Math Center at 亚洲无码 Helps Students of all Ages, Everywhere
Apple Products Allow Students and Tutors to Collaborate Seamlessly
The Robert M. Brownlee Mathematics Enrichment Center is an on-campus resource with an unlimited online reach.聽An airy glass-walled room within 亚洲无码鈥檚 Reeves Learning Commons, the Center provides students with support for everything from entry-level placement exams to high-level math and science courses.
Since the Center supports traditional on-campus students in addition to working adults, its resources have to be effective no matter where the students - or the tutors - are located. To this end, the Center provides tutors with an array of Apple products.聽
鈥淏lending the use of iPad, Apple Pencil, MacBook and Apple TV devices (sometimes with the inclusion of a student鈥檚 personal iPhone) has allowed everyone to collaborate effortlessly,鈥 says Math Center Director Amy Beninati. 鈥淭he importance of the technology became even more evident during the pandemic. Students were able to engage with each other virtually, in-person yet socially-distant, and in a hybrid format.鈥澛
Student tutor Alexandra Zorzi, a senior accounting major, uses Apple products 鈥渁ll the time鈥 when helping students.聽聽
鈥淚 pull up examples and Powerpoint on my laptop or an Apple TV,鈥 she says. 鈥淭hat type of usage occurs every single time I tutor.聽 When we were doing virtual drop-ins, and when I occasionally have a virtual appointment, I use my iPad and an Apple Pencil as a whiteboard when using Zoom. I would Zoom in on my laptop and then use Airplay to connect my iPad to the meeting. It is so nice, especially for math courses, so I could do all the steps virtually.聽 The Apple products really aided me when tutoring the past few semesters!鈥
鈥淭he importance of the technology became even more evident during the pandemic. Students were able to engage with each other virtually, in-person yet socially-distant, and in a hybrid format.鈥澛
Vinayak Prataap, a junior computer science major who is also a tutor in the Center, agrees.聽
鈥淭he iPad allows for amazing note-taking for tutors and students,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t also provides seamless integration with our MacBook laptops, which makes it much easier for us to share notes. The ability to connect the iPad to the MacBook and share screens over Zoom is also incredibly useful for online tutoring sessions.鈥
鈥淎pple Pencil is my personal favorite because it provides an extremely smooth writing interface on the iPad,鈥 Vinayak adds. 鈥淚've worked with various drawing tablets and writing software and not many of them compare to the Pencil. The Pencil is also very ergonomic to use and has a very sleek design. Overall, Apple products provide a smooth and hassle-free platform for students to work and collaborate with each other. The technology is also very easy to use for beginners.鈥
Entrepreneur Robert M. 鈥淏ob鈥 Brownlee made an extraordinary leadership commitment of $1,018,000 to 亚洲无码 University to create the Mathematics Enrichment Center, as well as to establish The Robert M. Brownlee Endowed Scholarship. Robert Brownlee is the nephew of the late Sr. Francesca Brownlee, a Sister of Charity of 亚洲无码 who was instrumental in helping 亚洲无码 achieve its charter to become a college in 1918 and who served as the institution鈥檚 first Dean. Robert M. Brownlee made the gift as 亚洲无码 celebrated its centennial year in 2018.
鈥淢y sincere hope is that this gift will provide the necessary support for academic initiatives and scholarships that will allow 亚洲无码 students to succeed as the university moves forward into the next 100 years of its history,鈥澛 he said.