53a Church Street:
A State-of-the-Art Computer Facility

Extension Expansion

For better or worse, information technology (IT) is transforming the way we work, play, and learn. IT even affects the way some of us shop and form relationships with others. We need not look far to find evidence of the pervasive influence of IT in our daily lives: television and print advertisements regularly include World Wide Web addresses; General Motors Corporation now has a market value less than that of Microsoft Corporation; more encyclopedias are sold on CD-ROM plastic than in traditional paper form; and yearly sales of personal computers far surpass those of color televisions.

Neil Rudenstine, president of Harvard University, commented on IT in his 1996 Commencement address, ". . . I believe that universities have a special responsibility to exert real leadership in this sphere: not so much in the development of the technology itself, but in the imaginative and thoughtful uses of the best technology for the purposes of better teaching and learning. We must be prepared to do now--over the course of the next 10 to 20 years--what our predecessors achieved during the late 19th century when they made a conscious decision to create unrivaled university research libraries, new curricula, and new teaching methods. It can be done, and now is the time to begin." The Harvard Extension School (and institutions of higher learning, in general) is affected in fundamental ways by IT. The current academic year has seen a major surge in computer science registrations, with approximately 600 students enrolled in the introductory courses in C++ programming (CSCI E-50a and E-50b). Looking beyond the computing courses, an increasing number of offerings in the humanities, and social and natural sciences is embracing the Internet to distribute syllabi and other course material via the World Wide Web, as well as to converse with students via e-mail, newsgroups, and "mailing lists." This major increase in the use of computer hardware and software by Extension students and faculty is beyond the capacity of the Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services (FASCS), based in the Science Center.

More than a year ago, Henry Leitner, Senior Lecturer on Computer Science and Director of Academic Computing for Harvard's Division of Continuing Education, alerted Dean Michael Shinagel to these trends and questioned how the Extension School could continue to support educational innovations without more resources. Dean Shinagel's response was simple and direct: "Let's build our own facilities to augment what we use in the Science Center." And so the 53a Church Street project was born.

Formerly occupied by Harvard Student Agencies, 53a Church is nearing the end of a renovation that will transform the two-story brick building into a state-of-the-art computing facility. The contractors, Bond Brothers, began construction at the end of 1996 and expect to finish in early March. The new facility will include a 30-workstation multimedia lab/classroom and computers for word processing on the first floor; and on the second floor, a 22-seat teaching area equipped with color laptops. The building will be open seven days a week from morning until midnight to students enrolled in Harvard Extension and Summer School courses. The additional 60 computers in this facility will greatly supplement the computing capacity provided by the Science Center.

"It's really very exciting and gratifying to be able to build a new facility from scratch," commented Leitner. "We have a wonderful opportunity to provide hardware and support systems that integrate well into a traditional teaching environment--the classroom. For example, both the first- and second-floor labs will have high-quality video projectors capable of showing not only the output from the instructor's computer display, but also from individual student machines. In addition, these projectors can be used with other sources of video, such as a conventional VCR or camcorder. We are taking great care in designing an easy-to-use podium with intuitive touch screens that will allow instructors complete control over the various components in the room. We also will be able to offer many more section meetings in courses where students have live interaction with a computer, and we will be able to start offering short professional development courses in the near future."