Each month we highlight an example of how technology is being used for teaching and learning at Seattle Pacific University. Below you will find work previously showcased on our homepage.
Website build project
With this web design project, Gregory Wolfe hoped to be able to represent the range of his interests, publications, and research areas.
The site was designed by former SPU staffer Joel Ertsgaard. After consultation with ITS Director David Wicks, Senior Graphic Designer Dominic Williamson constructed the site. Greg was then given instructions on how to maintain the site through the program Contribute.
According to Greg, the results have been mostly anecdotal, responses from students about what they've learned from his writings, research, and activities. See the quote below.
Gregory Wolfe, English Instructor, Resident Writer, Master's in Fine Arts Director
"Mr. Wolfe's website, taught me a few things about him and his vocation as professor, editor, and artist that one can only guess at while walking through the English halls in SPU. For example, his section on his passions helped me connect his influences from the Renaissance period - Christian Humanism - with the particular mission of Image Journal. The website's particular strengths — balance, tactful graphics, and simplicity - speak to Mr. Wolfe's vocation as an arbiter of the arts here on campus."
Animated Biochemical Sequence
The goal for this project was to add a dynamic dimension that would help students understand the biochemical sequence of events underlying what makes neurons work. Professor Ben McFarland provided a static figure and a description of a complex sequence of about five events, and Dominic Williamson, ITS Senior Graphic Designer, created a Flash animation with artistic renderings of each step. The existing figure was very complex, full of text, and didn't really convey the "wave" of ions washing in and out of the neuron that is the conceptual key to how it works. The animation effectively provides exactly this sense of what happens, without several paragraphs of words. A picture > 1000 words. McFarland will introduce this animation to his Winter Quarter 2009 course and test student retention of the concept on the unit tests.
Benjamin McFarland, Assistant Prof, Biochemistry
"I'm very happy with how chemical symbols, colors, and cartoon figures of proteins interact to show a complex mechanism very clearly. This is exactly what I had in mind, and I'm excited to show it to students."
Virtual Synchronous Classroom Using Adobe Connect
2007 Technology Grant Recipients:
Melani Plett, Brad Gjerding, Don Peter, & Elaine Scott Department of Engineering
Ryan LaBrie & Jeff Van Duzer School of Business & Economics
This project had two goals:
1) to make courses available to non-traditional students that could not be on campus during regular class hours.
2) to make our courses available to students who could not be present in the classroom for reasons such as sports, travel, work, or sickness but could attend from a remote location were the technology made available.
David Wicks, Director of Instructional Technology Services, worked with SPU Computer & Information Systems (CIS) to secure funding for the Adobe Connect server software and worked with the Department of Engineering and School of Business & Economics on client licensing costs. Additionally, there was support from CIS for hosting the server application and working with the researchers on acquiring and supporting the Tablet PCs.
Using modern Windows Vista based Tablet PCs, various web cameras, and some additional audio equipment (various classroom and lecturer microphones and mixers) along with the Adobe Connect server software hosted on CIS servers, faculty were able to provide a robust classroom experience to remote students. Students were able to hear the lecture, see the presentation, see the instructor and class participants, and actively participate through online chatting, speaking, and/or providing video of themselves at their remote location, all simply through a high-speed Internet connection. Note that the use of this technology did not come without cost.
There is a learning curve for the professor using this technology and getting use to managing the Tablet PC, the Adobe Connect environment, and the various types of students (in-class and remote) needs. Also with this complex setup, there is more opportunity for technology failure: bandwidth issues come into play for audio and video clarity, recording features need to be tweaked, there is an initial learning curve and setup for the remote student, etc.
Surprisingly, this technology really reinforced the want and need for the students to be in the classroom. Initially, faculty thought that perhaps once this was made available, many of the students would want to utilize it and not come to class. As it turns out, the vast majority of the students that used this technology were happy that was made available so that they didn't have to miss class, but they would still rather be in class if given the choice. This was a pleasant surprise and speaks to the reality that the classroom environment does provide something more.
"I have found that using the Adobe Connect technology, even with the extra work that comes along with it, is beneficial for both me and the students. If students can attend class remotely they don't miss content they otherwise might have. That makes for a much more productive learning experience in the end."
