Brent Warner 0:02
This is the HigherEdTech Podcast season four, episode two: building a tech training center and recording studio.

Tim Van Norman 0:23
Welcome to today’s higher ed tech Podcast. I’m Tim Van Norman, the instructional technologist here at Irvine Valley College.

Brent Warner 0:29
And I’m Brent Warner, Professor of ESL here at IVC. We both enjoy integrating technology into the classroom, which is what this show is all about.

Tim Van Norman 0:38
Welcome. We’re glad you’re here with us. So this is the our professional development week for the fall. And it’s been a great time so far. Having people here and seeing people on campus and stuff like that, have definitely enjoyed interacting with people, instead of just sitting behind my desk on Zoom calls.

Brent Warner 0:59
Yeah, it’s kind of interesting, because we’ve got both right. So we’ve got people logging in online, and we do have people in person and they’re kind of trying out both, you know, it’s we’re, it’s the hybrid model really here or the high flex model, as we go into it, but it’s been good so far. You know, we’ve got a day by the time this comes out day and a half left or two days left or something like that. So yeah, but it’s been busy too. It’s like, Oh, back back, right back at it and full speed. And Tim, I know, You’ve been just tons of stuff to kind of take care of during this weekend. I was one of your busiest weeks.

Tim Van Norman 1:36
It is but you know, I love it. It gets me out in front of the people who matter most. And that’s the important part. So absolutely.

Brent Warner 1:45
Well, I think one of the cool things that you’ve been showcasing this week is the topic of today’s episode, which is a new training center new kind of, I think you’re gonna be responsible for to come up with like a catchy name for this place at some point, but, but for now, we’ll call it the tech training center and recording studios, I guess. And this is a project, you know, you and me, and quite a few of us have been like, let’s get this type of thing going for quite a while and we haven’t quite made it work. But now it’s coming together. So I think we should just jump over and start talking about it. Sounds good. All right. So Tim, we’re gonna start we’re going to talk about this training center first that’s been built. So there’s kind of two parts to it. But let’s, let’s focus on the on the training center first, and I have picked feet part of this conversation is, you know, people listening, we know that there’s IT directors and instructional technologists and other schools that are listening to this show, and kind of like, Hey, what’s going on? What are you guys doing? And so part of it was like to share what what we’ve kind of been able to get done, and you know, what you’ve really been able to achieve over the summer. And it’s it’s kind of a slow build. So we kind of have to talk about this whole conversation in a certain way. What it takes to get this done, because it’s like, oh, yeah, have you seen those memes online, where it’s like what people think success looks like, and it’s an instant lineup, but what it really looks like, and it’s a squiggly scratchy line that goes all over the place. And then at the very end, it goes up, right? And I kind of feel like the center that you built is, is like that, right? It’s like backs and forth. And hey, this is going to happen, though, it’s not going to happen, oh, we don’t have room, you know, like, it’s whatever, all these things. So. So you do now have and we’re gonna put in pictures in the show notes here. There is a training center on campus now. It’s kind of focused on tech and instructional technology stuff. But Tim, with that introduction, I want you to take it away and kind of share what’s going on.

Tim Van Norman 3:48
Absolutely. So what we did is we took some empty space on campus and built it into a training center that allows people to come in, bring their laptops in and be trained in technology. And it can be used, we built it in such a way that it can be used by pretty much anybody for training. So this is not classroom space. Prior to this, anytime we wanted to do a training we had to arrange around classroom work and stuff like that. So the idea here is this is non classroom space, taking empty space that actually had been used before and then storage and stuff like that. And so basically just putting it out there getting it out for people to start using. Or we’re going to talk about what all this means and all of that stuff. But to your point before, it’s amazing how many years it takes to make an overnight success. So I don’t know where I heard that first, but I love that I heard that a while ago and and it’s true. This is one of those things that several of us have been working on for years, but it’s really come into place.

