Jane Says: Google Tips & Tricks

Jane Says get the most out of Google by watching this short video!

Wayback Wednesday: A Spooky Tale

Interactive Class Assignment in the International Lounge

Jody Littleton pairs up students to interview each other.

Tuesday afternoon the library was fortunate to be able to host another internationally oriented event in the International Lounge.  Jody Littleton's COM class met up with Susan Webber and Chris Havenland's ESL classes to conduct interviews about their cultures. 

Susan reports that the assignment was well received by students.  They considered it to be a valuable and interesting experience and hope to have more opportunities like this in the future.

Susan Webber and Jody Littleton pair up more students.

If you are interested in hosting an event in the International Lounge, contact Sarah Baker in room R231 for more information.

Wayback Wednesday: How Parkland Played with PLATO

Lately, the Parkland Library has been promoting a lot of technology options available for you to borrow: Kindles, laptops, tablets, video cameras, not to mention our new DIY media production center now available for you to reserve.  We wanted to show a picture of some of our new technology.  And… here it is:

Just kidding. Actually, this photo, ca. 1969, shows a Parkland student using one of the first PLATO terminals installed in the Learning Resource Center when Parkland was still in downtown Champaign.

What is PLATO? Well, if you Google “Plato” your first hits would naturally send you to sites about the Greek philosopher, but PLATO is also the acronym for Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations, a computer-based, networked instruction system developed by the University of Illinois beginning in 1960.  In 1968, Parkland was identified as one of a handful of charter demonstration sites and was provided a lab of twelve terminals. 

Some faculty members were very excited about this cooperative effort with the University. From a June 17, 1968, memo to Parkland faculty from Gerald LaMarsh, Chairman of Parkland-PLATO Involvement, promoting a hands-on demonstration event:

I can honestly say, having been connected to the PLATO project for the past nine months, it will be anything but a dull session. If Mr. [Donald] Bitzer and his PLATO tribe do not turn you on with some of the potentials contained in their concepts, theories, and methods of learning and information dissemination, we need not bother to consider other methods since the state of being “turned on” will not be as vibrant as it was during the launching of this institution.

Minutes from the PLATO Committee, May 28, 1968, also suggest that more than a few faculty might have been uncomfortable with the addition of new technology:

Consensus was that the principal objective of involving large numbers of Parkland people with PLATO would be to break down fears of working with a computer, to teach our people techniques of programming, and to come to some conclusions about whether this is a really useful teaching-learning device for our purposes.

PLATO employed a computer language called Tutor, which allowed instructors to focus more on the content of their lessons rather than the programming.  Ultimately, the faculty at Parkland used PLATO to teach lessons in Accounting, Automotive, Biology, Chemistry, Data Processing, Drafting, Electronics, English, Foreign Language, Mathematics, Micro Precision Technology, Physics, Statistics, Typing, and Veterinary Medicine. Modes of instruction included drill and practice activities, gaming, tutorials, and case simulations. There were also programs for data collection and student record keeping

Of all the departments using PLATO, the Nursing program was the most active, using the system to connect students’ clinical experiences with classroom instruction. 

Plato Lab ca. 1980s. Combining old and new, these terminals included plasma touchscreens and microfiche projectors.

Parkland maintained a PLATO lab for over two decades, serving not only students, but also the 505 community. Eventually, outdated terminals and support issues led to its decline in the early 90s. By 1990, maximum usage was at 15% of total capacity, and the number of terminals was reduced to accommodate more cost effective and modern microcomputers – those with which Parkland students had a greater chance of experiencing in “real life.” PLATO continued under its new name, NovaNet, until 1996, and then the lab quietly went away, but not without first leaving a tremendous impact on how we teach and how we learn at Parkland.

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Don’t forget to check out our display in the College Center to learn more about all the technology options available for you at the Parkland Library.

Share your memories of PLATO by leaving a comment! We’d love to hear from you!