“Eating Healthy For Life” Video
To watch video clip, click play button above
This group video project was part of the SPU Professional Nursing Synthesis Internship. The focus of the internship was on synthesis of past educational experiences within a variety of acute care and community settings. Project development incorporates interdisciplinary work, application of leadership skills, working in partnership with selected communities, and integration of prior knowledge base, as well as experience, in order to arrive at a newer level of thinking and performance. The goal of this particular project was to develop a 10-15 minute DVD showing healthy heart nutrition, an educational tool for the Wellness Program aired repeatedly on Crista's in-house television station. The tool was also to be used for staff education working with older adults. The aim was to help older adults make healthy choices in grocery shopping or in selecting restaurant menu items knowing that their choices can still impact the quality of life in future years. A group of five senior nursing students, one graduate student, and a nursing faculty member worked with ITS Audio / Video Specialist David Rither to create the film. Challenges were time and achieving quality work with limited resources. Fortunately, ITS was able to donate an expert for the project to help film and edit the footage. Their cost was considered "wholesale" cost which was passed on to Crista. Click on link to see it on iTunes
"This was the first project with this kind of audio-visual caliber for us. It was truly an exciting project for the students because they were able to learn skills on another venue for communicating health education. They gained more knowledge in the field of gerontology, marketing and communication. Also, as this is the technology generation, doing a project like this really fit them. It actually got quite a few of them excited about learning new skills. We are anticipating another video project in Spring 2008 of a similar nature involving the topic of fall prevention."
Rome's Pantheon Illustration
To see a larger version, click on image
SPU Assistant Professor of Education Dr. Scheuerman worked with ITS Senior Graphic Designer Dominic Williamson to develop an image to enhance a presentation Richard gives each year to Master's of Arts in Teaching teacher candidates on moral education. Dominic devised a graphic representation of Rome's Pantheon for "The Architecture of Moral Education" to better render the important discussion of this topic at its three fundamental levels - respect (foundation), responsibilities (pillars), and rights (superstructure).
Richard Scheuerman, Assistant Professor of Education
"Dom has a masterful way of designing symbols and models to elegantly express complex ideas."
Utilizing Web 2.0 Technologies in Online Course Instruction
To listen to podcast on iTunes U, click on image
Arthur Ellis incorporates the use of wikis, blogs and podcasts into his graduate online course “Foundations of American Education” in order to actively engage students in the pursuit of insight and application of the great ideas that have shaped education over the centuries. He had taught this course for years in face-to-face settings and initially was not interested in becoming involved in what he says he thought would be a faceless, anonymous way of teaching students. But two things happened that caused him to reconsider this:
- the format, including the recording of lectures, helped him to far more thoughtfully decide what is essential in the course, and
- the required written weekly input and response to the input of others by all students has enabled him to “know” students in ways that are different but just as valuable as the ways we know students in traditional class settings. In regards to podcasting, the fact that students can listen and re-listen to lectures is particularly valuable for the growing number of second language learners SPU has and will continue to have in higher education.
Arthur Ellis, Professor of Education
"My lack of knowledge of nearly every aspect of the technical considerations involved in distance/online teaching and learning made the learning curve very steep for me. The patience and unflagging support from ITS has helped me to bring my knowledge of the field into a new (for me) delivery mode that has proven to be very rewarding professionally."
"The technology integrated into this process [group wikis] established high levels of communication and collaboration. Each member was enabled to actively participate in the construction of all milestone materials." - Student
Medieval Roundtable Posters
To view a larger version of posters, click image
Eric W. Vogt and Patrick McDonald collaborated on two consecutive years to organize the 'Puget Sound Medieval Roundtable', an event featuring speakers, medieval soups, and on one occasion, a world-class concert of Byzantine chant by the Capella Romana. For both years, ITS created beautiful color posters with medieval motifs. The goal for this project was to bring together regional scholars, artists, students and general public to learn and exchange ideas around various themes. With these promotional posters and the beauty of Senior Graphic Designer Dominic Williamson's work, we drew a lot of attention to the events and many people were coveting the posters.
Eric W. Vogt, Associate Professor of Spanish
“Dominic's work is worthy of being included in a time capsule of SPU, real collector's items.”