Brent Warner 4:59
So Oh, Tim, I think what we really want to get to so like, we kind of have an idea, hey, this is a place where you can come and do stuff. And we’ll we’ll try to explain the specifics of what this room looks like and what’s out there. It’s this is really, it should be like a video like we should have made, you know, like a YouTube thing for this, but we’re gonna try and do our best to describe it and encourage people to come and look at it. And even if you’re not an IVC member, send us a message in the room. But we’ll definitely put pictures up at least so. So Tim, I think the the, the real question is like, Why does a college need a training center? Right, what why is this important?

Tim Van Norman 5:35
So, as I mentioned before, whenever we’ve wanted to do training, we had to work around classroom schedule. Well, okay, that’s fine. That means that we can do trainings on Fridays. But what if we want to do training another time? What if we want to do it at lunch? What if we whatever that is, that makes it easier for? Because there’s a lot of people who don’t come on Fridays? Now, all of a sudden, you have to come back on Friday for training? What about at night? What about whatever, we’ve had different rooms on campus that kind of were set up for it maybe didn’t work out as well. But this was this is designed in such a way, we’re putting whiteboards up on the walls, we’re using new technology as well as existing technology so that people can come in and actually do this. So why does a college need it, you need a place where staff where faculty, administrators can come. And it’s not. It’s not students walking around, it’s a place where they can learn, they can work. In our case, it’s literally right outside my office. So that means that if you come in and you are working on your class, all you got to do is knock on my door and you got help right there. If you’re physically right in that location, you can sit there and work on your class, you could sit there and work with somebody else, a team of people can work together. It’s not supposed to be just silent area, it’s training. It’s about education and understanding. for things that aren’t classroom. Yeah,

Brent Warner 7:13
and I think one of the things, you know, a lot of us learned over, you know, through the pandemic that like, sometimes you can just move so much faster side by side than like, Hey, do you see the little.in? The top left hand corner, go click on those dots. Okay, what do you see? Oh, wait, that’s not what I see. We’re like, in the you just end up like, all this time goes by, like I have done things with some students that have taken me 25 minutes to go through this thing. And I know that if I’m sitting next to them, it’ll be about a 12. Second thing, you know, like, click, click, there you go right and like, and they can still do it when I’m side by side. But there is a value even with screen sharing, and all the technology’s things just kind of get, they’re not quite as clear when you’re, you know, virtual in a lot of those ways. So there’s, so there’s a, there is a virtual aspect to this, and people can log into the trainings, your trainings that you’re doing, or whatever it is, but also like having that physical space where people can just go, oh, I can come in here. And I can work for 234 hours and just crank away, get some stuff done like that is really valuable. And then also, I think to say, especially for like adjunct faculty, when they’re like, we don’t really have a space, or I’m kind of in these shared adjunct spaces out there. But then that value of also having you nearby, right, or other people who are also working on techy stuff. So you know, you’re not necessarily interrupting them on content, but they’re, you know, these are other people next to you, if they’re in the room at the same time, that are probably doing similar ish types of things as well.

Tim Van Norman 8:55
Especially be beginning of a semester, everybody’s setting up their classes. So the person beside you might even be struggling with same question you are, or they might already know the answer. And you can say, Hey, how did you create that quiz. And they can help you and, and, frankly, you’re going to do the same thing for them or for somebody else. So it’s, it’s a really nice place to work together. We’ve got it set up, that monitors can come up and down. So you can bring your laptop at work. Or you can work on one of our screens. So you don’t have to have your own equipment or you can either way it works out for you. So

Brent Warner 9:35
two quick things on that. So one, I just want to point out that like this might be even adjunct offices are fine, but like, but they often are like the same field, right? And so this also gives you a chance to like, Hey, I’m sitting next to someone who’s from a totally different field and kind of expand your knowledge and you know, the people that you know, on campus, which can also be incredibly valuable and then the second one just as far as and so like pointing out that this is also a up, you know, pull up and pull down computer lab, which means you can flip open the desk and you can pull up the monitor. And you’ve got about like, 20, some 2828. Computers. Okay, so So lots of room for people to move around and work. So. So with that, what does it take to actually set this up? So if someone’s out there going, oh, yeah, we don’t really have anything people are kind of. And, you know, just to be clear, the same way that IVC has been doing it all the way up until two days ago, or three days ago, right? You know, hey, we don’t have that space, we don’t do it, whatever. What do I need? Or maybe we do is don’t know, how do we set that up? What is it going to take to get that going?

