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University of Tennessee

About ITC

Newsletter: Fall 2006

From Chalkboards to SMART Boards

by: Michael Jean Derco, Gina Phipps

Ten years ago, the only things “online” were birds and laundry. Instructional technology at the University of Tennessee was pretty much like it was everywhere else. A “multimedia” presentation consisted of words written on a chalkboard, supplemented by a few transparencies displayed via a “lightbulb in a box” overhead projector. The extremely intrepid might include a handful of 35 mm slides or a 5-minute clip from a videotape (if they could find a VCR and projector). The few “digital” projectors available weighed 40 pounds and were moved around in a wheeled suitcase.

What a difference 10 years can make. Now, the University of Tennessee has one of the largest wireless Internet installations in academia. There are more than 100 Technology Enhanced Classrooms with Internet access, computer, video and DVD display capability, and integrated audio systems—and more are being added every year. Generally, about 40 percent of course sections offered in a given semester have some online component in OnlineUT. E-mail is de rigueur, and instant messaging is close on its heels. Courses now can incorporate blogs or podcasts created by the instructor, the students, or both. Research can be disseminated on the Web, and students need to be guided and coached on how to (and how not to) use the Web to conduct research. Ten years ago Channel One was controversial; now it’s irrelevant. It seems like almost everything is on the Internet, with Google and Apple racing to ensure that everything that isn’t already on the Web gets there soon.

Of course, we at the ITC believe that we have provided UT faculty the guidance, assistance, and support they’ve needed to manage this profound transition of the teaching and learning environment. We believe we have been able to help faculty integrate technologies and innovative teaching strategies to create dynamic, effective learning opportunities for students. But, being of an empirical bent, we decided to test that theory, so we invited faculty with whom we have worked over the years to share their ITC stories. Here are a few highlights from these conversations.

Fran Ansley and Cathy Cochran
Fran Ansley (Professor, College of Law) and Cathy Cochran (Associate Professor, Law Library) worked with the ITC to design a Web site that showcases student projects and shares their thoughts about teaching. Dr. Ansley reports that the site has worked out very well as a communication tool, as she has used it to explain herself to students and to provide resources for other students referred by her colleagues. She has received feedback from other professors at UT and around the country who say that they found the site useful. Community groups thinking about working with universitybased teachers have also said that it helped them anticipate what might be involved in such partnerships. The URL for the site is
http://www.law.utk.edu/library/ teachinglearning/default.html.

John Antun
John Antun (Assistant Professor, Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management) received assistance from the ITC to videotape kitchen exercises for his Quantity Food Production class. These videos allow students to review the various skill-based exercises long after Dr. Antun demonstrates them in the kitchen. Dr. Antun reports that he has never been very technologically “savvy” but the ITC helped implement his great idea and now his students can access all these demonstrations from the Web via Online@UT. He also uses the videos to enhance classroom instruction. As part of the project, Dr. Antun and the ITC created a video of a Knoxville health inspector conducting an inspection in a restaurant. This video allows students to get a “feel” for real life!

Sue Hume
Sue Hume (Speech Pathologist, UT Hearing and Speech Center) teaches graduate students who are participating in Speech- Language Pathology clinicalcourses. The Faculty First Grant she received in 2005 provided her with support from an ITC staff member and iPods for use in her courses. As a result of the assistance she received from the ITC, audiotaped samples from actual voice clients have been converted to MP3 format and placed in Online@UT. This enables students to listen to samples from actual voice clients repeatedly without having to check out audiotapes and search for the sample they need. Hume uses the iPods to record sessions with voice clients. She plays the sessions back in class so she and the students can assess them together. Students check out the iPods and are able to listen to and keep track of clients’ progress over time. In the future, Dr. Hume plans to build online activities around voice samples, which students will be able to listen to and assess. She would also like to place clips from video laryngoscopy exams in Online@UT so students can view and assess client exams.

Bob Augé and Arnold Saxton
Bob Augé and Arnold Saxton (Professors, Departments of Plant Sciences and Animal Sciences) received an ITC grant a few years ago to create five online learning modules for statistical design and analysis. They’ve continued to work on the resource, which over the years has grown to be quite an ambitious endeavor, with more than 400 modules planned! You can visit their Web site at http://dawg.utk.edu. Some other features of the project that are available at this Web site include a glossary and guides to using CRD, ANOVA Diagnostics, and SAS.

