School: Blessed Sacrament
Teacher: Beth Wheeler
Audience:3rd Grade Spelling and Grammar Usage
Project: Wheeler is interested in using the computer to help
students transfer spelling and grammar skills from their lessons to their
written works. She is thinking about a program that would allow and
encourage students to edit and correct spelling and grammatical errors,
and has suggested a student newspaper program/contest/game of some sort.
A serious constraint is that the dozen computers in
the Macintosh Lab at Blessed Sacrament all have only 4MB of RAM, and
that Blessed Sacrament is slowly migrating to the PC platform.
Hyperstudio seems the tool of choice for this project, and
last year's Seminar
included a very successful program, Pizarro's Haunted
Mansion, for the First Graders at Blessed Sacrament.
Comments: This is a challenging project because of the RAM
restrictions, the platform constraints, and because of the content;
the goal is to make something that motivates students to apply and
develop their skills more effectively than they would with paper and
pencil.
School: Vartan Gregorian Elementary School
Teacher: Dianne Maranhas
Audience: 3rd grade.
Project: Vartan Gregorian Elementary, formerly Fox Point Elementary,
is a "core knowledge" school, with a well-articulated, sequential
curriculum in history. Ms. Maranhas' classroom has 2 Macintosh
computers and 1 PC, and she is interested in having an application that
students can use to explore some of the topics covered in the 3rd
grade American history (e.g. Colonial Life and the beginnings of the
American Revolution). She says the reading skills of her students are
not always at grade level, so she is looking for something that uses
visualization in creative and effective ways.
Possible tools are Hyperstudio, Authorware, and HTML (to
run locally), and there is ample opportunity for classroom observation
and excellent access to curricular materials.
Comments: This is an excellent project for folks interested in
the dynamics of the elementary classroom, and fitting innovative software
ideas to well-defined curriculum. The
challenge of the "one computer classroom" is enormous, but so is the
potential for a good application to make a real difference in student
learning at the elementary level. There is also an interesting opportunity
to coordinate work on this project with last year's "Campaign Trail"
program, which was designed for 4th graders at "The Greg."
School: Vartan Gregorian Elementary School
Teacher: Claudia Pietros
Audience: Art classes, grades 2-5
Project: As mentioned above,
Vartan Gregorian Elementary, is a "core knowledge" school,
with a well-articulated, sequential curriculum. Ms. Pietros is the
Art teacher, and does innovative work at integrating the topics
and activities of her students with the subjects they are studying
in their academic classes at the School. She is looking for a program
that will develop the curriculum she uses to teach the basics of
architecture, from Colonial architecture (2nd and 3rd grade) to
contemporary architecture (5th grade), that students could use
both during their Art periods and independently. Ms. Pietros has
access to 1-3 PCs in her "classroom" (and Vartan Gregorian has
computers in various classrooms, in addition to a PC Lab that
will be completed this semester). Possible tools include
are Hyperstudio, Authorware, and HTML (to run locally), and there
is ample opportunity for classroom observation.
Comments: This is a challenging project for people interested in
possibilities of computers in arts education, and in
designing innovative software to fit pre-existing curriculum.
School: Vartan Gregorian Elementary School
Teacher: Claudia Pietros
Audience: Art classes, grades 3 and 5
Project: Another Art education project from Vartan Gregorian,
the theme this time being "Masks", about which Ms. Pietros teaches
students during their 3rd grade and 5th grade studies. She is looking
for a program to integrate cultural, historical, as well as artistic
issues concerning the use of masks in various cultures and, as in
the previous project, she would like a program that students could use
both during their Art periods and independently.
Ms. Pietros has
access to 1-3 PCs in her "classroom" (and Vartan Gregorian has
computers in various classrooms, in addition to a PC Lab that
will be completed this semester). Possible tools include
are Hyperstudio, Authorware, and HTML (to run locally), and there
is ample opportunity for classroom observation.
Comments: This is a great opportunity for people interested
not only in the use of computers in art education, but in ways to
integrate different disciplinary approaches to subject matter using
the computer.
