Challenging technology test looms

Traditional lecture theatres and seminar rooms will probably never disappear from the University of Otago campus, but those planning for the future are sure about one thing - designing flexible teaching, learning and research spaces will be the key.

It seems not only sensible but essential for an organisation which has coped with the an explosion of new technology in the past decade and has grown to become the third biggest IT operation in New Zealand, behind the University of Auckland and Fonterra.

Students are now just as likely to be surfing the internet, emailing or skyping on their laptops, or reading academic information on their mobile phones, as they are sitting with a pad and pen in a lecture.

The young man absorbed in his Playstation 3 could well be accessing course notes rather than playing a game; the young woman wearing an ipod and headphones while exercising on the treadmill at the gym may be listening to a podcast lecture rather than to the latest music.

The campus master plan, released last month as a blueprint for the next 25 years, highlighted the need for more spaces on campus for self-directed informal and small-group learning.

That approach would build on the success of facilities such as the information services building (central library), the Link area built between the library and the existing Student Union building, and the Hunter Centre, near Dunedin Hospital, it said.

"A fundamental premise of the master plan is that learning supported by information and communication technology will take place in all spaces of the university.

The spaces outside and between the formal learning locations are therefore seen as being of equal importance to the development of the collegial culture," the plan said.

New buildings would have a mix of smaller and larger spaces which the plan writers said should be able to be used by staff and students across different departments.

This approach has already begun in the $25 million psychology building which was completed earlier this year.

Ask senior University of Otago IT specialists Mike Harte and Emerson Pratt to fast-forward 10 years and imagine what new technology students and staff might be using and the response is hearty laughs.

The pace of technological change had been so immense in the past decade they said it was impossible to predict what technology might be everyday by 2020.

"In the IT business we kind of get concrete plans for 12 months, we're reasonably comfortable planning two years ahead, and you're right into estimating for the third year.

Looking ahead is really hard.

It's crystal-ball stuff," Mr Harte, the university's information technology services director, said.

Mr Pratt, the university's IT teaching and learning facilities manager, said he found his career exciting, as there was always something new on the horizon.

"It's not the sort of job where you can take time out. If you stopped for six months you would be four years behind."

They were prepared to cautiously predict a continuation of IT trends of late - a decline in the number of fixed computer labs, an expansion of wireless internet connections to eventually cocoon every part of the campus and its residential facilities, and the provision of multi-purpose gathering spaces where student could study anywhere, any time.

Perhaps surprisingly, they said laptops - now a ubiquitous accessory for 95% of university students, could rapidly become a thing of the past, predicting they would be overtaken by smaller, lighter more portable equipment such as internet-capable mobile telephones and ipads, they said.

Recharging laptops was also a problem, Mr Harte said.

However, a product had just become available which might solve that.

It was a power charge pad which used induction to automatically recharge an electronic device placed on its surface.

"Imagine building entire tables out of that and every time you sat down in a lecture theatre your laptop was charging. Imagine if the fold-down tray at your aeroplane seat was made of that material," Mr Harte said.

However, both he and Mr Pratt said technology should not be the driver for university operations.

Teaching and learning should always be the focus, and IT design and delivery should support that, they said.

allison.rudd@odt.co.nz