Technology on a Shoestring

While Saint Joseph's University's technological aspirations tend toward the extravagant,

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Salisbury University has tried to add some of the same technology on meager public funds. Jerome F. Waldron, chief information officer at the Maryland university, seeks to impress more with savings than high-tech sensations. A few years ago, he challenged his staff to outfit 22 classrooms for less than $12,000 each. Today, he has whittled that cost down to $8,000 per classroom: Some technology has become more affordable, and he now avoids buying rarely used items, such as document cameras. He predicts that he'll have to spend about $6,000 on each classroom every three years to keep it up to date.

Mr. Waldron points out some of the simple technological enhancements as he walks through a 1960s-era science building. He steps into a room with old table-arm chairs and yellowed topographical maps, all coated with a thin, ancient layer of chalk dust. A shabby old slide projector at the back of the room has been upstaged by a new digital projector, which hangs from the ceiling and is connected to a no-frills PC and a VCR in a podium at the front of the room. A similar room across the hall has an electronic whiteboard.

The spartan setup reveals more of its money-saving secrets upon closer inspection: The digital projector on the ceiling is secured with steel wire and a clunky padlock, a homemade theft-deterrence system. The podium turns out to be a kitchen-island cabinet with a butcher-block top, purchased for a song at the local Home Depot. "We just drilled a couple of holes in the side for wires," Mr. Waldron says. The kitchen cabinets turned out to be much cheaper and more durable than bona-fide computer podiums.

Salisbury officials used their imaginations to cut corners in other areas. Some academic departments have a handful of computer carts, which each hold a dozen laptops, a small digital projector, and a wireless antenna. The carts can be rolled from room to room, so the rooms need not be outfitted with permanent fixtures. And by using wireless technology, Mr. Waldron says, Salisbury doesn't have to rip out concrete walls and floors to install wiring.

Limits of Thriftiness

The technology has transformed the teaching of even veteran professors. Fred A. Kundell, a professor of chemistry who has taught for more than 30 years, has moved his presentation from photographic slides to PowerPoint. "The clarity is much better, and after class I put the slides on the Internet," he says, adding that the new technology keeps his class moving as it never did before. A dozen old slide carousels, each labeled with a different lesson, sit unused in a rack on his office wall.

But the thrifty approach has its limits as well. Wireless technology is good enough for most simple applications, such as e-mail and Web browsing, but it is not as fast or as powerful as Ethernet wires, and it won't support video offerings. Even basic building systems can cause problems. On a relatively mild winter day recently, a computer lab packed with PC's is sweltering, and Mr. Waldron says that some computers have conked out on hot days.

Regina Royer, an instructor in the education department, says she encourages her colleagues and students to use the equipment, but it's not as easy as she hoped. "It's an access issue," she says. Sometimes it's difficult to coordinate the use of one computer cart among many professors.

And some continue to question the role of technology in teaching. Calvin R. Thomas, chairman of the geography-and-geosciences department at Salisbury and another 30-year veteran, worries that the technology does not make for active learning. Multimedia presentations can be attractive tools, but "some of the things we do encourage passivity," he says, like putting course notes on the Web and prepackaging material for students' instant access. "We're seeing a deterioration in note-taking ability, or even a decline of the intention of taking notes," he says. "You can have a beautiful presentation, but if the receptor is not willing to commit the time and the concentration to absorb it, it doesn't matter what you're doing."