School: Hasbro Children's Hospital
Teacher: Susan Cicchini
Audience: Elementary School children in the Hospital
Project: Hasbro Children's Hospital has an elementary school
classroom in which hospitalized children can keep up with their
studies in school. Although the focus of the classroom activities
is generally not on medicine-related issues, Ms. Cicchini says that
students who are awaiting trips to the operating room for one
reason or another (e.g. MRIs, X-rays, surgery) are often very
anxious about it, and she is looking for a program that students
could use to learn about what (and who) to expect when they go
to the OR at Hasbro for various procedures. There are 2 Pentium
PCs that are
part of the elementary school "classroom"
at Hasbro, and possible tools include Hyperstudio, Authorware
and HTML (to run locally).
Comments: For this project you will work with Ms. Cicchini
and her students, as well as with a social worker who specializes
in helping children deal with their concerns and questions about
being in the hospital. It seems like a fascinating opportunity to
create an informative and anxiety-alleviating program, with
explanations and graphics designed especially for young children.
School: Hasbro Childrens Hospital
Teacher: Jeffrey Crocker
Audience: ESL students, grades 6-12
Project: Mr. Crocker's "classroom" is an interesting
learning environment, because so many subjects and
age groups are being taught, and Mr. Crocker has no idea who will arrive
in his "class" the next day, what they are studying in school,
or what their ability levels will be. He is looking for a program
that would follow something like a secondary school Elementary
Spanish curriculum, that students could use either in the
classroom or in their rooms, to learn and improve
basic spelling and grammar usage in English and Spanish.
There are
3 Pentium PCs that are part of the secondary school "classroom"
at Hasbro, and 1 has Internet access. A CD-ROM has been used to
teach vocabulary
in several languages to the students who find themselves at Hasbro, but
Mr. Crocker
would like software that would teach and test students on
basic English and Spanish grammar skills, particularly students who
are native Spanish speakers. Computer-based flashcards are of course
possible, but Mr. Crocker is looking for something more innovative
and effective.
The program needs to be
designed for classroom and bedside instruction, group and individual
use. Finally, the program needs to be designed with the understanding
that most students are not at Hasbro long enough to complete large
units of content. Possible tools include Hyperstudio, Authorware
and HTML (to run locally).
Comments: This is a very
challenging environment for "schooling",
and an interesting audience for which to create a well-designed and
effective program that teaches basic English and Spanish skills.
School: The Moses Brown School
Teacher: Laurie Center, Matt Hill
Audience: 5th grade English and Media Lab
Project: A teacher and the Technology Coordinator at
Moses Brown want to create a database with a Web-based interface
for fifth graders to record and share their thoughts and
evaluations of books they read. They want more than one student to be
able to access the program simultaneously, and want to include
some sort of search function as well. The School and many of the
students have excellent computing resources as well as access to the
Internet. Possible tools include HTML/Java, HTML/CGI, Authorware, and
even Filemaker Pro.
Comments: A good opportunity to design something effective
and versatile for young students, in a resource-rich school
environment. The challenge here will be to embed some of the
teacher's instructional goals and perspectives
into the interface and program.
School: Classical High School
Teacher: Andrea Krida and Adam Blumenthal
Audience: Honors English, grade 11
Project:
Ms. Krida's 11th Grade Honors English class has recently completed a
Scarlet Letter criticism assignment in which
several groups of three
students evaluated three chapters each, and developed very creative (hard
copy) commentaries including text and graphics.
Andrea's assignment was open-ended with respect to what to look for, and
how to present the work, but the following were among a list of things that
could be considered: symbolism, foreshadow, character analysis, vocabulary,
repetitive word significance, and chapter title significance. Stylistically
the group work takes many forms, for example resembling multi-column
newspaper-like formats. The work is insightful, graphical, fun, readable,
and innovative. Together, the combined work of all the groups resembles a
scrapbook of varied styles. Ms. Krida, and the Technology Coordinator
at Classical, Adam Blumenthal, are looking for a program that will
create an expandable, effective Web-based electronic book, based on
the materials already developed. The "program" would be for use by
students in classrooms, computer labs and at home. Possible tools
include HTML/Java, HTML/CGI, and HTML/Hyperstudio.
Comments:
The project presents interesting challenges for creating a
successful, expandable, acadmic Hypermedia environment.
School: Brown University
Teacher: Jack Hermance
Audience: Undergraduates in GE 158
Project:
The concept of a "watershed" is as fundamental to the science of hydrology
as is the "atom" to physics and chemistry. It is the indivisible building
block for understanding the dynamics for the movement of water through
Earth's and humankind's systems. Professor Hermance proposes an interactive
conceptual module illustrating the fundamental elements of a generic
watershed that are accessible to the client on an intuitive level; then to
apply these concepts to the Blackstone River Watershed -- one of the
principal sources of fresh water delivered to Narragansett Bay.
