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SIUC computer lab gets facelift

By Scott Fitzgerald, The Southern

Friday, July 18, 2008 10:58 PM CDT

CARBONDALE - Mention the word "statistics" to most graduate students and you'll see them wince.

That's not the case for Southern Illinois University Carbondale's Education Psychology and Special Education Department, where a refurbished computer lab has been established to help all graduate students with those complicated statistics projects.

"At least half the students who come in here ask for technical help," said Lyle White, department chair.

The lab has served also as a training site for graduate students like Robert Ricks, a doctoral student in Education Measurement and Statistics, to become training consultants.

Ricks suggested recently to White that the lab could use some changes - namely that it should accommodate visually impaired and physically disabled students.

The student's suggestion arrived at an opportune time. White was working on a 2008 technology grant application. With consulting from the university's Disability Support Services, he applied for a 30-inch ZoomText Magnifier/Reader monitor and three more computers to bring the total to nine.

Sitting on a desk with push-button capacity to be elevated, the magnifier/reader monitor also has a voice component.

Bryan Dallas, a coordinator with Disability Support Services, said the department serves approximately 500 students and staff at SIUC who are visually impaired and/or physically disabled.

"We work with other computer labs on campus, too," Dallas said.

The new magnifier monitor was installed earlier this month. Usage on it is slow now, but it will pick up this fall, White and Ricks said.

"We will have one of the most accessible labs both in technology and getting students in here," Ricks said.

scott.fitzgerald@thesouthern.com

351-5076