The UA is teaming up with Lucent technologies to form an "Alliance for Learning," a partnership that will strive to improve higher education through technology and make UA resources more readily available to students via computers.

The Alliance will have five "New Learning Environment" projects that will offer computer-based educational services to students, such as an on-line interactive classroom, spatial and virtual reality modeling tools, a new student information system, as wel l as a project that will evaluate the impact of the new innovations, among other things.

"Most of us attended school when the professor delivered knowledge from the front of a classroom," said Martha Gilliland, University of Arizona senior vice president for information and human resources, in a July 24 press release.

"Soon students will be able to learn at any time through on-line discussions and virtual visits to museums, books, journals, data bases, and other cultures," Gilliland said.

"I'm real excited about the project," said Karen Smith, associate professor of Spanish and faculty associate to the provost. "It is a great potential in the way information is delivered to students."

According to the press release, one of the partnership's projects is to create an on-line "virtual" classroom.

"The new virtual classroom will be accessible by personal computer and unconstrained by traditional limits of time, space, and distance," the press release stated.

One of the of the projects of the new alliance involves the creation of "fly-through" models that will allow students to enter and examine virtual terrain. The models will make "virtual visits" to ecologically sensitive areas possible, and instructional data will be developed for several courses in the School of Renewable Natural Resources.

Another project will allow students manipulate the data that goes into a "virtual model," thus allowing them to see how the changes affect the outcome. This means that the "fly-thorough" terrain could be modified to simulate natural and other changes.

According to the press release, the alliance will develop "user friendly multimedia systems for student recruitment, admissions, registration, curriculum and financial aid," as well as integrate all of the UA's telephone equipment, data networks, and vide o equipment and services into an intracampus network accessible by computer.

The UA Faculty Development Center will be home to the new alliance and will include UA faculty as well as researchers and design specialists from Lucent Technologies.

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Wildcat Web Link: Alliance between the UA and Lucent

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