Archive for the ‘News’ Category

BuzzLion for Week of September 14

The fall 2008 semester is in full swing here at Penn State. The air is crisp, the Nittany Lions are 3-0, and things are rolling right along with ETS.

Rocking and rolling, in fact, and this was much in evidence at the 2008 Penn State Libraries Open House. ETS’s Digital Commons and the Educational Gaming Commons (EGC) had a booth at the event, meeting with students and faculty and educating them about educational gaming and multimedia. The rock and roll came in the form of the popular game, Rock Band (the Nittany Lion was rumored to have rocked Rock Band at the open house, but alas no photographic evidence). The EGC also got a mention in the Daily Collegian article on the event.

Speaking of Rock Band, you might think it is just a fun diversion with no educational possibilities, right? Well, if so, then you are in for a surprise. Bart Pursel, Penn State instructional designer who works with ETS, recently posted in the Educational Gaming Commons about Rock Band’s new potential in music education.

Enough rock and roll, let’s get artsy. Dave Stong, ETS graphic designer, extols the virtues of Penn State’s Palmer Museum and thinks the latest installation is worth a lunchtime walk there. Dave was also involved with the virtual Palmer Museum in Second Life.

ETS operates the ANGEL Community Hub. One of the benefits of the ANGEL Community Hub lies in its wealth of information, a sort of a constantly developing knowledge base. For example, Jeff Swain, ETS instructional designer, this week posted instructions on using section headings in a quiz. If you are one of the many who use ANGEL at Penn State, this site is one to bookmark (or, subscribe to its RSS feed).

Okay, so each week you take a look at this blog post, and you read about some of the stuff that ETS is up to in educational technology. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Want to get the wider view? BuzzLion recommends you take a look at the ETS Wiki. Many of the projects ETS is working on/has worked on/will work on can be found there. It’s worth a look.

That’s all for BuzzLion for this week - thanks for reading!

PSU Teaching and Learning on YouTube

PSU TLT on YouTubeOne of the things we learned from the 2008 FACAC survey results is that Penn State faculty teach using YouTube. As a matter of fact over 30% of our faculty say YouTube plays a role in their teaching. We also know that quite a few of our students spend time at the social video site watching and contributing.

With that in mind we’ve decided to launch our own TLT YouTube video channel. At the site you can find videos from our events that we’ve captured the last few years as well as other interesting items. We’re still exploring all the ways we can use the YouTube channel and would be thrilled to hear your thoughts. For now, head over to the new TLT YouTube channel and take a look!

Education Technology Report: CLC introduces unique ‘learning spaces’ at two computer labs

Traditional computer seating in two ITS labs will be scaled back to make room for new “learning spaces”, unique social areas that promote informal and collaborative learning. The CLC is prototyping these innovative work areas in 109 Willard Building and 201 Pollock Building.

For them to be most effective, they need to be comfortable, have movable furniture to serve user needs, have access to technology, and provide an ambiance for learning. In the Willard and Pollock labs, there are several different formats for learning spaces.

Some are semi-private rooms separated by partitions where students can meet in groups of two to six persons to work on projects. There is a wide variety of sizes and shapes of tables in the rooms to give students options in how they would like to work. Each room will have at least one computer and a 24-inch monitor, while a few of the bigger rooms will have another computer so larger groups can work on two different parts of a project at the same time. The CLC is also looking at other technologies such as touch-screen monitors and electronic whiteboards as possible additions to these rooms.

Outside the rooms, there is soft furniture with small tables in an open area so students can meet more informally. Most furniture is on wheels and can be moved to meet student needs. There will be wireless access so students can do work via their laptops.

To determine if these new setups are effective, CLC will conduct multiple mini-surveys to determine the effectiveness of these learning spaces to help guide CLC in updating the next computer lab.

Education Technology Report: Podcast with Heshan Wickramasuriya

Heshan Wickramasuriya, a scholar with expertise in agricultural education, recently visited ETS all the way from Sri Lanka. The purpose of his visit was to learn more about instructional design, and during his time here he worked with ETSinstructional designers.

I had the opportunity to talk with Heshan before he traveled home to the other side of the globe about his very positive experience here. I also spoke with Brett Bixler of ETS about his role in planning this visit. Click here to listen.

Education Technology Report: Pat Besong working with Penn State Hershey Medical Center doctor on health care simulation

Pat Besong, manager, creative design and development with ETS, has been working with Dr. Leonard Pott, staff physician at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, on a Flash health care simulation that focuses on intubation decisions. Intubation is the procedure of inserting a tube into the trachea of a patient who is not breathing.

Pat began working with Dr. Pott after this year’s Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology. Dr. Pott gave a presentation on simulations for education and assessment in health care, including both high-tech, realistic dummies and flat screen versions.

The mannequins can be controlled by a technician to simulate various instances of trauma to see how students will react. There are both full body and partial dummies. The partial dummies help students gather the necessary physical skills. The flat-screen simulations, like the one that Pat is working on, help them learn the mental skills. The full dummies test both mental and physical ability, along with assessing how students react to high-pressure situations. The dummies can simulate breathing, emit fluids, make certain sounds, and perform other actions to give the student a very realistic training experience.

Pat is working closely with Dr. Pott and others at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center to develop the Flash simulation on intubation. The simulation gives a patient situation, and then makes the student navigate a series of decisions. If they choose a wrong decision, the simulation will make them try something else to “save the patient”.

Pat traveled to the Medical Center in early July to talk with Dr. Pott about the project. He showed the doctor the intubation simulation and described in detail how it worked. Dr. Pott showed Pat some other simulations that they have used, and some were quite complicated.

One of the goals that Dr. Pott wanted to achieve was to create a simulation that was not as complicated to create, and could also be used as a template for other simulations. Pat’s work on the intubation simulation was exactly what he had in mind. Once a decision tree with the questions and correct and incorrect answers is created, it was translated into a FileMaker Pro database.

The project is still under development. Pat said that Dr. Pott is gathering the appropriate photos for the Flash simulation and is also securing a server to hold the Filemaker Pro database.

You can track the progress of this project on Pat’s blog. You can also see an unfinished version of the Flash simulation. Pat notes that the content is not all there, but you can get the general idea of the simulation. You can see photos of his trip to Hershey here.

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