June 2006 News

June 29, 2006 The closing plenary session of UD's Summer Faculty Institute, “Elevating the Interactivity Of Technology-Based Materials,” was presented June 15 by Phil Stephens, professor of biology, Villanova University. Stephens explored a wide range of technology applications to increase student learning. In his courses, Stephens uses multimedia mini-lectures interspersed with activities designed to confirm student learning and to encourage team interaction.

One of Stephens' techniques is to design online materials that match the learning styles of his students. He focuses on four of the learning styles found in educational psychology: visual, aural, read/write and kinesthetic. A second key to Stephens' method of teaching is to help students move beyond memorization of information.

Read more about Dr. Stephens' presentation in the UDaily article, "Enhancing learning with interactive tasks."

June 28, 2006 Faculty investigating the use of "clickers" for their fall courses can take advantage of PRS InterWrite's Technical Support web site for the following helpful information:

• Software Downloads
• Documentation Library
• Frequently-Asked Questions
• Online Tutorials
• Live WebEx Training
• PRS Discussion Group
• Contact Technical Support

For more general information about clickers (also known as personal response systems), visit the clickers page in our tools area.

June 28, 2006 Chandra Reedy , Professor of Musuem Studies, is profiled as one of the winners of the 2005 Exemplary Applications Contest. Reedy says, "I’ve also been able to put all of my exams online. The big advantage is that I feel I can do better exams—I can have large images in color, with questions about those images that students have to answer. Read more in our second faculty profile of Chandra Reedy.

June 20, 2006 Sandy McVey was recognized at UD's Excellence in Service and Bright Ideas awards luncheon. While we've known Sandy for many bright ideas regarding the operation of PRESENT, the Summer Faculty Institute and other endeavors, this award was in response to her suggestion to add signage to the plantings on UD's campus.

“The landscape planners and groundskeepers take wonderful care of the University's foliage,” McVey said, in explaining her bright idea pitch. “I'd love to learn more about the specimens by seeing them marked with [their] Latin and common names. This project would mesh well with the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources' 'Plants You Can Live With,' campaign about incorporating native plants into your environment. Ideally, a web site supported by the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and/or Facilities [Grounds Maintenance and Operations], that would catalog the University plants, would be a valuable resource for many gardeners.”

Read more in the UDaily article, "Bright Ideas winners honored at luncheon."

June 15, 2006 A faculty committee staffed by IT/User Services and the Office of Educational Assessment has recommended campus-wide standardization on PRS InterWrite personal response systems or "clickers" from GTCO CalComp. The University has signed an agreement with the vendor to make PRS InterWrite the officially supported "clicker."

This standardization means that students will need to purchase only one clicker for their entire university career. There will be no additional course registration fee. In addition, the committee found this model to offer superior functionality to others in the market.

More information is avalable:

• What is a clicker?
• How do faculty use clickers?
• UD standardizes on PRS InterWrite
• What do faculty need in order to use clickers with their students?
• Training sessions
• Suggested readings

June 15, 2006 The keynote address at UD's Summer Faculty Institute, “Designing Interactive Learning for Visually Hungry Learners,” presented June 12 by Curtis J. Bonk, summarized e-learning technologies available to educators.

Bonk, a faculty member in the School of Education and the Instructional Systems Technology Department at Indiana University, discussed various interactive and multimedia technologies that can be used to develop e-learning materials, such as podcasts, wikis, blogs, collaborative tools and mobile technology.

Read the full story on UDaily, "Faculty Institute keynote focuses on e-learning."

June 12, 2006 Dr. Curtis J. Bonk, School of Education and the Instructional Systems Technology Department, Indiana University, presented the Summer Faculty Institute’s keynote address, “Designing Interactive Learning for Visually Hungry Learners” today. This year, the Institute includes faculty from all seven colleges at UD: a testament to the escalating expectation for technology in the classroom. “Technology has gone from extending learning to transforming education,” Dr. Bonk said. This transformation takes the form of the expanding options available to educators for interactive multimedia learning. For the newest generation of students—Gen-Y—“Podcasts, wikis and blogs are the three most important technologies today,” Bonk said. Bonk outlined another 15 technologies that educators can draw on to augment and improve interactive multimedia learning for the Gen-Y student. Check back soon for more reports from the Institute. Shown at left is keynote presenter Dr. Curt Bonk, University of Indiana, who was introduced by Dr. Eugene Matusov, School of Education, shown at right.

Find out more about the remaining general sessions of the Summer Faculty Institute.