| Presentations This
page includes examples of Web-enabled presentations by
 Cultural
Studies
Module
2: What is Culture
Terry Dugas, IDS 3305 (Issues in Media, Literature, and the Arts), Florida Gulf
Coast University
This three-part audiovisual presentation, comprised of What is
Culture?, Developing a Common Culture, and The Functions
and Effects of Culture, provides a framing introduction to a course on culture.
Students may listen to the presentations or read transcripts and study the images, then go
on to complete related assignments that ask them to develop their own notions of cultural
experience. The aim is to get students to understand key questions about culture and then
apply and evaluate those questions in their own cultural experience.
Dugas's combination of audio and visual media suggests how the Web can be utilized to
convey key issues and questions in a way that both frames discussion and involves students
in formulating their own questions.
This example uses streaming media, images, and text.
General
Science
Module 2 Commentary: The Tools of
Astronomy
Matt Bobrowsky and Chris Hunt, General Science 125 (Universe: The Infinite
Frontier), University of Maryland University College
This online presentation explains electromagnetic radiation, spectra, optical
telescopes, and the special theory of relativity. The presentation is intended to
supplement textbook materials; in extending the textbook, however, it uses a variety of
Web-based media to bring content to life. Light waves and wavelengths are illustrated by
means of animation. Images of different kinds of spectra are shown. Students are referred
to relevant Web sites for information on the origins of the telescope and on the advances
in astronomy made possible by the Hubble Telescope.
This presentation shows how the Web and Web-based media can enhance instructional
content by demonstrating concepts under discussion and by broadening the range of relevant
information available to students.
This example features the use of animated graphics,
images, text,
and Web sites.
Economics
Economics 200 Lectures
Gene Mumy, Economics 200 (Principles of Microeconomics), Department of Economics,
Ohio State University
This page contains 17 lecture frameworks derived from the basic template of the
PowerPoint lectures accompanying Michael Parkins's Microeconomics, 4th edition
(Addison-Wesley Longman, 1998, all rights reserved), and delivered over the course of a
semester. The lectures are a component of Professor Mumy's course, and
represent a delivery method in broad use across the disciplines for presenting this kind
of information.
So long as students have PowerPoint on their computers they can download these lectures
through their Web browsers. Presentation of information as PowerPoint slides enhances the
traditional delivery of lectures. Key information is supplemented with visuals providing
points of access to questions posed by the course; because all lectures are in electronic
format, their details can be rearranged, revised, and extended on an ongoing basis.
This example features the use PowerPoint.
Computer Art
Creative Design for the World Wide Web
Bonnie Mitchell, Art 495/586 (Creative Design Using Flash), Computer Art
Department, School of Art, Bowling Green State University
The syllabus
for Professor Mitchell's course includes a final project assignment that asks students to
create a three-page site using Macromedia Flash, a vector-based graphics program that
enables users to create dynamic pages and animations for the Web. The assignment is
intended to give art students practical training in using multimedia tools and to gain
proficiency with key design elements such as animation, composition, color, layout, and
interaction.
The student projects for this course show students learning skills that will be
essential to success in their profession. Web sites created with Flash have broader
possibilities than static pages created with HTML editors. Some of these possibilities are
clearly visible in the student sites. Lee Thompson's
site, for instance, demonstrates the graphic design capabilities of an instructional media
unit at Bowling Green State University; given the site's subject it is an especially
appropriate use of the technology. Scott Bazzle's
animation creates a "digital business card" that assembles portfolio, resume,
and contact information on the same page; what better way to advertise one's skill as a
web professional?
The student projects in Professor Mitchell's course represent a Web technology that is
certainly popular in art and design education, but has also spread to cartography,
architecture, and other fields that require features such as projections, scaling, and
spatialization.
This example uses animation and authoring programs.
Media
Studies
Visual
Culture Project
Ellen Schattschneider, IDS 116 (Visual Culture), Emory's Center for Interactive
Teaching (ECIT), Emory University
This course introduces students to the treatment of vision and visual media in the
humanities and the interpretative social sciences. Working in small groups, students are
asked to develop Web project essays exploring different aspects of visual culture. The
essays must be composed of at least two hyperlinked Web pages on one of the following
assigned topics: the body in the image, monster pictures, or sacred images. Students are
required to use at least three images and no more than 10 in their projects, and the
images must be incorporated directly into the body of their paper, with a detailed
discussion of each.
The student groups in this course each created visual culture Web sites; in addition,
six students used a program called Cinepak to develop short documentary videos. There was
clearly an extensive amount of work involved in creating these projects, but the hands-on
experience of working with media to address visual culture issues undoubtedly provided a
valuable learning process and encouraged students to not just merely present their
perspectives but also take an active part in authoring their own knowledge.
This example uses text, images,
and downloaded media.
Sociology
Group Profile Web Pages
Jeffrey K. Hadden, Soc 257 (New Religious Movements), Sociology Department,
University of Virginia
The Religious
Movements Homepage, directed by Jeffrey K. Hadden, is an ongoing project providing
comprehensive Web-based and print resources on cults, sects, new religions, and religious
movements—both new and established. The religious movement profiles reviewed here
were developed over several semesters as term projects for Hadden's New Religious
Movements classes. There are over 200 profiles of religious groups and movements to date;
each consists of, at a minumum, basic information to help orient the reader to the group,
links to Web sites containing further useful information, and a bibliography of print
resources.
The collected profiles, which constitute an outstanding resource, provide a wonderful
model of students using the Web to conduct rigorous and substantive research. The profiles
also clearly show students invested in their work and taking the time to present
comprehensive information about the groups they chose. Hadden's overseeing of his
students' work should not be ignored either; his Benchmarks for Web Site Development (explained under "Term
Project: Web Page Development" in the course requirements) provides detailed and
helpful guidance on the steps students should follow to complete their term project
requirement.
This example suggests that effective teachers can use the encyclopedic nature of the
Web to encourage students to own their knowledge and to develop expertise in getting
others to take that knowledge seriously.
This example uses text and Web
sites.
This project is a joint initiative of the Center for the Virtual University and the Center for Teaching and Learning
at UMUC.
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