University receives funds from Bell Atlantic

By ERIN STROUT
Collegian Staff Writer

University administrators and faculty might be seeing plans for active and collaborative learning a little more clearly after receiving funds from Bell Atlantic yesterday.

Bell Atlantic gave $180,000 to the University yesterday to boost interactive learning -- a University-wide effort that allows students to set their own directions in learning through technology.

The Commonwealth Education System will get the bulk of the money, with $150,000 going to a new program called Project Vision. In addition to the Bell Atlantic money, IBM donated equipment for the project. Apple Computer and AT&T might also join the sponsorship, said Robert Dunham, senior vice president and dean of the CES, in an interview last month.

Twenty freshmen, each at the Berks, Delaware County and Mont Alto campuses, will be chosen to participate in Project Vision. Through technology, students will communicate with students across the state, and eventually students might communicate internationally.

In addition to traditional freshman-level classes in other subjects, students involved in the program will take two courses each semester of their freshman year that count toward general education requirements. The classes include a freshman seminar, a one-credit health education class and courses in American Studies and Science, Technology and Society.

The goal is to eliminate the need for professors to be dispensers of information and instead be coaches or mentors, Dunham said last month.

The remaining $30,000 of the Bell Atlanic funds will be invested in a virtual media center located in Carnegie Building.

According to a news release, the integration of interactive media in the curriculum was initiated by the College of Arts and Architecture, the Center for Academic Computing and the School of Communications.