Faculty Show Off their 2008 Vision Award Projects - April 28, 2008

Many College of Education faculty, staff, and students visited the Learning Technology Center (LTC) last Friday afternoon for the 2008 Vision Awards Showcase. While munching cookies, they chatted with faculty who described and demonstrated their Vision Award technology projects, which are created to support College of Education classroom instruction.

This is the fifth year of the Vision Award program, which was originally part of a Technology Vision Plan ITAC-funded project, and since 2004 has been funded by the College of Education Dean’s Office. Recipients, chosen through a proposal process, get expert help in programming, graphic design, Web development, and video production from the staff of the LTC’s Vision Studio to develop technology resources to enhance student learning.

At Friday’s showcase, Amanda Gammage, Kinesiology and Health Education, described her Sports Skills Instructional Video Web site that features student made instructional sports videos. Dan Robinson, Educational Psychology, demonstrated a Team-Based Testing Application that allows instructors to create both individual and team tests and fosters team-building as students discuss their responses. With Brandon Vaughn, Educational Psychology, he has also developed Interactive Statistics Tutorials on handheld devices to take some of the pain out of learning statistics. Vaughn has also created a set of video tutorials to help students learn “R,” a statistical language application.

Aaron Rochlen and Stephanie Rude, Educational Psychology, described their Psychopathology in Action Web site, which recently won an IITAP Award. The Web site provides simulated patient case videos to give students practice in diagnosing mental disorders. The STELLAR Literacy Tutoring Web site, by James Hoffman, Melissa Mosley, Audra Roach, and Katie Russell of Curriculum & Instruction, is another interactive environment that develops effective teaching skills in literacy education.

Cinthia Salinas, Curriculum & Instruction, presented her “Students as Historians” Web site that showcases student made social studies Web sites. Phillip Stanforth, Kinesiology and Health Education, demonstrated his Fitness Assessments program, which allows fitness data to be input on handheld devices and wirelessly entered into databases and reports. Finally, Linda Voges, Curriculum & Instruction, described Math World, a Web site of innovative elementary mathematics lessons and materials.

For more information on the Vision Award program and the Vision Award proposal process, contact Ken Tothero.