Posted December 13th, 2005 by Michael Roy, Middlebury College
December 2005
Teaching & Learning Interchange: Pedagogy in Practice Case Studies
by Rachel Smith, NMC: The New Media Consortium
These case studies, crafted for new teachers, are designed to provide a view into classroom practices that effectively integrate both subject matter and teaching standards.
The case studies feature an array of resources presented in several formats – PDF, video clips, text, and animation – packaged in an easy-to-use module that allows for plenty of exploration on the part of the student. Content focuses on teaching strategies, curriculum development, and best practices.
The site is intended for new teachers and students in teacher education programs. Registration is required for access, but a login is provided immediately upon registration.
Mixxer: Skype-enabled Language Exchange Site
by Rachel Smith, NMC: The New Media Consortium
Mixxer allows individual students or entire classes to participate in a language exchange. Once a profile is created, the user can search for a language partner, i.e. a native English speaker learning German can find a native German speaker learning English. The site asks all users to install Skype in order to communicate. (Skype is a free voice-over-IP program which is very reliable, has excellent sound quality, and can run on Mac OS X, Windows, or Linux; see www.skype.com.) The site also takes advantage of the API released by Skype which allows users in the site to see which potential language partners are currently online, giving them the ability to contact any other user directly by clicking on their Skype name.
Mixxer is not the only language exchange site on the web. However, by making use of Skype and its API, it makes it very easy for a student or teacher to speak with a language partner with literally one click of the mouse.
Questions or ideas are welcomed. Contact the site’s creator, Todd Bryant, at bryantt@dickinson.edu.
Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity Online Edition 2004
by Dr Gabriel Bodard, Kings College London
Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity 2004
Revised second edition (online)
Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity was published in 1989 in the Society of the Promotion of Roman Studies Monographs series, by Charlotte Roueché with contributions by Joyce Reynolds. The second edition, expanded and revised, was published online in 2004 as:
Charlotte Roueché Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity: The Late Roman and Byzantine Inscriptions, revised second edition, 2004, (http://insaph.kcl.ac.uk/ala2004), ISBN 1897747179 (abbreviated to ‘ala2004’)
The editions and commentary are by Charlotte Roueché except for text 1, by Joyce Reynolds. The electronic editorial conventions were developed by Tom Elliott (and the EpiDoc Collaborative), and the website and the supporting materials are the work of Gabriel Bodard, Paul Spence, and colleagues in the Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King’s College London.
The publication consists of:
- A full catalogue of the inscriptions, illustrated far more richly than would be possible in a conventional volume, and indexed by significant terms, lexical words, locations, dates, and bibliographical concordance;
- Commentary and historical narrative, epigraphic introductions and prosopographical appendices, fully cross-referenced and hyper-linked across the site;
- Reference materials including bibliography, links, clickable plans of the site, and repoductions of epigraphic notebooks;
- A free text search engine, in case what you are looking for is not in the very full indices.
Digital Gaming Teaching and Research at Michigan State
by Rachel Smith, NMC: The New Media Consortium
In Fall 2005, the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media at Michigan State University launched the Game Design and Development Specialization. The specialization brings together undergraduate students majoring in digital media arts and technology within the department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media, Computer Science, and Studio Art. Combining these perspectives and talent, students explore the history, social impacts, technology, design fundamentals, and the art of team-based digital game production.
The specialization culminates in a Collaborative Design capstone course where students work in teams with a client in the full design cycle encompassing specification, design, prototyping, implementation, testing, and documentation. Throughout the specialization, students are expected to develop a portfolio of game design and development, and to explore internship opportunities. The core undergraduate Game Design and Development curriculum is enhanced by additional classes in human computer interaction and user centered design, interactive media design, and digital storytelling. In addition to exciting courses, students have the opportunity to participate in FuturePlay, an international conference on the future of game design, game technology, and game research sponsored and hosted by Michigan State University.
MSU states about digital gaming as an academic field, “Video games have grown to become an important medium in our society. Like film, radio, television, and the Web before it, games have become worthy of academic study, analysis and research. In academia today it is the hot research focus across many diverse disciplines, including education, computer science, communication, psychology, and economics, just to name a few.â€?
