Workshops and Speakers
•Workshops Workshop MaterialsBelow are the descriptions of the four workshops that were offered during the symposium, along with the presenters’ slides and additional links. Multimedia Presentation OptionsChristopher Vargas, HHMI Description: Multimedia presentations can range from simple PowerPoint slides to a fully-interactive Director application, with a wide variety of options in-between. This workshop provided an overview of the options available to instructors, discussed their strengths and weaknesses, and looked at some tips and tools available for simplifying their creation. Podcasting, video editing and compression, DVD authoring, slide shows, and animation tools were included. Christopher Vargas is a Program Officer with the Educational Products group at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He handles animation, video editing and DVD authoring for HHMI's annual Holiday Lectures on Science. To view the slides from Christopher Vargas’s presentation, click here. For an extensive list of resources on multimedia presentations, click here. Wikis, Blogs, and Web2.0 in Science EducationPaul Bergen and Daniel Jamous, Instructional Computing Group, Harvard University Description: The World Wide Web is evolving into a participatory space, rather than just a collection of pages for people to read. This personally expressive, collaborative, and interactive mode of using the Web is ever more familiar to our students, and holds much promise for our teaching. This workshop provided an introduction to two important tools for collaboration on the Web, wikis and blogs. It gave an overview of their various flavors and showed a few examples of undergraduate science courses where wikis and blogs have been successfully integrated in the curriculum. Daniel Jamous is the Senior Instructional Computing Specialist for the Sciences and Social Sciences in the Instructional Computing Group at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University. He helps faculty and instructional staff use technology in their teaching. Paul Bergen is the Director of Instructional Computing in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, where he has been for the past 11 years. The presentation from Paul Bergen and Daniel Jamous can be found at the following website, along with many links about social software, wikis, and blogs: Podcasting in the SciencesStephen Ragalevsky, Apple Computer Description: This presentation provided an overview of podcasting, which can be used to distribute audio and video recordings as well as other types of course materials. Content is easily shared over the internet and can be accessed either on a computer or an iPod. The focus of this workshop was on applications of this technology specific to the sciences. The workshop took an in-depth look at who is creating podcasts today and the advantages that this new technology provides the community. Stephen Ragalevsky is a Systems Engineer from Apple Computer. Over the past year and a half he has worked closely with the emerging technology known as podcasting. A PDF of the slides from Stephen Ragalevsky’s workshop can be viewed by clicking here. Useful Podcasting websites http://podcast.nox.org/ http://www.profcast.com/ http://xtrememac.com/audio/earphones_recorders/micromemo.php http://www.itunesu.com Tour of 3D Visualization LabsJohn Shaw and Cheryl Vaughan, Harvard University During this workshop, participants toured two 3D visualizations laboratories used for teaching undergraduate students at Harvard, one in the Earth and Planetary Sciences department and one in the Biology department. Earth and Planetary Sciences : The Earth and Planetary Sciences department has developed a state-of-the-art, high performance computing, immersive Visualization Lab to take students on virtual Earth Science field trips to the insides of volcanoes and mountain belts. Biology : This demonstration took place in the biocomputation teaching labs in the Science Center (room 418D). The focus was on the use of VizEveryWhere (a 3D projection system developed by CyViz) and two specific programs capable of rendering stereo images: 1) The Visual Dissector program (Teaching of Life Technologies, Inc.) is designed as a tool to teach human anatomy. The program allows the instructor to guide students step-by-step through a complete, virtual dissection. Alternatively, the instructor can choose to examine a single organ system at a time. 2) PyMol (DeLano Scientific, Inc.) was designed to be used by the ever-expanding community of structural biologists, but has also found its place in teaching simple structural concepts to students in the Life Sciences. More information on CyViz can be found at: John Shaw joined the Harvard faculty in 1997, and leads an active research program in Structural Geology and Tectonics. Cheryl Vaughan is a Preceptor in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University and is responsible for lab development and the overall administration of Harvard’s introductory cell biology course. Websites related to the speakers' presentations Carl Berger - University of Michigan The Collaboratory for Advanced Research and Academic Technologies (CARAT) at the University of Michigan offers tools for evaluation and assessment. Follow the link on the left-hand side of the page. Felice Frankel - MIT Image and Meaning Workshop Series: Workshops to explore visual expressions in science and technology Picturing to Learn: A project to engage students in science courses at MIT in creating visual expressions Harvard University Institute on Innovative Computing Dennis Liu – Howard Hughes Medical Institute "A Virtual Lab is Worth 10^7 Words" Visit HHMI’s BioInteractive Website at: Eric Mazur – Harvard University Information about Eric Mazur’s education-related work, and a copy of the slides from his presentation, can be found at: Brian Slator – North Dakota State University World Wide Web Instructional Committee: Internet-based educational software for a variety of disciplines Virtual Cell Project: A virtual learning environment for exploring the cell Animations of basic molecular and cellular processes Mark Williams – Duke University and Modality Mark Williams’s company, Sylvius, creates interactive products for studying neuroanatomy. Tarynn Witten – Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University Life Sciences Website A collection of free videos from the public television series, “Secrets of the Sequence.” Each video is 8-10 minutes long and addresses current topics in the Life Sciences. Discussion forumApple Digital Campus Exchange – Discussion Forum To participate in a discussion forum for topics arising at the symposium, go to the Apple Digital Campus Exchange: Registration is required to participate. Go to Conversations (under "My Toolkit"), Scroll down to Academic Disciplines, and then click on Science and Technology. |