Although the University is known for its technological advancements in the classroom, those assets do not always translate into available resources for students. The Technology Sandbox in the west wing of D.H. Hill Library is one example of the University’s efforts to change the availability of cutting-edge technology outside of the traditional class setting.
The Sandbox has not had an official grand opening, but some of its technologies are already available to students. David Hiscoe, the director of communication strategies at NCSU Libraries, said there are high hopes for the Sandbox.
“N.C. State students are, by definition, tech savvy,” Hiscoe said. “They are exposed to the best stuff available on the market, and we want technology to be universally available any time D.H. Hill is open. The goal is to make sure students can get at the best technology any time.”
Already available in the Technology Sandbox is a Microsoft Surface multi-touch table, a SMART Board interactive whiteboard, a Wii console and glass walls with dry erase markers for students to share and collaborate.
According to Hiscoe, the completed Technology Sandbox will include another Surface table and a large Perceptive Pixel display.
“The Perceptive Pixel display wall will be the sort of thing you see on ESPN or CNN,” Hiscoe said.
Until the Perceptive Pixel display wall is installed, students like Alex Thomas, a freshman in chemical engineering, seem especially interested in the Surface table.
“I like [the Technology Sandbox] a lot,” Thomas said, “I saw people using some of the equipment, I saw a few people playing Wii, but a lot of [the people] were studying. I thought the Surface table stood out. I thought it was really interesting and could be applied to a bunch of things.”
Although the Surface table available to students has many demo applications, in the future, it should include more collaborative tools for students to use in their studies. Thomas said he could envision many possibilities for this functionality.
“You could distribute Word documents to your friends and they could all see a paper you’ve been working on, or you could pull up a PowerPoint. You could even do stuff where each person gets a slate and you can do calculus with your hands and share that,” Thomas said.
Lucas van Dyke, a senior in industrial design, said some technology—such as the SMART Board—could be very useful in replacing older technology—like overhead projectors—as well as updating functionality to be more efficient and easier to use.
“I remember when the teacher would use an overhead projector and print off a report on a clear sheet and then she would walk to the whiteboard and start circling words and underlining with a dry erase marker and she would get down to the bottom and have to move up the screen and then have to erase everything,” van Dyke said. “But with a touch screen or a SMART Board, you can do exactly that, start writing on a Word document and scroll up and all those markings will stay with it.”
According to Hiscoe, the Technology Sandbox is serving as a type of testing ground for the technology that will be implemented in the new Hunt Library.
“Hunt Library will be the most technologically advanced library in the nation,” Hiscoe said.
By only buying a select number of devices featured in the Sandbox and making those technologies available to students, the Library can see which features are popular and how those features are being used.
The University can gauge the level of interest in each technology from these observations and get an idea of the most worthwhile technological additions to the Hunt Library, according to Hiscoe. So far, Hiscoe said the Technology Sandbox has been very successful—even with the devices it is offering.
“I haven’t walked past there yet when there haven’t been three or four students around [the Microsoft Surface],” Hiscoe said. “A few students have asked if they can get the [application programming interface] to start developing for it as well.”
Although it’s not yet finished, the Technology Sandbox offers students a variety of ways to experience new technology in a learning environment through a hands-on approach. The grand opening is expected to occur sometime in the fall semester after the remaining devices, including the Perceptive Pixel display, have been installed.
