The new Waldron building will consist of five classrooms with this technologically advanced equipment called multi-media stations.  These rooms will have a computer and projector (many classrooms on campus already have these), a TV and VCR, and a microphone.  The microphone will assist the speaker standing at the podium.  The projector will allow teachers to use the internet during class and project the screen through the projector for students to see.

There will also be one Distance Education Room in Waldron.  This will be for video conferences.  The way it works is, the classroom has a camera in it and students at Virginia Western Community College can communicate and see the students here at Radford, hence the name Distance Education.  It's like those commercials on TV where people are sitting around a table in one city and watching and talking to another company from another city.  The reason why is because Radford leases a building from Virginia Western.  Through technology, communication will be easier for both colleges.

The Communication Sciences and Clinical Disorder Department will have an observation room mainly for social work.  Those departments do a great deal of clinical and observational work and desperately needed a closed circuit TV.  This means, sessions can be held with a client in one room, while in another room, someone else can be observing the session.  One of these Closed Circuit rooms will be on the first floor and the other on the second.

An advantage for students in any major will be a new Resource Center. This will be an extension of McConnell Library.  Students will be able to search the library database without having to go to the actual library, so save your legs.  The room will be a small computer lab with sixteen computers solely for searching. 

One of the most exciting and technologically advanced concept is that of Wireless Ethernet Network.  Ed Oakes, Director of Academic Computing, said that they were buying 16 laptops for the building.  In these laptops they will install a special computer card that allows use of the internet without a modem.  There will be six access points throughout the building, but you no longer have to be connected to a wall.  Students and professors will be able to roam around the halls while looking on the internet.  This will be beneficial to everyone. Oakes said, "It will be used more and more and will help students do presentations."

According to Oakes, they are working on making the smaller classrooms more advanced first.  This is because majority of the smaller classes are upper level courses and need technology skills to go out into the real world. 

By the end of this summer, there will be 28-29 classrooms with this equipment installed throughout campus.  Radford already has 18 classes under their wing with this equipment and ready to go. 

The 600 Network Connections throughout Waldron College was a necessity.  Technology will now be woven into our brains here at Radford.  Oakes said, "It will be a fairly high tech building, making it easier to incorporate technology into teaching and learning."