2004 Summer Workshop Project Abstracts
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MatthewBalensuela

Online exam for Mus 100/104 placement

My initial idea is to create an on-line music notation exam for the Mus 100/104 courses. Nonmusic majors will need to take the exam for proper placement into Mus 100 (if they do poorly on the exam and do not know music notation) or the proposed Mus 104 (if they do have a basic grasp of music notation). We will need a set of multiple choice questions that can be randomly created and graded on-line. Students will need to take the exam to place into the correct class. In considering where the exam might be “housed” on the Web and where links to it should appear, it would make sense to have a link to the exam somewhere in the School of Music web site. In looking at the web site, however, we have pages for majors and faculty, but no page for non majors interested in School of Music classes, lessons, ensembles and activities. So more broadly, I would like to propose as part of my FITS summer project to construct a web site for music offerings for Non-majors. As we already have a template for the pages, I think it is mostly gathering information about lessons, ensembles, classes and (back to the original proposal) the placement exam for Mus 100/104. The pages would be reviewed by the School of Music faculty in the Fall of 2004 before they are officially posted to be sure that the pages have full and complete information. Will are planning to offer Mus 104 for the first time in the Spring of 2005 so we will have the fall to “test the test”, a small run of the exam for students on campus during registration in the Fall of 2004 and then (assuming all the bugs are worked out) the exam should be available for incoming students in the Fall of 2005.

RexCall

Instructional Digital Video for Musculoskeletal Assessment

My objective for this project is to become knowledgeable and competent in producing an instructional digital video. My goal is to incorporate it as a learning tool into both PowerPoint and blackboard applications. I envision that this technology will enhance the learning experience of my students in a variety of ways. First, an instructional digital video could be embedded into a classroom PowerPoint presentation. Often there are problems and impracticalities in doing an effective, live classroom demonstration. Getting certain equipment into the teaching area may not be possible. Sometimes you must rely on solicitation of volunteer subject(s) from the audience for a demonstration. Many classrooms lack adequate space for this type of teaching/learning activity. Finally, with larger numbers of students in a classroom, some students may be impeded from clearly seeing all aspects of a teaching demonstration. All of these issues can detract from a student's potential to learn. By digitally videoing a demonstration in advance, these obstacles can be overcome and key teaching points can be emphasized to the students. In my courses, students must learn musculoskeletal assessment techniques. These are demonstrated in class, students practice those in lab sessions, and then their learning is assessed via an oral-practical exam. I hope that another project outcome will be the use of digital video instruction within blackboard so that my students can continue to review musculoskeletal assessment techniques often and at their discretion throughout the unit or semester.

MartheChandler

Showing Images within Chinese Aesthetics

In Fall 2004 I am offering a new course, PHIL 307: Chinese Aesthetics, which I developed on my Faculty Fellowship. I would like to learn how to show images in this class using Power Point. I have several hundred slides of Chinese painting, Bronzes, Buddhist statues and wall murals, maps, the gardens of Suzhou, historical photographs and pictures of the Forbidden City, the Taklimakhan Desert, Shanghai and Wuhan. Part of the project would be to continue to digitalize these slides. Some time in the future my slides might be merged with the Luna collection. I would also like to learn how to combine Power Point presentations with the Blackboard site for my classes. In addition I want to refresh my Dreamweaver skills (learned in a FITS workshop in 2002) and update my own homepage. Finally I would like to be able to figure out how to finish the project, ‘5,000 Years of Chinese History’ which I started in 2000 during my first FITS workshop. This project involves getting a lecture I give the first week of my course in Chinese Philosophy into a manageable form. At the moment I show about 50 slides and give students a three-page handout of dates and three maps. There is too much material to be “covered” in class. I started working with FrontPage (in 2000) and moved to Dreamweaver in 2002. Now it seems that using Power Point and Blackboard would be the easiest way to finish the project.

HirokoChiba

Creating a Vocabulary Database

It is always a challenge for language learners to retain the vocabulary already learned while studying new words constantly. The vocabulary pool the learners need continuously expands even at the elementary level. However, although the list of vocabulary is rather overwhelming for the learners, it is pivotal for them to store and build up lexicon. In order to facilitate the process, it takes constant effort for language instructors to provide the learners with effective ways to accumulate vocabulary without having them feel inundated. The objective of this project is to create a vocabulary database which enables students to review verbs on-line any time, testing themselves. Each word in the vocabulary database will have four components: the visual image (picture describing the word), audio, spelling and definition. When a student opens this exercise, he or she will see a matrix of visual images. He or she will type each verb in Japanese by looking at the image of the verb. The same task will be done for the rest of the verb presented in the matrix. When the learner cannot identify certain vocabulary items, the definition, audio, and spelling will be given by clicking an icon dedicated to this task. The vocabulary of the matrix will be randomized each time so that students can review the vocabulary without the use of ordered information. The verbs will be sorted by each chapter of the textbook used at DePauw. This practice will be a useful devise for constant vocabulary review. It involves multiple skills and tasks. Also, students can preview the vocabulary for self-study or quizzes. I would like to introduce these exercises in the fall of 2004.

