Join us on Friday, April 24th 2009  to meet colleagues and share stories at the Center for Instructional Technology showcase.

Talk with Julie Reynolds about using video to teach writing, Julie Perco about teaching with Second Life, Len White or Lucy Haagen about mobile devices, Victoria Szabo or Alex Glass or Peter Haff about using mapping in your course and student Jennifer Kim about effective blog assignments.

Talk with people who have been teaching in the Link (Liliana Paredes, Laura Florand, Sandra Valnes Quammen, Hugh Crumley, Susan Wynn and Deb Reisinger) and find out how to use the flexible spaces.

Learn how your colleagues have used VoiceThread or iTunesU (or find out what these are).  And more!

Register now to reserve your space.

This semester, Duke opened a new flexible teaching and learning space in Perkins Library, called the Link. The Link supports student and faculty learning, teaching, and collaboration by offering several flexible, multimedia capable classrooms in addition to many informal meeting rooms and break-out spaces that encourage group and student engagement.

As part of what will hopefully become a continuing trend, CIT will begin posting faculty-written reflections of their experiences teaching in the Link. Following, is the third and final post in a series from Caroline Bruzelius, Anne M. Cogan Professor of Art and Art History. Read the first post by clicking here or the second by clicking here.

During the week of December 1, the students had ten minutes to present their projects. They were free to do this in any way they liked: as a “performance” or a straightforward presentation. In evaluating each presentation, we consider the quality of the overall conception, the coherence of the three parts (fictional history, architecture and decorative program), and certain ineffable qualities in the project: brilliance of concept, and inventiveness, as well as charm and humor.

At the end of the semester, each time I teach this course, I am amazed that students who have had no previous background in the Middle Ages or in Art History are able to come up with compelling historical narratives, wonderful decorative programs, and terrific architectural designs. This year was particularly striking in its wide-ranging and inventive approaches, because there were projects set all over Europe and the Near East: Turkey, Cyprus, Northern Germany, and Spain, as well as England, Italy, and France. Although the Gothic style was born in France, the students took it “on the road” in their projects and designed it in relation to local conditions, such as the need for earthquake-proof design (Turkey), the use of locally-available materials ( brick, instead of stone in N. Germany), or the insertion of the cathedral into a former mosque (Spain).

(Note: This is a slideshow of images of the completed cathedral designs. It will cycle through images automatically, or you can click on an image to see the next image).

So now – out of a class of majors in topics such as Chemistry, Political Science, History, Engineering, etc. – we have crafted a group of wonderfully resourceful and inventive medieval architects, iconographers, and historians. In the fictional narratives, the “rediscoveries” of long-lost local saints, the recreation of ancient trade routes bringing income and ideas, the writing of “budgets” that would define income as well as the expenses of materials and labor, are stimulating exercises that on some level recreate the experience of building a major architectural project in a distant historical period.

I am so very proud of my students, and love what they do.

(Note: This is a slideshow of images of the class. It will cycle through images automatically, or you can click on an image to see the next image).

What is that little black device in your hand? An iPod? An iPhone? Some new kind of cellphone? Nope, its the ‘world’s smallest’ HD video camera – the Flip Mino HD.

Last semester, the Duke Digital Initiative (DDI) made several Flip Mino video cameras available to Duke faculty and students through both its grant program and a large ‘loaner’ pool of cameras available for checkout in the Link (which students and faculty can check out for up to 3 weeks at a time). This semester, DDI is once again offering a grant program to faculty and students interested in exploring the uses of the Flip camera for academic purposes.

Here’s a link to more information about the grant and other DDI programs.

Here at the Center for Instructional Technology (CIT), we’ve worked with many faculty to help them plan on the uses of Flip video cameras for their courses. Want your students to create mini video ethnographies? Try having them record interviews with a Flip. Want to see your students working on a project? Ask them to use a Flip camera to capture key moments of their work. Once you see how light, quick and portable the Flip is, you’ll start coming up with several uses for it – many you never anticipated.

While the Flip is great – the documentation isn’t. Using the Flip to record is as simple as clicking its big red button. Moving those files to your computer is another story. One of the nice things about the Flip is that it includes built-in software (called ‘FlipShare’) that allows users to quickly edit video and upload it to sites like YouTube, or download it to their computer for later use. We often get asked for help either a) working with this software, or b) figuring out ways to use the Flip video with Blackboard. To fill this need, we’ve provided a few videos on our YouTube channel to explain the process.

Basic editing/trimming function of the FlipShare software

Click here to see the video in a larger size and/or on YouTube.

Making a ‘movie’ using the FlipShare software

Click here to see the video in a larger size on YouTube.

Uploading a Flip video to YouTube

Click here to see the video in a larger size on YouTube.

How to embed a YouTube clip in a Blackboard wiki

Finally, we get several questions about how to get Flip video into Blackboard. There are several ways to do this, but one method that results in a nice looking presentation is to use the Blackboard wiki tool and ‘embed’ the video there via YouTube. An ‘embedded’ video is a video that can be watched and played in the context of the page it’s in (as I’ve done with the videos here).

Click here to watch the video in a larger size on YouTube.

