Technology in the Classroom: Quick Looks - Type of use

Visualization

• Steve Ackerman, a meteorology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been using java applets (available for free download) with great success in his Introduction to Weather and Climate course.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - First, these simulations are visual and I have a lot of visual learners; second, they present the concept without complex mathematics...
  - If I don't spend time explaining the applet features, students quickly get lost. Students need guidance in how to use the different parameters appropriately.
  - 82% "believed" or "somewhat believed" that the applets helped them to master skills and concepts more quickly than with traditional methods.
  

• Alan Arbour, a mechanical engineering professor at Lambton College, uses MDSolids® to reinforce the basic concepts by providing an interactive visual representations in his classroom.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - I needed a mechanism to reinforce the concepts
  - Our technologists compete against people with degrees
  - This software is versatile and easy to use...
  

• John Belcher, a physics professor at MIT, uses 2D and 3D animation to teach his electromagnetism class.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - The students did well on the tests but I think it was rote learning.
  - Animation can give you access to many more levels of abstraction
  - "Point Charge Attracted to a Charged Sphere," helps my students visualize vector fields
  

• Wayne Burleson is creating a DVD, web- and modular-based series of courses using the UMass authoring software, MANIC.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - We saw this project as an opportunity to invigorate and update our undergraduate computer engineering curricula, while developing innovative teaching methods and learning technologies
  - These modules allow for demonstrations of multimedia and hands-on interaction by students that would otherwise require expensive labs.
  - You can't just show students a video in class and nothing else; no matter what the subject matter
  

• Art Ellis, George Lisenski, and Jonathan Breitzer, a professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, a professor at Beloit College, and a post-doc also at UW-Madison, respectively, have been developing and using QuickTime® videos (available on the web) in their introductory chemistry laboratory courses and have found this to enhance student participation.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - QuickTime® web-accessible videos helped to demonstrate visually how to set up a particularly difficult-to-explain lab...and can readily be extended to other labs.
  - This transforms a "passive" video into an interactive piece of software, enabling students to make more detailed observations of the lab.
  - Student: "It cleared up all the questions I had about the experiment prior to watching the movie. You should do this for all the labs!!!"
  

• Jim Kaput, a mathematics professor at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, with his SimCalc Project, has developed software simulations and curricular activities for students from the third grade through college calculus with an emphasis towards students typically without access to these tools.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - The SimCalc team came together to democratize access to the core ideas of calculus, the mathematics of change and variation.
  - I had this notion of using motion simulations to make calculus ideas more learnable, in particular, using things like velocity and position graphs hot-linked to motion simulations.
  - Student learning data are quite impressive, particularly among disadvantaged younger students who would otherwise rarely be given the opportunity to encounter these ideas.
  

• Frank Lee, an engineering professor from Bellevue Community College, uses Working Model 2D as a tool in class to visually verify with simulations the calculations the students are doing by hand.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - But students can't do much wondering when they're just trying to do the calculations. And if they can't visualize how an object is moving, then solving the equations that describe how it's moving is going to be even tougher.
  - They do the number crunching and they get a result. I tell them, "As engineers, you'd be asking, 'Is this result correct? Did I make any mistakes?'"
  - The software, whiz-bang, is great. But just because you can make the software run doesn't mean you know the concepts. Helping them learn the concepts is what we're going for.
  

• Greg Miller has developed a series of computer programs for his Mechanics of Materials course, some of which is available for free download. The software allows, among other things, the students to manipulate beam bending behavior, and to visualize and manipulate second-order tensors in three dimensions.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - Like many instructors, I've experienced frustrating times when I feel I've hit a wall in what I'd like to communicate to our students and what I actually can communicate.
  - We wanted to introduce sophomore-level students to real-world engineering practices, get them working in groups and learning effective communication skills
  - I want to emphasize that technology might not be the answer if an instructor feels that his or her students do not seem to be engaged in the lectures.
  

• Robert Mott, an engineering professor at the University of Dayton, has his students work with MDSolids® several different engineering courses.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - We think it's important for students to learn the fundamentals of the subject matter.
  - You can't simply dump students into a program unless they understand what the program is doing.
  

