“Say Goodbye to the “New Normal”; Welcome to the “Now Normal” in Higher Ed Technology”

By Harry Ortiz, Associate Director of Academic Multimedia Services, Stevens Institute of Technology

As we hurdle towards 2023, almost three years after COVID 19 left the Stevens campus vacant and completely transformed how we look at classroom technology in higher education, I have to ask two questions; has the “new normal” ended yet? And are times now just normal? The normal we now live in is most definitely not the nostalgic normal we remember when classrooms and lecture halls were at full capacity, with students eagerly anticipating what the semester would bring. This is also not the normal we remember when a professor only needed to teach students in the classroom with minimal technology. It is also far from the nostalgic normal Audio Visual and IT departments remember when designing learning spaces with lecture capture and streaming capabilities that were once considered complex to implement and use.  

Currently, the “now normal” includes cameras that track and auto frame an instructor’s movements as they walk freely from one side of the room to the other.

            For all of those students, faculty, and campus audio-visual departments, the new normal is well, now just normal. What was once considered complex technology to maneuver is now essential to how faculty teach, how students learn, and how campus Audio Visual departments design these academic spaces. Long gone are the days of projectors and simple audio systems. Welcome to the “now normal” of having interactive displays and smartboards that can stream lecture notes not just from the classroom itself but from remote students allowing for more collaboration. Gone are the days when a professor needed a microphone just to be heard and stood at a podium for the entirety of their lecture. Say hello to the “now normal” of having ceiling microphones that not only give professors the freedom to roam freely in the room and engage students more intimately, but also lets the students be heard in the room and online. The nostalgic normal we remember had cameras in spaces that were meant for large lecture halls and were considered “high end” technology. Currently, the “now normal” includes cameras that track and auto frame an instructor’s movements as they walk freely from one side of the room to the other. And what web conference platform can you use all of this technology with? Take your pick. Chances are regardless of the platform, it’s probably compatible with any manufacturer you choose. But having all of this accessible technology leads me to another question… is it helping or hurting the teaching and learning experience?

            For those who were able to adapt, this has been beneficial. For those who have not been able to adapt, it has been a hindrance. I can honestly say there is an even split amongst the faculty I have spoken with. When the technology works, it can make for an unapparelled experience where being in the classroom or remote is unnoticeable. Students can collaborate and engage their professors in a way they were unable to before. The flow of information leads them to be engaged, and lectures have transformed from PowerPoints on a screen to a fully engaging experience regardless of where they are. When the technology doesn’t work as intended, well, those are the days we’ll just say are “interesting” for my team.

As for my Academic Multimedia team at Stevens, it has boosted creativity in the way we approach the design of a classroom. The way we see it, you can implement the latest and greatest technology in a space, but what good is it if a professor cannot use it comfortably. Simply put, what good is a Ferrari if you don’t know how to drive it. Creativity in the design of an academic space doesn’t just mean providing the latest and greatest, it consists of providing technology that is used by those who may want to simply project a PowerPoint but a system that can also be used by someone who may want to project in hybrid modality while annotating on a smartboard as they walk around a room with students, sharing content remotely while having a fully collaborative conversation in the classroom or remotely. Just because a system is a complex does not mean it has to be challenging to use. This is the most important thing we consider when designing an academic space. Again, a long way from the nostalgic normal of simple projection classrooms.

            But what happened to the “new normal”? The easy answer is that enough time has passed that it’s just not new anymore. Three years may not seem like a long time, but when dealing with technology, you might as well be counting dog years. People have adapted, and if a student is too sick to join in person, professors are comfortable enough to spin up a hybrid session on the fly and students can connect from various mobile devices. Gone are the days when students fell behind if they missed a class. Now, this same technology allows a professor to record their classes so they can be viewed later or as many times as the student desires. And probably my least favorite of the “new normal” or “now normal”, gone are the snow days we all looked forward to as a student, staff members, and faculty (although they might not admit it) because classes can be held fully remote without missing a beat. 

            Although the majority of this hybrid technology in classrooms did exist before COVID, what has been inspirational is the new and creative ways it has been used by faculty to inspire innovation in the students at Stevens. In turn, this truly inspires us in the audio-visual industry to continue to be creative in the ways we implement technology. Now our standard classrooms include auto tracking cameras, smart boards, and automated lecture recording, just to name a few room features. There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing a professor’s eyes light up when I show them a newly integrated space, and they immediately find new and interesting ways they can incorporate it into their instruction. Yes, the “nostalgic normal” brings us back to simpler times, but it will be the “now normal” that will help faculty use technology to inspire the minds that will change the world.