If you have any comments on any of these videos and/or have a specific need to see something demonstrated, please let us know.

Image of Flip cameras used via Creative Commons license. Photo by http://flickr.com/photos/momentimedia/

The New York Times today reports “At M.I.T., Large Lectures Are Going the Way of the Blackboard”.  Introductory physics courses are now taught in smaller classes that emphasize hands-on, interactive, collaborative learning rather than the traditional large lecture course. Students initially petitioned against this change, but attendance has increased and the failure rate has dropped. Lectures are reduced to brief presentations, and then students work on concepts in small groups, with the help of the instructor, teaching assistants, and large white boards.

Harvard’s Dr. Eric Mazur explains the problem with lecture-based courses: “The people who wanted to understand, had the discipline, the urge, to sit down afterwards and say, ‘Let me figure this out.’ ” But for the majority, he said, a different approach is needed.

Perhaps the NY Times doesn’t travel south very often. Here at Duke, many faculty have long implemented these sorts of ‘active learning‘ strategies.   For example:

• The Link (teaching and learning space in Perkins Library) exists in part to provide the kinds of flexible spaces and technologies that allow faculty to fully explore these teaching approaches.
• Faculty in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Pratt School of Engineering have redesigned the curriculum to provide hands-on experience with engineering skills from the very first course.
• Dr. Caroline Bruzelius teaches a course on Gothic Cathedrals by having students design cathedrals; she has written about her course here and here.
• In Engineering and Computer Science, faculty have used tablet PCs to provide students with active learning, including group problem solving in their courses.
• Our center, the Center for Instructional Technology, continues to provide help and resources (not to mention workshops) for faculty, including ideas for adding active learning activities and approaches to their courses. Last semester, we completed a fellows program with faculty teaching in the Link, and will continue to support faculty innovation.

Our neighbors at NCSU have been using hands-on, active learning rather than simply lecturing for years.  Richard Felder incorporates active learning in his large lecture classes, providing research reports of his positive results. He also provides resources to help other faculty. Dr. Robert Beichner redesigned physics courses to incorporate active learning, providing guidelines that are now a national model (SCALE-UP).

While you are at the New York Times, enjoy today’s slide show of great underwater images.

This entry was written by Shawn Miller and Andrea Novicki

During Fall 2008, five Duke faculty and one graduate student participated in the CIT’s “Flexible Learning Spaces” Fellowship program, which focused on best teaching applications of the technology and space arrangements made possible by Duke’s new flexible teaching and learning space, the Link.

Profiles of each of the faculty are posted on the CIT website, and illustrate the various ways these faculty effectively used the Link features, including easy access to technology, wall-to-wall whiteboards, break-out (student group work) spaces, moveable furniture, and close-by technical and teaching support. If, after reading the Fellows’ experiences, you would like to try any of the approaches mentioned and would like to talk to CIT first, please contact us!

Just a few of the ways CIT will continue to work with Duke faculty teaching in the Link in the coming year:

1) Link Lunch – monthly CIT hosted lunch for faculty teaching in the Link

What teaching and learning activities work well in the Link spaces? What’s the best approach to using breakout spaces or whiteboards with your class? How do other faculty use the movable furniture in the Link? CIT will host a monthly lunch as an open forum for faculty teaching in the Link. Get together with other faculty for informal discussions about the Link.

For more information, or to register, please visit:
http://cit.duke.edu/events/event.do?eventid=1671&occurid=3281

2) Flexible Learning Spaces Profiles

Are you doing something innovative with the Link’s teaching spaces? CIT would like to profile you and your course (along with pictures and/or video of your class in action) on our website.

Here are two recent examples:

Caroline Bruzelius: Rethinking Teaching in the Link (Part 1)
Caroline Bruzelius: Rethinking Teaching in the Link (Part 2)

Faculty interested in working with CIT consultants to create a profile can email cit@duke.edu with ‘Flexible Learning Spaces Profiles‘ in the subject heading.

3) Consult with CIT at any time

CIT staff are available to consult with Link faculty at any time, to help plan for effective use of Link classrooms. Thinking about group activities in your class and want some planning advice? Wondering how your room could be configured to encourage student interaction? Interested in taking full advantage of the technology available in the Link, but not sure where to start? We can help with these and many other questions. Just email cit@duke.edu.

This semester, Duke opened a new flexible teaching and learning space in Perkins Library, called the Link. The Link supports student and faculty learning, teaching, and collaboration by offering several flexible, multimedia capable classrooms in addition to many informal meeting rooms and break-out spaces that encourage group and student engagement.

As part of what will hopefully become a continuing trend, CIT will begin posting faculty-written reflections of their experiences teaching in the Link. Following, is the second in a series of posts from Caroline Bruzelius, Anne M. Cogan Professor of Art and Art History. You can also read the first post by clicking here.