Tim Van Norman 10:43
So let’s start with the minimum number one, it takes space, it’s really hard to do in a small location. And unfortunately, that’s what a lot of the adjunct offices have been for us, is you can put two people in there, but the moment you put a third person in there is claustrophobic. Or maybe it’s designed big enough so that you can fit four people. But it’s different, you know, they’re working with students or something like that. This isn’t a student work area, either. This is strictly for faculty and staff. It does require some vision, you need to have somebody come in and take a look. And what do I want to build? What should it look like? What, what can I do, because you can throw lots of pieces of equipment, but if somebody doesn’t put it together in their own head first, it’s going to look like somebody just threw it together. So space envision, but then it’s desks or tables, you can do this with tables, you don’t have to have desks that have raised in lower monitors and stuff like that. We took a classroom that was was getting remodeled, and we got all of the desks out of that room, it was a computer lab. So no budget. That meant that they literally took it out of one room, moved it into another and and set it up. Maintenance or facilities guys loved the fact that they weren’t having to throw out these really nice desks. It also meant that in our case, all the desks look the same. So I don’t have a mixture of 28 different desks, everything looks like it belongs together, which I love. And, and we haven’t spent any money on it, because we had already spent the money before and it was just being it was going to be thrown out possibly eventually. So but you need desks and tables, and then you need internet. It could be Wi Fi. But you need internet in that area. And that’s because whenever you’re doing a training, the people have to be able to use their laptops, they have to be able to use technology of some kind to do stuff. And we’re seeing that in the classrooms anyway. So that is to me, that’s the bare minimum you need for room like this.

Brent Warner 12:55
So just want to jump in here. So one of the things, you know, desks, tables, computers inside of there, if you have them, if they have laptops, that’s fine, too. Just going to point out one thing, like, I went in there, and you’re like, Oh, hey, just go go mess around with it if you need to. And so the first thing that I did, when I went in is I adjusted the the gaps between the desks. So they’re kind of in the proceedings, right moving forward. And there’s just something to pay attention to for people because this is as a teacher, I know this, right? Hey, if people are walking behind you, you’re gonna need a little space. So like, so I did. Like I sat down at one of the desks, I pushed myself back a little bit, I leaned back, right? And then I’m like, how much space? Do I have behind my leaning back a little bit? And am the next desk behind me? And so is there enough room for Tim to walk behind there? Right. And so, as you’re planning this, you want to think about the actual functionality of movement inside of the room as well. Because for, like, if you’re gonna come up and help someone and you have to tell three people, Hey, scoot in scooching, scooch in I’m gonna get past you just so I can work with this person for two minutes, right? That’s gonna be a disruptive process all the time. And so, so empty space is also equally as important as like, you know, the use space of things as well. So it’s just a consideration to keep in mind.

Tim Van Norman 14:16
Absolutely. And that in that particular case, we you adjusted desks so that we could actually fit a row of tables against the back wall, right? Okay, we hadn’t filled it up too much. You were adjusting it to make sure it still had enough space. But that’s exactly it. Think about those other things. I put a row of tables against the back wall, just because you know that anytime you’re going to do training, oh, here’s papers for you to take. Here’s something for you to sign there’s always something snacks or something that you want to have available. And you don’t want to sit people facing the back wall. So having that available to you as you’re thinking about it. So, it especially in technology You need a place to put your information that you’re going to be sharing. So in our case, projector or screen, we actually have a large TV that one of the departments wasn’t using. And so that happened to be on a cart already. Move that in, plug in a used computer, and boom, I now have a projection TV that I can use with Zoom, for instance, or I can use keyboard and mouse on that and actually present directly on that. I’ve got lots of options just simply by moving in a large TV.

