21st Century Classrooms iPad initiative Comes to WCSU

From Western Connecticut State University : At the beginning of the fall semester, each honors student at Western Connecticut State University received an iPad as part of the 21st Century Classrooms initiative by the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities system. The initiative funds the creation of advanced learning environments using information technology. Honors students will use the iPads throughout their WCSU career, returning them at graduation or transfer.

Honors Program Assistant Director and alumna Jessica Lin explained that students use the iPads to improve their productivity with efficiency and organizational applications such as Bryte Wave, Evernote, Google docs, GoodNotes and others. "Many students use the iPads for audiovisual production apps like Loop, Logic Pro X, Auxy, Adobe Sketch, Nanologue, Garage Band and more," Lin said.

WCSU President Dr. John Clark, working with Chief Information Officer George Claffey and Dr. Christopher Kukk, director of the Kathwari Honors Program, decided to loan a total of 320 university-owned iPads to Honors students during the 2017 academic year. WCSU is the first school in the CSCU system to take on a project of this magnitude.

"The students are using this technology to - among other things - create more effective communications," Kukk said. "Some of their most exciting projects include using the iPads to transform written communications into visual, creating videos on various projects similar to Ted Talks or video graphic novels. Music students created an electronic orchestra, and non-music students are learning musical communication."

In his speech to the Honors students celebrating the iPads' arrival, Claffey said, "Our ability to bring this tool into the classroom to inform, educate and transform the teaching and learning experience is amazing.

"The 21st Century Classrooms iPad initiative," Claffey continued, "combines with other projects designed to help students university-wide. This summer, we replaced most of the network equipment that powers the campus. Wired speeds have increased by a factor of 10, we have added another 150 wireless access points and we've tripled the bandwidth brought to campus. The Honors house has four times as many access points as it had in spring. We're building a connected campus and constructing infrastructure and support systems to help students connect."

Photo courtesy of Western Connecticut State University