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(CL)³: One Down and One to Go

Tony Cosgrave

The Cornell Library Collaborative Learning Computer Laboratory, (CL)³, in Uris Library marked its first anniversary in August. With approximately 10,000 users taking advantage of the lab during public hours, and seven courses using the lab for all or some of their classes, we can certainly claim that it is popular. So we have one year down and one year to go. The use of the facility as a collaborative learning computer laboratory for regular class sessions is a two-year experiment. During this next year, we need to decide whether to continue the arrangement. The hope is that this experiment will be successful enough to attract the interest of university and college administrators and motivate them to build similar facilities in the colleges to support collaborative computing outside the Library.

Background on the (CL)³ project is available from the Cornell Chronicle and the Cornell Daily Sun, and you can also check the (CL)³ Web site itself. A somewhat formal evaluation phase for the project began last year and will continue this year. The plan is to survey students and teachers who use the space to evaluate whether the space and its unique configuration promote learning. Three students from Info/Comm 440 are interested in evaluating (CL)³ as a class project this semester. Although we do not have formal evaluation data yet, we do have feedback from a few of the faculty who used (CL)³ last semester.

Professor David Schwartz, who was the driving force behind the whole project, is the main instructor in (CL)³. When he received a Faculty Innovation in Teaching Grant to custom-design computer tables to optimize student collaborative computing, he approached the Library about incorporating his project in Uris Library. Professor Schwartz teaches two classes in (CL)³: CIS300: Introduction To Computer Game Design and S490/CIS490/CS790: Advanced Projects and Research in Game Development and Technology, and comments, “(CL)³ has proved extremely useful for facilitating game-design and development education.” He explains how the facility is used for game design:

In these courses, students work together in teams, usually composed of four or more students. Besides using the curved, multimonitor workstations for group work and in-class meetings, the course staff has incorporated the flexible aspects of the room. During a lecture, one instructor commonly displays games on the monitor while the other explains aspects of their design. Groups often reconfigure the room to suit the working clusters. Moreover, during critique sessions, students use the instructor stations and display for showing their progress to the class.

Examples of games designed in (CL)³ can be downloaded from the (CL)³ projects page.

Steve Pond, a professor of music, used (CL)³ for his Music 270: Music in American Culture course so students could work in teams to create multimedia projects for the class. Projects ranged from an analysis of jazz scores in three films, including Tune in Tomorrow (1990), directed by Jon Amiel with score by Wynton Marsalis; Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1957), directed by Louis Malle with score by Miles Davis; and Manhattan (1979), directed by Woody Allen with score by George Gershwin, to the musical innovations of Jimi Hendrix. Professor Pond comments: “The facility itself is wonderful. The kick-off instructional units with Maureen Morris (Dreamweaver) were very good. RJ’s [student lab operator] help was graciously given, and he was very helpful with Adobe Premiere. Being able to check out a camera or recorder was essential to the success of the class. Thank you very much for this.”

We also had two instructors who used (CL)³ to facilitate the process of peer reviewing in their First-Year Writing Seminars. Toni Jaudon wrote: “I found the (CL)³ to be *extraordinarily* helpful in negotiating peer reviewing of student work this semester. Using (CL)³ helped the students commit to the importance of peer review as an instructional technique.” Patrick Somerville commented: “All in all, the facilities were perfect. It’s a comfortable room, the technology works without any problems, and it’s exciting to do something so far from normal.”

We have also received some informal feedback from people who have used (CL)³ during its public hours to work on multimedia projects for various classes. One student with a great sense of humor submitted a request to reserve some equipment. The request included two or three pieces of (CL)³ equipment and a partridge in a pear tree. The note on the request stated that the equipment was for his class project and the partridge in a pear tree was for his true love, (CL)³.

Based on some of the feedback we received, and in an effort to interest more music students to consider taking the game-design class, we have added a variety of new music software and hardware, which includes two music software programs, Reason and CuBase. The new hardware includes a Korg KONTROL 49 keyboard as well as an Alesis Photon X25 keyboard. A microphone and mixing board are also available. With this new equipment, (CL)³ users can create and edit their own music and vocals.

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