Dive Brief:
- State University of New York Cobleskill has started its pilot project using Google Glass and other video and mobile-device technologies, dubbed Project WAVE-ExSEL.
- Initially, the project is helping students in paramedic and animal science programs, with students in business, information technology, and graphic arts programs helping with the project’s logistics, according to CIO Jim Dutcher.
- Students in the support role will become the local “cadre of experts,” working with each other and faculty in pilot labs on website design and maintenance, IT support for the pilot’s technology, Dutcher wrote in Campus Technology.
Dive Insight:
The SUNY Cobleskill pilot is using the Google Glass devices for point-of-view video so students can see what instructors or professionals see as they perform paramedic or animal hoof health procedures, and so they can be evaluated as they perform the procedures. The pilot will look at whether wearable devices help improve student competency faster; how they affect interactions between students, instructors, and patients; whether they help improve student understanding of applied practices; and how their use compares across different programs.
Dutcher says the school needed $60,000 from the SUNY Innovative Instructional Technology Grant program to make the pilot project happen because its budget was tapped out in outfitting its new $40 million science building. Google provided 15 to 20 of the glasses for free, with the school buying about the same number of the devices.
