In this course, Dr. Reynolds also used Jing to see if it is an efficient and effective approach to communicating both faculty and peer feedback. Here’s an example of a student commenting on another student’s project:

The third part of this project used video to help students gain a better understanding of how scientists read scientific papers. Students interviewed their faculty and recorded these interviews using FlipVideo. The videos were shown in class so students could see the range of expectations that readers have when they read scientific papers.   Here’s an example:

During the 2008-2009 academic year, Brenda Neece, title, participated in the CIT’s Student Video Fellows program.  This Fellows track offered a group of faculty from a range of disciplines the opportunity to investigate how to effectively design student video assignments, assess video work in the courses, and technology and support options available at Duke for them and their students.  Neece developed two assignments for her course.

The first video assignment, a Video Musical Instrument Dictionary Definition, was designed to get students familiar with the process of making and video and to become more familiar with the history and function of particular instruments.  Students chose one instrument and produced a short video that defined the instrument, how the instrument is used in contemporary music, and how the instrument works – parts of the instrument, its range, and so on.  They turned in a written draft script before shooting the video and their grade was based on the quality of their definition.  The videos allowed the students to use multimedia to show how the instruments sounds and how it is played – key aspects in their understanding of the course materials.

Neece was pleased with the results.  The students were able to either demonstrate the instruments themselves or find someone in the local community to play the instrument and became familiar with using the technology to present stories and information.  In addition, the students had a session with a librarian and learned how to cite video and audio excerpts in the work they produced.  In the video clip below, Neece discusses the results of the assignment in depth.

The second assignment, a group activity, was creating a video tour of their ideal musical instrument museum.  In the past, this museum tour was done as a written piece with illustrations.  With this new approach, using video for the students’s work, they were able to bring in interviews, demonstrations, outside sources into a compelling piece that mirrors a “virtual” exhibit or informational video they might be called on to produce when working in a museum.  Students were given clear guidelines and steps for producing the video and how it would be assessed.  In this video, Neece discusses how the assignment was constructed and graded.

Neece plans to continue using video assignments in the course in the future.  The assignments did have some glitches – an online video editing service she planned on using was taken down during the course and, with consulting from the CIT, came up with alternative for the students to use to complete their work.  So, she plans on being better prepared with specific software for the students to use when she teaches the course again.

Neece believes that video and multimedia are important in the student experience – the technology is allowing scholars to communicate in new ways and students need to be prepared to use this way of presenting their work and lets faculty and students bring the work of experts into the classroom.

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) students engaged in a unique active learning experience in Spring 2009 as they tackled Nursing 652 Transforming The Nation’s Health at the Duke School of Nursing.  Dr. Nancy M. Short regularly challenged students to push far beyond their level of comfort.  One assignment required students to prepare a script, plan interviews and settings and “shoot” a health policy advocacy video.  Students checked out Flip camcorders at the Link and participated in a custom hand-on training workshop provided by CIT. Within a three-week time window, the students used Flip camcorders to film the scenes and edited “draft videos” with the built-in FlipShare software.  After the instructor’s review and approval, eleven of the 23 videos have been launched on the DUSON YouTube Channel and can be seen under the playlist of the Influencing Health Policy.

In addition to the digital video assignment, students in N652 presented oral advocacy presentations to a panel of lobbyists and elected officials, developed a 1 page advocacy fact sheet for a policymaker, and wrote a health issue analysis paper.

Click the image below to watch all of the 11 video clips.

Additional Information

Dr. Short is an alumna of the RWJF Health Policy Fellowship and spent 2005 as a health legislative aide in the office of the U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Senator Bill Frist.

Project Description:

Currently, archiving of dance performance for study by students is done on an ad-hoc basis with limited impact.  While video has been used to some extent, a two dimensional representation of dance has limited value when multiple performers are involved or when the views recorded do not provide essential information for students to study certain types of movement.

This project will create the initial stage of a prototype archive of basic ballet vocabulary using 3-D dance recording and archiving.  RFID tags, accelerometers, infrared emitters, and stereo video are among the technologies that will be explored for recording.  The use of virtual reality environments for archive access will be investigated, along with conversion to formal dance notation.

Tyler Walters, using advanced students in Dance at Duke, will collaborate with undergraduate students of Martin Brooke in the ECE undergraduate project class ECE 51, where the students will assemble the basic technologies for capturing and generating the dance data.  The initial prototype of the archive, first using video and later 3d representations, will be used as a teaching aid for Ballet Fundamentals, Ballet I, and Ballet II.

The Center for Instructional Technology is providing funding for the project in addition to loaning four high definition hard drive camcorders that will be used in the dance data capture process.

Project start date: 1/12/2009

Funding awarded:  $6,300

As a fellow in CIT’s Flexible Learning Spaces Fellowship (2008), Liliana Paredes participated in meetings, mini-workshops, and other fellowship activities centered around the concept of ‘flexible learning‘ – specifically focused on the uses of the technology and space arrangements made possible by Duke’s new teaching and learning space, the Link.

Course overview

During Fall 2008, Paredes taught the course “Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language” in Link Seminar 2. The following lists Paredes’s core goals for her course:

• To comprehend processes of second language acquisition
• To apply language pedagogy methods in correlation to second language acquisition processes and strategies
• To develop a portfolio of teaching and testing materials
• To critique, evaluate and recommend materials to be used for language teaching/testing
• To develop a second language teaching philosophy

Uses of technology and flexible learning spaces

• Provided opportunities for students to enhance teamwork, materials production and evaluation within the classroom
• provided opportunities for students to share their developing portfolio and teaching philosophy
• Used portable digital cameras (Flip cameras) to discuss crucial topics such as oral feedback in the classroom

Enhancing group work with breakout rooms

“What I really found useful at the Link were the breakout rooms; although they don’t belong to the classroom, per se, they were available to my class. I’ve used them in almost every single class and have been able to enhance group work. The whiteboard is great as well…I like my students to be able to brainstorm and use the board for that.”