KathyDavis

Library Staff/Student Worker Tutorials

Staff training is always one of the library’s biggest challenges primarily because of the many and varied work schedules. Along with work schedule issues, continuity and consistency of training is also a problem. The goal of this project is to develop short (5 – 8 minute) online training modules which can be used by staff and student workers at their work site and during their work schedule. Along with providing useful information on topics such as navigation of the library web site, basic reference interview skills, use of library databases and online catalog, basic technology troubleshooting, etc., a simple evaluation will be given at the end of each session. This evaluation will be used to assess whether basic skills presented in the tutorials have been acquired and help supervisors and individuals determine if more in-depth training is warranted. As libraries become more technologically complex, students and faculty conduct more research outside of the library. Also, not all students have the benefit of library instruction. It is becoming apparent that customized online modules may be a useful supplement to the current library instruction program. While our initial goal is to meet the training needs of library staff and student workers, this project will afford an opportunity to pilot and refine such modules for future student and faculty use. A search of training sites at various university libraries has revealed several techniques which have characteristics which may be desirable as we develop our modules. One such site is at the University of Maryland Library Port Tutorial. http://www.oit.umd.edu/as/ResearchPort/researchport_tutorial.htm We are unsure of the software and skills needed to create such a tutorial but hope that the FITS workshop will provide software and instruction needed to emulate a similar technique.

VanessaDickerson

Powerpoint for Black Studies

I wish to learn PowerPoint because it is tool that is very useful in the classroom. Specifically, I plan to put together a PowerPoint presentation on a segment that I give in my Black Studies course on the Middle Passage. I would like to use pictures, charts, and texts to bring home to students the history of the forced migration of 6 million blacks. I think that illustrations of close packing, screens of specific verses of Robert Hayden's poem, "Middle Passage," even itineraries of today's luxury liners can provide student with further, more visual and graphic insight into what it meant to travel thousands of miles across the ocean in chains, filth, disease and fear.

TomDickinson

Creating Wiki Environments for Collaboration Among Teachers and Students

I have been actively searching for the last ten years for different environments, both inside and outside the classroom, that supported collaboration, reflection, and active engagement in learning for my teacher education students as individuals and as members of groups. And in this search I have been working to reduce the distance between myself and my students as we actively moved toward our individual and collective learning goals. In my active search I began with paper journals. I moved online with my search with early versions of Blackboard where I used discussion boards and online chats. My search continued with hypertext writing using programs such as Eastgate's StorySpace and graphic programs such as Inspiration. My most recent exploration has been with web logs (blogs), although I have not ventured into this arena with classes as yet. What I have been searching for and what my current journey takes me to now, is a means of collaboration where the technology is as fluid as individual talk, writing and thinking. Where students could find their own way through a subject, article, or text without me overly guiding them, yet providing access to myself and others to view their thinking and make commentary on their work. I have been, it seems, working toward applying more and more constructivist theory into daily practice with as much support from various venues (texts, field-based classrooms, technology, etc.) as possible. So I have arrived to try Wiki. Specifically, I would like to explore Wiki as a means to further my constructivist agendas in the classroom with teacher education students. I would like to specifically: 1. learn how to set up and support a Wiki for classroom use; 2. create a Wiki that would use a static article and call for elaboration, analysis, commentary, and other student contributions (I have in mind the reform report A Nation at Risk that I already use as a focal point for our political and economic foundations discussions in my EDUC 170 Foundations of Education class); 3. create a Wiki that would begin with a lesson plan concept/idea that students and instructors would then build upon until a complete two-week unit had been created (I have been trying this concept out with a modified version combining Groups and Discussion Board on my Blackboard site for my EDUC 310 Curriculum and Instruction class; while it is interesting it is awkward to read and add to under the current design); 4. establish a Wiki for individual students to use as writing environments for their individual field-based practicum in a public elementary school; in this endeavor I want to move beyond learning logs and paper journals to more fluid repositories of their work (and if this is successful I would like to venture into using a Wiki as an alternative to paper portfolios that students produce during their education program). In engaging in these activities I hope to work on the following: 1. my ability to move to more open-ended learning goals for students that encourages and engages their collaboration and input; 2. my analytical ability of their electronic work; 3. continuing my investigation of teaching in a technology-rich environment and the impact of this environment on my own teaching. And, while I'm doing the above, I want to find the appropriate ways to link the various Wikis to my current Blackboard-supported course.

CarlaEdwards

Technology enhancement for 20th Centruy Class

I would like to become proficient in digital audio and digital video capturing, and be able to insert these examples into PowerPoint. I already have a web page for 20th C. Literature, but I need to work on technology enhancements for the course lectures.