Jennifer Franklin
Jennifer Franklin (Assistant Professor, Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries) partnered with the ITC to create a Webbased course module on tree anatomy. It puts a group of anatomy images together in a way that makes clear their relationships and locations within the tree. The module is an excellent resource for students, and is a framework on which Dr. Franklin intends to continue to build by adding photos and test questions. Dr. Franklin is also participating in the ITC Wireless Instructional Initiative project in which all junior and senior students in the department have laptops for 24-hour use during the school year. Dr. Franklin reports that those classes have become much more interactive because she incorporates more technologybased exercises. While she still presents some information in the form of a lecture, she can now show an online resource and ask students to use that resource in class. Students spend less time memorizing, and more time learning to locate and interpret relevant information, which Dr. Franklin feels is a very important skill for success in today’s world.

Teresa Walker, Jane Row, Travis Dolence
Teresa Walker (IT Services Librarian) and her colleagues Jane Row and Travis Dolence were recipients of a 2005 Project SET grant. They developed a module called “Using EndNote Bibliographic Management Software for Research and Instruction.” They have received much positive feedback from their users on all UT campuses, and recently the modules have gotten even more recognition! Utah State University contacted the team to request permission to adapt the tutorial to fit their needs. They have also been asked to submit the modules to be considered for inclusion in “PRIMO:Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online,” a resource sponsored by the American Library Association and the Association of College and Research Libraries. The URL for the resource is http://www.ala.org/ala/acrlbucket/is/ iscommittees/Webpages/emergingtech/primo/criteria.htm. They continually update and add to the modules as their users ask more questions. They report that the grant was a great opportunity for them to begin something that keeps growing!

Michael Berry, Murray Browne, Sarah Lowe
Michael Berry (Professor and Interim Head, Department of Computer Science) partnered with Murray Browne (Research Associate, Department of Computer Science) and Sarah Lowe (Assistant Professor, School of Art) for a Project RITE grant. In 2005, this trio developed five online modules covering the basics of computer science as part of the ITC grant that they received at that time. This original funding only allowed them to create “beta” versions of the modules, not something they deemed worthy of wide distribution. With the 2006 Project RITE funding they were able to test the beta versions of the modules more thoroughly. Almost 100 students from three different educational venues (UT, Pellissippi State, and Farragut High School) provided valuable feedback which assisted in some fine-tuning of the modules (navigation, opening splash pages, filling a couple of gaps in content). Dr. Berry expects to release the modules to a much wider audience in time for the fall 2006 semester. A paper about this team’s experiences was submitted and accepted for the 19th Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Conference: Southeastern. They will be presenting their results (and the modules) to professors and instructors throughout the Southeast. Secondly, leveraging their experience with the modules, they have submitted a proposal to the NSF. While the proposal is not a continuance of the work on the modules per se, they are using some of their experience in this new, but related, project. And finally, having departments from different locations on the Arts and Sciences spectrum (Computer Science and Art) work together has shown them that each department has certain skills and competencies that complement the other. Hopefully this type of experience will make future collaboration and funding opportunities more commonplace.

A. J. Baker
A. J. Baker (Director of the UT Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Laboratory and Professor, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering) helped pioneer the use of the Internet as a venue for teaching and learning on this campus. In 1998, prior to the campus adoption of Online@UT, Dr. Baker worked with the ITC to develop a Web site to allow his students online access to course materials, including PowerPoint slides, video lectures, lab exercises, and a discussion forum. By teaching courses entirely online, Dr. Baker can be in multiple locations at the same time. He estimates that teaching in the online environment allows him to cover 50 percent more material than in the conventional classroom environment because communication is an unbroken stream, allowing students to focus more intently on the lecture. They do not have to stop the class to clarify a point that they may have missed or don’t understand. Instead, they can just replay that part of the lecture. If a point remains unclear, they can consult the textbook, visit Dr. Baker in his office, or send an e-mail to the class discussion forum. Dr. Baker reports that the online environment relieves him of the time spent teaching the same classes repeatedly, thereby allowing more time for research and publishing.

Do you have a story of your own you’d like to share? Send it to us at itc@utk.edu. Don’t have a story yet, but interested in creating one? E-mail us at itc@utk.edu or apply for assistance at http://itc.utk.edu/ services/apply/application.shtml.
Michael Burke, Jean Derco, Gina Phipps