Page 42 - spaces4learning, Summer 2022

spaces4learning CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY
AN ESCAPE ROOM FOR BUILDING DIGITAL SKILLS
At Pennsylvania’s Northampton Community College, students are engaging with cutting-edge technologies in a basement “apartment” designed to boost digital literacy and job skills.
By Rhea Kelly
NORTHAMPTONCOMMUNITYCOLLEGERECENTLY won an Instructional Technology Council award for its Smart Apartment Learning Lab: a combination escape room and tech- nology sandbox in which students can learn about the tech we take for granted in our everyday lives. Picture a homey space in which the walls literally have eyes — or, rather, cameras and other sensors, integrated into seemingly innocuous objects like picture frames, the refrigerator or even a smart bed. We spoke with Beth Ritter-Guth, associate dean of online learning and educational technology at the college, to find out how the Learning Lab is engaging students, building digital literacy and providing valuable training in the job skills of the future. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Campus Technology: Could you describe what the Smart Apartment Learning Lab is and what it's all about?
Beth Ritter-Guth: When I started at Northampton in 2019, I had come from a community college in New Jersey where I had an innovation space. And I had always wanted to take innovative pieces and make an apartment, a living space, where students and the community could think about technol- ogy in the spaces where they live. So, it started with finding a space: We found a great space at the Fowler Family Center at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Pennsylva- nia, in the basement of an old Bethlehem Steel building.
And so we built the Smart
Apartment. The most expensive
thing we have in the room is a
smart refrigerator. And it goes
down to the least expensive thing,
we have a nanny cam in our picture frame. We built an escape room in this Smart Apartment, and the first question we ask, which I won't tell you the answer to, is, “How many cameras and how many mics are in this room?” And I will give you a hint: It's more than 10, less than 100. But in this small room, how many things are watching you, how many things are listen- ing to you? And that unlocks the first clue. People are surprised by all the different things that have cameras, and how you really can put a camera in anything now.
CT: I was going to ask how many smart technologies are in there, but I think that might spoil the escape room. Ritter-Guth: Well, I'll give you a list of some of the things we have. The whole room is powered by Alexa. So, we have
a microwave that partners with Alexa; we have a clock that partners with Alexa; the TVs partner with Alexa. The deadli- est thing in the room is a diffuser that I bought for $19.99 on Amazon. You're thinking, how's that deadliest thing in that room? Well, here's how. All of the devices have some kind of app that runs them. And so you use your phone app, and you
42 SUMMER 2022 | spaces4learning.com