Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1347119
April/May/June 2021 I 23 Hence, hybrid learning has been further introduced so that students watch online lectures, collaborate in online discussions, and carry out research at home; then they return to the classroom to get questions answered or seek further guidance from the instructor. With recognition by educators that hybrid learning is effective, brick and mortar education spaces will not disappear. However, they will have to accommodate social distancing and mask wearing for the foreseeable future. Audiovisual technology makes remote learning possible and is key to keeping physical classrooms operating under the new health constraints. The COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily emptied campuses and made government stimulus funds available to educators, creating the essential need for BICSI-certified ICT professionals to enter campuses and install the structured cable infrastructure needed to support this AV technology. FIGURE 1: Classrooms come full circle. From gatherings around a fire to gatherings on the internet. It is important for AV and ICT professionals to know how to incorporate balanced twisted-pair cabling into the AV infrastructure to support this connectivity for HDMI, USB, and TCP/IP signals. Understanding the simple methods for recording and streaming class sessions is also imperative so students can access lessons from on-campus or off, in real-time or on-demand. With the COVID-driven need to eliminate high-touch surfaces, ways to incorporate touchless and minimum-touch control systems into AV systems using room occupancy motion sensors, one-button control, and remote management are also covered herein. These standards and manuals provide timely AV best practices for ICT professionals who design and install learning spaces: • ANSI/BICSI 007-2020, Information Communication Technology Design and Implementation Practices for Intelligent Buildings and Premises • ANSI/BICSI 001-2017, Information and Communication Technology Systems Design and Implementation Best Practices for Educational Institutions and Facilities • BICSI's Telecommunications Distribution Methods Manual (TDMM), 14th Edition THE EVOLVING CLASSROOM FAST FORWARDS INTO THE FUTURE—HASTENED BY A PANDEMIC A classroom is any space where learning can take place uninterrupted by outside distractions. Our cave dwelling ancestors gathered in a circle around the "wise ones" to learn (Figure 1). The first schoolhouses borrowed from organized religion, structuring classrooms like churches with the teacher at the "altar" (a blackboard) in front of rows of students seated in "pews" (desks). That tradition lasted until the rise of computers and the internet. Due to the current pandemic, students are back to gathering around their teachers on a computer screen. Before COVID-19 pushed remote learning to the forefront, remote learning was already taking hold in traditional schools and spawning new schools that exist solely online. Amid COVID-19, educators discovered that there is still a need for face-to-face interaction in a structured classroom environment, especially for K-12 students.