If you have any questions or topics you’d like to see featured in Wayback Wednesday, drop us a line at archives@parkland.edu.

Welcome Heleen and Monique!

On Tuesday afternoon, the office of Institutional Advancement hosted tea in the International Lounge of the Parkland Library to welcome two visiting faculty members from Holland.

Both women are teachers in the Dutch college system in two year technical colleges.  Monique's discipline is Child Development and Heleen's is in developmental math and Dutch as a second language.  They will be visiting classes and different departments at Parkland College as well as learning about everyday American life by staying with Jan Thom and Kelly Bails (respectively.)

Monique gives Nancy Gaumer's granddaughter a thumbs-up for correctly identifying international flags.

Marva Nelson, Heleen and Erika Hackman discuss similarities between English and Dutch students.

Monique, Jan Thom and Anna Maria Watkin compare cultural differences.

Look up to the Stars

October marks the opening of the Cultural Center at Parkland. Completed in 1987, the Planetarium and Theatre were actually phase five of Parkland’s original design from 1967.

 

Staerkel Planetarium under construction, 1986. (from Parkland Archives collection)

 It was worth the twenty year wait for its completion. The Planetarium was one of 37 major planetariums (that is having a dome base diameter of fifty feet or greater) in the United States, and the second largest planetarium in Illinois.  The wait also afforded advancements in technology. Parkland was the first in the world to install the newly designed Zeiss M1015 Star Projector.  

This was Wiliam Staerkel’s last major project before retiring and the one for which he may have had the most excitement. From an article written by William Staerkel, December 3, 1985:

At Parkland the Planetarium’s primary purpose will be to broaden the educational opportunities of its students. Additionally, it is expected to provide a major educational resource for thousands of the district’s’ elementary and secondary school students and for the general public as well.

A September 16, 1987, article from the News Gazette reported that the board voted unanimously to honor Dr. Staerkel by naming the Planetarium after him in recognition of his contribution to Parkland. So great was his enthusiasm for the Planetarium, that, in hopes for an endowment, Staerkel had once offered the honor to Marajen Stevick Chinigo, longtime owner of the News Gazette.  In a letter to her, dated September 17, 1985, he wrote, “I honestly believe that the Planetarium will attract as much attention and as many visitors as the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. It will be a beautiful facility, worthy of the name I hope it bears.”  With the letter, he included a speech he drafted for the dedication ceremony.

Presentations began at the Planetarium on October 22, 1987. To mark the occasion, a time capsule was buried.  It is scheduled to be unearthed in 2061, upon the return of Halley’s Comet.  According to Parkland Works: a 1966-2001 History, the time capsule contains letters from Dr. Staerkel and Dr. Paul Magelli (Parkland President, 1987-1989) to the 2061 Parkland President, personal letters to descendants, a wedding dress that had been worn in 1910 and again in 1985, and various everyday objects, including a parking meter that accepted pennies.

Dr. Staerkel passed away December 10, 1987, but his contribution was again honored on October 13, 1991, by the unveiling of the painting Cosmic Blink, by Billy Morrow Jackson. If you visit the Planetarium, you’ll see that the artist included a portrait of William Staerkel in the corner of the painting.

Also of note in the lobby is the stained glass solar window, created by artist Arthur Stern. This was a gift of Dr. and Mrs. William Staerkel, presented in memory of their parents and as a tribute to the Parkland College faculty and staff. The window is an abstract representation of the changing daily path of the sun across the sky. When the sun shines through the multicolored embedded prisms of the window, it splits into the window’s component colors and casts rainbow patterns, called spectra, inside the building. The patterns change position as the earth rotates around the sun.

 

Solar window in the Planetarium Lobby (photo, Parkland Archives Collection)

 

In 2011, the Staerkel Planetarium added a full dome digital projector, making the shows bigger and better than ever. To find out more about Staerkel Planetarium and view the program schedule, click here.

If you have a question you’d like to see featured in our Wayback Wednesday series, drop us a line at archives@parkland.edu.