Brent Warner 15:36
Projector. When you say when you say a large TV on a cart, it’s not the old image of the teacher wheeling in a VCR and a, you know, a 22 inch square TV, right? So this is a giant, flat screen TV that’s on the car. You know, it’s like a it’s a stand, right? It’s a roll a stand, really. And so when you did a presentation, I intentionally sat in the back, because I wanted to see what you were projecting on there and see how well I could see it without being logged in. Because you were presenting on Zoom and you were sharing the screen at the same time. We could see that. And then I wanted to see and I’m like, Oh, cool. This is like a I don’t know, is it 75 inch TV or something like 7580,

Tim Van Norman 16:17
something like that. Again, somebody else wasn’t using. So I’m cheap. All right, I’ll just flat out say it. I’m cheap. I look for Can I reuse something that somebody else doesn’t want anymore, rather than go out and spend budget on something like that. And in this case, this whole room has been built for free, we are going to have to spend a little budget to get some internet connections on a couple of computers. But that’s it. Very, very low cost. And it’s using stuff that we were probably going to wind up throwing out eventually. Perfect. So so much the better. So think about that as you’re doing it too. So how are what are you going to project against? How are you going to get the information across, by the way, we’ve got software that we could have every single one of the computers display what we want from a projected instead of it being on a projector. So we’ve got options that could come up. So you don’t have to have a large screen TV, you don’t have to have a projector, you can do other things. But you need part of what I had said before have the vision, think about what you’re looking to do how you want to accomplish it, what you’re going to keep train on. And that can help direct what you’re going to put in place for that, right. Yeah, a couple of key things, speakers and microphones. It’s fine. If you’re just standing there, the room is small enough, and you can project and you don’t need to record anything. But as you were talking about a little bit ago, Brent, we did everything. I did everything on our presentations this week through zoom. So now I need a microphone that puts that out. And now if somebody replies on Zoom, it’s nice for the people in the audience to know it right to hear it. Okay, so speakers, microphones, those types of things. There’s in ceiling speakers that are great. There’s an in ceiling microphone that we have in a number of our classrooms that plugs into the computer, and it does a fabulous job. So think about those things that can cost budget. All right, that can get really expensive. On the other hand, you can do the same thing with a simple laptop. You can have the microphone from the laptop that you carry around with you or iPad. And frankly, it’s not ideal, but you could have the speakers from that as well. Yeah, if that’s what you wanted to do,

Brent Warner 18:42
because you you know, this time right now, we don’t have those ceiling mics installed in the center right now. So so when you were presenting, I was paying attention and you’re like, you know, someone asked a question, you repeated it for the people on Zoom. When someone on Zoom asked a question, you repeated it for the people in the room, and you kept moving forward. So it’s like, hey, it’s not going to be 100% perfect all the time, or even to start but like, it’s a start. And if you get that ball, you know that snowball going, then it starts to build and build and people start to see what’s going on inside of there too.

Tim Van Norman 19:14
Right. And so the next part is, number one, I love whiteboards. So putting whiteboards up if you’re going to use it something, something to write on something that people feel comfortable interacting with, is a really nice thing to have in a room like this. may never use it. But it also sometimes you just need to be able to write something down go whiteboard episode. Absolutely, absolutely. And and then what tools are you going to have to be tested or things like that. So for instance, on our last episode, we talked about some new things like E glass. I set up E glass in that room and one of my presentations this week, utilize E glass and And it was set up in there. Now, it’s not going to be permanently in there. But it was a space that I could set it up, use it, and then move it out when I was done. And people could actually see it and interact with it and and get to play with it. So, to me, what other tools do you want it? This is a great place. It’s designed to be where somebody can walk in and say, oh, I want to do XYZ. Let’s try it.

Brent Warner 20:28
And you know what? I bet Tim, I bet you if you reach out to vendors and tech companies, and you say, hey, we want to install these only in our testing facility and our you know, playground area here, I bet you they would give you like temporary licenses and just say, Hey, okay, you can have it for three months, you can have it for six months, we know it’s only going to be installed on these computers in here, people can come in and check them out and give you the feedback. So like, there’s a whole opportunity there to also say like, Hey, give us an extended license, but only give us 10 or 15 or five, whatever it is right? But then if people want to test this thing out, then they know that they can come in here and check it out. Or if we don’t have it, we know that we can ask the faculty member can ask and say, Hey, Tim, can we get this as a test, I want to check, check it out and see what it’s like. And then that is like a little bit of a way that those companies can often feel a little more comfortable with it right? When they’re already starting the relationship with the group of people that are going to be making purchases, etc. So So I think there’s a lot of value in that as well.