St. John's Gospel at Ivy Honorary
To view Powerpoint as a PDF, (without video clip), click image
PowerPoint was used to consolidate a multimedia presentation that included images and video about the creation of St. John's Bible. Professor of English Luke Reinsma wanted to show images that were originally in a book, that wouldn't have been visible to most of the audience, and a video clip from a DVD. ITS scanned the images, digitized the video clip, and embedded them all into the PowerPoint so that the presentation could be projected as one continuous piece. The goal was to make the presentation as easy and as seamless as possible for the professor, without him having to switch between different graphics mediums, pieces of software, or modes of playback.
An added benefit of incoporating the video into the PowerPoint presentation was that the audience watched footage of Donald Jackson, the calligrapher, engaged in his extraordinary craft. Following the presentation, several attendees asked Professor Reinsma how and where they could purchase copies of one of the volumes of the St. John's Bible.
Luke Reinsma, Professor of English
“At the last minute (1 week before I discovered I needed it), I asked ITS to scan 4 color pages from the St. John's Gospel into a power point presentation and then to provide me with a 2-minute video clip from an accompanying movie as well. My challenge was that I'm basically computer illiterate, but like magic, the pictures and video clip showed up on the screen.”
Information Literacy Posters for the Library Computer Classroom
To view one of the posters, click image above
The educational goals for this project were to give visibility to the information literacy curriculum, which is taught in this room, and define what information literacy is and what an information literate student knows.
The biggest challenges were to design large posters (7’ x 3’), determine the font, font size, color and background, and get them mounted on the wall.
Bryce Nelson, University Librarian
“Because it was done by the ITS Designer, it has a proper use of scale, font, and color. It helps define what occurs in this room.”
Poster for "The Experience of Older Parents of Adult Children with Mental Illness"
To view two recent posters, click image above
This project is part of a funded faculty research grant to display study results as a large-format poster. Co-investigators on the grant are Emily Hitchens, RN, Ed.D. and Martha Worcester, ARNP, Ph.D.
One goal of the poster was to share research outcomes with educators and colleagues at the Nursing Honor Society, Sigma Theta Tau International Conference on May 6, 2007. This poster is also intended to showcase SPU faculty research and to help students and faculty understand the issues of older adults who are providing major support to family members with mental illness.
The biggest challenge of this project was creating the poster from appropriate portions of a PowerPoint presentation given at a prior conference. An additional challenge was to make the text size large enough to read from a distance while also providing substantive information. ITS Senior Graphic Designer Dominic Williamson was able to draft several versions of the poster within a short timeframe so that Emily and Martha could make a judgment about what include or exclude.
Martha Worcester, Associate Professor of Nursing
“Dominic fit us into a busy schedule and was most gracious in working with us.
He communicated by e-mail about the progress of the project to keep us up to date and facilitated our involvement in refining and proofing the final poster.
He was most helpful in the ideas for layout and best size of print for easy visualization at the conference.”
To view PDF, click image above
An Open Source Approach to Collaborative Learning via Blackboard
Professor Kathleen Braden was the recipient of the 2006 Teaching and Technology grant sponsored by ITS, CSFD, and CIS. She used the grant to obtain a software program (Teams LX from Learning Objects Inc.) to enable students to build collaborative projects within the Blackboard environment using a wiki. The goal in using a wiki was to help students learn ways to construct, not just react to, knowledge appropriate to the course and to find a tool that would allow the instructor easy online evaluation of each student’s participation in a project.
The students liked the wiki tool and have commented that it saves them from the dreaded problem of group work in which it is not always evident to the instructor who is NOT pulling their weight. Kathleen observed MUCH stronger student ownership of their work and projects and an increase in creativity because the wiki environment allows for material on the medium that is not just written word (visuals, links, even audio). Kathleen also noted an increase in class cohesion as the students worked collaboratively in both cyberspace and in person.
Kathleen Braden, Professor of Geography
“The up front time investment in the program was fairly high, but I tackled it with interest and received good support form David Wicks and from the company (LearningObjects Inc.) itself. It is now very easy for me to use it, and I continue to make it an important part of my pedagogy and also have students answer questions about it on my course evaluations.”
