MIT Educational Technologists Win Awards

Thoughtfully and effectively integrating technology with teaching is an ongoing challenge for those of us who conduct research in, develop, or support educational technologies at MIT. Over the past year a number of our colleagues have won awards for their work and we would like to acknowledge their acheivements. Congratulations to all!

This year's Harold Larnder Prize was awarded to Professor Richard Larson. This award is given annually to an individual who has achieved international distinction in operational research modeling and analysis opportunities in the educational sector.

Former MIT Intelligent Engineering Systems Laboratory (IESL) student Dr. Hai Ning (graduated in June 2004) won the Best Ph.D. Student Presentation Award in the Seventh International Conference on Computers and Advanced Technology in Education (CATE 2004) at Kauai, Hawaii, USA, in August 2004. Dr. Ning’s paper Tablet PC Enabled Design-Oriented Learning, a research effort originated from the MIT I-Campus project called Robot World, received the highest score from the judges. The paper illustrates the development of the software tool, InkBoard, and its impact in design-oriented learning environments such as mechanical engineering machine design courses. The CATE conference is sponsored by the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED).

(Dr. Ning will be presenting on his paper at MIT Academic Computing's Crosstalk Seminar for Educational Change, February 17, at 2:00 in 56-114.)

OpenCourseWare has won several awards and nominations this year including:
• Computerworld 21st Century Achievement Award - “Best IT Application in the World of Education and Academia.”
The MIT OpenCourseWare project was nominated for this award by Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft. Honorees were celebrated for their significant achievements in the use of information technology to benefit mankind.
• Digital Education Achievement - “Best of Web Award"
from the Center for Digital Education. The BOW evaluates Higher Education, K-12 state and K-12 district Web sites on their innovation, Web-based delivery of public services, efficiency, economy, and functionality for improved student and faculty access.
• District 1 Gold Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) which recognized the "About OCW" pages on the MIT OpenCourseWare Web site which introduce users to the MIT OCW concept and include the homepage, FAQs, media section, the "About Us" and other informational, non-course-related sections.
• Nominated for the Webby Award – Services Category
Nominated by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, at http://www.webbyawards.com/

The Teal Visualization Team placed in the finals of the prestigious Pirelli Award in the multimedia category. This competition aims to promote the spread of scientific culture by merging the “values of culture with the passion for new technologies”. The Teal Team placed as one of two finalists in the multimedia education category. Led by Prof. John Belcher, the team includes Peter Dourmashkin, Sen-ben Liao, David Litster, Norman Derby, Stanislaw Olbert, Yehudit Judy Dori, Andrew McKinney, Philip Bailey, Pierre Poignant, Ying Cao, Ralph Rabat, Michael Danziger, Mark Bessette, Michael Danziger, Andreas Sundquist (DLIC), Mesrob Ohannessian.

Craig Counterman, Web Tools and Operations Head, Academic Media Production Services(AMPS), and chief architect of the Stellar course management system, won the 2004 Infinite Mile Award for his work on Stellar. According to the citation, “... Craig led an interdepartmental team of diverse talents and successfully produced an enterprise software application in the face of significant challenges.”

The MIT Infinite Mile Award Program, sponsored by the Offices of the Provost and Associate Provost and the Vice President for Research, recognizes those individuals or teams who have made extraordinary contributions within their own organizations to help the Institute carry out its mission.

The Steven Wade Neiterman Award was presented to Katie Vale of Information Services and Technology (IS&T) Academic Computing (formally of AMPS). Katie was cited for “...her eagerness to happily share her impressive technical expertise, and her in-depth institutional knowledge with the MIT community”, as well as for her team spirit, willingness to take responsibility, and her ability to keep the greater goals of projects in mind and clearly communicate them to others. “[Katie's] efficient yet unassuming ways encourage clients and others to take the initiative in projects of interest and benefit to the Institute.”

The Steven Wade Neiterman Award is given to individuals who in their work demonstrate exceptional abilities for collaborative problem solving, team building, coaching colleagues, sharing knowledge, and commitment to creating community at MIT.

Academic Media Production Services (AMPS) won a 3rd place award in the ACM Special Interest Group on University and College Computing Service (SIGGUCCS) competition in the Communications – Web-Based Services category for the AMPS web site. (http://web.mit.edu/amps)

The Ed Tech Times Project Team won Honorable Mention in the Electronic Newsletter category in the ACM (SIGGUCCS) Competition. The team included from IS&T Academic Computing, Jean Foster, Phil Long, and Carter Snowden, and Joanna Proulx, Ben Brophy, and Mark Brown from AMPS.

Although this award was not received in the past year, we'd like to also mention the Infinite Mile Award for Innovation and Creativity that was presented to the Libraries' Digital Reference Pilot Project Subgroup for their groundbreaking work on Digital Reference. According to the nomination, “When they first proposed it, almost no one was doing Digital Reference. ... For their foresight, bravery, creativity, and collaborative skills, we honor [group members] Pat Flanagan, Deborah Helman, Lisa Horowitz, and Sarah Wenzel."

iPods in Education

by Rich Garcia

Can the Apple iPod -- the symbol of a generation of students plugged in to downloaded music -- serve as a delivery system for serious education? Experiments at several universities are exploring the iPod's value as an educational technology.

