The College and the Hanover Inn began exhibiting a state-of-the-art videoconferencing system at the Hanover Inn this weekend to gauge its usefulness at the College.
"It is not just a fancy picture telephone," said Director of Facilities Operations and Management Michael Getter.
He said College faculty have expressed interest in using videoconferencing for their classes.
"The faculty on campus have expressed interest in distance-learning opportunities," Getter said. "There is the opportunity for shared teaching and getting the benefits of this teaching for students."
"For example, scientific demonstrations [at the University of Southern California] could be viewed by students at Dartmouth who could interact with them," Getter explained. "It would be a two-way learning experience."
Hanover Inn Manager Matthew Marshall said the College and the Hanover Inn are trying too encourage as many people as possible to try the videoconferencing system.
"We are trying to determine the use here on campus and expose as many people as possible to the equipment and sophistication of the equipment," Marshall said .
He said the Hanover Inn is holding many open houses for people to try out the system.
"What Matt is doing is a 45-day trial basis," Getter said. "We have made the videoconferencing equipment available."
"We hope to entice administrators and faculty to make use of it," Getter said. "Matt hopes to entertain commercial users."
Many major educational institutions and major corporations make use of this sort of teleconferencing equipment, Getter said.
He said the Amos Tuck School of Business and the Dartmouth Medical School are already using this system.
"It is really a boon to education as well as business," Getter said.
"Interactive teaching can take place," Getter continued. "Business meetings can take place. It is a lot cheaper to have a meeting by videoconferencing than by flying someone 3,000 miles."
The Hanover Inn is planning several conferences with other colleges and universities, Marshall said.
It was not difficult for the College to acquire the equipment and install it, Getter said.
"The equipment is basically plugged in," Marshall said.
"We had eight ISDN [Integrated Services Digital Network] high bandwidth phone lines installed by Nynex and AT&T. It was very easy, just three or four hours for the installation."
Students and Faculty interested in viewing demonstrations should call Marshall at the Hanover Inn, Getter said.
During the trial period, users will only pay for the telephone call, Getter said. If used on a permanent basis, the rate for one line would be around $26 per hour. Three lines would cost $80 per hour, six lines $158 per hour and eight lines would cost $211 per hour.
