Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) -- University of Michigan
2007 CRLT TTI Grant Projects
Rosella Bellagamba, Lecturer II in
Romance Languages and Literatures, LSA rosellab@umich.edu)
Dr. Bellagamba focused on creating interactive web-based exercises for students
to learn Italian Phonetics. The exercises range from filling-in-blanks
and matching words to recording pronunciations and comparing students’ pronunciations
to the existing ones recorded by a native speaker. This set of exercises
adds fun to learning language and appeals to students’ learning styles. The
templates for the interactive exercises will be useful for others teaching
basic Italian.
To experience one of the exercises navigate to:
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/foneticaitaliana/double_consonants_exercises
Lori Brooks, Assistant Professor
of Afro-American and African Studies and Assistant Professor of American
Culture, LSA (llbrooks@umich.edu)
Dr. Brooks used multimedia iMovie and PowerPoint to enhance her teaching of
American Humor, a large lecture course in American Culture. Dr. Brooks
learned and integrated video editing techniques, improving her ability to
move rapidly between lecture content and audiovisual content that is both
succinct and directed. In addition to integrating clips of video, links to
YouTube, and images in her PowerPoint, she also used interactive questioning
techniques and active learning strategies in her presentation.
Navigate to two of the PowerPoint slides created during this project:
American Humor
David Brzezinski, Lecturer of Anatomy,
Medical School (dbrzezin@umich.edu)
Dr. Brzezinski created online cases
to integrate medical sciences (such as anatomy pathology, and physiology) for
dental students. The cases, guiding students through patient assessment
and treatment, require students to actively think about the practical relevance
of the basic sciences and apply it to the real world situation. Each
student will be assigned to work through a case and also will have the opportunity
to see what other students have worked through and how knowledge of basic sciences
are applied to solve other real world problems.
Timothy Cheek, Clinical
Associate Professor II, School of Music (tcheek@umich.edu)
Dr. Cheek focused on creating multi-level animation to aid students
in learning to sing in Italian. Cheek used Motion software to animate
Italian texts and their transliteration in the International Phonetic
Alphabet in both lyrical and recitative passages while they are being
sung. The animation illuminates the rhythmic inflection and important
details of Italian pronunciation, such as double consonants and rolled
Rs, which change colors and move while they are being sung. The
visual impact of this dynamic, physical language helps to reinforce
essential attributes of the language for students. Students can also
sing along with the examples to literally see their pronunciation
in action.
Navigate to an example of the animation created during this project:
Gluck#3, 2nd example.mov
Steven Kronick, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine,
Medical School (skronick@umich.edu)
Dr. Kronick used his time in TTI to learn the skills of creating web pages
so that he can use it in teaching medical students and training medical staff. The
project focused on creating a virtual 6-drawer emergency cart, which allows
students to open the cart to review and remember the contents in the cart at
their own time and pace so they can find the right medical equipment in a timely
fashion when it is needed. TThe essential value to the virtual
emergency cart is that it enables the medical staff to familiarize themselves
with the contents of the cart without opening an actual cart, the contents
of which are only accessed during arrest situations.
Giorgio Massei, Lecturer II in Romance Languages and Literatures,
LSA (masseig@umich.edu)
Dr. Massei focused on exploring the possibilities of using Second Life as an
environment for learning a second language. For this project, Giorgio
created class assignments for students using an existing virtual space
(such as the Italian villa) in Second Life. By asking students who took
the class in the previous semester to complete the assignments, Giorgio gathered
feedback from students on the assignments. The project places students
in a virtual environment and enables them to learn language and cultural skills
by interacting with native speakers and participating in virtual cultural events
and gatherings.
Visit the blog where Dr. Massei is collecting students’ impressions of
their Second Life activities:
http://itpopculture.typepad.com/italiano_sl2/
PJ McGann, Lecturer IV in Sociology, LSA (pjmcgann@umich.edu)
Dr. McGann had a project goal to display information in multiple ways to motivate students, engage them in actively working with diverse historical materials, and thinking synthetically and critically about them in relation to course conceptualizations. Her TTI project focused on building an interactive multi-media timeline for use on Sociology 345 and 465. The timeline visually lays out social and conceptual issues related to the social regulation of same-sex sexuality and the emergence of Western “gay” identities. The timeline includes multiple ways to explore the data and related conceptual issues, and allows students to self-evaluate their understanding of the information. It also provides links to additional information and historical materials for those who wish to pursue particular topics in depth. The template for the interactive timeline is applicable to other Sociology courses such as Sociology 102 and 368.
Christi Merrill, Assistant Professor or Comparative Literature
and Assistant Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures, LSA (merrillc@umich.edu)
Dr. Merrill explored various social networking and concept mapping programs
popular in public sites that might be applied to the university environment
in the humanities. The project is designed to encourage and engage students
in questioning through practical, interactive media applications and make meaningful
links among the available taxonomies and divisions in the study of Asian cultures.
A sitemaker site was created for the course Introduction to Asia Studies and some areas are available for public viewing.
Simply click cancel when asked to sign in.
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/as235&config=oAbOlLCQs0o6B3MLmViGIw
Vera Szabo, Lecturer, Judaic Studies, LSA (verele@umich.edu)
Vera Szabo used her time in TTI to create interactive web-based exercises for teaching specific Yiddish vocabulary and grammatical structures. The interactive exercises are created in a software program called “Hot Potato” and the exercise template is useful for teaching other Yiddish courses and for other instructors as well.