Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/62198
Wharton student giving a presentation at a classroom's "smart" podium styles to their classrooms; but the newest classrooms work with, not against, a professor's individual techniques. "We're catering to more than 200 faculty members who have dis- parate teaching styles," says McCartney. "Some like to lec- ture, some like to walk around, so the rooms accommodate that. For instance, the podiums can be located in one of three locations—right, left, or in the center. A podium can also be taken out of the room completely, and the professor can con- trol the room via floor switches." Classrooms in Weatherhead's Lewis Building range from theater-style to boardroom-style. The architects didn't stop there, says Collopy. When faculty were asked if they would mind if they weren't "the center of things," or if a student taught a class, almost everyone answered, "no." So now, the school enjoys an oval room where there's no "right place" for the professor to be, Collopy explains. Instead, the room includes whiteboards that cover 360 degrees of the wall space. Students can reach the whiteboards easily, often from their seats, to jot down their ideas for the class; professors may have to take a few steps to reach them. This classroom's environment promotes active student learning and encourages professors to be more moderators than directors, says Collopy. "When we first surveyed the faculty about the new classrooms, we asked them which ones would be their preferred rooms. This one got the fewest votes," he adds. "Now it's one of the most popular classrooms in the building." To Collopy, this classroom signifies just how professors, who often become creatures of habit, may need a nudge to step in a new direction. "Most often, what you think you want is what you already have," he comments. "At first blush, our faculty looked at this room and said, 'I don't think I can get used to that.' Now that they've used it, they say, 'I need that room.'" A Change in Dynamic Getting the learner involved in the process is perhaps tech- nology's biggest gift to education, stresses Mohsen Anvari, dean of the Weatherhead School. "Just think about it. If you're looking at a general marketing case, the tools are there for a student to say, for example, 'Let me show you the company's Web site,'" he says. "You create a different dynamic of learning." This higher level of participation has been a wakeup call for many professors, agrees Collopy, who relates a recent today,'" says Collopy. "When technology removes your lim- its, the students expect you to have no limits. They don't expect you to use technology every day, but they will com- ment on professors who never bring in a relevant Web site." In fact, many educators agree that the greatest benefit of technology isn't technological at all. In addition to encour- aging more active learning, new technology also appears to have a positive psychological effect on a business school com- munity. Students and faculty at Weatherhead, for example, seem to have donned a new outlook since the Lewis Building opened its doors. "An alumnus who has recruited at the school for the past encounter he had with one of his colleagues. "He told me, 'It was bloody frustrating teaching my class today. I've been teaching this case for ten years, and today I had a student talk- ing about the current state of the case and the company. He was picking up numbers on the Web!' "I just smiled and told him, 'That's the way students are eight years told me that he saw a significant change in the stu- dents in this building over students in the old building," says Collopy. "He said, 'It's amazing to me, the students carried themselves differently, they're more inquiring, they're more challenging, they demand more of us when we have an inter- view, even over last year's students.' He attributed that change to the building itself." Like Weatherhead, NIU has seen a change within its com- munity. For his part, Graf knew a new technologically advanced facility would have an impact on his school. What Graf hadn't realized was just how all-encompassing the impact of Barsema Hall would be. "We expected we'd be better able to attract and retain excellent students and faculty," says Graf. "But there has been a more subtle effect: Our students, faculty, alumni, and donors seem to feel a larger sense of pride when they're here. They're so much more enthusiastic about the school. That level of enthusiasm was an element that we didn't have before." The management education community has gone beyond the point where most students and faculty simply hope to use technology. Instead, the use of technology is quickly becom- ing an educational given, an important, yet increasingly invis- ible part of a business school's learning environment. Yes, today's classrooms may be smarter than they've ever been— but so, it seems, are the students and faculty using them. ■ z BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2003 33