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Rich Media >> Get Rich Quick
7/22/2005
| INSIDE RICH MEDIA |
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| Will video enhance this lesson? D'es an audio file add anything other than bandwidth? By asking questions like these, Bloomsburg University educators get students to think critically about how to apply the technologies they’re learning, and how to apply those lessons to field experiences in their internships and beyond. |
“The way we do it, all learning activities are informed by this giant database of what someone needs to know,” Jemison explains. “When you take a step back and think about how we’re using this technology to make sure our people are qualified, I’m not sure we can get media richer than that.”
But there’s more. In addition to creating and distributing exams with the help of interactive technologies, UVM’s approach also uses rich media to make sure no one is cheating. Thanks to technology called Securexam from Software Secure (www.softwaresecure.com), the school administers Web-based exams in a secure environment that literally locks down all other computer functions until the test is complete.
In order to make sure students take exams in a controlled environment, test-taking students must report to proctored exam rooms and log on to their laptops. Securexam’s browser automatically populates part of the exam password, based on its encryption technology; for added security, the rest of the password is supplied by the proctor. The technology even facilitates off-site exams, too. Thanks to the lockdown browser approach, all that the students need in order to take the test outside of the college’s Burlington campus is a computer room and a proctor.
The final piece of UVM’s rich media puzzle comes in the form of SearchLX, a powerful search tool from Learning Objects (www.learningobjects.com). The tool enables students and faculty members alike to search all of the content in the Blackboard learning management system. Jemison bills it as a “stellar” review tool for students, giving them access to files in a variety of genres: written words, audio, video, and more. She notes that the review tool is particularly useful for some of the image-based disciplines such as histology and micropathology, both of which boast beautiful image sets.
In the case of surgery rotations, the tool also enables students to use their laptop or PDA to call up a video of a surgical procedure just seconds before they perform the actual procedure, learning as much through first-hand emulation as through plain old study.
“Given that we are a medical school, our faculty members are faced on a daily basis with innovations in revisiting science,” Jemison says. “Rich media allows for that kind of innovation by innovating itself, and by reassuring users that they’re getting even more than they possibly could under the old system.”
The Incubator
UVM’s rich media applications are blazing new trails in modern-day rich media
usage. And at
The Foundation for California Community Colleges (FCCC) has awarded a statewide emergency alert notification contract to Waterfall Mobile. The contract establishes Waterfall's AlertU as an approved technology through the official non-profit foundation for the California Community College (CCC) system office. Through this partnership, individual colleges may directly implement emergency communication services, eliminating lengthy technology evaluation and RFP processes. King's College and Arizona State University have switched to Omnilert's e2Campus for emergency notification. Omnilert also has introduced a new program called the ENS Conversion Service that allows schools to bulk upload data from their previous emergency notification system into e2Campus at no charge. Saint Joseph's University has begun deploying a Meru Networks wireless local area network across its Philadelphia campus as part of a multi-year effort to bring wireless coverage to every building on campus. Organizations may have been slow to adopt Microsoft Windows Vista, but expect that to change by late 2008 to 2009, according to a Forrester Research report by Benjamin Gray et al., published last week. Talisma Corp. announced version 8.0 of its constituent relationship management (CRM) application for higher education. The new release includes application management, a revamped user interface, two-way text messaging, personalized Web portals, and an ADA-compliant Web client, among other enhancements. Two Pennsylvania teaching colleagues with an interest in music and technology are bringing remote experts into classrooms at almost no cost, using Skype's free videoconferencing technology.
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