Tim Van Norman 21:32
Absolutely, it also means that if you’ve got somebody, one person that’s in charge of it, or that’s there a lot, it feels like Christmas to them. So constantly opening new packages and trying stuff out. And you’re absolutely right. Most vendors or many vendors, at least, are willing to give you a couple of licenses, a device for three to six months, they they’ll come in, and if you’ve already got a facility in place, they’ll they’ll try it out and demonstrate it something for your faculty or staff. So think about that as you’re thinking about a vision for the place. And as you’re laying it out and see what you can do. Because the opportunity is there to build out something that can be useful in a lot of ways. Yeah.

Brent Warner 22:23
Last point before we kind of switch out of the segment. But I think that, you know, a room like this, depending on the size of it. And depending on what you’ve got going on, it can also be a really good place for faculty to test stuff out and practice, like what they would do with their class. Right? So we’ve got 28 computers, right? So we could also know and say, Hey, wait a second, like, there is an opportunity here for me to see if this is something that I would want to use inside of my classroom. Maybe I could come in here and kind of test teach test it right and, and run that whole cycle as well. So you don’t have to have everything already built into your classroom and installed. You go I know there’s a there’s a sandbox here for me to go work in. And that’s that’s kind of what we want to play around with. So absolutely, yeah. So lots of stuff going on with the training center. And, you know, open up your imagination. There’s lots and lots of possibilities. And like Tim said, We did it for free. So So at IVC it didn’t cost anything. And I think that’s a real possibility to get started with a lot of people.

Tim Van Norman 23:36
Alright, here’s a zippy tip for you. Upgrade your audio, your recording time and stuff like that. Use it with a new mic. Blue Snowball has the ice USB for about $50. Brent and I use the audio technica AT 2005 USB, which is about $70. Just a nice quick way to upgrade your recording.

Brent Warner 24:00
Good audio makes a big difference.

Tim Van Norman 24:02
Absolutely.

Brent Warner 24:06
All right. So Tim, a second part in the in the training center is that in the back of of our I’m like I’m already attached myself, as you can hear in the language. In the back of of our training center, we have two rooms that are recording studios, right? We’ve kind of been playing around and talking with like, what are the possibilities of using these in different ways, just because of the nature of the setup here. So there’s a big room that’s kind of like classroom ish style, right? It’s got the it’s got the desks and it’s got the or it’s got the table the desks with the computers in them. And then beyond that, at the far end, there are two rooms that are you know, doors, you open close, lock the doors, whatever it is, and those are being used as recording studios. And so let’s go Mish, you know, some people are gonna go well, I don’t necessarily need a training center. But I know that our teachers need to get in and start doing more recordings for themselves and they don’t have the privacy at home or whatever else it is, right? So we are very lucky to be able to have both of these combined together and have them be in the same place. I think that’s really important. One of our original conversations was about like, hey, let’s bring in these portable student not portable like these, basically, you build out these little mini, six foot by eight foot studio boxes, right? And so we’re not doing that right now. But But what do you what’s going on with recording studios, if people want to start building in recording studios, what do they need to look at?

Tim Van Norman 25:43
So we’re going to talk about the ones that we just built, we’re also putting in and creating more on campus. So first of all, why people don’t have space at home to do it, they need access to the technology that you’ve got on campus that they don’t necessarily have at home, they may need to teach their class online, and they don’t want to take up their dining room table for an hour or two hours in the middle of the day, they may need to record or even edit, videos, audio, stuff like that. So having a space, going back to what we talked about before space is important. But it doesn’t have to be a large space, it can be small enough that it’s just you sitting in a room with a desk, a chair, power and Wi Fi. Alright,

Brent Warner 26:29
so same, that’s the same as before like this, you can be the most minimal, right? Like what is the most minimal and start from there as your starting point?

