Join representatives of Academic Computing and other offices concerned with educational technology for a series of presentations and demonstrations that explore the wide variety of options available to MIT faculty. Find out how you can take advantage of these established and emerging technologies and services to support teaching and learning.
Where: 9-151 and 9-152
When: September 12, 1-5 p.m.
Schedule: In addition to the presentations listed below, held in room 9-152, there will be continuously running demonstrations in the adjoining room, along with refreshments. Come for as many of the presentations as you can; and if there's anything of interest that you can't attend, or if you woud like to discuss your teaching needs in detail, please send e-mail to the Educational Technology Consultants.
| Time | Topic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1:00 | Stellar | Stellar is MIT’s web-based course management system, providing an easy mechanism for e-mailing information to the class, distributing handouts, posting reading assignments, displaying slide presentations and videos, assigning homework—in short, handling and automating many of the administrative tasks involved in conducting a class. Sites are also available for special projects not connected with specific classes. |
| 1:15 | New Media Center | The New Media Center (NMC) provides the MIT community the tools necessary to produce multimedia projects, such as digital video, photo scanning and manipulation, web authoring, podcasting, and more, through a "do-it-yourself" cluster of G5 PowerMacs and iMacs loaded with multimedia software. On-line tutorials explain how to use most of the software. The room can be reserved for classes, and when not reserved, it’s available for individual use by faculty and students 24/7. |
| 1:30 | Podcasting | Podcasting began as the combination of the iPod™ device from Apple and the broadcasting of sound files. It’s now independent of the iPod, and the broadcast can now include images, links, and even video. Also included in the podcast concept is a subscription and notification mechanism, so that anyone interested can sign up to find out when a new “show” is ready. |
| 1:45 | OpenCourseWare | OpenCourseWare is the result of a faculty investigation into distance learning, with a twist: Instead of teaching classes on line, class materials are placed on the Web and made available to the world at no cost, in keeping with the Institute’s commitment to open sharing of knowledge. Visitors to OCW sites are then free to make use of these materials as they see fit, for self-teaching or for use in structured classes of their own. |
| 2:00 | Geographic Information Systems (GIS) | Maps can often show data and relationships in ways that other tools can’t. GIS allows these data to be shown dynamically and digitally, and Academic Computing and the Libraries have formed a collaboration to support GIS, through collecting literature and data, providing software and hardware in a GIS lab, and offering training and assistance in the use of GIS. |
| 2:15 | Math on the Web | The World Wide Web was invented to facilitate collaboration among scientists, but paradoxically, scientific notation, especially mathematics, has been very difficult to render on Web pages. MathML, the mathematics mark-up language, now solves that problem. In addition, mathematical simulations can be displayed on the Web, using the MatLAB and Mathematica Web servers operated by Academic Computing. |
| 2:30 | Library Resources | Support for teaching is an essential part of the mission of the MIT Libraries. Librarians are available to visit classes to acquaint students with library resources. Materials can be placed on reserve, and digital versions made available through Stellar. And staff familiar with your field maintain resource lists in the form of subject guides. |
| 2:45 | Learning Spaces | Academic Computing offers electronic classrooms (a Solaris or Linux computer at each seat) and a variety of computer clusters reservable for class use, including a high-performance Windows cluster in building 37 optimized for visualizations, and a Macintosh-based multimedia cluster (the New Media Center) in building 26. Traditional Athena clusters are also undergoing redesign to make collaboration-friendly areas available to students. |
| 3:00 | Blogs | A blog, or web log, is a kind of interactive diary: the owner places his or her thoughts or comments on a Web page, and others are free to comment on the original posting or on the comments made by others. In a class setting, the blog can serve as a continuation of discussions begun in class; as a starting-point for discussions to be continued in class; as a journal, where students can record and reflect on what they are learning; as an engine for collecting and refining ideas as part of a collaboration. |
| 3:15 | Digital Video Production and Streaming | In addition to the New Media Center’s do-it-yourself facilities for converting videotapes to digital video and editing the video files, Academic Media Production Services (AMPS) has a fee-based service to do the conversion for you, and maintains a video streaming server to be able to deliver those video files over the Web. |
| 3:30 | Electronic Portfolios | The type of electronic portfolio that MIT’s Academic Computing office is developing allows instructors to collect each student’s work in one convenient location. The most common use is to gather long-term assignments involving several drafts or iterations, or projects requiring multiple steps, as a means of tracking progress. Academic Computing is looking for instructors willing to participate in a pilot program. |
| 3:45 | Image Repositories and Tools | An image repository is a location on the Web where digital images are stored and can be accessed for use in education and research. The tools allow the searching and browsing of image catalogs, and the building and annotating of individual collections. |
| 4:00 | Wikis | A wiki is a web application that allows users to add content, as on a discussion board, but also allows others to edit the content. The underlying concept is collaboration, which makes it an ideal tool for projects, and for collaborative or constructivist learning. |
| 4:15 | Software Tutorials | Educational Technology Consultants are available to come to your class to give a tutorial to the students in several software packages, including Dreamweaver, LaTeX, Matlab, and Mathematica. Sessions can be general introductions or customized to your discipline. Noontime Quick Start introductions to Matlab and Mathematica are also given several times a year to a general audience. |
| 4:30 | Athena | Athena is many things, but can be defined most simply as the educational side of the MIT network. A gigabyte of permanent network storage for classes and individuals, backed up every day; Web serving for personal and course-related sites; security; public and private directories—these are a few of the services that Athena offers. Athena is also hardware—Solaris- and Linux-based workstations in clusters located in campus buildings and dorms. And Athena is a platform for delivering an extensive suite of software across the network at no charge to students or faculty. |
| 4:45 | Network and Data Security | Any use of information technology involves some level of risk. By making sure that our own use of computers and networks is safe, we can lower the risk to others. This talk will review some of the more common safety-related issues that should be considered within the educational technology landscape. Some of these issues address physical and computer security, intellectual property, and sensitive data. |