Older projectors are being updated to new, state-of-the-art machines in the process.

But for the last couple of years, political science and pre-law junior Lori Kurkowski said she has been taught by several professors who cannot even operate the older classroom projectors.

“I really feel that the teachers should be taught how to use the equipment in their classroom,” she said. “And they should use it to their advantage, because I believe visual aids are important in the learning process.”

But according to Roger Thomas, chief engineer for Instructional Media Center technological operations, professors and teaching assistants are offered assistance, as well as training sessions before the start of each semester.

“We will even do one-on-one classes with them in the classrooms they will be teaching in,” Thomas said. “And sure, many of them take good advantage of it.”

Instructors may enter a new classroom and notice different styles of projectors, DVD players, VCRs, computers and room lighting — causing them to have to fiddle with devices during class periods, which can result in calls to the maintenance department.

Thomas said he knows this holds up lectures, which is why MSU decided to begin installing Crestron Electronics Inc. technology. The company works on classroom technologies.

“The advantage of this system comes when faculty travels from room to room, they see the same thing every time,” he said.

To install Crestron systems, it costs $5,000-$30,000 per classroom, said Dave Gift, vice provost for MSU Libraries, Computing and Technology.

Thomas said 45 classrooms on campus currently have these systems, and he said he hopes every classroom on campus will soon have such capabilities.

He said the current projectors alone cost $2,500 each. However, they are inexpensive compared to 10 years ago.

“They were much more expensive in 1996 and 1997,” Thomas said. “Probably around $8,500.”

Because of this price reduction, MSU’s expenditures for technology updates and maintenance in university classrooms has never increased — a $1.1 million budget has sufficed for six years.

“In the first year or two, while making classrooms technology-based, we would use $600,000 of that $1.1 million for brand new technology,” Gift said. “Now, a larger amount of that money goes toward simply keeping our machines up-to-date and maintaining them. We are constantly making adjustments.”

Thomas said 50-inch flat-screen TVs are making their way into smaller classrooms, because of the $1,600 price.

Anthropology professor Lawrence Robbins said he’s never had a problem getting training for these machines — it’s just a matter of finding time.

“I would have to take time out to do it, but then I would fall back in my research and writing,” he said.