Tim Van Norman 26:38
Absolutely. Think about what you want to record. And that’s going to take it from the needs to the nice to haves. If you’re going to record, I saw somebody’s record dissecting an animal, okay, that will require different things than teaching a language class or recording something about language. So then once you have figured out what you’re going to record, now, let’s take it up a level. So we’re actually turning practice rooms for music into recording studios. We’re turning the small offices into recording studios. Basically, if we have extra space on campus, we’re trying to turn it in to it. So this is the actual discussion we are having on how to do this, what do we need what makes a recording studio. So we’ve elevated it a little bit further than just a desk chair power and Wi Fi. And we include wired internet, so a computer that’s actually plugged into the wall, is that required? No, because somebody could bring their laptop and put it on a table. So that’s perfectly fine. We would like to have dual screens, the new recording studios that we have, just in the training center, those have dual screens on them, they have Wi Fi, as well as the computer built in, we’ve got all of these different things in place. But again, that helps you elevate this is what that next step is webcams, you can get really nice webcams, if all you need is five of one on campus, you can drop for $100, you can get a really nice webcam. So now if you’ve got to get 500 of them, you’re probably not going to spend that much money. So it allows you to think about and be creative that way. What are you recording? Do you need a special type of camera. So you can set up this room in such a way that it is specific to a type of recording. One of our rooms, for instance, is using the E glass. So it’s designed, the monitors are set in a way that will hopefully work well with the E glass, the lighting, we’re working on lighting to try to make sure that it works well with the E glass. So you can actually be specific to a device. Or you can have it be agnostic and just hey, creative space, do what you want. Do you want a green screen, we’ll move it in that type of thing. In every case, microphone and speakers. The better just we talked about in the Zippy tip, upgrade your microphone, if you can have a decent microphone in there, that will make all the difference in the world on your recordings. Speakers know if I’m just sitting there recording, I don’t need to hear it. But once I’m done, I need to hear it, I need to edit it, I need to make sure that it worked. So having speakers that are at least decent quality will really make a good difference. They can be a step above built into your laptop. It’s nice to have something that plugs in it doesn’t have to be these really nice speakers. But speakers are really nice.

Brent Warner 29:46
So can I point out a couple of things here to your point, you’re saying like Hey, what is your setting for your recording? What are you trying to get done? Right? And so you do want to think about that because for example, we had a couple of extra iPads around, right that are not being used anymore. And it’s like, well, those iPads are great cameras, right? And so you can do something like, Hey, just use that iPad as a camera, right? It’s not going to be whatever reasons it’s been it’s out of cycle or whatever it is. But that camera, and it’s still going to be able to record a video real well and put on a couple of basic apps, including, as he said, like the green screen apps like doing is a great one that just makes it really easy to do some green screen stuff. And so again, it’s about expanding your your thinking on like, Hey, what is out there, what do we have, it’s like, you don’t need to go straight to what’s the most expensive piece of equipment I can buy to get this thing done. It really is. And by end, the quality of the technology that’s even five years old is still so good compared to what used to be around, right. And so you’re like, hey, if I’m just trying to get a simple video going and do something basic, I can use the webcam that’s right in there, I can use the iPad to physically carry it and move it over. And if I’m doing that animal dissection, I can lift it above and you know, pointed downwards or whatever else it is. And so So again, you know, scrounge your campus, run, run around, see what else see what’s out there, like, ask people, are you actually using this thing? Are you not using this thing? Like, can we can we put this in here? And a lot of times, I think, Tim, you you had mentioned this before with the with that, that monitor that big monitor you have in there you went and you found a department and said, Hey, and they’re like, Oh, well, we’re not really using this, I guess you can use it. And if we want it, we’ll call you back. And they’re never going to call you back, right. And so. So again, I you know, I just want to encourage people listening, if you’re trying to find these things, they’re out there, but like this is this is what you have set up in in these rooms for now. And that can completely change in the future as well.

