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One component of the Technology Solutions Center is a new laboratory that provides faculty and staff support in the use of multimedia technologies. Dubbed the “Room of Possibilities,” the lab is equipped with digital scanners, digital still cameras, a digital video camera and the latest Web page authoring, graphics production and multimedia software. Two full-time consultants are available at the lab to assist faculty members interested in exploring Web publishing and a variety of technologies.

Rich Peterson, chair of the Department of Information and Decision Sciences, says the technology being used at Montclair State allows him to spend more time mentoring rather than performing routine chores.

“There is no substitute for a professor being able to look a student in the eye and know whether or not that student understands what is being taught,” he said. “Technology increases personalized interaction and enhances learning in many ways.”

Peterson talks of the computer program SAM (Skill Aptitude Manager) that helps students learn by simulating activities they perform to guide them through the process.

“With simulation, an instructor can monitor a student’s progress, stop the student who fumbles, then provide some direction and help through a system in which the student can look back and trace his or her mistakes,” he said.

Certainly among the most imaginative applications of technology in the classroom is a teleconferencing project that engaged Montclair State students and their counterparts at the University of Paris. Under the direction of professors Elizabeth Emery, Stacey Katz and Lois Oppenheim of the French, German and Russian Department, the project presented language in a context that breathed life into the study of language. A split screen in College Hall was used for the conferences and students had only to tap a button on their individual microphones to signal they had something to say.

Topics were agreed upon in advance and covered cultural differences, educational opportunities and questions about lifestyle in a discussion conducted partially in English and partially in French.

Emery said the conferencing, which was one of several international conferences broadcast on campus, was enormously successful and energized students who were learning about a country, not only its language.

“The program, which is applicable to so many courses, is an inexpensive way to narrow the miles between two countries,” she explained. “Think of it. Essentially, the cost of a phone call exposes students to other cultures in a personal experience. The only way to reproduce this kind of learning would be through a trip across the Atlantic.”

Graphic arts is another discipline that has benefited enormously from the introduction of classroom technology. In fact, technology has added to professional opportunities for graphic designers who were once limited to print media but now are engaged in Web design, film and television, video games and much more.

“Students here are able to produce professional looking material for their portfolios,” Luttrop said. “We have 21-inch monitors that are color-corrected so that they print near-perfect copies. Our students are not only gaining skills their predecessors didn’t have, they are leaving here armed with work samples that earn them top consideration in the job market.”

Sotillo agrees that Montclair State has been progressive in meeting the challenge of technology on campus. “Implementing all the available options demands commitment on the part of faculty as well,” she said. “I believe that’s a commitment we owe our students.

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