• An experiment that began in 2002 at Georgia College and State University has led to several iPod-enhanced honors courses. Most involve music in some way--ethical issues as reflected in song lyrics, for example, or how musicians have protested or commemorated war. However, instructors leading classes in travel abroad have recorded lectures, language lessons, and cultural information as well, to make the most of the time spent on buses and trains.
• At Duke University, every incoming freshman in 2004 was given an iPod, and faculty have been devising interesting ways to use them. The university's Center for Instructional Technology lists eleven examples, and most don't involve music. For instance, students in the Fundamentals of Digital Signal Processing use the iPod with a microphone attachment to record ambient sounds, then bring them to the lab for analysis. For a large lecture class in Economics, lectures are made available for students to review before exams. An intensive class in Spanish distributes examples of authentic speech as an aid to comprehension and speaking exercises, and a writing class asks students to use their iPods to record three individuals' memories of important events, then compare these interviews to official accounts, to look for similarities and differences in the way collective memories are formed.
• A professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania has established a library of digital recordings of comtemporary poets reading their own works.

Are MIT faculty and students finding innovative academic uses for iPods? If you know of any examples, please comment below or send email to et-consult@mit.edu and we'll investigate and report on these uses in future Ed Tech Times articles.

References:
The iPod at GC&SU: A Pocketful of Learning.(n.d). Retrieved January 28, 2005 from http://ipod.gcsu.edu/project.html.
Duke Academic and Course iPod Projects. (n.d.). Retrieved January 28 from http://cit.duke.edu/about/ipod_faculty_projects.do.

Blogs in Higher Ed: Personal Voice as Part of Learning

By Ruth Reynard

The use of Internet technology to facilitate interaction, communication, and collaboration is well documented but its use in establishing and developing "personal voice" as part of learning is also now being addressed through the use of blogs. This article in Campus Technology Magazine reports on studies done at Trevecca Nazarene University on the use of blogs in the classroom.

Read this article in the Campus Technology Online Magazine.

Crosstalk Seminar - Paperless Classroom - Thu Jan 20 - 2:00 in 4-237

What: Crosstalk Seminar on Educational Change
Where: 4-237
When: Thursday, January 20 at 2:00 p.m. (Coffee at 2:00, presentation at 2:30)
Title: Progress toward the Paperless Classroom: Using Tablet PC's at MIT and the HKU Medical Faculty
Speaker: Rutledge Ellis-Behnke, MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department

Abstract
This project is the systematic replacement of paper by tablets for the students as well as the replacement of the chalkboard for the professor. We are attempting to understand the limiting factors associated with the use of this technology on a daily basis. To this end we are recording reliability, usability and the increase in learning that is derived from the use of Tablet PC's. We are also attempting to measure the fundamental shift required to eliminate paper and to create instantaneous access to the information for the students. This will serve to increase the speed of learning.

We started with two highly visual classes, Neuroanatomy and Mandarin. We then extended Tablet PC's to include special projects in various other subjects, such as Biomedical Engineering, Health Science and Technology, Business and a class at the University of Hong Kong Medical Faculty.

I will present what we have learned, plus new ways to use Tablet PCs in education. In addition, I will provide the data to show that not only was there an increase in course material delivered but also a dramatic increase in learning was achieved. Some of the Results to be discussed and illustrated at this presentation are:
For the students:

1. Increased interactions with teaching assistants - the amount of time spent making paper copies and maintaining websites will be reduced so they are able to spend more time interacting with students.
2. Increased access to information on-demand
3. Decreased back strain from carrying an entire collection of notes and books
4. Use of color
5. ncreased student-student interactions concerning course work
6. Guidelines for how much time it takes students to become proficient in a particular type of material presented in a class

On campus:

1. Increased efficiency of knowledge transfer with more interactive lectures
2. Color figures will be delivered to the students without a 20-fold increase in copying cost
3. More conversion of course material to digital format: faculty will increase their use of electronic delivery of lecture material, using PowerPoint, AVI files, and audio files for demonstrations.
4. There will be a reduction in cost of AV equipment since multimedia demonstrations can be done on the computer in PowerPoint without the need for a tape deck, mixers, movie projector, overhead projector, and the disruption caused by the transition to each of these machines during class.
5. Enrichment of course content will be easier for faculty.
6. More course material will be available on the web.
7. Less time will be spent on clerical work.
8. Online office hours for students will increase faculty-student interchanges. E-Tablets will allow quick drawings to be used in these interchanges.

About the Presenter
Rutledge Ellis-Behnke, PhD, is part of the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the past he has held positions as a Senior Vice President of a public consulting company and various other positions in companies culminating in a CEO position before returning to school to pursue a PhD. His Ph.D. is in the field of Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience from MIT. Also, he received an AMP/ISMP from the International Senior Managers program at Harvard Business School and a B.S. from Rutgers University in New Jersey. He is a member of Society for Neuroscience (SFN), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), BioMatrix - MIT/Sloan/Health Science Technology Biotech mentoring program and is on the committee for Harvard Business School Health Industry Alumni Association. Rutledge is also a member of the MIT Graduate Alumni Advisory Committee. In addition to his work in CNS regeneration he has introduced the Tablet computer to the classroom at MIT as part of the migration to the paperless classroom and the delivery of all course material and texts to the students digitally.

Course Management Systems >> Support is a deciding factor

By Mikael Blaisdell

In the open source vs. commercial course management system debate, support turns out to be a deciding factor. Here’s why.

Read this article in the Campus Technology online newsletter.