The expo hall at UB Tech® was packed with exciting offerings to explore. Products related to the move toward more flexible, active learning spaces and the technologies that make them possible particularly shined this year. The conference’ expo hall is always full of informed vendors who get higher ed (plus great food to add to the enjoyment).
Here is a brief selection of the many innovative products I saw that had me wishing I had an unlimited budget to experiment with all of them.
1. HoverCam’s advanced, digitally integrated “teaching stations” include mobile lecterns with computers and document cameras that are built right into the surface of the lectern (https://www.hovercam.com/teaching-stations).
2. Want to project wirelessly with a simple, highly affordable solution? Consider Ditto (https://www.airsquirrels.com/ditto). Project to any screen from just about any device. Ditto works with Apple TV, Chromecast and standard networks.
3. Need to mic up a room, but have challenges because of flexible configurations or an unusual room layout? The TeamConnect Ceiling 2 from Sennheiser has a beam-forming microphone that can find and follow whomever is speaking in the room, independent of room configuration (https://en-us.sennheiser.com/tcc2).
4. Tired of swapping out expensive bulbs and projectors that can’t get the job done in a lighted room? Casio pioneered the LampFree line that combines laser and LED projection for high brightness and resolution, using 30% less electricity than bulb-based projectors (https://www.casioprojector.com/).
5. Want to learn more about flexible classrooms? Flexspace (https://flexspace.org/) is the “Pinterest for flexible learning environments.” Use it on your campus and share with colleagues from other institutions.
6. Need rich integration of video for assignments, assessments, video feedback, and more in popular learning management systems? Check out Medial ( https://www.medial.com/).
7. ClassLink (https://www.classlink.com/) allows students, staff and faculty using any device, at any location to access all of your institutional applications with one username and password.
8. Imagine students walking up to a smart station, swiping a card, and printing, and scanning from or to the cloud, LMS, phone or USB. Ink (https://ink.me/) makes it possible (no network needed).
9. MediaShareiQ provides plug-and-play video content management and lecture capture that now incorporates Zoom meetings for live session sharing (https://mediashareiq.com).
10. Need to better manage costs and labor requirements for software licensing and provisioning (including the challenging Adobe suite) across multiple devices? Check out Kivuto (https://kivuto.com/).
Want to learn more? rAVe videos featuring interviews with exhibitors can be found here. https://www.ravepubs.com/UBtech/
Kelly Walsh is CIO of The College of Westchester in New York.
