2007 CRLT TTI Grant Projects

• Learning Italian Phonetics through Web-Based Music and Tongue Twisters

  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

• American Humor Multimedia and Web Initiative/American Culture

  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

• Assembling the Puzzle: Moving from Basic Science Knowledge to Clinical Expertise

  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.

• Italian Diction in Action: Visual Animation of Sung Italian

  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

Making Music with Digital Audio Tools

• Gavin Chuck, Assistant Professor of Music, School of Music, Theatre & Dance, (gchuck@umich.edu)
  
  Dr. Chuck created a set of exercises and assignments for students in a 100 level course (Introduction to the Theory of Music). The materials help connect the abstract ideas of music theory with concrete musical sound, provide opportunities for students to have hands-on experience with music, and involve them in elementary musical composition using music notation software (Finale Notepad) and mixing software (Garage Band). The exercise of using digital audio technology will help lower the barrier to music-making for students and allow students in a high enrollment class (about 100) to have active and experiential learning experience.

• Web-Based Training for Renewal of Cardiac Life Support Skills

  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.   The 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.

• Exploring Italian Language and Culture through “Second Life”

  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/

• The Next Step: Transforming Pedagogy with Technology

  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.
  
  Link to Prof. McGann’s timeline:
  http://sitemaker.umich.edu/pjmcgann/same_sex_timeline

• Introducing Social Networking in the Study of Asian Cultures

  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

• Creating Web-Based Exercises for Teaching Yiddish

  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.

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