Using Flip digital video cameras to capture group work

Students and faculty working in the Link can check-out several digital technologies, including the portable ‘Flip’ digital video camera. These cameras are small and unobtrusive, as well as very simple to use (one button to record) – making them ideal for use with students that want to quickly capture their group discussions.

Paredes describes her, and her students, experiences working with Flip cameras and Link breakout spaces in the following video:

As a fellow in CIT’s Flexible Learning Spaces Fellowship (2008), Susan Wynn participated in meetings, mini-workshops, and other fellowship activities centered around the concept of ‘flexible learning‘ – specifically focused on the uses of the technology and space arrangements made possible by Duke’s new teaching and learning space, the Link.

Course overview

During Fall 2008, Wynn co-taught EDU 214 (”Society, Schools and Technology”) with Hugh Crumley in Link Classroom 3. The course was designed for undergraduate students enrolled in the Secondary Teacher Preparation Program and for graduate students enrolled in the Masters of Arts in Teaching. Wynn and Crumley created course goals based on the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) and Performance Indicators for Teachers. Students need to demonstrate proficiency in these standards as a requirement when earning their North Carolina teaching license.

The core goals of the course were to prepare students to:

• be able to design lesson plans that demonstrate “best practices” in teaching
• use technology to support student learning
• explore technology applications typically not utilized in a high school classroom setting

Uses of technology and flexible learning spaces

Wynn’s and Crumley’s plans for using the Link’s technology and spaces included:

• using classroom technologies to teach basic HTML skills
• enabling students to create presentation files
• demonstrating uses of interactive technologies to support instruction in each student’s discipline (including Web2.0 resources)
• developing and refining an electronic portfolio (eportfolio) centered on a ‘teaching with technology’ statement
• script, storyboard, film and edit a digital story
• explore other teaching tools, such as wikis, blogs, digital images, etc

Creating digital stories

In the following video, Susan Wynn talks about class activities.

Learning about Flip cameras and YouTube

In this video, Hugh Crumley shows students how to use Flip cameras, then sends them out into the Link’s open spaces to film introductions.

Using FlipCams, students produced short video interviews and pieces that showed artworks around campus, asking questions that centered around how important art is at the university, potential spaces for artworks and how students in the campus community create and experience art.

The videos were uploaded to a public blog for the course; most of the student videos can be seen in the November postings of the blog.

ARTSVIS 54 Blog:  http://artsvis54.blogspot.com/

Connel teaches ECON 51D, Economic Principles, a very large class held in Griffith Theater in the Bryan Center.  Connel uses a tablet PC so that he can sketch and create notes while he is lecturing.  By creating lecture notes dynamically, he is able to quickly respond to student concerns and be interactive. After his lecture, students can download the notes as PDF documents from the Blackboard course site. The image below shows a portion of these notes.  In addition, both the notes and his lecture are saved using DukeCapture, which produces both streaming and downloadable files with audio and video for his students to review.  Students can select the media that best suits their needs.

Connel wondered whether posting these recordings & annotated slides would impact attendance in the class; attendance has not decreased and he is no longer concerned about this issue.  Students have responded very favorably; some have said that they watch after lecture even if they attend because they’re so busy taking notes they miss side comments which end up being important. Others have said that they find being in lectures distracting and are better able to focus on the content outside of the large lecture setting.  DukeCapture reports that lectures have 100 hits each.

Connel enjoys using a tablet PC in his teaching.  He prefers the slate-type, without a keyboard, because it is light and easy to set up. He likes using Windows Journal, because he can use a range of ink colors (and create his own for best projection), and the graph paper background assists him in drawing legible graphs during class. He uses Windows Journal on the tablet PC to produce grading rubrics for his TAs, and to quickly create sample solutions for TAs to grade student work.

see a short video from Connel’s class

Connel began by borrowing a tablet PC from the Duke Digital Initiative, and now his infectious enthusiasm has encouraged other instructors in Economics to teach with tablet PCs.

Watch a demonstration of Windows Journal on YouTube

Project Description:

Melinda Box and Anne Langley (Chemistry Librarian and Adjunct Professor of Chemistry) are working together to instruct chemistry students how to effectively find chemistry information on the internet (a chemistry scavenger hunt). They have created a video using Camtasia, a screen capture program, demonstrating how to use various online resources.  This video was used in the chemistry sections by the teaching assistants so that Anne does not have to visit all 38 lab sections to repeat the demonstration in person.  In addition, the lab sections do not have to be scheduled in a computer lab.  The video is available in Blackboard for student and teaching assistant use.

Anne says the final video is about 30 minutes long, 22 Mb in size.  She reports:

“I spent between 45 and 50 hours making a 30 minute video for the Chemical Scavenger hunt lab for General Chemistry laboratory. This includes the time I spent learning Camtasia and practicing with it. Next time it won’t take me so long cause I have had practice writing scripts, working the controls, handling the microphone etc. Steep learning curve, but then there is a plateau!”

Videos created for the second semester help present more thorough, uniform, and re-watchable instruction, which was previously presented exclusively by TAs without the help of the librarian.  Videos give students the opportunity to re-watch all or part of either presentation.

The video demonstrations have freed the instructors from having to do the exact same demonstrations for each laboratory section, while providing information that students can refer to later, and allow the instructors to provide more personalized attention to students.

Project start date: 6/18/2008

Funding awarded: $450