Title: The “Intelligent Classroom”: changing teaching and learning with an evolving technological environment - ScienceDirect
Headings: The “Intelligent Classroom”: changing teaching and learning with an evolving technological environment
Computers & Education
The “Intelligent Classroom”: changing teaching and learning with an evolving technological environment
Abstract
Keywords
1. Design and development
1.1. The pedagogy/engineering interaction
1.2. What difference does collaboration make?
1.3. New features for the Intelligent Classroom
1.4. Technical difficulties
2. The Intelligent Classroom: student reactions
2.1. Student access to recorded lectures
2.2. Questionnaire results
3. Professors' reactions
4. Future work
4.1. Impact outside of MC13
References

Content: This paper reports on a project that is changing the teaching and learning environment in the Engineering Faculty at McGill University, a research-intensive North American university. The use of technology in its myriad forms is having a significant impact on the nature of the physical and pedagogical learning environment in which post-secondary students are operating. The movement towards interactive technologies as tools for learning is accompanied by a call for developmental research in this area, i.e. research “focused on the invention and improvement of creative approaches to enhancing human communication, learning, and performance through the use of interactive learning technologies” ( Reeves, 1999, p. 18). While much of the discussion surrounding the use of the Web in higher education focuses on innovative practices in distance education, there is a growing trend towards a mixed-mode approach, with telelearning components being integrated into traditional, face-to-face courses ( Bracewell, Breuleux, Laferrière, Benoit, & Abdous, 1998 ). At least in Québec, the short-term vision is that in 2010, most university-level teaching will still be campus-based, and this means that “re-designing” the classroom 1 is an area that warrants significant attention ( CREPUQ, 1999 ). This focus on classroom-based education, with technology supporting an enriched presentation environment and review capabilities rather than playing a primary teaching role, either synchronously or asynchronously, means that the work done on using video in teaching is not applicable. Because of the complexity of the computing environments being developed, most work has focused simply on the creation of workable evaluation prototypes, and has only recently begun to examine the impacts on teaching and learning ( Abowd, 1999 ). One example of an enriched teaching environment is the “Intelligent Classroom” project ( http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/∼jer/projects/iroom ). 2 This project addresses three main teaching and learning concerns: facilitating professors' use of a variety of presentation modes in class by creating a transparent interface for managing the environment;