Ferrante Hall Innovative Classroom

Onondaga Community College's new innovative classroom is filled with bright colors, contemporary materials and the latest in instructional technology.

The dynamic and technology-rich environment coupled with flexible furniture encourages a variety of learning styles and group study from lecture/seminar style orientation to small breakout clusters, and individual study.

The technology includes two interactive whiteboards that can be cast to seven other monitors in the classroom; AirMedia, which allows a laptop to be wirelessly connected to the network of monitors; glass boards that line the perimeter classroom walls for greater collaboration; four pan, tilt, zoom cameras mounted to the ceiling along with multiple microphones that can be used for web conferences; assistive listening; and a document camera in the ceiling.

There is also a smaller flexible emerging technologies room that currently utilizes virtual reality equipment to supplement the innovative classroom, but can be easily swapped out as an ancillary space to the main classroom with various uses and equipment. Separating the classroom and the emerging technologies room is a switchable smartglass wall that changes from transparent to opaque with the flip of a switch, allowing both the smaller room and the large classroom to be used simultaneously without distracting the other.