Student Computing Creates New Residential "Collaboratory" at Wilbur Hall
by Allan Chen and Rich Holeton
Working with Residential Education, Student Housing, and the Symbolic Systems Program, Student Computing has created a new high-technology collaborative space, the "CoLab," at Arroyo House, Wilbur Hall.
In 2006-07, Arroyo House, home to about 90 upper-class undergraduates, became the Symbolic Systems and Related Majors Focus House. Residential Education's focus houses feature special programs or intellectual themes, supported by the Resident Fellow (RF), Resident Assistants, and Focus Assistants. Arroyo's focus on "Mind and Intelligence" is led by RF Todd Davies, Associate Director of Symbolic Systems, and is aimed at students majoring or minoring in symbolic systems, computer science, psychology, linguistics, or communication.
To promote collaboration around this interdisciplinary focus, and to create an in-house teaching space for small seminars, Student Computing designed flexible technology spaces in Arroyo to support group work, individual study, and "on-the-go" computing. To accommodate these needs, the existing computer cluster had to be remodeled and reconfigured. First, the room was split, with about two-thirds of the space dedicated to the inner room. The outer room remained a mini-computer cluster, featuring desktop-replacement workstations and a printer, reducing the number of those machines from five to four.
CoLab for Small Seminars
The inner room is the CoLab, visible through the newly constructed wall via a window intended to create a sense of "transparency" between the two spaces. The CoLab features three wheeled, collapsible tables that combine space efficiency, as-you-need-them surfaces, and sturdy design. Chairs, while without wheels, are designed to be stacked quickly without taking up much room. This allows students to meet in groups of varying sizes, and for classes to be taught in the space.
Whiteboards cover the walls, and Huddle Boards, from Polyvision, offer a light-weight, removable "mini-whiteboard" option for groups to meet in different parts of the room while still being able to display them on the larger board via a set of hooks that suspend them from rails. Finally, two 37-inch Dell LCD displays allow students working in groups to plug in a laptop and share work without huddling over each other's shoulders. These displays can be moved around the room via rolling Ergotron stands.
Overall, the room offers a powerful combination of both high and low-tech tools, implemented so as to maximize their use while decreasing their support needs.
"Twenty-first century education is much more collaborative than when I was a student in the previous millennium, and dorm spaces like this are really needed," says Prof. Davies. "The CoLab has often been occupied with students discussing projects or practicing presentations." The Arroyo staff has instituted a reservation system prioritizing group work in the CoLab, and a student-initiated dorm seminar will be held there during Spring Quarter.
WebStations in Lobby Area and Cluster Changes
To complement the now-reduced number of full-service computers in the cluster, Student Computing has added two WebStations in the high-traffic foyer, the lobby entrance area, of Arroyo. Intended for "quick-hit" access, WebStations offer only a Web browser and media players/readers (Acrobat, Flash, etc). WebStations are intended to attract those students who traditionally have used the cluster for only short periods of time, just to check e-mail. The three remaining machines in the cluster accommodate more intense, prolonged work on papers and other projects.
In prototyping this combination of WebStations and desktop-replacement computers, Student Computing hopes not only to effectively meet student needs, but also to improve our service model to fit the "on the go" nature of student life and mobile computing.
For More Information
For more information, please contact Allan Chen, Educational Technology Manager for Student Computing.