The imaginary cathedrals are fully underway. There are 12 groups of 3 students each, designing buildings that range in date from about 1200 to 1350. Our churches are “going up” all over Europe and even the Crusader Kingdoms of the Near East: France, England, Wales, Northern Germany, Spain, Turkey, Cyprus, and Italy. Each group has to come up with a fictional history, a design (ground-plan, elevation, section, and façade) of the cathedral, and the decorative program: stained glass windows and portal sculpture. They also have to produce a budget: sources of income as well as the expenses for labor and materials. Each group has to invent a story about the Christianization of the site (usually a Late Antique city), including the acquisition of relics, and they have to provide a schematic description of the relationship of their cathedral to the earlier churches at the site, as well as to the topography of the town they’re in. The students can either “recreate” the history of a real place (one group is doing Milan, another Compiègne), or invent an entirely new place. In every case, though, students have to use geological maps to identify accessible supplies of stone and wood, as well as the agricultural or commercial resources that are going to support the building of the cathedral. In order to participate in trade, the cathedrals have to be located on trade routes of major rivers.

(NOTE: The following is a 4 image slideshow which will work automatically – though you can click the image to cycle through the slides faster as well)

We’re now in the last critical weeks, because each project will be “performed” the week after Thanksgiving (Dec. 1-Dec 5: 10 minutes per project). We will award prizes in a “grand closing ceremony” on the last day of class, December 5.

What’s fun about this is that we’re inventing a fake Middle Ages, with stories of miracles, relic thefts, fires and earthquakes that destroyed earlier churches, popular uprisings against the clergy by townspeople, excessive taxation and other forms oppression of the lower classes by the extravagant bishops, all of which is going to end up, however, in wonderful and beautiful buildings. Just like the real Middle Ages.

CIT will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year, starting with a Fall Open House 2 – 4 pm Monday 12/08/2008 in the CIT lab, 024 Bostock Library. Faculty from across campus are invited to attend, meet CIT staff, tour the Link Teaching and Learning Center, and learn about new technologies for teaching at Duke.

Over the years, CIT has worked with hundreds of Duke faculty on projects large and small – some of these faculty will join us to describe how their teaching has changed over the years and what they hope the future will bring.

Technology demos and tours will occur throughout the 2 hours, and refreshments will be available with cake cutting at 3 pm. Registration is encouraged but not required (click here to register).

This semester, Duke opened a new flexible teaching and learning space in Perkins Library, called the Link. The Link supports student and faculty learning, teaching, and collaboration by offering several flexible, multimedia capable classrooms in addition to many informal meeting rooms and break-out spaces that encourage group and student engagement.

As part of what will hopefully become a continuing trend, CIT will begin posting faculty-written reflections of their experiences teaching in the Link. Following, is the first of a series of posts from Caroline Bruzelius, Anne M. Cogan Professor of Art and Art History.

One of the courses I teach at Duke is called “Gothic Cathedrals.” Since many of the students are from the Sciences and Engineering, long ago I decided that asking them to write the traditional research paper was not going to work very well, since most of the sources are in various European languages. Instead, I organized the class into teams of three, and each team would design a fictional Gothic Cathedral and write a “history” of the site  – a history that would include the Christianization of the town and the saint or relics to whom the cathedral would be dedicated, and provide a ground plan, section, elevation, and façade for this fictional building, as well as its full complement of stained-glass windows and portal sculpture. In order to get the students really engaged, I plug in a competitive element: at the end of term each projects is presented to a jury and we give prizes for the best projects.

A few years ago it occurred to me that we could teach the cathedral “architects” a computer-aided design program, so we began to train them on Autocad.  This meant we began to get really professional-looking designs, like that of Charles Sparkman, Trinity ’09 (see image).

But the Autocad training took place in another building, and remained detached from the rest of the class, which meant that the groups were not working closely together. We really needed the projects to be developed by the whole team, each part fitting together like a glove. Getting the different members of the group close together and working like a team has been a long-term dream for this course.

When I heard last year about the Link, a space that was going to have state-of-the- art technology and classrooms where we could cluster the groups in different ways, I leapt at the chance to teach there. The Link means that sometimes we can have presentations from reference librarians right downstairs from all the terrific resources in Perkins.  We can run upstairs to the second floor to consult geographical maps (for example, looking for sources of limestone and forests). We could borrow books on medieval trade and markets from the reference section on the first floor. Meanwhile, our “architects” are working on Autocad in a room right next to where the “bishops” and “iconographers” are inventing their fictional histories of the sites.  If we need to think about coinage, we can “Google up” sources on medieval money or go back to the Reference sources on the first floor of Perkins.

A lot of this class involves getting students to think about space -  after all, we spend our entire lives in, and around, buildings, but how often do we actually think about them?  So I train the class to draw ground plans, and we use the Duke Chapel as our laboratory for this.

These hand-drawn plans are then used as the point of departure for the Autocad training in the Link with senior Charles Sparkman teaching the class…

(NOTE: he doesn’t always wear a tie  – but he was going to a meeting with the Trustees that day).

…while the rest of us are across the hallway in Classroom 3, working on the history and decoration of the buildings:

At this point (October 22, 2008), we’re just beginning to get the outlines of the fictional histories and the geographical locations underway.  From now until the end of the term, the TA’s and I work with each group refining the concept, inventing the history, constructing the cathedrals… We’ll keep you posted as they begin to take shape.