FILTA funded projects 2008-09
- The following 5 applications were successful.
Visualising Thought: The application of interactive pen display (IPD) technology to Art History tutorial teaching
Art History: Julian Luxford
Amount Awarded: £1185
The aim of this project is to introduce interactive pen display (IPD) technology to enhance and diversify Art History tutorials, by providing an inclusive focal point for presentation of tasks completed both individually and in small groups. IPD technology can be used to 'visualise' thoughts relating to learning tasks in the history of architecture and the representational arts. It will enable students to immediately express their ideas concerning space, composition, technique and process. For example, architecture students could use it to produce diagrams showing comprehension of structure and style, while those working with sculpture could plot spatial, compositional and comparative diagrams in digital ink onto digital images and neutral fields. The IPD will be used both formatively and summatively within tutorials for AH3118 (European Gothic Architecture), but if this proves successful it could also be used to enhance classroom teaching.
Due to technical difficulties with the installation of the necessary software, it was not possible to use the IPD when originally planned. The software was installed and the IPD used on a module in semester two.
See the Visualising Thought final report (PDF, 14 KB).
Environmental mapping: knowledge from place
Biology: Rebecca Aspden, Iain Matthews, Steve Smart
Amount Awarded: £2500
This bid builds on a FILTA 2007-08 funded project 'Zonation on the Rocky Shore - A virtual field-trip', which developed a web-based field trip to teach basic rocky shore ecology. This project will develop an authoring procedure that will enable the production of new interactive online tutorials using GIS-derived navigation. This procedure will be used to develop two tutorials to help students gain insight into the importance of the relative locations of different study sites, while expanding their knowledge of site-specific ecological interactions. The main outputs of the project will be 1) a user's guide to the production methodology which will enable staff across the University to develop their own online virtual field trips; 2) a revised version of the 'Zonation on the rocky shore' field trip developed using the new platform; 3) a new tutorial 'Zonation in a sand dune system'.
The outcomes of this project were presented at the 2010 Enhancement Themes Conference (workshop 4.6, Wednesday afternoon), and a final report will be submitted after that.
A WiFi Virtual Laboratory in Second Life
Computer Science: Colin Allison, Alan Miller
Amount Awarded: £2500
Multi-user immersive virtual worlds (MUVEs) such as Second Life represent a paradigm shift in learning technology and an important challenge to higher education. This project will integrate a back-end simulation system developed for the web-based WiFi Virtual Laboratory (wifi.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk) with the Second Life MUVE interface, thereby breaking new ground in computer networking education, but also providing an exemplar of how these two different models of Human Computer Interaction can be applied to the same pedagogical goals. A learning environment will be developed in Second Life which allows students to work together to set up the physical topology of a wireless network with realistic nodes and access points (represented as concrete objects), and define the data flows that will traverse it. Graphical feedback will allow students to monitor the progress of each of these flows, thus allowing them to explore the inner workings of the pervasive IEEE 802.11 wireless networking protocols (WiFi) and communicate with each other about their discoveries. In this way the teaching of wireless networking in several Computer Science modules (CS2003, CS3102, CS4104, CS5021) will: be informed by state-of-the-art research; support active learning through direct exploration of the subject; utilize real world input to make the topic more engaging and realistic; and support collaborative learning.
This project is being presented in the paper Exploring 802.11: Real Learning in a Virtual World (PDF, 1.23 MB) at the Frontiers in Education 2009 conference Imagining and Engineering Future CSET Education.
See the WiFi Lab in Second Life final report (PDF, 1,094 KB).
Home and Away: the Year Abroad Online Community
Modern Languages (Italian): Patrizia Sambuco
Amount Awarded: £2500
This project (developed in conjuction with Raymond Moir, SALTIRE) will use Web 2.0 technology to create didactic activities and enhance the learning experience of students who are away on their Year Abroad. Social networking tools will be used to support communication amongst all the students away on the various Year Abroad programmes in the Department of Italian, as well as between the students and the University of St Andrews (both staff and other students with experience of living abroad). The aim is to provide high quality support for students facing the challenge of settling into a foreign country. Students will be loaned a webcam, headphone and microphone prior to moving abroad, so that they can communicate (using a social networking system such as ning as well as VOIP) in real time with each other, offering 'first hand' advice and support regarding the challenges of adapting to a new environment. It will also raise students' awareness of the different regions of Italy. Students will be encouraged to create collaborative 'blogs' on a series of sociological issues (including the ability to upload podcasts), and to use 'wikis' to create an evolving student guide to the city/region in which they are based. In this way students will enhance their understanding of subjects to be pursued on the return to St Andrews, as well as promoting the use of written Italian (often neglected on Year Abroad as exam in Italy are viva voce). The proposed model would suit any study programmes (eg Master Mundus) and University exchanges which require students to travel to other countries.
See the Home and Away interim report (Word, 7 KB). (The final report will be submitted in June when the project is complete.)
Film Studies YouWiki Project
Philosophical, Anthropological & Film Studies (Film Studies): William Brown
Amount Awarded: £1750
The aim of this project is for students on the Digital Cinema honours module to create a 'wiki' which will feature academic definitions of key terms and concepts relevant to the module (eg convergence, interactivity, virtuality). Students will contribute both individual and collaborative entries, which will be assessed separately. Since the module aims to develop an understanding of the changing relationship between image and text in digital environments, students will also be asked (for their collaborative entry) to produce film-essays that define the concepts and terms using audiovisual material. The project will develop transferable skills such as teamworking and film production, as well as allowing a practical insight into how digital technology changes our understanding of the creation and distribution of information (textual and audiovisual). It is anticipated that this approach could be incorporated into other modules in Film Studies at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
See the YouWiki Project final report (Word, 30 KB).