Virtual and on-campus students
collaborate in new IRC
Students in the Department
of Teacher Education at Fort Hays State University can collaborate with
virtual students in the newly renovated Instructional Resource Center.
"A huge benefit to our program is having
a space that our candidates can work together and not only work with other
on-campus students but also work collaboratively with the virtual students
will be," said Dr. Janet Stramel, assistant professor of teacher education.
"Sometimes it seems that the virtual
students are left out because they're in another country or another state
and so by having this space where virtual students and on-campus students
can work together is going to be amazing.""One of our goals in doing the redesign
of it is to try and do a better job of allowing our virtual candidates
to come in and work with our face-to-face candidates," said Dr. Lorie
Cook-Benjamin, assistant professor of teacher education.Located on the second floor of Rarick Hall,
the IRC is a work space where education majors can work collaboratively,
have access to various technology equipment and access various educational
resources."There was a group of us that thought
the space wasn't being utilized effectively. For such a huge room,
there was a lot of wasted space," said Stramel."We thought the time was right to update
and get into the 21st century and modernize the IRC a little bit more especially
in terms of the technology capability," said Cook-Benjamin."We are waiting on the installment of
a Promethean Board, so that education majors can also collaborate and work
in groups with the virtual students," said Stramel. "We have
a SMART board in room 231 so the addition of the Promethean Board gives
them knowledge of both. "A Promethean Board is an interactive white
board that is hooked up to a computer and uses a special pen to manipulate
objects."In the new design of the IRC, there
is a conference room that can be used for students and staff that we hope
to feature an art gallery," said Stramel. "We hope to give scholarships
to our art education majors to hang their work in there for a year."The department will host an open house starting
at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 30.