Technology Classrooms: Mobile Computer Lab

Provided by the College of Engineering I/T Vision Plan and the Department of Civil Engineering Learning Resource Center.

Introduction

The Mobile Computer Lab was created to provide ease of movement and deployment in any classroom or conference room. This mobility allows the integration of software and the Internet into the academic setting by bringing the lab to the person rather than the person to the lab. The lab is intended to serve thin client requests for access to software and hardware resources currently unavailable to them. With the creation of the mobile lab Information Technology Support and Services (ITSS) anticipates the ability to:

facilitate the integration of software and web-based content for instructional use in the classroom;
provide instructors with the hardware for delivering online quizzes in real-time, assess class performance, etc;
relieve scheduling pressures from conventional lab spaces; and
provide access to software and computing cycles to remote thin clients via a terminal server – an integral part of the mobile lab.

Background

ITSS allows reservation of Learning Resource Center (LRC) facilities primarily for lab-based courses. Because students engaging in routine activities often occupy these facilities, the LRC’s availability is limited. Reservation requests are often denied because there are conflicts with scheduled reservations. The LRC currently utilizes the entire floor space allocated to it and cannot expand to meet the increased needs/demands. A mobile computer lab can increase access, convenience, appropriateness, and usability of computer and network resources with minimal increase in infrastructure costs. Every classroom can become a computer-based lab at any time.

Description

The mobile computer lab consists of a set of inexpensive notebooks equipped with wireless Ethernet cards (taking advantage of the campus-wide wireless network), a remote server running terminal services software, and a specialized cart to deploy the notebooks (including battery charging and security). Application software primarily executes on the terminal server with terminal client software on the notebooks. This allows inexpensive laptops with displays of reasonable quality to gain high-end software access. The bulk of the computing power required resides with the terminal server. Installation of new software need only be done once on the terminal server rather on each notebook, which saves greatly on system administration labor. The wireless network interface will provide both web and terminal server access to the notebook.

The self-contained cart moves to a room as needed and the notebook computers are distributed for use throughout the room. The cart is plugged into power, the notebooks connect to the application server, and the lab is then online. After the session is over, the notebooks are turned off and replaced in the cart. The cart is then unplugged and sealed for transport. The process should be easy enough that little time in a session is lost in dealing with the logistics.

Technology Classrooms: Mobile Computer Lab

Introduction

Background

Description

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