An example of the importance of digital games in social research and other fields is MSU’s Digital Media Arts and Technology project funded by the National Science Foundation called “Girls as Game Designers,â€? which is research on how girls and boys approach games, and how games affect them. One of the projects that has grown out of the Girls as Game Designers research is the “Alien Gamesâ€? project, which “will be… integrated, out of this world fun interactive science learning and play about extraterrestrials and astrobiology designed to appeal to high school and middle school girls to interest them in astrobiology, space science, and game designers . . . .â€?
ArtXplore
by Rachel Smith, NMC: The New Media Consortium
Professor Susan Tennant of the Informatics Research Institute at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has collaborated with the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the university’s Herron School of Art and Design, and Purdue’s School of Science at IUPUI to develop ArtXplore, a multimedia program running on a hand-held PDA. The interface highlights information on 16 objects in 12 galleries at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and provides the information wirelessly to the museum visitor. Additionally, museum patrons are able to review their experience and provide comments to the curator directly from the PDA.
ArtXplore provides audio and visual content to the museum patron, including graphics, animation, video, and panoramas. The device also provides data to the museum such as how long a person looks at the art objects, what objects are the most popular, traffic patterns and time of day patterns, and other areas such as gender differences in viewing art.
The content was provided by the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Herron School of Art and Design. Students from the Herron School, the School of Science, and the School of Informatics were also involved in content development and program design.
The Physical Universe
by Rachel Smith, NMC: The New Media Consortium
Created to accompany the eponymous textbook (The Physical Universe, by Konrad B. Krauskopf and Arthur Beiser; McGraw-Hill), this extensive site includes animations and figures for each chapter, along with study questions and exercises. The site stands on its own with introductory text for each topic that sets the stage for exploration within subject areas such as the scientific method, matter and energy, the atom, the Periodic Law, and the solar system, among others.
Some animations and figures include audio descriptions (text transcripts are also provided). Although the site is linked closely to the book, it could be used as a resource to learn more about a particular topic even without the book. Goals for learning and follow-up questions help guide the learner, and key concepts are outlined with important terms linked to the glossary.
The Digital Classicist
by Dr Gabriel Bodard, Kings College London
The Digital Classicist is a web-based hub for scholars and students interested in the application of Humanities Computing to undertake research into the ancient world. The main purpose of the site is to offer guidelines and suggestions of major technical issues. The site also features news about events, publications (print and electronic), and other developments in the field.
The main website contains an annotated list of classical projects that utilize computing technology, and links to freely available tools and resources of use to scholars engaging in such projects. The core of the project is the Wiki FAQ: an interactive platform for the building of a Frequently Asked Questions list, with answers and other suggestions offered by members of the community, and collectively authored work-in-progress guidelines and reports.
The site’s creators seek to encourage the growth of a community of practice, which is open to everyone interested in the topic, regardless of skill or experience in technical matters, and language of contribution. As a general principle, key sections of the website or summaries of discussions will, where possible, be translated into the major languages of European scholarship: e.g. English, French, German, and Italian.
The Digital Classicist is hosted by the Centre for Computing in the Humanities at King’s College London.
Harvard@Home
by Gina Siesing, Tufts University
Harvard@Home offers dozens of rich multimedia programs, each of which allows in-depth exploration of a particular intellectual or artistic arena. Programs are freely viewable by the public and are designed to be of general interest to those with curiosity about a variety of fields. Based on faculty and expert lectures and symposia, the programs feature highly edited streamed video segments, supplemented by additional program materials, including textual description, glossaries, timelines, maps, and QTVR.
All programs are open to the world. Topics run the gamut of disciplinary and interdisciplinary interests; each program offers from 45 minutes to many hours of video content. Harvard@Home publishes approximately one new program per month. Visitors may join the program announcement list to hear about new releases: athome@fas.harvard.edu.
UO Channel
by Rachel Smith, NMC: The New Media Consortium
The UO Channel at the University of Oregon is a gateway to video programs that reflect the quality, creativity, and diversity of academic and cultural life at the university. Featured programs include lectures, interviews, performances, symposia, documentary productions, and more. In addition to video/streaming media on demand, the UO Channel also provides access to campus radio stations.
Visitors will find such varied offerings as a recent (November 2005) conversation with film director David Lynch and a not-so-recent (circa 1934) recruitment video for the university. Invited speakers include authors, activists, and scholars, among others.
The UO Channel is a collaborative service of the UO Libraries, Public and Media Relations, and the Computing Center.