“This was excellent as it gave students reign of creativity beyond the conventional academic essay. It was set up to incorporate real-life material, and it was pertinent to technology advancements that we have today. The use of 'Blackboard' was very helpful.” - Student
To see some illustrations, click image above
The Significance of Cities
One of the services we
often provide faculty is the translation of concepts into viuals. Dr. Boyce's project 'The Significance of Cities' has many concepts that are difficult to understand but when supported by instructional diagrams, the ideas become clear and provide a visual memory of the material.
Ron Boyce, Political Science
“The illustrations are of inestimable help in clarifying otherwise difficult concepts.”
To check out the History site, click image above
History Department Website
Project description:
To develop an all-new website for SPU's History Department. Website includes an attractive, user-friendly home page, with links to descriptions of mission statement, faculty, courses, degree requirements, student opportunities, and links.
Educational goals:
To provide, in easy-to-use format, the basic information that would be helpful to anyone seeking information about the History Department's personnel and program. "Anyone" includes current and prospective students, SPU faculty and staff, and off-campus information seekers.
Advantages gained by finished product:
- Information is current.
- Students have a one-stop source for links to everything related to the History Department's personnel and program.
- Website requires far less maintenance to keep current.
- Visitors have a clear, easy-to-comprehend access to the Department's mission, program and personnel.
- Website is visually much more attractive and inviting than the old page, setting just the right tone for the Department and its program.
“As soon as the new web page went on line, several students and faculty sent appreciative notes. Here's a sample: 'Thanks for putting up the new History web page. It's beautiful! Not only does it make it easy to find everything I need, I'm learning about opportunities I didn't even know existed.'"
To check out Laura's site, click image above
Website for the art of Laura Lasworth
The challenge with this project was finding a way to showcase the work of Laura Lasworth in a simple unobtrusive way - usable and clean, where the work is the dominant factor, where the design complements the work. Dreamweaver was used to build the main structure and Flash was used to display the paintings. This is now a very immediate resource for students and the public, and an archive of studio practice.
"The site looks gorgeous. And beyond that, it's really well designed. Congrats." David Touster
"The website looks fantastic!" Lora Schlesinger, Hunsaker/Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
To check out iTunes University, click image above
Podcasting Classroom Lectures
Podcasting general chemistry classroom lectures through iTunes University provides a way for students to review a lecture at their own pace in an audio format that can be put onto a personal computer or MP3 player easily. Although the advantages of podcasting a face-to-face classroom lecture are still being determined, the technology enables an instructor to reach out to students who are auditory learners. Students can fill gaps in their notes by listening to a lecture after class. It also affords an opportunity to reach out to students not registered for a class and not necessarily at SPU who want to listen to an explanation of a certain topic.
Greg Phelan, Associate Professor of Chemistry
“Podcasting as a way to support student learning is something that intrigues me. When I approached David (Wicks) and his staff about using this technology on campus, they were extremely supportive and facilitated the entire project.”
click image for more information
Dr. Ediger's Geoquiz
The GeoQuiz project is a Flash based interactive set of political and physiographic map quizzes designed to aid in student learning of the countries and capitals of the world as well as prominent physiographic features. This project has gone through several versions, each one better than the last, as political and geographic regions continually change and as the educational technology available improves. These quizzes have been invaluable in formally assessing student knowledge of geography and students have 24/7 online access to these quizzes to practice. Please click on the image, which will take you to Dr. Ediger’s webspace, to tryout the quizzes. Dr. Ediger’s website was also created by Instructional Technology Services.
To watch the clip, click on the image above
Dr. Woodward's Tale of Three Cities
A Tale of Three Cities: The Story of the Coming of the American Revolution was originally a slide show. With the advent of DVD technology, the slide show was converted to video with graphic and audio enhancements to make explicit the chronology and geography of the historical process leading to the Revolution. After several adjustments to the format of the DVD to ensure it displayed properly in a classroom, the final product has proven to be a great educational tool. In fact, a number of students have requested that the video be posted online for review purposes.
“This production shows how the creative efforts of a professor and the creative efforts of ITS staff can produce a multimedia application that marries content and technology in fresh ways that benefits students and beyond."