Tim Van Norman 31:53
Absolutely. That said also on the computer, you need to have the software that you’re going to use for recording. Now, it could be as simple as zoom. So it doesn’t have to be complicated. But put that software on there, the computer that uses E glass, it’s actually got the E glass software on that computer set up so that you can log in and actually use that software, you don’t have to have somebody come in and install it for you or, or make sure it’s working on your laptop in order to use it. So zoom, we have Screencast O Matic available. With Screencast O Matic for instance, if it’s installed Camtasia. Same way, you can have it installed on the computer. And then you don’t even need internet. You just need internet for getting the video off. But you can record without internet if that’s what you need to do. So think about those software packages that are going to make life easier for you. If you’re using Canvas, you can even go into Canvas if you’ve got Canvas studio and record on that. So it doesn’t have to be expensive software, it doesn’t have to be really high end software, have software on that equipment, so that you can use it. And the person who’s using it can do a really good job, hopefully edit, including, you know, including editing the stuff so that they can walk away with a finished product if at all possible.

Brent Warner 33:20
Yeah. Yeah. So I think with a lot of this, you know, we’ve been talking to people like, Hey, if you’re gonna build this thing, if you’re gonna do something on your campus, please feel you know, like, here’s some ideas on ways we’ll get it going. But we also know that many faculty from our campus, listen to the show and, and so all of this stuff is available for you. I just want to point that out like, and we are highly encouraging people to come in, check out the room just come hang out. I don’t know, Tim, if you have like coffee, or snacks or anything like that, maybe in the future, there will be some of those.

Tim Van Norman 33:52
I didn’t do it for this week yet. But yes, that’s part of what the tables in the back are for. Right? Yeah. So put that in.

Brent Warner 33:59
So just again, like because of the the final part to this, which we didn’t really plan a conversation around. But like, I but I think Tim This is the one of the very first things you said to me when you showed me the room was I want this to be a welcoming place where people feel comfortable to come and hang out and test stuff out. Right. And like, that is a huge part of it. Because if it’s like a scary, intimidating place that feel oh, I can’t touch anything, right? Then it’s never gonna get used. But if you’re like, hey, you know, touch this thing will play and play with it get, you know, it’s okay to have, you know, I mean, your sticky fingers on the keyboard or whatever, you know, like I don’t love saying you’re like Don’t say that, but, but you know what I mean? Like, we just want people to go in and go Oh, it’s okay for me to pick this thing up and try it out and see what happens and you know, like, okay, we can we can wipe the memory on that iPad later if it’s if you put on a bunch of stuff that’s not useful or, you know, like, Hey, I’ve never tried this software. It’s on every computer, jump on any compete. You’d go look it up and see what you like, right? And so that that sense. And then and then like this coffee snacks thing is an important aspect to it because food and coffee draws people, right? As silly as it sounds, and it’s like, oh, yeah, maybe you know, I know that I have 20 minutes right now maybe I’ll just go sit in there. Maybe I’ll just have a little chat if Tim’s available. If not, I’ll look around and see. And that’s totally fine, too, right. And so, so I think that that comfortable level and I know you’ve got plans for more decoration, and to make it feel a little warmer and those types of things. And it already feels that way, I think. But you know, just to kind of add to that, so So that’s kind of the last part is that like, decorative touch and that personal warmth, that makes people feel like they want to come in there and take advantage of a space. So we encourage you to come in and look at the space on campus here if you can.

Tim Van Norman 35:53
Absolutely. Thank you for listening today. In this episode, we talked about building a tech training center and recording studio. For more information about the show, please visit our website at the higher ed tech podcast.com. There you will find our podcasts and links to the information we’ve covered. As

Brent Warner 36:13
always, we do want your feedback. So please go to the higher ed tech podcast.com. And let us know your thoughts. If you have ideas for future shows. There’s a link over there where you can give us your topic ideas,

Tim Van Norman 36:25
or everyone at IVC. That’s listening. If you need help with technology questions, please contact IVC technical support. If you have questions about technology in your classroom, please contact me and now you can visit me over in a 322 you can contact me at T van norman@ivc.edu.

Brent Warner 36:43
And if you want to reach out to me about the show, you can find me on Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn at Brent G Warner.

Tim Van Norman 36:50
I’m Tim VanNorman,

Brent Warner 36:52
and I’m Brent Warner and we hope this episode has helped you on the road from possibility to actuality. Take care everybody. See you soon