{"id":119,"date":"2019-07-17T18:17:53","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wcsu.wpengine.com\/news-archives\/21st-century-classrooms-initiative-brings-ipads-to-honors-students\/"},"modified":"2019-07-17T18:17:53","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:17:53","slug":"21st-century-classrooms-initiative-brings-ipads-to-honors-students","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/21st-century-classrooms-initiative-brings-ipads-to-honors-students\/","title":{"rendered":"WCSU 2016 – 21st Century Classrooms initiative brings iPads to Honors students"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n


\n <\/p>\n

“DANBURY, CONN. <\/strong>\u2014 At the beginning of the fall 2016 semester, each honors student at Western Connecticut State University<\/a> received an iPad as part of the 21st Century Classrooms<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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. \u201cMany students use the iPads for audiovisual production apps like Loop, Logic Pro X, Auxy, Adobe Sketch, Nanologue, Garage Band and more,\u201d Lin said. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

WCSU President Dr. John Clark, working with Chief Information Officer George Claffey and Dr. Christopher Kukk, director of the Kathwari Honors Program<\/a>, 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students are using this technology to \u2014 among other things \u2014 create more effective communications,\u201d Kukk said. \u201cSome 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In his speech to the Honors students celebrating the iPads\u2019 arrival, Claffey said, \u201cOur ability to bring this tool into the classroom to inform, educate and transform the teaching and learning experience is amazing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 21st Century Classrooms iPad initiative,\u201d Claffey continued, \u201ccombines 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\u2019ve tripled the bandwidth brought to campus. The Honors house has four times as many access points as it had in spring. We\u2019re building a connected campus and constructing infrastructure and support systems to help students connect.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For more information, contact the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York. Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics of New England\u2019s best small private universities.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n