Future Classroom Laboratory (Texas, USA)

The Texas Woman's University Future Classroom Laboratory (TWUFCL) is in the university's College of Professional Education. The lab is open to all individuals in teacher training. Future teachers and teacher trainers can use the classroom to develop activities to use in pre-K-12 general education and special education classrooms. With the room design, support services such as diagnosticians, speech pathologists, and school counselors/psychologists can also use the room to train pre-professionals on how to provide services within a classroom environment. The classroom lab will also be open to offer professional development opportunities for local public school teachers and their students to learn new technologies and pedagogies for their classrooms.

Currently, the lab is funded by Texas Woman's University. Commercial partnerships are being developed. 

The room currently contains technology applications in 5 of the 6 areas. The first area (Exchange) contains a collection of 12 Windows Surface Pro 4 and a drop-down screen. The Surface and screen are all connected and can be shared by the instructor and students via a keypad on the wall.

The second area (Present) contains a ViewSonic touch-screen panel on a lift so that it is accessible to those of all heights. The third area (Develop) contains an HD video camera, lighting elements, and Chroma Key for video production.

The fourth area (Interact) is a web-based surveillance system that can be accessed via the Internet. The secure server allows supervisors to watch students in training or allows parents to see the services being provided to their K-12 students. Supervisors can log-in solo at the office or home, or can use the technology as a teaching tool and log-in from another classroom on campus and project the room on a large screen for the entire class to see. 

The fifth area (Investigate) contains a Double Robotics robot that uses an iPad Pro with a cellular data plan to interact with students and folks from afar. As the robots are currently being used in the public schools in the US for homebound students, teacher trainers will be able to learn to use them in the lab prior going into the public schools. 

More information:

Find out more about Future Classroom Laboratory and the process of building a Future Classroom for Special Needs Education in this webinar.

 

Contacts:

 

Address:

Texas Woman's University
PO Box 425737
Denton, Texas USA 76204