Students get hands-on classroom experience
Members of Utah State University’s Student Technology Training (STT) helped professional staff this week pull cable through the walls and ceilings in the new engineering building.
“This is a great opportunity to give students real-world experience with state-of-the-art technology. And, students are able to work hand to hand with the professional staff,” said Mike Brazfield, Classroom Technical Support supervisor.
William Miller, a senior business information systems major and an employee of STT, said he learned a lot from the experience.
“It’s great that they let us do some of this. I know I can use it in my life. I’ve learned a lot about audio and video and how it works,” he said.
Ken Bergstrom, classroom media technician, works with students of all majors.
“The students are eager to learn,” he said. “Sometimes the best way to teach them is to have them do it.”
Students took what they learned and established their own style while
working.
Miller said, “It keeps things interesting. You learn a lot. Every technician has his own way of doing things. So you adapt and figure out your own way.”
Brazfield said in addition to pulling the wire, the students will be involved in the installation of the teaching consoles, other parts of implementation in the classroom.
“It’s a neat thing for students to have the opportunity to see a classroom being developed from the beginning,” he said.
Miller was one of the students who helped to install the teaching podiums in the Business Building.
“We’re pulling cable, helping to wire the consoles, just helping to set up the whole thing,” he said.
Currently some of the students are on a lock-up crew. They visit every mediated classroom every night. They go through all the components to make sure they are working properly. When something is wrong, they try to troubleshoot it first, and if they are unsuccessful, they call the professional staff. This makes fixing things more timely.
“We want students to get real-world experience to broaden their knowledge of how technology is used,” Brazfield said. “That way, when they do lock-up and preventive maintenance, they will have a better idea of how a classroom works. When something goes down, they will have a better idea of what’s wrong.”
Brazfield said the students’ efforts help
significantly.
“[Having the students help out] relieves the pressure on our professional staff and lets the professionals concentrate on tasks that are more
difficult.”
The new engineering building will have 23 mediated classrooms and the new Edith Bowen Laboratory School will have 20. This will greatly increase the classrooms that CTS services and make student employees even more valuable to Classroom Technical Services.
“It’s going to get busy,” Bergstrom said.
Classroom Technical Services, with the aid of IT Systems Engineering, not only helps with the design and installation of classrooms but must keep up on the maintenance, as well, he said.
Jonathan Kadis, director of Classroom Technical Support services, said, “STT is a business run by students themselves that assists units in the information technology arena.”
One of the main focuses of STT is to benefit student employees at USU while, at the same time, meeting the technological support needs of the university community. They also focus on creating a labor force of students that will receive the necessary training, opportunities and the expertise to assist them in their future professional careers, according to the STT Web site at www.stt.usu.edu.
–dhegsted@cc.usu.edu