Support for Laptops and Personal Computing Devices in
General Purpose Active Learning Classrooms

The Active Learning Classroom (ALC) model was developed by the Office of Classroom Management as a pilot project to test the implementation of integrated, interactive student centered classroom design on the Twin Cities campus. It is an iteration of the SCALE-UP (Student Centered Activities for Large Enrollment Undergraduate Program) classrooms at North Carolina State University and the TEAL (Technology Enhanced Active Learning) rooms at MIT.

In addition to its basic design roots in SCALE-UP and TEAL, the Active Learning Classroom is built upon the technology foundation of the University of Minnesota Projection Capable Classroom (PCC) standard. This classroom technology standard was implemented in 2000 by OCM in close coordination and collaboration with the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus community. Today, the laptop-based Projection Capable Classroom PCC standard is a proven success in 275 University of Minnesota general purpose classrooms and more than 125 other instructional spaces.  The PCC standard includes all basic technology room infrastructure, including fixed data/video projection, wired and wireless Internet connectivity per OIT (Office of Information Technology) standards, smart control system with remote networked performance monitoring, a user-friendly laptop interface, I/O devices, customized modular add-ons, and a standardized interface and operator protocol familiar to University faculty across all UMTC campus locations.

As a fundamental part of its design, the PCC-based Active Learning Classroom is predicated upon student-provided laptops or computing devices. The ALC design looks forward to the time when “person-based” mobile computing overtakes room-based installed computing infrastructure in many classroom situations. The rapid increase in person-based mobile computing, using laptop/notebook/PDA/browser equipped cell phone devices is increasingly apparent, fueled by both technology development and convergence. Therefore, the Active Learning Classroom design does not provide installed student computers or laptops. Instead, the design emphasizes the use of the  classroom’s basic tech infrastructure using campus-wide standards, interfaces and protocols, to provide  seamless and user-friendly integration of student provided devices, along with the ability to project and share both student and teacher information.

Given the length of time required to develop, construct and implement classroom solutions on the large scale of the University of Minnesota, this forward looking design based on the continued emergence of person-based mobile computing is pragmatic, necessary and viable. 

The ALC classroom design assumes that in the future there will be an institution-wide personal computing solution, and that student personal computing devices will become as ubiquitous as are cell phones today.  However, it is recognized that while a number of individual departments and programs currently have student laptop standards, the University today does not have such a standard for all students. The campus remains in transition to this future of “person-based” computing.

In support of OCM’s ALC pilot initiative, OIT and OCM are engaged in a laptop initiative/partnership to provide student laptops as an  interim solution in ALC pilot classrooms. This laptop initiative/partnership provides temporary transitional support and will accommodate as many requests as possible, subject to resource constraints and other requirements. Future plans include additional collaborations and partnerships with colleges, departments and other units to ease the transition to more person-based devices and to enhance the learning initiatives in ALCs.

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