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FOSThe Michigan Daly- Friday, September 22
Technology is changing
methods in education, safety

, 1995 -3

Interactive TV links
students, professors
across video screen

By Amy Klein
Daily Staff Reporter
ith soap operas, sitcoms and
the "big game," the World
Almanac estimates 18- to 24-
year-olds watched approximately six
hours of television per day last year.
Now the University offers an alterna-
tive to reruns: UM-TV.
Using new technology, the Univer-
sity has 20 different cable channels to
showcase information and to post bul-
letin, boards. In addition, the stations
are used in classrooms for interactive
teaching.
Lynn Conway,
director of the
UM-TV Demon-
ItS just a J ugey stration Project,
gpa nsaid the new cam-
eras set up in
 valableclassrooms bring
external activities
8to fgs~def fif to students.
"The TV moni-
 James J. Duderstadt tors, telephones
University president and computers are
..all hooked up,"
Con-way said. "In
Engineering, a TA in a lab can run a
demonstration and we can watch it in
the classroom."
Conway said he initiated the project
at the beginning of 1995, with only six
stations. Now, more than six different
schools at the University access the
community bulletin boards, which scroll
through different lists of University in-
formation.
"It goes against the grain of the high-
tech, virtual reality world of ITD. It was
launched outside the established bu-
reaucracy," Conway said.
President James J. Duderstadt said the
technology now available at the Univer-
sity is only a preview of future projects.
"The power ofthis stuffisjust scratch-
ing the surface. We're the only univer-
sity in the country with the capability to
make extensive use of video,"
Duderstadt said in an interview last
week with The Michigan Daily. "It's
just a huge, gigantic playpen totally
available to students."
The School of Nursing, in addition to
using a bulletin board to showcase up-

coming events and information, is also
using classroom televisions to interact
with University Hospitals.
Adem Arslanovski, a Nursing stu-
dent who setup the channel and bulletin
board, said that next week the school
would pilot cameras that are controlled
from remote locations.
"Lots of times there's only one per-
son in an operating room and we won't
get a full explanation of what's going
on," he said. "This way we can watch
what we want to watch by controlling
the camera."
The cameras and stations are also
now being used to broadcast Chemistry
130 'office hours to students in resi-
dence halls.
Joined by two TAs, Prof. Henry Grif-
fin airs questions on a speakerphone,
using a screen to work through the
problems on television.
"This is an oral format and we talk
through the problems," Griffin said. "It
helps to have the students pose the
problem in an informal setting."
Chemistry Prof. Paul Rasmusean,
who hosted the first call-in office hours
last fall, said the program is still in the
experimental stage.
"If students are going to have TVs in
their dorm rooms, there should be some-
thing on it that's academically relevant,"
Rasmusean said.
Because Chem 130 professors often
hold nighttime office hours, the tele-
vised call-in format was developed pri-
marily for North Campus students and
safety reasons.
Lynda Milne, director of the Science
Learning Center, said that despite initial
glitches, the sessions have run smoothly.
"The phones are tricky, and one night
we had unwelcome calls from kids hav-
ing fun. Now we screen the calls be-
forehand and ask students for their name
and ID number," Milne said.
Griffin said he thinks the call-in for-
mat is a more effective teaching method
than lectures.
"When are most students ready to
think about chemistry? A lot of think-
ing goes on at night," Griffin said.
"We're hanging onto lectures probably
longer than we should. I think lectures
in this subject are not that useful."

Chemistry Prof.
Henry Griffin is
one of those
working with new
TV technology to
broadcast office
hours into the
University's
residence halls.
DAMIAN CAP/Daily
Systemoluld be used for
srveillane aeypto

echnoogy at other schools takes many forms

By Lisa Poris
Daily Staff Reporter
One of the first things new University students do at the
beginning of the year is set up their e-mail accounts to write
their friends at schools on opposite sides of the nation.
However, e-mail has gone from social network to educa-
tional necessity at many colleges and universities.
At Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,
students attend classes, receive assignments and do research
all via their Internet accounts. Similar to a correspondence

Students end up with the same degree they would have
received had they taken classes on campus.
"Where students used to come to us, we can come to
them," Votruba said.
Through the use of satellites, two-way interactive televi-
sion, e-mail and faxes, the students take the courses essential
for the 16 degree programs offered.
As of now, students cannot participate in these programs
from their own homes, but rather, must travel to one of the
more than 25 locations in the state that have all the necessary

course, students enroll at NSU
in masters and doctorate de-
grees. Graduating with an ac-
credited degree, students only
walk on the actual campus a
few times.
"If you have a personal ac-
count and the means," says
Jonathan Peeler, program con-
sultant at NSU, "you can com-
municate with other students
and faculty members. You can
go all over the world to do
your research at other on-line
libraries."
Students attend "electronic
classrooms." The professor
nrearranizes ai time for the class

"What we /re doing is
making many of our
graduate degree programs
available to students
around Michigan. Where
students used to come to
us, we can come to them."

technology. Plans are under-
way to make home access a
reality.
At the University of Minne-
sota, professors wanted to try
to bring digital and analog mul-
timedia into the classroom, said
Rick Peifer, assistant to the
director of the general biology
program.
The answer was to develop
their own multimedia software.
Professors now use sophisti-
cated computer generated im-
ages in order to enhance their
lectures, Peifer said.
Students use interactive
computer simulations in small

By Josh White
Daily Staff Reporter
President James J. Duderstadt said
he was excited about the "wonders of
technology" that exist at the University
as he turned on a video camera in his
Fleming Building office last week.
Within seconds, Duderstadt was send-
ing the action in his office out over the
University's closed-circuit cable sys-
tem, called UM-TV.
"It really is amazing," Duderstadt
said. "Right now, in all of the dorms,
they can hear what we are saying and
see what we are doing. This is the future
of technology."
With this advance in technology,
Duderstadt said, the sky is the limit. He
mentioned the possibility of meshing
the Internet with the University's cable
system.
He also talked of video phone calls,
and he said it was all right around the
corner - and this is one of the only
places where most of it could happen.
"There are capabilities here that
would allow people to make movies
and send them out over the Internet,"
Duderstadt said. "And as.far as I know,
this is the only place in the world that is
fooling with it at such a large scale at
this point."

The cameras that monitor those sites
are positioned around campus and have
been in use for months.
Duderstadt said it would "be hard to
spy on someone" with one of the cam-
eras, but said that ifthe University were
to position more cameras on campus, it
could monitor whatever is going on.
Ann Arbor Police Chief Carl Ent said
he is not aware of any University plan to
monitor campus, but that the Depart-
ment of Public Safety could probably
use a video surveillance system to in-
crease safety.
"Private industry has used that kind
of technology for a long time," Ent said

yesterday. "In-
stead of having
four or five se-
curity guards to
monitor an area,
you could have
one guard watch-
ing a set ofmoni-
tors."
Ent said that
watching dark
areas on campus,
parking lots and
known trouble
spots would be
assets of having

Instead of
having four or five
security gu~ards to
monitor an area,
you could have
one guard
watching a set of

-Jonathan Peeler
Program consultant at


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