Mathematical details should be transparent to the client. The product will
be an interactive walk-through, fly-through three dimensional
representation following the path of a single raindrop as it falls,
striking the Earth's surface, moving into the subsurface, rising to
generate stream flow, perhaps flooding along the banks of various
tributaries, and finally flowing into the ocean. This is for a Brown
University class on physical hydrology (GE 158), and will likely
be developed for dissemination on a CD-Rom. The project may also
involve rescaling the content for presentation to a more general audience
on the Web, as well as making certain of the concepts accessible to middle
and high school students. Possible tools include HTML/Java, Authorware
and Director.
Comments: This is an ambitious project that provides an excellent
opportunity to work closely with a Brown faculty member and his students
to create a graphically sophisticated, effective learning resource in
Environmental Geophysics/Hydrology.
School: Brown University
Teacher: Barbara Gourlay
Audience: International Teaching Assistants in Chemistry
Project: To create a pronunciation modeling program of key
terminology that international graduate students could use on their
own (in the Brown Clusters or at home)
to help master pronunciation of terms drawn from their discipline
(in this case Chemistry). Professor Gourlay envisions a combination
database and video archiving system, with an interface for each
family of terms that would allow users to quickly invoke video models
of native English speakers pronouncing the terms, phrases or
sentences being practiced. Possible tools include Authorware,
Director, HTML/Java and Filemaker Pro.
Comments: This is an interesting project in ESL that tries
to address the difficult problem of improving the English of
speakers who have difficulty hearing phonemic differences. There
will be excellent support the Language Lab and ample opportunity
for student observation and testing.
School: Brown University
Teacher: Liljana Elverskog
Audience: Undergraduate students of Arabic
Project: One of the biggest problems in teaching Arabic is
case endings, usually called "final vowels," which are a grammatical
feature not used often in spoken language but very important in
certain forms of the written language. There are only 6 possible
case endings in Arabic, but the reasons for their use are many.
Professor Elverskog would like a program in which students will
have an Arabic text without final vowels, and will be asked to
write them in; the program would check the correctness of the
student's work and offer explanations as needed/requested.
Possible tools include Authorware, Director, Hyperstudio, or
HTML/Java.
Comments: A good project for someone interested in language
studies and/or Arabic language and literature, and a great
opportunity to create a simple, effective program that would be
widely used.
School: Brown University School of Medicine
Teacher: Meredith Goodwin, M.D.
Audience: Medical Students in the Family Medicine Clerkship
Project: Part of the Family Medicine Clerkship at Brown is
devoted to teaching students how to ask appropriate questions and
take good medical histories during encounters with patients.
Dr. Goodwin has developed a simple set of
Web pages that give students an idea of questions and answers for
several case studies, but she would like something more effective
and interactive, perhaps
something more like the "Interactive Patient" program developed at
Marshall University (http://medicus.marshall.edu/medicus.htm). Possible
tools include HTML/CGI, HTML/Java, Authorware and Director.
Comments: Helping Medical students to interact with patients
effectively is a great challenge, and this project is an excellent
opportunity to create a valuable teaching tool with materials and
help from Dr. Goodwin and the Family Medicine Department at
Pawtucket Memorial Hospital.
School: Brown University
Teacher: Roger Mayer
Audience:Students in VA 10
Project: Last year, a group of students in the Seminar created
a Web-based program for Professor Mayer called
Color Theory. This year
he would like to expand the program to include a complex tiling
unit. He writes that he wants to the user to be able to
"develop a complex modular
design in which the experience of the first two parts might be applied.
This entails developing geometric or free form designs in individual
modules which would then hold mixtures of color to be ramped to other
locations in the larger modular design. These ramps should be able to flow
horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. Other directions might also be
explored (e.g. a spiral). The component would entail a drawing/design program
that is linked to the very useful color chooser of last years project."
Mayer would also like the project team
to use student feedback on the current version of the program
(which they will use during the 4th and 5th week of
the semester) to revise and improve the version of Color Theory
that was completed last year. As the current versions of the
programs are written in HTML and Java it is very likely that
the additional module will be as well.
Comments: This is a great opportunity for both programming
and design, and it's the first time we will try to build on
and improve a project completed in a previous year. This is a
challenging project with interesting programming and user-study
components.