
neers from IBM in Manassas, Va., about ideas for
their semester design projects.
In EE 449, "Very Large Scale Integration,"
students are required to design a microchip that
will do a specific task they choose, Landis said.
During a two-hour meeting last month con
ducted in a panel discussion format students
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from EE 449 talked for the first time to 10 IBM
engineers who offered ideas to improve students'
design projects.
All but four students in the class participated in
the discussion at the electronic classroom, for
which attendence was not mandatory, Canelos
said.
Canelos, co-worker with Landis on the electronic
classroom project, said student reaction has been
positive.
"So far, reaction is incredible," Canelos said .
"I've never heard so many questions asked in twc
hours.
The effort to link students with engineers in
industry is one of many National Science Founda
tion projects designed to improve engineering
courses at universities in the United States
including Penn State Canelos said.
Under one of these NSF projects, a series of 10
vidoetaped lectures are seen in EE 449. These
videotapes show IBM engineers discussing or
demonstrating projects they are working on in
classrooms or laboratories at IBM, Landis said.
While students watch the videotapes, they can
talk to and ask questions of engineers through a
special conference phone line set up in the class
room, he said.
"It's much better to have a live person here
because they are much easier to talk to," Landis
said. "This way (speakers) don't have to make a
special trip to give a lecture."
Students in EE 449 may also talk to IBM engi
neers through electronic mail. Using an engineer's
computer identification code, a student may type a
letter through the University's computer system
and send it to the engineer's computer system,
Canelos said.
"All they have to do is sit at the terminal and
bang away at the keys," he said.
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The electronic classroom facility is available for
use by different University grnups who submit a
legitimate proposal on why thy,; want to use the
facility.
"It is getting discovered," Canelos said. "Others
are starting to use it."
Penn State is not the only university to have such
a system. Georgia Institute of Technology in
Atlanta and University of Wisconsin in Madison
are among 13 universities that participate in the
NSF's program and have similar facilities, Landis
said.
Facilities at these universities are used for
purposes such as electronic plant trips in which
students view the interior of a plant without having
to be there, Landis said.
"You can use the facility to give students a trip
to a chemical plant something they couldn't do
in person," he said. "We are the only university
using (the electronic classroom to get professional
advice)."
A requirement of the NSF program that links
students and industry is that the two parties must
have a satellite uplink and downlink, Canelos said.
These are electronic devices used to commu
nicate with an orbiting satellite, which relays the
pictures and sound from place to place.
Throughout the semester, students in the class
will complete questionnaires to see if they are
learning anything new and if they are improving in
class, Canelos said.
The second and final meeting of the semester
between the IBM engineers and EE 449 students
will be held Dec. 1, Landis said. At this time, the
students will ask more questions about their de
sign projects.
The facility is seen by Canelos as a valuable
teaching and learning tool which should be used
more often.
Now that you've gotten into
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The road to graduation is paved
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Microphones above the seats pick up discussions from Room 106 D Mitchell
Building and transmit them to locations such as Behrend and Hershey
campuses.
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Joi •
Collegian