VGCC’s Computer Training Becomes Mobile
Vance-Granville Community College is ready to take its show on the road.
That “show” is its occupational extension computer classes, which can now be taken off campus thanks to a new mobile computer lab recently acquired for this purpose.
The mobile lab is a heavy-duty steel cart on wheels, stocked with 16-20 laptop computers, its own wireless network server and a printer. It is a high-tech classroom on wheels.
Vance-Granville already had these carts for its curriculum programs on the main campus. With these, the instructor can roll the cart to any room on the campus, pass out the laptops to the students and start to work. These connect to the college’s main server through wireless hookups available in all classroom buildings.
Now, the mobile computer lab takes this a step further. It can be loaded into a van or truck and carried to any industry or business in the four-county area served by Vance-Granville Community College. Since it has its own server, the instructor can install software for specific applications into it, and the students can start working.
“The new mobile equipment can turn any room into a computer lab,” said Ann Behar, coordinator of VGCC’s Computer Extension Program. “We can teach any of our Computer Center’s dozens of classes with it or, with a company’s special software, we can go to their site and train their employees at the convenience of the company and its people.”
Since companies might not feel comfortable putting their software onto Vance-Granville’s computers and its server, using the mobile lab means the software would never have to leave the company site.
In the past, if training was done on site at a company or industry, it would have to borrow or rent computers for its employees to use, Behar pointed out. “Logistically, that was difficult and inconvenient, but now wireless technology has evolved to the point it makes the mobile lab feasible,” she said.
Even though the computer lab is mobile, it has every advantage of a desktop computer, Behar said. “We can have access to the Internet, we can print, and all this with no wires attached,” she said. “This gives us great flexibility.”
“When we are doing classes on the VGCC campus, we have access to the Internet through our wireless server,” Behar said. “At off-campus sites, we will have to tap into the organization’s Internet access.”
The first two applications scheduled for the mobile computer lab are one on campus and one off. In one, the college will conduct a Law Enforcement Instructors Academy in which officers attempting to become certified instructors must learn to develop lecture materials and need computers to prepare Power Point presentations and other materials. Since the law enforcement training classroom is not equipped with computers, the mobile lab will be ideal for this.
Also, the lab will be used when the Rural Internet Access Authority conducts training classes for volunteers at H. Leslie Perry Memorial Library in Henderson. With the mobile lab in a classroom at the library, volunteers will learn to help library patrons use the computer available to them in the facility.
The lab can be used for classes that are not purely computer, but which have a small computer component, Behar said. “Now, we can provide training when and where it is wanted, such as at the beginning or the end of a plant’s shift,” she said.
“This is part of Vance-Granville Community College’s ongoing effort to do its best to serve its communities,” said Behar.
Companies or other organizations that are interested in getting on-site instruction through the use of Vance-Granville’s mobile computer lab should call Ann Behar at 252-738-3417.
In the photo above, Jennifer Allen, administrative assistant in the Computer Center of Vance-Granville Community College, demonstrates the new mobile computer lab the college has acquired. The lab can be taken to businesses, industries and organizations in the four counties served by the college to teach computer classes on site as a convenience to the sponsoring agency.