• Robert Olin, a professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, first describes how his department started to introduce technology and computer software into their mathematics course, and how this lead to the establishment of the Math Emporium.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - We had three compelling reasons for bringing learning technology to the Math Department: increasing enrollment, calculus reform, and we wanted to be a leader in using technology.
  - With only 78 computers and nearly 2,000 students, assessments showed that students in this new technology initiative were performing at or above the level of students in traditional courses.
  - The Emporium has been so successful that a lot of institutions are building these facilities now.
  

• Rick Peifer, Assistant Director of the General Biology Program at the University of Minnesota, uses visualization technology to assist students to learn complex concepts that involve processes at the molecular level such as protein synthesis.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - I wanted to find a way to really get my students involved in studying evolution, to bring it alive.
  - We can focus on the key concepts and say, "Remember this."
  - There is a potential for misuse of the technology
  

• Muriel Poston, associate professor at Howard University, wanted to bring evolution alive for her students by using computer simulations to solve problems in a laboratory-like setting.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - I'm concerned about finding a balance between wet lab and computer based experiences.
  - My students access the data and create graphs that chart the changes in the genetic constitution of the population
  - Doing this project was a catalyst for bringing technology in - we had absolutely no learning technology before this
  

• Chris Rogers, an engineering professor at Tufts University, has his students use LEGOs® in their Mechanical Engineering courses to build and program devices that have real world applications.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - Because it's fun.
  - I was looking for a cheap way to do experimentation that a lot of students could do as homework assignments.
  - The students spend a lot more time analyzing results and a lot less time trying to screw things together.
  

• Ron Rusay, an instructor at Diablo Valley Community College, describes the path he's followed to bring technology into his organic course. He reveals some of the collaborations he's formed with other institutions, and describes some of the software his students use to help them visualize 3D objects in 2D space.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - I've learned that there are two recurring skills that employers are looking for: A background with the Internet, and being able to adapt to new technology.
  - I introduced visualization and modeling software and access to professional databases to translate the 3-D world to a 2-D world.
  - I assumed students would welcome this approach but I got a mixed response, which was very discouraging, considering the personal investment.
  

• Ronald Thornton, Director of the Center for Science and Mathematics Teaching (CSMT) and physics professor at Tufts University, have develop and use an activity-based Microcomputer-Based Laboratory (MBL) set of tools that allow students in labs to control their own explorations with real-time measurements and analysis.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - Most physics students don't understand the concepts but are skilled at memorizing formulas.
  - One of the reasons I developed these materials was to reach "science anxious" students.
  - The bottom line: activity-based learning greatly improves students' learning and understanding.
  

• Nick Turro, professor of chemistry at Columbia University, describes how went from helping struggling chemistry students, to using technology, to training faculty to incorporate technology in their classes.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - The first experiment helped us to understand the learning process of these struggling students and the second demonstrated technology could actually help students to learn.
  - How useful were visualizations going to be with respect to student learning? Did we have to hire a programmer? Could we find ways to be cost effective?
  - Look, we've got an idea here about helping faculty to get involved with information technology and the web.
  

• James White describes the New Mathwright Library, how Mathwright can help students succeed in mathematics, and some example books created by this authoring program he developed.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - In traditional mathematics courses, the students learn a certain game--they learn a kind of stimulus response approach to learning mathematics.
  - My idea was that computer environments could support the strategy that Piaget proposed: to involve the students actively in their own learning by letting them ask questions, by letting them be the ones who constructed their knowledge.
  - One book created by a teacher had three polluted lakes, two of them feeding into a third one, with the first lake feeding into the second.
  

• Gabriele Wienhausen, a biology professor at the University of California, San Diego along with Barbara Sawrey developed a web-based chemistry lab instruction manual. They've also developed an on-line course with enriched digitalized lectures, and now use some lecture time for student collaborative work.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - Students see pictures and read descriptions about using an Erlenmeyer flask or a spectral photometer, but that's not enough.
  - What we really learned is that this kind of work requires a unique team to do it in a reasonable amount of time.
  - The students are really excited about the Web-based courses, but we do get mixed messages.
  

• Manoochehr Zoghi, an enginner from the University of Dayton, describes how he uses MDSolids® in his Strengths of Materials and Statics courses.
  Summary
  Full Story:
  - My feeling is that students learn a lot if they look at "what if?" scenarios, and MDSolids® works very well with that
  - The software's ability to provide visualization is its major strength--it allows users to develop an intuitive understanding of the concepts.
  - Using learning technology puts the coursework into perspective for the students, relating homework to actual work that engineers do