The California State University, Northridge campus community invited faculty and staff to the seventh annual Technology Fair on May 11 at the University Student Union Grand Salon. The fair familiarizes faculty and staff with new technology trends in higher education.

This year’s tech fair, organized by CSUN’s Department of Information Technology, featured tables with representatives from vendors such as Microsoft, Lynda and Apple.

Ryan Zervakos, a representative from Lynda.com, explained how Lynda is beneficial to CSUN students. “Lynda.com is an online learning platform for students — it’s provided by [CSUN] for free, for any student,” Zervakos said. “Lynda.com is for personal development and professional development.”

The event also included a lecture from Robbie Melton, a special education teacher and associate vice chancellor of mobilization and emerging technology for the Tennessee Board of Regents.

Melton’s presentation titled The Emergence of the Internet of Things, Smart Connected Devices and EduGadgets for Real-Time On-Demand Transformation of Education, covered different types of technology and explained the importance of technology in classrooms.

“[Technology makes it] so that learning takes place any time, any place, for anyone,” Melton said. “I say to you, faculty members, you must become engaged with the technology for the betterment of our students.”

Melton said even though there are millions of apps, only 30 percent are education-based. To bridge this gap, she encouraged the audience to look at their  smartphones differently.

“This is the day and age when we learn that they are no longer [just] phones,” she said. “This is the day we learn they are also powerful teaching tools.”

Education, Information Technology, Tech Fair, USU