The LSU School of Veterinary Medicine will soon receive new Smart Boards, mediascapes, podiums, laptop ready seating as approved by the Student Technology Fee Oversight Committee last week.
The $254,718 was collected from the fee bills of SVM students in recent years and will serve as the first step in a larger plan to update all technology in areas of the school including classrooms, labs and the library.
Eric Seneca, director of information technology services for SVM, wrote the proposal after speaking with Associate Dean for Veterinary Education and Student Affairs Joseph Taboda. Seneca said the two realized the school uses a lot of problem-based learning or case-based work and needed more technology to encourage that learning.
Using his experience in setting up educational multimedia labs, Seneca drew up the proposal and said he hopes to have the mediascapes set up by the end of November. Mediascapes are an area where multiple devices can come together to collaborate on projects.
“The faculty will design problem based scenarios for the students to work collaboratively on,” Seneca said. “Think of it as a conference room with a big television in the front. Each student can plug into a central area, press a button and basically have their laptop take control of the screen for everyone to see.”
The technology will be used in conjunction with the academic goals set by the SVM, Seneca said. In the microscope lab, a professor will have a smart podium available to project cells onto a larger surface to help students understand what they should see in their slides.
Smart Boards will be primarily installed in classrooms to serve a similar purpose as the smart podiums as a capture device for projected visuals.
“The big picture is we’re trying to develop — from an academic technology perspective — a situation where students can bring in their own laptops or their own iPhones or iPads and allow them to do more collaborative work with their fellow students,” Seneca said.
Because the second floor of SVM is where most students spend their day, it will undergo renovations to add new amenities, such as laptop-ready seating and problem-based learning labs. Seneca said the equipment was already ordered and an installation date is set for the first phase of their upgrades.
Technological improvements to other areas of SVM, such as the library, will depend on the approval of other proposals which the STF Oversight Committee will discuss at a later date.
“We currently have a lot of areas where students get together and adhoc study groups, and we’re trying to reimagine that environment to be more technologically friendly,” Seneca said.

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A screen shot of the project proposal for the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine approved by the Student Technology Fee Oversight Committee wast week. The school will have new technology to enhance students' classroom experience and learning. Graph courtesy of the Student Technology Fee Oversight Committee.