Computers in the University's classrooms may someday be a widespread reality. But for now, they're limited to three classrooms.

A report presented at this month's University Faculty Senate meeting discussed the current conditions of technology classrooms at the University.

In January 1992, two classrooms at University Park and one classroom at the McKeesport Campus were equipped with a computer, computer software, computer and video projection capabilities and access to a data backbone. Two of the rooms also housed multimedia equipment.

These rooms -- 12 Walker and 232 Chambers at University Park and the one classroom at McKeesport -- are all general purpose rooms that can be requested by instructors through the University Scheduling Office.

Technology in the classrooms enables professors to bring the outside world into the classroom in a way that's impossible through conventional procedures, said John Harwood, member of the Senate Committee on Computer and Information Systems.

It costs about $25,000 per classroom to implement this kind of technology, said Russell Vaught, director of the Center for Academic Computing.

Last year about $150,000 was appropriated from the general funds budget to be used for technology classrooms, Vaught said.

"I think students have responded extremely well to it," he added.

But students offer differing opinions on technology classrooms.

"This type of stuff would help," said Erin Phillips (senior-labor and industrial relations). Anything that helps educate students is beneficial, she added.

But Mark Kelly (sophomore-accounting) disagreed, saying, "I just don't think it's a good method of teaching."

Kelly -- whose Quantitative Business Analysis 201 class utilizes computers -- said technology in the classroom takes away from the ideas professors try to get across.

By the summer of 1992, four more technology classrooms --three at University Park and one at Penn State Harrisburg --will offer the advantages of having computers and other equipment for use by a professor.

Also, there are tentative plans for technology classrooms in the Classroom/Office Building that will soon be completed at University Park, said C. Terry Morrow, member of the Senate Committee on Computer Information Systems. The Senate Committee on Computer and Information Systems eventually aims to have technology classrooms at all campuses, Morrow said.