OpeliaGoma

Incorporating Active Learning in Economics with Technological Applications

My proposal for the FITS Summer Workshop is to learn how to develop user forms and macros in Excel and how to create applets and flash animations for web pages. I will be applying these tools in my faculty fellowship project which will begin in fall 2004. The purpose of my fellowship project is to create interactive technological modules to improve the conceptualization of economic models and theories through visual displays. The modules will apply a variety of technological tools including applets, spreadsheets, and web-based presentations, and will incorporate case studies that demonstrate the effective use of economic modeling to evaluate key historical economic events.

PaulHamilton

Creating Adaptive On-line Screening, Practice Problems, & Testing

The goal of this project is to create a testing system that adapts to the quality of the user’s answers. This has been recently implemented in the SAT testing to better pin-point the strengths and weaknesses of the student. A similar system would be useful in less formal settings such as screening students for placement in math, foreign languages, and other disciplines. The real utility of this approach is that it efficiently allows the advanced student to quickly ‘prove themselves’ and the struggling student to eventually be asked questions that are within their repertoire. The same program would be a useful study aid where students can advance quickly or be ‘sent back’ to review more basic material before attempting the more difficult problems. Prior to the workshop I will attempt to get up to speed on the how others (e.g. the ETS) structure their exams. There are many issues to consider such as how do users enter their answers (e.g. multiple choice, numerical), the algorithm used to identify advancing/regressing the difficulty of the questions, and how feedback is incorporated. I have some expertise in Bayesian statistics which has an algorithm (‘Bayes rule’) that can be used to update parameters (perceptions of the student’s ability) as more information is acquired. Although I think most systems are like the SAT (they simply provide a score at the end), eventually I would like to build in tutorials that explain why their answer was wrong and how to find the correct answer. A tricky aspect of the process is how the material being evaluated is structured. In some instances it may be fairly linear; an algebra or microeconomics test could be considered of this type. Other material may be very fragmented such in macroeconomics where many of the fundamental ideas are not closely intertwined. A second example would be a language where the student understands the words but not the grammatical structure. I hope to have some conversions with colleagues from other disciplines on how they might structure an adaptive test. In the workshop I would like to learn how to setup a simple program that could be used to screen the Q-readiness of incoming DePauw students. Currently we use the student’s test scores and high school math background which may not be fully indicative of their Q abilities. I plan to implement adaptive practice problem sets in my Quantitative Reasoning in Economics (Econ 350) course this fall.

TomMusser

Feasibility of Microsoft Accounting Software for Classroom and Campus Use

I intend to explore business software for use in my courses. The focus will be on Microsoft’s Great Plains products, specifically the Dynamics program for Managerial Accounting (ECON 280). In addition, consideration will be given to joining the Microsoft Business Solutions Academic Alliance and gaining additional exposure to available Microsoft business software programs. If included in Managerial Accounting, this business software will expose students to a business program that is currently used by a number of medium sized organizations. The anticipated areas of application are job order costing, activity-based costing, and possibly cost behavior. (Usually this software is more often used in accounting information system courses and it needs to be determined whether it is a good fit for Managerial Accounting.)

CarolineSmith

Further Endeavors for Applied Voice

Last year I was able to author a web page and learn some of the skills necessary for Blackboard that were utilized in my teaching of Applied Voice. I want to further these technology skills that will enhance this course pedagogically. I would like to set up more links that my students can use and learn more about Blackboard 6 so that I can implement these added dimensions more easily in my teaching.

OrcenithSmith

A Web Site for DePauw University Orchestras

In discussion with Julianne Miranda, it was clear that some kind of Orchestra-centric Website was possible and needed. This would allow our own students and prospective students to view a site filled with a breadth of content, including lists of upcoming and past repertoire, sound files of past performances, links to academically related subject areas, current news in the orchestral world (including DePauw grads, in positions related to the music industry), rehearsal schedules, concert dates, personnel lists, future project initiatives (such as planning steps for touring), the history of the orchestra, FAQs, the conductor's bio, photos of the full orchestra, and tour photos, just to name a few of the possibilities. As conductor of the Orchestra, I would manage and update the site as per the guidelines set forth by discussions with Julianne Miranda and her colleagues, and in consultation with the Administration of the School of Music.

MicheleVillinski

DyKnow Soars into Economics

The purpose of this project, “DyKnow Soars into Economics,” is to use DyKnow software to create a series of in-class activities for use in Applied Game Theory. These templates, exercises, and dynamic class sessions will help me explain game theoretic models by demonstrating how to construct and analyze them. This will facilitate student learning by providing opportunities to practice using, interpreting, and manipulating the graphs and diagrams both during and outside of class. I envision the DyKnow sessions as a greatly enhanced version of my lecture notes that students will be able to review outside of class, on their own schedule, and at their own pace. I also see the DyKnow sessions as a critical resource for increasing student learning, by integrating lectures and in-class worksheets, experiments and activities.

Important Dates:

Friday, April 30 Proposals Due to FITS

Friday, May 7 GIS Preview Lunch

May 10-14, Individual consultations

June 1, Opening Day: