Lab-of-the-Month: The College of Education General Access Lab

By Dr. Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner, Student Computing Services Manager

Our featured lab this month is the College of Education General Access Lab located in Matthews Hall Room 309. The COE GAL is open Mondays through Thursdays 7:00 am to midnight, Fridays 7:00 am to 6:00 p.m., Saturdays noon to 8:00 p.m., and Sundays 2:00 p.m. to midnight. Lab manager Charles Andrews emphasizes that his diverse and well-trained staff and the quiet, studious atmosphere are just a few of the reasons the COE lab has become a favorite place for students serious about their computing activities.

The COE General Access Lab offers a quiet and studious atmosphere for its patrons

Because of its location, the College of Education General Access Lab offers several computing applications specifically geared toward the education major along with the standard browser, email, and word-processing software found in all of the labs. Among these special applications are several statistics packages including Amos, Lisrel, S-Plus, SAS, Nudist N5 (editorial comment: sounds like fun!), Ethnograph, and SPSS. Facilities are provided for printing theses and dissertations as well as some longer ExCET and TCET reports required for teacher training classes. Another application, DineHealthy, is also used by education majors.

Several resources are available for the completion of educational projects including the Photoshop, Authorware, and Director multimedia applications. Four PC workstations feature scanners with OCR software, and an Apple G4 (also with scanner)and several iMacs include video editing software in their setup. Additionally, the COE GAL has one Macintosh and two PC ADA workstations for students with special needs. Other useful materials include the Java, Visual C, Visual Basic, and C++ programming packages. Due to high request, the lab is also installing five copies of the Atajo software for Spanish and the System-D application for French for students in foreign languages.

The COE lab is well-equipped for all computing needs

Substantial in size, the College of Education General Access Lab has fifty PCs and four Macintosh workstations available in the main lab and twenty-four other PCs located in an adjoining room which is often reserved for special classroom presentations. The majority of the COE machines are 500mhz in speed. Two standard printers are found in the main room and color printing is also available on a limited basis. All of the lab workstations have headphone jacks for listening.

Quiet, well-equipped and out-of-the-way in a far corner of the campus, the College of Education General Access Lab is an ideal spot for the hard-working student who wants friendly and helpful service and an atmosphere conducive to learning. Stop by and see it sometime! The College of Education General Access Lab Website is located at www.coe.unt.edu/gal.